Year: 1860

point as well as "the remedy to be resor


ed to by us (the South) should the go,


ernment in November pass into the hanc


of party whose declared purpose is {


destroy our property, amounting in valu
at the present time to not less than thre


billions one hundred and fifty millions
dollars" You ask, "can it be pruden


safe or manly in the South to submit t
the nominations of party whose dc
clared purpose is to destroy such q
amount of property aud subvert ou
whole social and industrial policyY"


In subsequent part of your lette
you call my attention to certain griey
ances endured by the South, and conclud
your commentary thereon as follows, viz


''ls it wise, if we do not intend 4
submit to such consequences, to allow
Black Republican President to be inau
gurated, and put him in possession of th
army, the navy, the treasury, the armo
ries and arsenals, the public property
IN fact the whole machinery of the gov
ernment, with its appendants and appur
tenances? If the South should thinl
upon this subject as / do, no Black Re
publican President should ever execute
any law within her borders unless at tn,
point of the bayonet and over the deao
bodies of her slain sons"


i shudder at such sentiments coming
from one whose sincerity | cannot doubt
The time was when 100000 men ten.
dered their services to tho President TO
aid him if necessary in executing the
laws of the United States; the time will
be when 100000 will volunteer for like
purpose, should resistance be made to his
Legitimate authority, no matter by what
party he may be elected.


There seems to me to be in the course
recommended to the Sonth in the event
of Mr.. Lincoln's election to the Presi-
dency, a faulty little short of madness
Would you pull down the canopy of
heaven because wrong and crime exist
beneath it? Would you break up the
earth on which we tread because earth
quakes sometimes heave it and pestilence
walks its surface? This Union, sir, is too
precious to the people it protects, North
and South, East and West, to be broken
up, even should Black Republican be
elected President next November -
Should the attempt be made, an united
Aodth wodId isprIdg 10 TIE fescue. NO,
no, the remedy for the evils of which you
ustly complain are to be found within the
Union, and not among its bloody ruins.


! admit that the grievances which you
are hard to be borne; but a
few Southern men are not without re-
sponsibility for their existence. The
general sentiment of the country, North
and South, at the close Of the revolution
airy war, was anti-slavery. 1t has changed
in. the South, but remains unchanged in
the North. There, however, it has been
reused to unwonted activity by the
of fanatics and the denuncia-
tions Of political demagogues, aided not
a little by the arts, the language and the
violence Of southern disunionists.


1t is needless to give in detail all the
causes which have brought the politics OF
the country to their present depiorable
condition. Suffice it to say that you have
long had in the south small party oi
able men whose aim has been to destroy
the Union; that, as a preliminary to their
main design, they have sought to break
up the democratic party; that their means
for accomplishing this end were to ac'
with it, and force upon it every possible
issue obnoxious to the general sentiment
Of the north; that they have dragged
after them the true Union men of the
south, partly through their fears of being
considered laggard in their devotion t.
southern interests, AMI partly through
ambition for political Distinction Il
make the democratic party as odious a
possible at the north, they became th
advocates Of slavery on principle, justi
fed the African slave trade, and de
nounced the laws prohibiting it. b.
these acts and frequent threats of dis
union they enabled the enemies Of de
mocracy in the north to denounce then
as pro-slavery men, and to all this the.
added occasional taunts that they were n
more to be relied upon for the protection
of southern rights than their opponents
By these means the democratic party wa


reduced before the last Presidential eleC


ton to a minority in most of the north


ern States, and in the residue had tn


utmost difficulty in maintaining the a


cendancy. In the meantime, tho Unio


men of the south had measurably cease


to consider the democratic party Q


friendly to the Union; and the Unio


sentiment, particularly in the border slay


States, whose interest in preservation


pre- eminent, sought expression throug


the American party. To such an exteI


had the democratic party been weakene


by the insidious policy of their disunic


allies, that they had tho utmost difficult


in electing an old practical statesms


over a young man who had nothing


recommend him beyond a few successf
explorations of our wilderness territor
There were those who. foresaw tn
longer affiliatiun with Southern Disunio
lists would inevitably destroy the ascen


ancy of the democratic party, aud fe
/ Eble and rfrnitless effort Was made to i
duco the President to lay the foundati
of his Administration Oh the rock of {
, Union, and cut loose from those W
{ were seeking to destroy it. For reason
, no doubt patriotic, but to me inexplit
: BILE, the reverse of that policy was p'


sued. The support of the Leoompt
. Constitution, which the country gem