Year: 1861

The last words of great man are cherished
his last words to the friends who stand by his
bedside, or his last words to the public who have
been accustomed to his presence and his counsel
in the grander affairs of life. What the last words
of Douglas were to the pale and weeping ones
around, who saw him how to the grim Conquercr,
we have heard. And we know his last words to
his country. Long will they be remembered
long treasured tn the innermOst depths of the
great American heart:


elf war must come" said he "if the bayonet
must be used to maintain the Constitution, can
say before God, my conscience is clear. | have
struggled long for peaceful solution OF the dit-
ficulty. | have not only rendered those States
what was theirs of right, but have gone to the
very extreme of magnanimity. The return we
receive is war, armies marched upon our capital.
obstructions and dangers to our navigation, let.
tcrs of marque to invite pirates to prey upon our
commerce, n concerted movement to blot out the
United States of America from the map of the
Globe. The question is, are we to maintain the
country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken
down by those who, when they can no longer gov
Iern, threaten to destroy"


In the same speech he said


"Thcrc never has been time from the day
that Washington was naugurated first President
of these United States, when the rights of the
Southern States stood irmer under the laws of
the land, than they do now ; there never was a
time when they had not as good cause for dis
union as they have to day. What good cause
have they now that has not existed under every
administration


If they say the territorial qucston-now for
the first time there is no act of Congress prohib
iting slavery anywhere. If it be the non enforce
Al La, .l.fE. -. hat
have heard have been of the too vigorous and
faithful fulnllment of the fugitive slave law
| Then what reason have they


The slavery question is mere excuse. The
| election of Lincoln is n mere prctext. The pres
| cnt secession movement is the result OF an enor'
nous conspiracy formed more than aycar since
formed by leaders OF the Southern Coniedera
cy more than twelve months ago.


They use the slavery question as u means to aid


the accomplishment of their cnds They desired


the election of Northern candidate by sec


tional vote in order to show that the two sections


cannot live together. When the history of tht


two years from the Lecompon charter down t'


the late Presidential election shall be written, il


will be shown that the scheme was deliberately


made to break up this Union.


They desired Northern Republican to be cho
\ sen by purely Northern vote, and then assign
this fact as reason why the sections may no lon
4 GER live together. If the disunion candidate ii


the late Presidential contest had carried the Uni
4 ted South their scheme was, the Northern Candl


date successful, to seize the Capital last spring


and by united South and divided North, hole


it, That scheme was defeated in the defeat o


the disunon candidate in several Of the Southerl


States"


Abiding to the expectations of the Sccedcr


that the Democratic and Republican parties


would be divided AZ the North and that th'


South would step in with her cohorts, aid one


party to conquer the other, and then make easy
| prey of the victors, he added There is but
one way to defeat this. In Illinois IL is being SC
defeated by closing up the ranks"
His idea was that all parties should unite to
put down the rebellion, and afterwards. to con
slider and adjust all questions affecting the rights
| Of the different sections.