Year: 1861



 too slow, retrocede to us the jurisdiction; it is essential to us to have the forts; we will construct them rapidly; pass a law al- lowing the State to maintain troops, and we will man them and keep them. It is obvious that there might be circumstances under which it would be polite for New York to make such demand, and there might be circumstances under which 1t would be just and proper to grant it. 1 say, therefore, you do nothing inconsistent with your opinions against secession, when you agree to return these forts; and there is nothing lmpolitic in such concession, un- less you desire to use them for purposes of coercion.

 Mir. President, Imaintain that every con sideration of policy should induce us to re- move that bone of contention, that cause of strife between us; and I am especially anxious for 1t, because I believe that if we have civil war, we lose all hopes of recon structing this Union. I desire myself to see it treconstructed on principles of fairness, equality and justice, between the sections. l believe that if drop of blood is once shed, if you do not destroy the chances of 1t, you postpone it t0,is ,lery distant day, and, for one, do n6c Dtlsire to see this .1l presume that we shall soon see nearly ell the southern States out of the Union. I think it probable that they will unite first and form a union of the South for the sake of the South; and having done so, hope and trust and believe that they will call southern convention for the purpose of pro- posing a accommodation and readjust- ment on proper terms; and if the non- slaveholding States at the same time shall assemble in convention and exchange pro- positions, hope and trust that some set clement may be had, some reconstruction to make this Union more permanent and this government more valuable than ever it has been to us in the past. Secession does not necessarily destroy the Union, or rather the hopes of reunion; it may turn out to be the necessary path to reconstruction. The secession of the Roman people to the Sa- cred Mount did not destroy Rome. On the contrary, it led to reconstruction of the constitution, to the tribunitian veto, to new securities for the equality and liberty of the people. The Roman government became more permanent and powerful than before, and the Roman people were benefited by the change. But if it should turn out that in this exchange of propositions it was impossible to accommodate the difference still it might result in the establishment of some league, not merely commercial, but political, holding us together by looser bond than any which has bound us hereto fore, and we might thus still secure many of the benefits of this government and this Ty,,A IL, 1,ct follow the law of it's own genius, and to develop itself according to the promptings of it's own nature.

 l say, therefore, that, so far as I can weigh the question, it is no m ore question of Union, but one of reunion. To produce reunion, it is essential that the southern States should be allowed to take that posi- tion, which it is obvious they are going to take, in peace. You must give, too, all the time you can, and offer all the opportu- mites you may, to those who desire to make an effort for the reconstruction of this con federacy. Sir, say 1 am one of those for while believe that the South owes it to itself first to secure its own position, to provide for its own protection, to unite in such strength as will enable it to defend it. self against all goers and corners, also be- | lieve that the interests of mankind, our own interests, and the interests of our confede- rates, would then require that we recon struct the old Union if we can, or rather construct new Union on terms of equality and of justice.

 But, MT. President, will this be possible if we enter into course of civil war? If brother begins to shed the blood of brother, and people become irritated and excited at the sight of blood, will it be possible to reunite us again? And, sir, ask if the republicans are willing, if they mean to in sist, to add civil war to the long catalogue of enormities for which they are to be held responsible hereafter? Is it not enough that they have marched into power over the ruins of the constitution, and that they have seized this government at the expense of the Union? Will they be contented with nothing less now than civil war, and such strife, according to their own ac- count of it, as is unparalleledin in the history of modern and civilized warfare? It is said that this fratricidal contest is to be at tended with horrors and atrocities at which even the men of Wallenstein, his "whis.

 

 stand aghast and pale.

 l would ask if they are, indeed, willing to let loose the dogs of war, hot from hell, to ravin through this land and if they de- sire that "one spirit of the frst-born Cain" shall reign in every American bosom, to prepare the hearts and miads of men for blood, and to stir up fratricida& strife throughout this once happy country?- What excuse, when they have returned from such a war of devastation and ruin, will they be able to give to their own con- sciences? How will they account with hu- manity for it's best hopes, which they have destroyed; for having crushed out and ex- tinguished the highest capacities for use- fitness, progress and development which were ever bestowed on man? Sir, what judgment will posterity pronounce upon them when it comes to sit in judgment on the deeds occasioned by such unhallowed ambition? Will it not say, "You found peace, and you established war; you found an empire of the United States, and you have rent and scattered it into separate and hostile fragments?"

 And, more awful still, what account will they render at the bar of Heaven, when, from many burning homestead and many a bloody battlefield, spectral hosts shall appear to accuse them there; when the last wall of suffering childhood shall rise from the very depths of the grave to make its feeble plaint against them, and the tears oi woman, helpless woman, shall plead against them for her wounded honor in the vqceless woe of her ineffable despair? How will they account for it before man and God, before earth and Heaven, if they close with blood this great American ex- pertinent which was inaugurated by Provi- dence in the wilderness to insure peace on earth and good will to man; an experiment