Year: 1861

. lie authority.


: This war is not merely to preserve life
we are ready to sacrifice that, but every
thing that is dearer to us than life. 1t i:
forced upon us. How have we borne
and forborne With reverence would
say it, the patience of great people


seems like that of the Eternal, infinite


But by so much the more terrible is their


wrath. We saw our army demoralized


an overhowing treasury rendered bank


rupt, and proud navy disabled and scat


tered as by the storms of heaven. We


lost all but our honor, and almost lost that


We were ready to compromise every


thing but principle. We had to deal with


unscrupulous men who reversed the no.


BILE maxim, Where liberty dwells there


is my country" and knew no country but


slavery. They would have compromise


all on one side. They would force US to


barter away our birthright, and not even


give US in exchange a mess Of pottage.


1t was not in them to understand our pa


triotism and peace principles, but they


mistook them for pus!lanimity. Our


yielding to one aggression only invited


another, until, at last, like an army that


can retreat no farther, it has come to this


the issue is forced upon US, and we


must conquer or die.


5. This is a war against the encroacb-


ments of slavery, an institution which in
its very nature is antagonistic to peace.


What is the history Of its past but ag-
gression, exterminating one race and OPP
pressing another? What the promise of
its future but insurrection? We deliv-
cred the South from colonial dependence,


for which only it was fit, by our arms,
enlarged il by our blood and treasure,
enriched it with revenues and honors on
ly to find we had warmed a rattesnake
into life and activity. We pandered 20
their passions only to learn that those
dogs Of war, when there was not other
game, would turn on their master.


AS trees grow from seeds and streams
flow from fountains, so the fruitful cause
Of this war with all its attendant train Of
horrors is slavery. IT has long been al
root of bitterness and bone Of contention.
By reason Of its influence the nation has
been partly strong and partly weak, even
as iron cannot mix with miry clay. |
will not insult your understandings by
showing that it is an evil, socially, politi
cally, and morally-only evil, and that
continually. You do not in order to ap-
prove it read the bible backwards, as
those who sold themselves to Satan
read the Lords prayer. Who doubts
now the evil of slavery: Those who
would not have US speak to them in the
ear, proclaim it themselves on the house
tops. Those who would not listen to the
kind Christian protest of their brethren
will they not listen to God when He
pleads his cause and his rebukes are with
flames of fire. The Lord has given the
word, and great is the company of the
preachers.


The wise and good men who formed
the Constitution found slavery existing,
and left it as the law of Noses and the
gospel of Christ left it, treating it as an
evil which the measures they took would,
they trusted, in time remove. The ex-
pertinent of leaving it at all was hazard
Gus, for it had killed Judaism, though
Christianity was stronger and killed it.
The thing itself was tolerated in the coun-
try, but they did not admit its name into
the Constitution, as they wished to pre-
sent fair record to the world and they
knew that, engross it on paper as often
as they would, the word could not be
written without a blot.


But the attempt is now made to insert
The accursed thing, And when we see
the abomination that maketh desolate
standing in the holy place where it ought
not, it is high time for US not to flee, but
10 fight. Fight the traitors who would
make that temple Of justice and sanctu-
iry for all nations den of thieves that
;teal mints and arsenals, and sell, not OK
IN and sheep, but the bodies and souls of ,
men and women. The dragon has cast a {
lood out of his mouth, Slavery resem- {
lies a stream that overfows its banks and
hreatens to inundate the whole land
so long as it kept its native marshes and {
agoons, we left it with the kindred bless i
ngs of miasma and yellow fever to the !
Idoration of crocodile worshipers and 1
hose who defy the plague. But now, {
IS the shining brood attacked Olympus, t
t threatens the mountain homes of the. t
rec.


II I