Year: 1861

uon Of six millions or five millions not to be re-


PesseG Who that respects the principles which
Joselheo the American Revolution, and have been
enloooeo IN the fundamental laws Of nearly every
ot4te as original truths which may not be contested
can question the right to make that government or
can Dear arms to suppress it without layinQ crime
upon ms SOUL secession were indeed heresy
re'oiuuon Is IAeti and the right of revolution
ought IN TINS country at least TO be conceded 70 the
unQuestloned will of q unauimous peoDIa Tba
attempt TO extinguish, in blood. the libertv of =
circle of populous, homogeneous and corcurrins
States, to choose their own form of Government. s.
more revolving IN America tnan i would be in the
older countries whore despOtIsm has the prescrin1
tire rights of antiquity, of long usage. and ths
necessities of arbitrary power. Here it ia cr;roil
nal apostscy from the faith whereby there is anyl
thing encouraging to humanity in American free
dom. 5 at.


We might rest our Southern cause here, on the
simple fact that Independence Is the declared will
of such numerous people, and that they alone are
judges of the reasouableneSs OF their decision4
There would be value in the right OF establishing
new Governments if it were subordinste to the
Judgment of those from whom we separate. 1t IL
slaVsh doctrine that there are rights entitled 70
be respected which there il hostile power strong
enough to overthrow. If you could, by the mere
power of brute numbers, overrun, "hold, occupy
and possess" these States, or, as your hercer p2f
triots threatening at the head of your mobs, il
you could "wipe" Us "out of existence" you would
only obiterate the title deeds to your own liberties
and possessions, and enable the first demagogus
who can summon up the same mob spirit to write
himself your master in letters Of blood.


As between government and government, people
and people, we may not permit our right to self
government to be questioned. But in the forum Of
conscience we can amply justify ourselves, and
are content to abide the candid Judgment Of the
world. r, Ga


With this reservation against any right of iuris
dicton US, l will proceed Co notice the topics
included in your fourth, fifth and sixth inqui
ries They imply, with your comment, that thu
South has grievances for which the Constitution
of the United States, through the Congress and the
Courts, did not provide & remedy, and that II il
of the federal government, or any considerable pos
ton OF the Northern people unfriendy to the South
and you want to know hew we would be better of
out of the Union than in it.


Not TO argue case but to state facts and conclu-
sions the response to these views may be found in
these two propositions:


The Southern people have been brought to the
immovable conviction. (ls.) that their understand
ing of their rights within the Union, under the con
stitution of the United States, is widely different
from the understanding of them by the whole peo-
pie of the North and (2d) that there are no means
within their reach members Of the Union by
which their understanding of their rights can be
established beyond dispute in the Interpretation Of
the constitution, or be made to prevail in the admin
istratiOn of the Government.


The Inevitable deduction from these propositions
is that the Government TO which they were q party
has failed as to them to answer the chief rules as
for which governments instituted, and they are
compelled by a sense of duty to themselves and
their pOsterity to seek safeguards for imperiled lib
erty and property in new and better forms.


1t ia not within the scope Of your inquiries, nor
the objects of this letter to open wide ield as
the debate the strength Of the facts and reasons
which have brought the people Of the South to these
conclusions. We should be arguing in q circle
al hack IN
liable difference, that we have two sorts of ciyi-
zatiou, Hof which ours ia distasteful to you, and
treated by the best disposed among you, evil,
to be tolerated only until some way can be found
upon which you are not yet agreed, to get rId of
it. With US 1t is necessity and vitality. We
sustain and defend it; and we cannot tolerate the
assumption of supremacy, accompanied by the
power TO make itself felt in every form Of discour
agement, prescription and enmity. The end of, and
the euly use Of such debates is to manifest the in
compatibility OF these two civilizations to be bound
together by the tie Of common government When
you aver that it is possible, you assume much that
we will never admit


And giving you full credit for your sincerity in
your belief thst the people of the North do not
mean to invade any Of our rights, as they under
stand them, permit me to say that the distrust OF
the people Of the South is not be conquered BY the
assurances of the credulously hopeful against the
mass of testimony which shows the North TO be
embodied against them. Your construction of the





of its powers leaves entirely your mercy, and
your people have been trained up for whole gea-
Grafton to look upon us al Inferior culprts, whom
it is high moral duty 20 reclaim from the damning
state of terror in which they live, or punish for
contumacy in sin. You give US no reason 70 believe
that you yourselves think that constitution could
ts amed under which, with convictions OF cur
necessities, we could live with the sense Of securI
ty. You insist on perpetuasng the bond which We
complain of CALLING II is with your people, their


Co. ,aaIw THoxy yvuin ha-vo
that and no other. The power of amendments is
absolutely in your own hands, and any change that
would give US even the paper promise of justice,
must come from your grace. There was chance,
l will not say how good, OF retaining the border
States at least, by concessions from power 10 poll
cy The conservative power, residing in the pro
vision for amendment when the exigencies OF new
relations should show them necessary TO he safety
Of the state, was suppressed In your hands. You
chose to enconter the hostility OF the Border States
in addition to the declared separston of the cotton
States rather than consider the point of yield
ing ANYTHING to the universal sentiment Of the
South. The war Of opinion was thus proclaimed
bv yourselves inevitable. The certainty OF
separation and the risk of war were preferred
To the abatement of any portion of the Northern re-
pugnance TO Southern society. Against powers 80
sefshly clutched, and reentlessy held, what relef
is there in the unmeaning promises OF good lnten-
tions which amount to nothing more than rrespon-
sIble promises to be merciful to the 7Snqushed





If this be the service which Northern conservatism
offers u.s. we will have none OF IL. It was not pow
erful enough to prevent the election OF Mr. Lincoln
against the unanimous protest OF the SOUTH support
ed by his record. that he offensive to them for
his declared opinions and political aHlIation with
their bitterest enemies. he had avowed sentiments
which are abhorrent to them, and signifed purposes
which are destructive. be strengthened their re-
pugnance by taking into his counsels the men who
are notorious for unreenting hostility to Southern
fHar Anir
ing it, His chief Cabinet officer is the Senator from
your ewn State, whose whole career has been de-
voted to the cultivation of the most rancorous feel
ings against who rose to high stations oy virtue
of his radical sb0itionism, and who is pledged IN
every fOrm BY which the honor of public man can
be pledged, to work for the abolition Of slavery
everywhere, with no other intermissiIn than that
imposed by his declared policy, to bde his time IN
order to make his efforts more certainly successful
This arch enemy Is presented TO US OF late ss tne
type of moderate Republicsnsm, and you yourself
are apparently surprised that we do not trust these
men, and that we should even suspect them OF mean
ing harm IL is, pOrtent to the slgnlncance OF
which the people of the South fully alive, that
there is abolitionism, OF which SeWardlsm D Of
fered as a compromise, and conservatism OF Whlcn
Lincolnisul ia proffered as the embodiment.


And when you refer US to Congress and to the
federal courts as sufficient bulwarks for US, you
overlook unIntentionsly without doubt, the fact
that Congress under the Influences which have
made the whole North anti slavery combination,
will in due time shape Congress- as it has shaped
the Executive You forget that it is your Presi-
dants doctrine that Congress IS not bound to respect
the Judgment of courts and that he has declared if
he were in Congress he would not respect them
himself in case involving the equsi rights Of sla-
very. Besides, courts themselves are trsrsitory
and your Congress can remodel them Ss threatened,
and thus get decisions of another sort; or your
Presidents can, in due course, make new judges,
who will place the same courts against Such is
on the programme; and all within the forms Of the
constitution which you claim to be unchangeably in
your interest. Agsinst these infinite capacities for
aggression possessed by those whose unfriendly
feelings are so conspicuous, it is almost mockery
to offer us inducements to absolute submission,
the mere hopfulness Of well meaning individuals,
that sll these things may mean nothing, after all.
But the incidents of the astthree weeks have dis