THANKSGIVING SERMON
DKLIVKBKD IIV THK
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
■
(NEW ORLEANS,)
On Thursday, Nov. 29th, 1860.
R E V. B. M. PAL M E R, I). L).
HOUGHTON, NISBET Ac BARNES, State Printers.
l^iu.kdgevii.le, oa.
"i860.
SERMON.
Psalm xciv. 20.—Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which
frameth mischief by a law ?
Obadiah 5.—All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the bor¬
der; the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed
against thee; they that ate thy bread have laid a wound under thee; there is none
understanding in him.
The voice of the Chief Magistrate has summoned us to-day to
the house of prayer. This call, in its annual repetition, may be
too often only a solemn State form ; nevertheless, it covers a
mighty and a double truth.
It recognizes the existence of a personal God, whose will
shapes the destiny of nations, and that sentiment of religion in
man Miich points to Him as the needle to the pole. Even with
those who grope in the twilight of natural religion, natural con¬
science gives a voice to the dispensations of Providence. If, in
autumn, " extensive harvests hang their heavy head," the joyous
reaper, " crowned with the sickle and the wlieaten sheaf," lifts
his heart to the "Father of Lights, from whom comelh down
every good and perfect gift." Or, if pestilence and famine waste
the earth, even pagan altais smoke with bleeding victims, and
costly hecatombs appease the divine anger which flames out in
such dire misfortunes. It is the instinct of man's religious nature
Avhicli, among Christians and heathens alike, seeks after God:
the natural homage which reason, blinded as it may be, pays to
a universal and ruling Providence. All classes bow beneath its
spell, especially in seasons of gloom, when a nation bends beneath
the weight of a general calamity, and a common sorrow falls
upon every heart. The hesitating skeptic forgets to weigh his
scruples, as the dark shadow passes over him and fills his soul
with awe. The dainty philosopher, coolly discoursing of the
forces of nature and her uniform laws," abandons for a time bis
atheistical speculations, abashed by the proofs of a supreme and
personal will.
Thus the devout followers of Jesus Christy and those who do
not rise above the level of mere theism, are drawn into momen¬
tary fellowship, as under the pressure of these inextinguishable
convictions they pay a public and united homage to the God of
nature and of grace.
In obedience to this great law of religious feeling, not less than
in obedience to the civil ruler who represents this commonwealth
in us unity, we are now assembled. Hitherto, on similar occa¬
sions, our language has been the language of gratitude and song.
" The voice of rejoicing and salvation was in the tabernacles of
4
the righteous." Together we praised the Lord " that our garners
were full, affording all manner of store; that our sheep brought
forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets; that our oxen
were strong to labor, and there was no breaking in nor going out,
and no complaining was in our streets." As we together sur¬
veyed the blessings of Providence, the joyful chorus swelled from
millions of people, "Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity
within thy palaces." But, to-day, burdened hearts all over this
land are brought to the sanctuary of God- We "see the tents
of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian do
tremble." We have fallen upon times when there are "signs in
the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; upon the earth dis¬
tress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring;
men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those
things which are coming" in the near yet gloomy future. Since
the words of this proclamation were penned by which we are con¬
vened, that which all men dreaded, but against which all* men
hoped, has been realized; and in the triumph of a sectional ma¬
jority we are compelled to read the probable doom of our once
happy and united confederacy. It is not to be concealed that we
are in the most fearful and perilous crisis which has occurred in
our history as a nation. The cords which, during four-fifths of a
century, have bound together this growing republic are now
strained to their utmost tension : they just need the touch of fire
to part asunder forever. Like a ship laboring in the storm, and
suddenly grounded upon some treacherous shoal, every timber of
this vast confederacy strains and groans under the pressure. Sec¬
tional divisions, the jealousy of rival interests, the lust of political
power, a bastard ambition which looks to personal aggrandize¬
ment rather than to the public weal, a reckless radicalism which
seeks for the subversion of all that is ancient and stable, and a
furious fanaticism which drives on its ill-considered conclusions
with utter disregard of the evil it engenders; all these combine
to create a portentous crisis, the like of which we have never
known before, and which puts to a crucifying test the virtue, the
patriotism and the piety of the country.
You, my hearers, who have waited upon my public ministry,
and have known me in the intimacies of pastoral intercourse, will
do me the justice to testify that I have never intermeddled with
political questions. Interested as I might be in the progress of
events, I have never obtruded, either publicly or privately, my
opinions upon any of you; nor can a single man arise and say
that, by word or sign, have I ever sought to warp his sentiments
or control his judgment upon any political subject whatsoever.
The party questions which have hitherto divided the political
world, havejseemed to me to involve no issue sufficiently moment¬
ous to warrant my turning aside, even for a moment, from my
chosen calling. In this day of intelligence, I have felt there
were thousands around me more competent to instruct in states¬
manship ; and thus, from considerations of modesty no less than
prudence, I have preferred to move among you as a preacher of
righteousness belonging to a kingdom not of this world.
During the heated canvass which has just been brought to so
disastrous a close, the seal of a rigid and religious silence has not
been broken. I deplored the divisions amongst us as being, to a
large extent, impertinent in the solemn crisis which was too evi¬
dently impending. Most clearly did it appear to me that but
one issue was before us; an issue soon to be presented in a form
which would compel the attention. That crisis might make it
imperative upon me as a Christian and a divine to speak in lan¬
guage admitting no misconstruction. Until then, aside from the
din and strife of parties, I could only mature, with solitary and
prayerful thought, the destined utterance. That hour has come.
At a juncture so solemn as the present, with the. destiny of a great
people waiting upon the decision of an hour, it is not lawful to be
still, Whoever may have influence to shape public opinion, at
such a time, must lend it, or prove faithless to a trust as solemn
as any to be accounted for at the bar of God.
Is it immodest in me to assume that I may represent a class
whose opinions in such a controversy are of cardinal importance?
The class which seeks to ascertain its duty in the light simply of
conscience and religion ; and which turns to the moralist and the
Christian for support and guidance. The question, too, which
now places us upon the brink of revolution was in its origin a
question of morals and religion. It was debated in ecclesiastical
councils before it entered legislative halls. It has riven asunder
the two largest religious communions in the land : and the right
determination of this primary question will go far toward fixing
the attitude we must assume in the coming struggle. I sincerely
pray God that I may be forgiven if I have misapprehended the
duty incumbent upon ine to-day ; for i have ascended this pulpit
under the agitation o^eeling natural to one who is about to de¬
viate from the settled policy of his public life. It is my purpose
—not as your organ, compromitting you, whose opinions are for
the most part unknown to me, but btfffiy sole responsibility— to
speak upon the one question of the day; and to state the duty
which, as I believe, patriotism and religion alike require of us all.
I shall aim to speak with a moderation of tone' and feeling almost
judicial, well befitting the sanctities of the place and the solemni¬
ties of the judgment day.
In determining our duty in this emergency it is necessary that
we' should first ascertain the nature of the trust providentially
committed to us. A nation often has a character as well defined
and intense as that of the individual. This depends, of course,
6
upon a variety of causes operating through a long period of time.
It is due largely to the original traits which distinguish the stock
from which it springs, and to the providential training which has
formed its education. But, however derived, this individuality of
character alone makes any people truly historic, competent to
work out its specific mission, and to become a factor in the world's
progress. The particular trust assigned to such a people becomes
the pledge of the divine protection ; and their fidelity to it deter¬
mines the fate by which it is finally overtaken. What that trust
is must be ascertained from the necessities of their position, the
institutions which are the outgrowth ot their principles and the
conflicts through which they preserve their identity and indepen¬
dence. If then the South is such a people, what, at this juncture,
is their providential trust 1 I answer, that it is to conserve and to
'perpetuate the institution of domestic slavery as now existing. It is
not necessary here to inquire whether this is precisely the best
relation in which the hewer of wood and drawer of water can
stand to his employer; although this proposition may perhaps be
successfully sustained by those who choose to defend it. Still
less are we required, dogmatically, to affirm that it will subsist
through all time. Baffled as our wisdom may now be, in finding a
solution of this intricate social problem, it would nevertheless be
the height of arrogance to pronounce what changes may or may
not occur in the distant future. In the grand march of events,
Providence may work out a solution undiscoverable by us.
What modifications of soil and climate may hereafter be produced,
what consequent changes in the products on which we depend,
what political revolutions may occur among the races which are
now enacting the great drama of history: all such inquiries are
totally irrelevant, because no prophetic vision can pierce the
darkness of that future. If this question should ever arise, the
generation to whom it is remitted will doubtless have the wisdom
to meet it, and Providence will furnish the lights in which it is to
be resolved. All that we claim for them and for ourselves is liberty
to work out this problem, guided by natu»e»fnd God, without ob¬
trusive interference from abroad. These great questions of pro-
yidence and history must have free scope for their solution ; and
the race whose fortunes are distinctly implicated in the same is
alone authorized, as it is alone competent, to determine them. It
is just this impertinence of human legislation, setting bounds to
what God only can regulate, that the South is called this day to
resent and resist. The country is convulsed simply because " the
throne of iniquity frameth mischief by a law." Without, there¬
fore, determining the question of duty for future generations, I
simply say, that for us, as now situated, the duty is plain of con¬
serving and transmitting the system of slavery, with the freest
scope for its natural development and extension. Let us, my
7
brethren, look our duty in the face. With this institution as¬
signed t;> our keeping, what reply shall we make to those who
say that its days are numbered 1 My own conviction is, that we
should at once lift ourselves, intelligently, to the highest moral
ground, and proclaim to all the world that we hold this trust from
God, and in its occupancy we are prepared to stand or fall as
God may appoint. If the critical moment has arrived at which
the great issue is joined, let us say that in the sight of all perils,
we will stand by our trust; and God be with the right!
The argument which enforces the solemnity of this providential
trust is simple and condensed. It is bound upon us, then, by the
principle of self-preservation, that "first law" which is continually
asserting its supremacy over others. Need I pause to show how
this system of servitude underlies and supports our material in¬
terests 1 That our wealth consists in our lands and in the serfs
who till them ? That from the nature of our products they can
only be cultivated by labor which must be controlled in order to
be certain 1 That any other than a tropical race must faint and'
wither beneath a tropical sun? Need I pause to show how this
system is interwoven with our entire social fabric ] That these
slaves form parts of our households, even as our children; and
that, too, through a relationship recognized and sanctioned in the
scriptures of God, even as the other ? Must I pause to show how
it has fashioned our modes of life, and determined all our habits of
thought and feeling, and moulded the very type of our civiliza¬
tion 1 How then can the hand of violence be laid upon it with¬
out involving our existence ? The so-called free States of this
country are working out the social problem under conditions pe¬
culiar to themselves. These conditions are sufficiently hard, and
their success is too uncertain, to excite in us the least jealousy of
their lot. With a teeming population, which the soil cannot
support, with their wealth depending upon arts created by artifi¬
cial wants, with an eternal friction between the grades of their
society, with their labor and their capital grinding against each
other like the upper and nether mill-stones, with labor cheapened
and displaced by new mechanical inventions, bursting more asun¬
der the bonds of brotherhood; amid these intricate perils we have
ever given them our sympathy and our prayers, and have never
sought to weaken the foundations of their social order. God
grant them complete success in the solution of all their perplexi¬
ties ! We, too, have our responsibilities and trials ; but they are
all bound up in this one institution, which has been the object of
such unrighteous assault through five and twenty years. If we
are true to ourselves we shall, at this critical juncture, stand by
it and work out our destiny.
This duty is bound upon us again as the constituted guardians
of the slaves themselves. Our lot is not more implicated in theirs,
s
than is their lot in ours; in our mutual relations we survive or
perish together. The worst foes of the black race are those who
have intermeddled on their behalf. We know better than others
that every attribute of their character fits them for dependence
and servitude. By nature the most affectionate and loyal of all
races beneath the sun, they are also the most helpless; and no
calamity can befall them greater than the loss of that protection
they enjoy under this patriarchal system. Indeed, the experi¬
ment has been grandly tried of precipitating them upon freedom
which they know not how to enjoy; and the dismal results are
before us in statistics that astonish the world. With the fairest
portions of the earth in their possession, and with the advantage
of a long discipline as cultivators of the soil, their constitutional
indolence has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea into
a howling waste. It is not too much to say that if the South
should, at this moment, surrender every slave, the wisdom of the
entire world, united in solemn council, could not solve the ques¬
tion of their disposal. Their transportation to Africa, even if it
were feasible, would be but the most refined cruelty ; they must
perish with starvation before they could have time to relapse into
their primitive barbarism. Their residence here, in the presence
of the vigorous Saxon race, would be but the signal for their
rapid extermination before they had time to waste away through
listlessness, filth and vice. Freedom would be their doom; and
equally from both they call upon us, their providential guardians,
to be protected. I know this argument will be scoffed abroad as
the hypocritical cover thrown over our own cupidity and selfish¬
ness ; but every Southern master knows its truth and feels its
power. My servant, whether born in my house or bought with
my money, stands to me in the relation of a child. Though* pro¬
videntially owing me service, which, providentially, I am bound
to exact,>he is, nevertheless, my brother and my friend; and I
am to him a guardian £md a father. He leans upon me for pro¬
tection, for counsel, and for blessing; and so long as the relation
continues, no power, but the power of almighty God, shall come
between him and me. Were there no argument but this, it binds
upon us the providential duty of preserving the relation, that we
may save him from a doom worse than death.
It is a duty which we owe, further, to the civilized world. It is
a remarkable fact that during these thirty years of unceasing war¬
fare against slavery, and while a lying spirit has inflamed the
world against us, that world has grown more and more depen¬
dent upon it for sustenance and wealth. Every tyro knows that
all branches of industry fall back upon the soil. We must come,
every one of us, to the bosom of this great mother for .nourish¬
ment. In the happy partnership which has grown up in provi¬
dence between the tribes of thi$ confederacy, our industry has
9
been concentrated upon agriculture. To the North we have
cheerfully resigned all the profits arising from manufactures and
commerce. 1 hose profits they have, for the most part, fairly
earned, and we have never begrudged them. We have sent them
our sugar, and bought it back when refined; we have sent them
our cotton, and bought it back when spun into thread or woven
into cloth. Almost every article we use, from the shoe-lachet to
the most elaborate and costly article of luxury, they have made
and we have bought; and both sections have thriven b}- the part¬
nership, as no people ever thrived before since the first shining of
the sun. So literally true are the words of the text addressed by
Obadiah to Edom, "All the men of our confederacy, the men that
were at peace with us, have eaten our bread at the very time
they have deceived and laid a wound under us." Even beyond
this, the enriching commerce which lias built the splendid cities
and marble palaces of England as well as of America, has been
largely established upon the products of our soil; and the blooms
upon Southern fields, gathered by black hands, have fed the
spindles and looms of Manchester and Birmingham not less than
of Lawrence and Lowell. Strike now a blow at this system of
labor, and the world itself totters at the stroke. Shall we permit
that blow to fall 1 Do we not owe it to civilized man to stand in
the breach and stay the uplifted arm ? If the blind Samson lays
hold of the pillars which support the arch of the world's industry,
how many more will be buried beneath its ruins than the lords of
the Philistines? "Who knoweth whether we are not come to
the kingdom for such a time as this V'
Last of all, in this great Struggle, we defend the came of God
and religion. The abolition spirit is undeniably atheistic. The
demon which erected its throne upon the guillotine, in the days
of Robespierre and Marat, which abolished the Sabbath and
worshipped reason in the person of a harlot, yet survives to work
other horrors, of which those of the French revolution are but
the type. Among a people so generally religious as the American,
a disguise must be worn; but it is the same old threadbare dis¬
guise of the advocacy of human rights. From a thousand Jacobin
clubs here, as in France, the decree has gone forth which strikes
at God by striking at all subordination and law. Availing itself
of the morbid and misdirected sympathies of men, it has en¬
trapped weak consciences in the meshes of its treachery, and now,
at last, has seated its high-priest upon the throne, clad in the
black garments of discord and schism, so symbolic of its ends.
Under this specious cry of reform, it demands lhat every evil
shall be corrected, or society become a wreck,—the sun must be
stricken from the heavens, if a spot is found upon his disc. The
Most High, knowing his own power, which is infinite, and his
own wisdom, which is unfathomable, can afford to be patient.
10
But these self-constituted reformers must quicken the activity of
Jehovah, or compel his abdication. In their furious haste, they
trample upon obligations sacred as any which can bind the con¬
science. It is time to reproduce the obsolete idea that Providence
must govern man, and not that man should control Providence.
In the imperfect state of human society, it pleases God to allow
evils which ckeck others that are greater. As in the physical
world, objects are moved forward, not by a single force, but by
the composition of forces; so, in his moral administration, there
are checks and balances whose intimate relations are compre¬
hended only by himself. But what reck they of this—these
fierce zealots who undertake to drive the chariot of the sun %
Working out the single and false idea which rides them like a
nightmare, they dash athwart the spheres, utterly disregarding
the delicate mechanism of Providence, which moves on, wheels
within wheels, with pivots and balances and springs, which the
great designer alone can control. This spirit of atheism, which
knows no God who tolerates evil, no Bible which sanctions law,
and no conscience that can be bound by oaths and covenants, has
selected us for its victims, and slavery for its issue. Its banner-
cry rings out already upon the air, "liberty, equality, fraternity,"
which, simply interpreted, mean bondage, confiscation and mas¬
sacre. With its tri-color waving in the breeze, it waits to inau¬
gurate its reign of terror. To the South the high position is as¬
signed of defending, before all nations, the cause of all religion
and of all truth. In this trust, we are resisting the power which
wars against constitutions and laws and compacts, against Sab¬
baths and sanctuaries, against the family, the State, and the
Church,—which blasphemously invades the prerogatives of God,
and rebukes the Most High for the errors of his administration;
which, if it cannot snatch the reins of empire from his grasp, will
lay the universe in ruins at his feet. Is it possible that we shall
decline the onset ?
This argument, then, which sweeps over the entire circle of our
relations, touches the four cardinal points of duty to ourselves, to
our slaves, to the world, and to Almighty God. It establishes the
nature and solemnity of our present trust, to preserve and trams-
mit our existing system of domestic servitude, with the right, un¬
changed by man, to go and root itself wherever Providence and
nature may carry it. This trust we will discharge in the face of
the worst possible peril. Though war be the aggregation of all
evils, yet, should the madness of the hour appeal to the arbitra¬
tion of the sword, we will not shrink even from the baptism of
. fire. If modern crusaders stand in serried ranks upon some
plain of Esdraelon, there shall we be in defense of our trust. Not
till the last man has fallen behind the last rampart, shall it drop
from our hands, and then only in surrender to the God who
gave it.
n
Against this institution a system of aggression has been pur-
ed through the last thirty years. Initiated by a few fanatics,
io were at first despised, it has gathered strength from opposi-
>n until it has assumed its present gigantic proportions. No
an has thoughtfully watched the progress of this controversy
ithout being convinced that the crisis must at length come,
ome few, perhaps, have hoped against hope, that the gathering
lposthume might be dispersed, and the poison be eliminated
om the body politic by healthful remedies. But the delusion
as scarcely been cherished by those who have studied the histo-
7 of fanaticism in its path of blood and fire through the ages of
ie past. The moment must arrive when the conflict must be
>ined, and victory decide for one or the other. As it has been
war of legislative tactics, and not of physical force, both par¬
tes have been manoeuvering for a position; and the embarrass-
lent has been, whilst dodging amidst constitutional forms, to
lake an issue that should be clear, simple, and tangible. Such
n issue is at length presented in the result of the recent presi-
.ential election. Be it observed, too, that it is an issue made by
he North, not by the South ; upon whom, therefore, must rest
he entire guilt of the present disturbance. With a choice be-
ween three national candidates, who have more or less divided
he votes of the South, the North, with unexampled unanimity,
lave cast their ballot for a candidate who is sectional, who rep¬
resents a party that is sectional, and the ground of that sectional-
sm, prejudice against the established and constitutional rights
ind immunities and institutions of the South. What does this
leclare; what can it declare, but that from henceforth this is to
be a government of section over section; a gove*nment using
constitutional forms only to embarrass and divide the section rul¬
ed, and as fortresses through whose embrasures the cannon of leg¬
islation is to be employed in demolishing the guaranteed institu¬
tions of the South 1 What issue is more direct, concrete, intelligi¬
ble than this? I thank God that, since the conflict must be join¬
ed, the responsibility of this issue rests not with us, who have ev¬
er acted upon the defensive; and that it is so disembarrassed and
simple that the feeblest mind can understand it.
The question with the South to-day is not what issue shall she
make, but how shall she meet that which is prepared for her 1
Is it possible that we can hesitate longer than a moment 1 In
our natural recoil from the perils of revolution, and with our cling¬
ing fondness for the memories of the past, we may perhaps look
around for something to soften the asperity of this issue, for some
ground on which we may defer the day of evil, for some hope that
the gathering clouds may not burst in fury upon the land.
It is alleged, for example, that the president elect has been cho¬
sen by a fair majority under prescribed forms. But need I say,.
12
to those who have read history, that no despotism is more abso¬
lute than that of an unprincipled democracy, and no tyranny
more galling than that exercised through constitutional formulas 1
But the plea is idle, when the very question we debate is the per¬
petuation of that constitution now converted into an engine of op¬
pression, and the continuance of that union which is henceforth to
be our condition of vassalage. I say it \vith solemnity and pain,
this union of our forefathers is already gone. It existed but in
mutual confidence, the bonds of which were ruptured in the late
election. Though its form shall be preserved, it is, in fact, des¬
troyed. We may possibly entertain the project of reconstructing
it; but it will be another union, resting upon other than past
guarantees. " In that we say anew covenant we have made the
first old, and that which decay eth and waxeth old is ready to van¬
ish away" " as a vesture it is folded up." For myself I say that,
under the rule which threatens us, I throw off the yoke of this un¬
ion as readily as did our ancestors the yoke of King George III.,
and for causes immeasurably stronger than those pleaded in their
celebrated declaration.
It is softly whispered, too, that the successful competitor for
the throne protests and av^rs his purposes to adminster the gov¬
ernment in a conservative and national spirit. Allowing him all
credit for personal integrity in these protestations, he is, in this
matter, nearly as impotent for good as he is competent for evil.
He is nothing more than a figure upon the political chess-board—
whether pawn or knight or king, will hereafter appear—I ut still
a silent figure upon the checkered squares, moved by the hands of
an unseen player. That player is the party to which he owes
his elevation ; a party that has signalized its history by
the most unblushing perjuries. What faith can be placed in the
protestations of men who openly avow that their consciences are
too sublimated to be restrained by the obligation of covenants or
by the sanctity of oaths ? No, we have seen the trail of the ser¬
pent five and twenty years in our Eden; twined now in the
branches of the forbidden tree, we feel the pangs of death already
begun as its hot breath is upon our cheek, hissing out the origi¬
nal falsehood, "Ye shall not surely die."
Another suggests that even yet the Electors, alarmed by these
demonstrations of the South, may not cast the black ball which
dooms their country to the executioner. It is a forlorn hope.
Whether we should counsel such breach of faith in them or take
refuge in their treachery —whether such a result would give a
president chosen by the people according to the constitution—-are
points I will not discuss. But that it would prove a cure for any
of our ills who can believe ! It is certain that it would with some
show of justice, exasperate a party sufficiently ferocious; that it
would doom us to four years of increasing strife and bitterness ;
and that the crisis must come at last under issues possibly not half
so clear as the present. Let us not desire to shift the day of trial
by miserable subterfuges of this sort. The issue is upon us ; let
us meet it like men and end this strife forever.
But some quietist whispers, yet further, this majority is acci¬
dental and has been swelled by accessions of men simply opposed
to the existing administration; the party is heterogeneous and
must be shivered into fragments by its own success. I confess,
frankly, this suggestion has staggered me more than any other,
and I, sought to take refuge therein. Why should we not wait
and see the effect of success itself upon a party whose elements
might devour each other in the very distribution of the spoil ?
Two considerations have dissipated the fallacy before me. The
first is, that, however mixed the party, abolitionism is clearly its
informing and actuating soul ; and fanaticism is a blood-hound
that never bolts its track when it has once lapped blood. The
elevation of their candidate is far from being the consummation of
their aims. It is only the beginning of that consummation ; and,
if all history be not a lie, there will be coercion enough till th«
end of the beginning is reached, and the dreadful banquet of
slaughter and ruin shall glut the appetite. The second conside¬
ration is a principle which I cannot blink. It is nowhere denied
that the first article in the creed of the new dominant party is the
restriction of slavery within its present limits. It is distinctly
avowed by their organs, and in the name of their elected chieftain;
as will appear from an article written to pacify the South and to
reassure its fears :
" There can be no doubt whatever in the mind of any man,
that Mr. Lincoln regards slavery as a moral, social, and political
evil, and that it should be dealt with as such by the Federal Gov¬
ernment, in every instance where it is called upon to deal with it
at all. On this point tliere is no room for question : and there
need be 110 misgivings as to his official action. The Avhole influ¬
ence of the Executive Department of the Government, while in
his hands, will be thrown against the extension of slavery into
the new territories of the Union, and the re-opening of the Afri¬
can slave-trade. On these points he will make no compromise nor
yield one hair's breadth to coercion from any quarter or in any
shape. He [does not accede to the alleged decision of the Su¬
preme Court, that the Constitution places slaves upon the footing
of other property, and protects them as such wherever its juris¬
diction extends, nor will he be, in the least degree, governed or
controlled by it in his executive aetion. He will do all in his
power, personally and officially, by the direct exercise of the
powers of his office, and the indirect influence inseparable from it
to arrest the tendency to make slavery national aud perpetual,
and to place it in precisely the same position which it held in the
14
early days of the Republic, and in the view of the founders of
the Government."
Now, what enigmas may be couched in this last sentence—the
sphinx which uttered them can perhaps resolve; but the sen¬
tence in which they occur is as big as the belly of the Trojan horse
which laid the city of Priatn in ruins.
These utterances we have heard so long that they fall stale up¬
on the ear; but never before have they had such significance.
Hitherto they have come from Jacobin conventicles and pulpits,
from the rostrum, from the hustings, and from the halls of our
national Congress : but always as the urterances of irresponsible
men or associations of men. But now the voice comes from the
throne; already, before clad with the sancitities of office, ere the
anointing oil is poured upon the monarch's head, the decree has
gone forth that the institution of Southern slavery shall be con¬
strained within assigned limits. Though nature and Providence
should send forth its branches like the Banyan tree, to take root
in congenial soil, here is power superior to both, that says it shall
wither and die within its own charmed circle.
What say you to this, to whom this great providential trust of
conserving slavery is assigned? "Shall the throne of iniquity
have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law V
It is this that makes the crisis. Whether we will or not, this is
the historic moment when the fate of this institution hangs sus¬
pended in the balance. Decide either way, it is the moment of
our destiny; the only thing affected by the decision is the com¬
plexion of that destiny. If the South bows before this throne, she
accepts the decree of restriction and ultimate extinction, which is
made the condition of her homage.
As it appears to me, the course to be pursued in this emergen¬
cy is that which has already been inaugurated. Let the people
in all the Southern States, in solemn council assembled, reclaim
the powers they have delegated. Let those Conventions be com¬
posed of men whose fidelity has been approved , men who bring
the wisdom, experience and firmness of age to support and an¬
nounce principles which have long been matured. Let these con¬
ventions decide firmly and solemnly what they will do with this
great trust committed to their hands. Let them pledge each other
m sacred covenant, to uphold and perpetuate what they cannot
resign without dishonor and palpable ruin. Let them further take
all the necessary steps looking to separate and independent exis¬
tence ; and initiate measures for framing a new and homogeneous
confederacy. Thus, prepared for every contingency, let the cri¬
sis come. Paradoxical as it may seem, if there be any way to save,
or rather to reconstruct, the union of our forefathers, it is this.
Perhaps, at the last moment, the conservative portions of the
North may awake to see the abyss into which they are about to
15
plunge. Perchance they may arise and crush out forever, the ab¬
olition hydra and cast it into a grave from which there shall nev¬
er be a resurrection.
.Thus, with restored confidence, we may be rejoined a united
and happy people. But, before God, I believe that nothing will
effect this but the line of policy which i^^South has been com¬
pelled in self-preservation to adopt. I confess frankly, I am not
sanguine that such an auspicious result will be reached. Partly,
because I do not see how new guarantees are to be grafted upon
the Constitution, nor how, if grafted, they can be more binding
than those which have already beeft trampled under foot ; but
chiefly, because I do not see how such guarantees can be elicited
from the people at the North. It cannot be disguised that
almost to a man, they arc anti-slavery where they are not
abolition. A whole generation has been educated to look upon
the system with abhorrence as a national blot. They hope, and
look, and pray for its extinction within a reasonable time, and
cannot be satisfied unless things are seen drawing to that conclu¬
sion. We, on the contrary, as its constituted guardian, can de¬
mand nothing less than that it should be left open to expansion,
subject to no limitations save those imposed by God and nature.
I fear the antagonism is too great, and the conscience of both par¬
ties too deeply implicated to allow such a composition of the strife.
Nevertheless since it is within the range of possibility in the Prov¬
idence of God, I would not shut out the alternative.
Should it fail, what remains but that we say to each other, calm¬
ly and kindly, what Abraham said to Lot* "Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herd-
men and thy herdmen, for we be brethren : Is not the whole land
before thee 1 Separate thyself I pray thee, from me—if thou will
take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to
the right hand, then I will go to the left." Thus, if we cannot
save the Union, we may save the inestimable blessings it en¬
shrines ; if we cannot preserve the vase, we will preserve the pre¬
cious liquor it contains.
In all this, I speak for the North no less than for the South ;
for upon our united and determined resistance at.this moment,
depends the salvation of the whole country—in saving ourselves
we shall save the North from the ruin she is madly drawing down
upon her own head.
The position of the South is at this moment sublime. If she
has grace given her to know her hour she will save herself,
the country, and the world. It will involve, indeed, temporary
prostration and distress; the dykes of Holland must be cut to
gave her from the troops of Philip. But I warn my countrymen
the historic moment once passed, never returns. If she will arise
in her majesty, and speak now as with the voice of one man, she
tu>
will roll back for all time, the curse, that is upon her, ( If she suc¬
cumbs now, she transmits that curse as an heirloom to postwity.
Wo may, for a generation, enjoy comparative ease, gather up
our feet in our beds, and die in peace ; but our children will go
forth beggared from the homes of their fathers. Fishermen will
cast their nets whereTf/our proud commercial navy now rides at
anchor, and dry them.upon the shore now covered with your bales
of merchandise. Sapped, circumvented, undermined, the institu¬
tions of your soil will be overthrown ; and within five and twenty
years, the history of St. Domingo will be the record of Louisiana.
If dead men's bones can tremble, ours will move under the mut¬
tered curses of sons and daughters, denouncing the' blindness and
love of ease which have left them an inheritance of woe.
I have done my duty under as deep a sense of responsibility to
God and man as I have ever felt. Under a full conviction that
the salvation of the whole country is depending upon the action of
the South, I am impelled to deepen the sentiment of resistance in
the Southern mind, and to strengthen the current now flowing to¬
wards a union ;of the South, jn defense of her rights. It is a duty
which I shall not be recalled to repeat, for such awful junctures
do not occur twice in a century.
Bright and happy days are yet before us; and before another
political earthquake shall shake the continent, I hope to be
" where the' wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are
at rest."
It only remains to say, that whatever be the fortunes of the
South, I accept them for my own. Uorn upon, her soil, of a fath¬
er thus born before me—tvom an ancestry that yet occupied it
while yet it was a part of England's possessions—she is in every
sense, my mother. I shall die upon her bosom—she shall know no
peril, but it is my peril—no conflict, but it is my conflict—and no
abyss of ruin, into which I shall not share her fall, allay the
Lord G-od cover her head in this her day of battle !