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 I UNITKD STATES OF AMERICA. ^1 
 
SOME THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE PACIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY, 
 
 FOR THE CONSIDERATION OP 
 
 THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 
 
 PETER' AVALKER. 
 
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SOME THOUGHTS, &c. 
 
 My Fellow-Citizens — While there are many daily 
 instructing you how to prosecute this war, permit me to 
 offer some suggestions, as to the way in which we may 
 obtain peace. The idea in the mind of many people is, 
 that we can have peace only when the rebellious .States 
 are subjugated; and so excessive is their patriotism, 
 that they declare they will not live in a divided 
 country. If they meant a country divided in senti- 
 ment, and ruled by opposing parties, we certainly know 
 that it is an evil to be dreaded; but to separate is 
 the oldest way of making peace. Can we not, like 
 Abraham, say, "Let there be no strife between us; if 
 you will take the left, I will go to the right. Separate 
 thyself, I pray thee, from me." With the wliole land 
 before us, there is no need for a people opposed to each 
 other in principle being bound together. We may still 
 be a great people, though in a much smaller country ; 
 and the days to which we look back with pride, are 
 those in which we had not the half of our present terri- 
 tory. I remember the time when our country was 
 smaller, and much better governed at home, and more 
 respected abroad; and it would be a good exchange, if 
 the giving up of our new territory could restore our old 
 
position. Who is the better, in any way, by having our 
 government extended to the Pacific] What advantage 
 would we have, that we have not now, by extending 
 our empire to the frozen north"? It would be purely 
 imaginary. Peace, and security, and freedom to exer- 
 cise our individual impulses, arc the blessings received 
 from good government, and they are as often enjoyed by 
 those who live in small territories as in large ones. 
 The greatness of Britain springs not from its colonial 
 possessions; and the Uutch, the Swiss, and the Scotch, 
 hold fully as respectable a position in the family of 
 nations as the Euss, the Spaniard, or the German. 
 It is only by a map that we can comprehend the extent 
 of our territory, and all its use is to inflate the imagina- 
 tion. We are not made richer by its possession, nor 
 will we be made poorer by its loss ; and if we can make 
 peace by the surrender of a portion of it, it will be 
 cheaply purchased. But would any surrender give us a 
 lasting and durable peace? To this question I cannot 
 answer affirmatively, but will adduce some reasons for 
 the consideration of both North and South. 
 
 To the South let me say, your prospect of a lasting 
 peace depends much upon your territorial position. It 
 is a law of the universe, that the progress of population 
 shall be from the north to the south, or from the colder 
 to the warmer regions. If you open your country to 
 northern emigration, a new people will pour into it, 
 and assimilate it to themselves. If you erect a wall 
 against them, they will eventually surpass it, and 
 destroy you. Any attempt to set up a government 
 opposed to this progressive movement, to the south of 
 the Potomac, is impracticable. There is a pressure 
 against it which you cannot withstand. You hold the 
 seaboard of the Northwestern States, and the command 
 
of that great river on which their commerce mainly 
 depends. By the unanimous voice of the country, it 
 was decided that these should not be held by a foreign 
 power, and you now put yourselves in the place of 
 France and Spain, and must, as they did, yield to the 
 same force. While you were an integral portion of the 
 United States, you held the territory in behalf of our 
 common country, and the supremacy over it will never 
 be acceded to an adverse power. You may retain for- 
 cible possession for a time, but your final subjugation is 
 sure. If you can no longer live under the present Union, 
 it would have been prudent for you to seek some arena 
 where you could act out your own ideas without molest- 
 ing others — some more distant field, less exposed to pres- 
 sure from Northern emigration. You know something of 
 this principle. When you entered into a portion of your 
 present possessions, you found Indians in Georgia and 
 Florida that you were unwilling to amalgamate into 
 your system, or to allow them to stand in the way of 
 your progress, and you removed them. It is now 
 evident, that what you were to the Indians, you have 
 become to a people now pressing westward with resist- 
 less power. You were not unscrupulous about remov- 
 ing the Indians, and need not complain if the same 
 measure be meted out to you. They were wisely re- 
 moved to a remote distance ; and if you had asked to 
 found a distinct Confederacy, beyond the Mississippi, to 
 perpetuate an order of things that could no longer exist 
 on the east side of it, I have no doubt that it would 
 have been granted to you. The government was cer- 
 tainly under no obligation to permit you to do what- 
 ever you choose. You proudly dictated your own 
 terms, and, confident of your power, avowed your deter- 
 mination to support your claim by force. Many 
 
months before the northern arms were smelted from the 
 ore, your newspapers were parading the foot that your 
 wives an^l daughters had left off making garments for 
 the needy, and were providing lint and bandages for the 
 wounded. You have brought upon yourselves what 
 you anticipated as the fruit of your actions. Your ex- 
 istence as a separate confederacy, for a short period, is 
 doubtful: your existence long, where you now claim to 
 set up your government, is an impossibility. If you 
 persist much longer in rebellion, the government may 
 be tempted to pass a universal act of emancipation, and 
 subdue you by your own slaves. I believe there are 
 few that contemplate governing the revolted States by 
 force, but the principles your leaders have promulgated 
 would sanction such an atrocity. Since the Northern 
 people see that those attached to the Union are a 
 minority in the most of the slave States, I believe few 
 of them would resist a separation, if it could be made on 
 a line offering few obstructions to the working of two 
 commercial and political systems. By making the river 
 Mississippi common to both countries, under a good 
 system of international regulations, this boundary would 
 be found, to the East and West; and the Arkansas and 
 Missouri and its branches offers the same advantages to 
 the North and South. The commercial relations of the 
 people to the north of these rivers would not be affected 
 by the transfer of their seaboard, as these rivers run 
 into the Mississippi, which must ever be their channel of 
 communication with the sea. To the west, let the 
 boundary be the llocky Mountains, or, if Utah and Cali- 
 fornia choose to throw their fortunes in with the Con- 
 federate States, let the Pacific be the western bound- 
 ary. Here is a magnificent expanse of country, and, 
 with Austin for a capital, it might satisfy the wildest 
 
aspirations of ambition. This is the region to which 
 the emigration from the Southern States for many years 
 has been turning. The movement to it has retarded 
 the progress of population in Georgia and the Carolinas. 
 Let the discontented portion of these States follow in 
 the track, and take their slaves with them. There is 
 room enough in Texas for all of them, and their loca- 
 tion there would be a rich boon to the States beyond 
 the river. It is only what thousands of their neigh- 
 bours have been doing voluntarily ; and let it be only 
 done voluntarily still. If any prefer to remain under 
 the government of the United States, let them remain ; 
 but on receiving the revolted States into the Union, let 
 it be with the understanding that slavery would cease, 
 as soon as the change could be made safely. At present 
 it would be well to give the owners of slaves a right to 
 their services, but subject to such laws as Congress 
 may from time to time enact to eventuate their free- 
 dom. 
 
 There are, I believe, many in the Northern States 
 who think that if the war could be brought to a close, 
 that the Constitution could be extended over the now 
 revolted States, and slavery, with the compromises, con- 
 tinue as before the rebellion. It is not easy to keep 
 from sympathizing with this feeling. We have enjoyed 
 many blessings under this system, and though it has 
 presented some evils, yet not of such a character as to 
 cause us to desire a disruption. But I regard the res- 
 toration of the system as an impossibility. These 
 friends of the Union see no place for a dividing line. 
 They contend that the country and the people are so 
 homogeneous that they must be one. Unfortunately 
 for this theory, we now see that a slight diversity in the 
 social frame has disrupted all other ties, and ranged 
 
brothers and kinsmen against each other in the fiercest 
 strife that was ever waged between men. The Southern 
 portion of the country has repudiated the alliance be- 
 tween free soil and slave soil, and declared it incom- 
 patible for them to exist together. The same feel- 
 ing of repellency, in a lesser degree, exists in the 
 North. The acrimonious squabbles in Congress have 
 for years filled the hearts of the people with sorrow, 
 shame, and indignation. The compact with the 
 slave power, under which they groaned, has been 
 put an end to by itself, and the Northern people 
 have no wish for its restoration. It is in vain 
 to expect that at the close of the war, even if the 
 rebellious States were reduced to submission, they 
 would be placed in the same position as they were pre- 
 vious to the rebellion. But whether united again 
 w^ith our portion of the Republic or not, the less injury 
 that is done to them the better. I have no sympathy 
 with those that would make the South a desert ; and if, 
 by the division of the country I have suggested, the 
 destruction of life and property could be stayed, it 
 would be a great blessing to both North and South. 
 It is as good a natural division as exists between any 
 two countries in the world. We will lose no strength 
 by making it. Our weakness has always proceeded 
 from our discordant interests, and by concentrating our 
 power wc will be stronger. By the division we will 
 not only bring this war to a close, but get rid of what 
 will be likely to produce wars in future. 
 
 For instance, we may part with Utah. At a great 
 cost we sent an army into it only four years ago. It 
 submitted; but the same causes of dissatisfaction still 
 exist, and it is rumoured that it is now again ripe for 
 rebellion. Let the Mormons form an independent gov- 
 
erilment, and we will have no more occasion to quarrel 
 with their customs, than with those of Barbary. The 
 advantages we reap from them will be the same, as they 
 must, from their position, depend upon the States for 
 their intercourse with foreign countries. 
 
 California should also be encouraged to form a sepa- 
 rate government. It is absurd to suppose that our 
 tariff will be acceptable to it, and by the Constitution 
 there is no power to adapt taxation to districts of 
 country. The gold will come as freely to us as it does 
 now, in exchange for our manufactures, though under 
 another regime. 
 
 It is of no advantage to the Northern States to be 
 united in the same sovereignty with the extreme South- 
 ern and Western, but they differ so much in soil and 
 climate that an advantageous commerce will ever exist 
 between them. The proposed division will not stop the 
 Texan from driving his cattle to the New Orleans mar- 
 ket, nor the sugar and cotton of Louisiana from travel- 
 ling up the Ohio, seeking only the best market, regard- 
 less of the allegiance of the buyer. 
 
 My scheme of settlement would be to let all who 
 choose to remove to the west of the Mississippi do it, 
 taking their slaves with them, if there are no claims 
 against them that existed previous to the declaration of 
 the secession of the State; and that the lands vacated be 
 taken possession of by the government for future settle- 
 ment, subject also to all lawful claims; and that those 
 who remain under the government of the United States 
 have the right of servitude in their slaves accorded to 
 them, subject to the future action of Congress. It 
 would be bad policy to impoverish those who remain, 
 and who generally would be well affected towards our 
 government, and it would be the most humane way of 
 
10 
 
 clealinjj with the slaves and their masters. With laws 
 favourable to emancipation, and the abolition of all 
 those laws inimical to the education of the coloured 
 population and their recognition in law as men, a pro- 
 cess would be begun which would gradually but cer- 
 tainly emancipate the race. 
 
 After the removal of the discontented of the South- 
 ern population beyond the river, the South would be a 
 vast field for immigration, and instead of going to the 
 North and West, free labour would seek the vacant 
 country. It would add immensely to the strength of 
 the nation, and so far from losing by casting off the 
 States and Territories beyond the Mississippi, we would 
 gain, by being more compact, united in sentiment, and 
 varied in our agricultural and manufacturing industry. 
 It is our interest to consolidate the country rather than 
 extend it, and the political manoeuvring for new States 
 and Territories have been an injury to the older States 
 and to many thousands of people. 
 
 There are fewer difficulties attached to this scheme 
 than even to the conquest of the entire country, and the 
 extension of the Constitution, as it is, over the whole. 
 AVere this done, it would leave the ominous distinction 
 of slave and free States. Were freedom given at once 
 to the millions now in slavery, it might produce a state 
 of anarchy; but by establishing a species of serfdom, 
 preliminary to emancipation, to the east of the Missis- 
 sippi, the change from slave to freemen might be accom- 
 plished almost imperceptibly, without injury to either 
 slave or master. It is easy to perceive that this war 
 has increased the number of emancipationists a thou- 
 sand-fold. When the alternative is the destruction of 
 slavery or of the government, the choice is easily made. 
 But it is not slavery as a social institution, but as a 
 
11 
 
 political power, that has produced the rebellion. Two 
 antagonistic powers have from the first contended for 
 the government of the country, and to preserve the 
 balance between them, has been the great political 
 problem for our statesmen. To readjust the comprom- 
 ises as new territory was added, was continually neces- 
 sary. Failing in time to do this, the war began in 
 Kansas, and was but carried over to Charleston. 
 
 Our war contains many of the elements of the old 
 cause of war — a disputed succession. The South would 
 not have Mr. Lincoln to reign over them. Any 
 attempt to show that the war originated in a dread of 
 Northern interference with slavery as an institution 
 must be futile. It was denounced by a few individuals, 
 but in opposition to them were arrayed the masses of 
 the people. The pulpit and tlie press almost unani- 
 mously declared that to speak of it as a sin was atheism. 
 In place of it, in the North, the coloured man was sub- 
 jected to proscription and degradation as galling as 
 slavery itself The South had no fear of abolition, but 
 the leaders felt that they were doomed to lose that 
 ascendency in the government which they had held 
 from the beginning, and chose rather to precipitate the 
 country into rebellion. It originated with the politi- 
 cians, not with the masses, and was forced down upon 
 them by the leaders in the government. 
 
 If there had been no other distinguishing names but 
 slave and free States, or North and South, the leaders 
 would have had more difficulty in arraying the people 
 against each other; but with the generally understood 
 doctrine that every State was sovereign and indepen- 
 dent, they had but to secure the leaders in the State 
 government, take a vote for secession, and the con- 
 sciences of the people naturally transferred their alle- 
 
12 
 
 gianrc. Thus it is how slavery and State sovereignty 
 are impUcated in the rebellion. It is but another ex- 
 ample added to thousands that have gone before, that it 
 needs but a watchword and a leader to draw a people 
 into rebellion. A love of war is one of the natural prin- 
 ciples of the corrupt heart of man. However much we 
 may surpass onr rude ancestors in knowledge and re- 
 finement, the springs that actuate the heart and conduct 
 are the same that led them to the battles of the Roses; 
 and a party name is as dangerous now as it was then. 
 AVhen Abimelechs and Absaloms and Jeroboams spring 
 np, they find the people ready to follow them. 
 
 Our duty, then, if we wish unity, is to have it both in 
 name and reality. A great hinderance to this is the 
 State governments. They will be supported by those 
 who love their corruptions, but they are obstacles to 
 good government, and all that they do could be done 
 better by a less complicated machinery. It would 
 be much better if we had only one civil, criminal, and 
 military law for the whole country, and with State 
 laws, get rid of those who administer them. The 
 Philadelphia Ledger^ a few days ago, advocated a 
 national system of education; but certainly the same 
 arguments would have had far greater force against the 
 control exercised by the governors in our military 
 affairs. We have thousands of officers and legislators 
 of whom we have no need ; for a law passed in Wash- 
 ington can as easily be executed in Maine as in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. Till the State governments are 
 abolished, we will never be one people. 
 
 Some people wonder how the South could rebel 
 against our most beneficent government. Many a kind 
 and indulgent father, who has never thwarted the will 
 of his sons in anything, has in the end found himself in 
 
13 
 
 the same predicament. Emerging from a revolutionary 
 struggle, the founders of our government dealt tenderly 
 with rebellion. They laid the right to govern npon the 
 consent of the people, and tacitly admitted their right 
 to withdraw that consent. In the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, which is interwoven with our national life, 
 we find the following remarkable words: "When- 
 ever any form of government becomes destructive 
 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter 
 or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, 
 laying its foundation on such principles, and organiz- 
 ing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
 most likely to effect their safety and happiness," 
 With such doctrines reiterated to them every fourth of 
 July, it is due to the good sense and better instincts 
 of the people that this is the first attempt to overthrow 
 it. The leaders of the Southern conspiracy saw this 
 weak point, and Mr. Buchanan found that he had no 
 constitutional power to stop the secession movement. 
 The originators of our system of government considered 
 all preceding governments to be tyrannous usurpations 
 upon human rights, and made stringent laws only for 
 those who would trespass upon the people's liberties. It 
 now appears that this was not the only evil to be guarded 
 against, and by a want of power this rebellion has been 
 allowed to gain its monstrous proportions. Our very 
 beneficent government has become the most destructive 
 that ever existed. The lives and property sacrificed in 
 this rebellion will, even with peace at hand, exceed 
 what has been destroyed in all former rebellions. Any 
 system of government not founded upon the great truth 
 that the human heart is depraved, and that does not set 
 itself to counteract its evil principles, is defective, and 
 will sooner or later expose its deficiencies. 
 
14 
 
 Our government has nursed its destroyers. By the 
 system of rotation in office, introduced about thirty years 
 ago, it has raised up a chiss of men, consisting of those 
 in office, and those desiring office, called poh'ticians, who 
 have entirely usurped the government of the country. 
 The chances of obtaining a lucrative office, with an abund- 
 ance of perquisites, and the almost unquestioned right of 
 peculation, has tempted thousands from industrial em- 
 ployments to lead a precarious life of idleness and dissi- 
 pation. In their view the President is but the tool for 
 dispensing the offices under his patronage, as the reward 
 of their activity in electioneering for his party. They 
 are continually in rebellion against law and justice. 
 In some places they endeavour to obtain their ends by 
 violence; in others by organized fraud. The great pur- 
 pose of government is not recognised by them, and an 
 election is merely a struggle for the spoils. In the 
 South they are the leaders in rebellion; and in the 
 North the plunderers of tlie government, and the great 
 obstacle in the way of suppressing it. While the people 
 have been increasing in physical and in moral greatness, 
 through their instrumentality, the government, for the 
 last thirty years, has been sinking in imbecility and cor- 
 ruption. I do not say that they are worse than other 
 men. Their existence is due to the system. If the 
 tenure of at least all the minor executive offices were 
 made/<^r life or for fault, the patronage would be so 
 reduced that the class would disappear, and the word 
 politician once more signify a man versed in the policy 
 of nations. 
 
 I have now sue:":csted what would be a reasonable 
 basis for peace, and some of the changes of government 
 necessary to make it lasting. It is not between the 
 South and the North only that there are confficting ele- 
 
15 
 
 ments. Almost every State has some peculiarity which 
 they wish protected, and the services of our representa- 
 tives are measured more by the local advantages they 
 have obtained than by their services for our common 
 country. We need a wider and less selfish patriotism. 
 With a load of debt and increased taxation, the diffi- 
 culty, under our present system, of harmonizing con- 
 flicting interests, will be made greater. With a whole 
 continent under one fiscal rule, the clause of the Con- 
 stitution enacting that "all duties, imports, and excises, 
 shall be uniform throughout the States," so far from 
 being equable, will be oppressive. The instrument was 
 not made for a world. It was doubted in the days of 
 Washington, "whether a common government can em- 
 brace so large a sphere"* as even the thirteen States. 
 Now the extent is increased immensely. We can alter 
 the Constitution in this respect, but it would be better 
 to curtail the limits of the country. We would lose 
 nothing by having another government over the terri- 
 tory west of the Mississippi. It would be much like our 
 own, and those at any time dissatisfied with the one 
 country would go to the other. We need not fear 
 aggression from them — their pressure would still be 
 southward. The Rio Grande, not the Mississippi, will be 
 the theatre of the next conflict. The restoration of peace 
 would yet send a united thrill of joy over our divided land. 
 With a wild burst of aflection, many now in hostile 
 array would rush into each other's arms. The twin re- 
 publics of the West would rise side by side, proud of each 
 other's achievements, emulous of each other's greatness. 
 United by a diversity of interests which will ever make 
 them necessary to each other, they would cultivate the 
 
 * Farewell AdJress. 
 
16 
 
 irts of peace and not of war ; and the mailed and pano- 
 :>lied ram would give place to richly laden argosies, 
 skimming the Gulf shore, and bearing the manufactures 
 )f the North in exchange for the cotton and rice and 
 sugars of the South. Let us then "seek peace," and if 
 ^ou are not satisfied with my scheme, propose another. 
 By the smouldering ruins of cities; by the wail of an- 
 guish from the bereaved; by the mutilated and shat- 
 tered bodies of our fellow-men, I conjure you, from 
 heaven and earth to " seek peace and pursue it." 
 
 
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