THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF WAR. 
 A. DISCOURSE. 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 THE BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE, 
 
 IN FRANKLIN, INDIANA, 
 ONI THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL FAST; 
 
 SEPTEMBER S6 5 1861. 
 
 BY Rev. SILAS BAILEY, D. D. s 
 
 PRESIDENT OP FRANKLIN COLLEGE. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS: 
 
 DODD & CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS AND BINDEB8. 
 
 1861. 
 
€-4-5$ 
 
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 _£Bi5" 
 
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CORRESPONDED OE. 
 
 FRANKLIN, INDIANA, j 
 September 26th, 1861. j 
 
 Rev. Silas Bailey. D. £>.: 
 
 Dear Sir:— The undersigned, your neighbors and friends, having had 
 the pleasure of hearing you deliver your discourse, this day, on the present 
 alarming condition of our country, earnestly request you to furnish them with a 
 copy of it, for publication in pamphlet form. 
 
 They believe that its publicatiou and circulation would do much to aid the pub- 
 lic in coming to an intelligent conclusion of the origin, causes and effects of our 
 national troubles. Respectfully, 
 
 Wm. WESLEY WOOLLEN, 
 I. I. SADLER, 
 T. A. PINKNEY, 
 WILLIAM NEEDHAM. 
 
 FRANKLIN COLLEGE, j 
 Franklin, Ind., October 5th, 1861. ) 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The discourse, a copy of which you request for publication, was pre- 
 pared at short notice, and amidst the many interruptions incident to the com- 
 mencement of an academic year. The train of thought, however, is by no means 
 new to me. It is one which a diligent study of the history of the past, and a 
 careful observation of the present, have forced upon my mind. And I complied 
 the more cheerfully, therefore, with the request of my junior brethren in the min- 
 istry, courteously extended to me, to address my fellow citizens, because it gave 
 me an opportunity to collect together and test the views previously entertained. 
 Though prepared without any thought of its publication, yielding to your judg- 
 ment of its merit, rather than acting upon my own, I herewith place a copy at 
 -our disposal. Yours, with great respect, 
 
 SILAS BAILEY. 
 
 Wm. Wesley Woollen, Esq., 
 I. I. Sadler, M. D., 
 
 T. A. PlNKNEY, M. D., 
 
 Wm. Needham, Esq. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, 
 but a sword."— Mat. 10: 34. 
 
 Some minds have found it difficult to reconcile this declaration 
 with what prophets wrote and angels sung. Before the advent of 
 the Messiah, it was written, " His name shall be called the Prince of 
 Peace ; and of the increase of his government and peace, there shall 
 be ro end.''' And the angelic song, announcing his advent, was in the 
 same strain : " Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth, peace, 
 good will towards men." Yet in giving an account of the effect of 
 his -own mission, he says, " Think not that I am come to send peace 
 on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword." " I am come to 
 set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against 
 her mother ; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." 
 The contradiction here is only a seeming, not a real, one. It is the 
 result of his mission to the abodes and the hearts of men, viewed 
 from two different positions. There is, in the experience of every 
 disciple, both this peace and this warfare. " In me," said the Sa- 
 vior, in that last, affecting interview with his chosen ones, before his 
 passion, " In me ye have peace, in the world ye shall have tribula- 
 tion." And so they soon found it; and themselves testify that they 
 are troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; perplexed, but not in 
 despair -, persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed. 
 And so the church has found it. Though driven by a relentless per- 
 secution into the wilderness, in the mountain fastnesses, she has 
 found a peace in communion with her Head, passing all understand- 
 ing ; and the hills and the rocks have echoed back her hymns of 
 
 lofty praise. 
 
 The subject to which your attention is invited, is the one suggest- 
 ed by the text, viz.: That every great change in the thinking and be- 
 lief of men, or in the intellectual and moral condition of the world, 
 is accompanied with discord, violence and war. You may reverse 
 
the proposition and have another equally true, viz.: Among enlight- 
 ened nations, where there are discord and war, there a great change 
 is taking place in the social, or intellectual, or moral condition of 
 society. 
 
 My apology for the discussion of a proposition so evidently true, 
 is, that the circumstances in which we have been placed, during the 
 greater part of our national history, have driven us unconsciously to 
 the opposite belief. Dissent *rom and opposition to views, held and 
 published by any individual, or by any body of men, have come to 
 be regarded as evidence, either of the unsoundness of the views, or 
 of culpable imprudence and unskillfulness on the part of those who 
 hold and defend them ; a sentiment most manifestly at variance with 
 truth, and hostile to the progress of truth. Besides, I can conceive 
 of no theme more befitting the present crisis in our national affairs, 
 than this. 
 
 With this apology I proceed to the discussion of the first propo- 
 sition announced. 
 
 I. The proper proof of this proposition is found in the records, 
 of the past. To the diligent student of history, this has all the fa- 
 miliarity and force of an axiom, or self-evident truth. Ask him 
 where he finds the working of such an underlying and universal 
 principle ? and he will inquire of you where you find it not ? Wheth- 
 er we go back to the most ancient times, or confine our research to 
 the events yet fresh in the recollection of this generation, the con- 
 clusion is one and the same. 
 
 The oldest history extant, save the Bible, written four hundred 
 years before Christ, is the story of that great conflict, from which 
 Europe dates its intellectual and political supremacy. It is the re- 
 hearsal of events which, even at this distance of time, seem the most 
 marvelous and are the most touching of any in the annals of the 
 human race. There was an effort made and persisted in, for more 
 than forty years, by the older empires of Asia, to crush out and 
 destroy a rising civilization, different, widely different, from, and 
 therefore dangerous to, their own. On the western shores of the 
 iEgean seo, art, and poetry, and eloquence, were assuming new and 
 more fascinating forms ; philosophy was enunciating new principles ; 
 and, from the combined influence of all these, government itself was 
 established upon a new basis, and came forth to the world on a new 
 mission. The struggle was long, and the contest severe and bloody, 
 through which the sceptre of empire passed from the continent of 
 
Asia to that of Europe. Grecian and Persian armies passed and re- 
 passed, again and again, the iEgean sea, on their errand of war, 
 carnage and death, before Grecian art, and philosophy, and politic?, 
 finally triumphed over Persian. The representatives of the two 
 great continents met at Marathon and Thermopylae, at Artemisium 
 and Salamis, in dreadful strife, to decide questions on which the des- 
 tiny of unborn and unnumbered generations depended. And the 
 names of Miltiades, Leonidas, Themistocles, Aristides, Alcibiades 
 and others, who, as statesmen and generals, conducted the republics 
 of Greece through this great struggle, are held in everlasting re- 
 membrance. They gave the world a civilization higher and richer 
 than any that preceded it ; and were thus benefactors of their race : 
 and why should they not be thus honored ? 
 
 Look upon the map of England. At Windsor, twenty-two miles 
 west of London, is a castle, the favorite country residence of Eng- 
 lish monarchs for seven hundred years. Here are extensive gar- 
 dens, parks, and other conveniences for royal pastime ; and here also 
 is St. George's Chapel, and, in the vaults underneath it, the tombs of 
 queens and kings. Within sight of the Castle, on the Thames, is a 
 meadow called Runnymede. Six hnndred and fifty years ago, in 
 one part of this meadow, were encamped, ready for battle, Barons, 
 yeomen, merchants and ecclesiastics, all having a common cause ; 
 and in another part of it, King John and what followers he could 
 command. And why were they here ? Why was this host, in arms 
 against their sovereign, called " the army of God and the Holy 
 Church ? " This very name tells you why they were here. It was 
 in the holy cause of freedom ; it was to put an end to the oppression 
 of the throne to and for all generations, that they were here ; and 
 might they not with right assume this name ? There the Magna 
 Charta Libertatum had its birth. There the constitution, of which 
 every Englishman and all of English lineage are proud, was brought 
 into well-defined shape and form. And there, too, with sword and 
 pike and halberd in hand, subjects demanded, and the sovereign con- 
 ceded, that taxes of all kinds shall only be raised by the consent of 
 the representatives o f the people ; and that no subject shall be " im- 
 prisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or in any manner injured or pro- 
 ceeded against by the crown, otherwise than by the legal judgment 
 of his peers, or by the law of the land ; " great principles, which, 
 five hundred years after their embodiment in the English constitu- 
 t ; on, wrought out another revolution, and gave us our own independ 
 
6 
 
 ence ; principles, that to-day are carrying conscious security and 
 happiness to hundreds of millions of human hearts. 
 
 But look again at the map. There are numerous towns with ban- 
 ners attached and dates affixed. There are Edge Hill and 1642; 
 Marston Moor and 1644; Naseby and 1645; and Worcester and 
 1651 ; where Cromwell and Parliament, and Puritan and people, in 
 arms, met the King and the Nobility, and High Churchmen and 
 Catholics. 
 
 And was there nothing at stake in that great contest, which, for 
 nine years, agitited and shook all England? Did Cromwell leave 
 his farm and place himself at the head of armies ; did Parliament 
 maintain its continued existence for twelve years, in the face of royal 
 prerogatives: was the monarch taken prisoner and brought to the 
 scaffold, without cause ? Was it even a struggle of ambition for 
 place and power ? Was it not rather a conflict of opinions, relating 
 to rights, the old with the new ; one striving to maintain, the other 
 to gain, the ascendency ? And has not this great conflict been a 
 lasting blessing to the world? Has not the whole race since occu- 
 pied higher ground in all that pertains to human weal ? It was to 
 accomplish or to prevent all this that the two great armies met on 
 these battlefields. Nor did they retire until the prerogatives of the 
 King were better defined, and the rights of the subject better guar- 
 antied. Such men as Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Vane, Hazel- 
 rigg and Milton are not in arms merely to gratify their lust for power. 
 
 Or, if you turn to our own land, you find abundant proof of the 
 same truth Warren did not leave his professional practice to dis- 
 cuss, again and again, in public orations, at the peril of his life, 
 matters pending between the colonies and the mother country, and, 
 as the conflict deepened, to fall, leading on undisciplined troops in 
 defense of the same : Otis, and Henry, and Livingston, and 
 Witherspoon, and Washington, and the Adamses, and the Lees, and 
 the Rutledges, did not spend years in anxious deliberation, and in 
 most difficult and trying warfare, without any reason, or for a trivial 
 and unimportant one. They deliberated and they acted ; they met 
 the enemy in the cabinet, and then in the field, in defense of the 
 great principles first formally enunciated by the Continental Con- 
 gress, and then read approvingly from a thousand rostrums and pul- 
 pits. 
 
 Perhaps a more touching proof of the proposition before us may 
 be found in cases where a single individual takes up a new and an- 
 tagonistic position. 
 
There is not a single tenet which we, as churches, hold, or a single 
 privilege which we, as citizens, enjo} r , which has not, somewhere and 
 at some time in the past, gone through a baptism of blood. Its first 
 announcement, or subsequent defense, has cost somebody, perhaps 
 many, a loss of all things, even of life itself. 
 
 You now believe that the earth is round and that it turns upon 
 its axis, and makes its annual circuit around the sun. The teacher 
 with apple and lamp, if better apparatus be not at hand, now 
 makes this plain and easy to be understood by the mind of a child. 
 The thought of molesting him for teaching so simple a truth would 
 be now evidence of — we hardly no what. But has it always been 
 thus? Did not its first announcement fill the church with alarm? 
 And was not the great Florentine philosopher sentenced, for such 
 an announcement, to three years imprisonment in the dungeons of 
 the Incpiisition ? The humiliating spectacle, preceding this, of the 
 first intellect of his age, compelled by a set of ignorant monks to 
 adjure its own great discoveries in the field of science, I will not at- 
 tempt to describe. The years that Galileo afterwards spent in exile 
 were nothing in comparison with the mortification of such an adju- 
 ration. 
 
 Salvation by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is now a well 
 established bible truth. It is a comfort in life, and the only ground 
 of hope in death, to unnumbered millions. It is not only welcome, 
 but demanded, in all our sanctuaries. Should our pastors become 
 silent in reference to it, or fail to give it a well-merited prominence, 
 however much we may love them, their ministrations would be with- 
 out edification to the children of God, and their services would be 
 dispensed with. And could we not supply their places by others 
 more loyal to truth, Ave Avould write Ichabod upon the walls and 
 close the doors of our holy places. 
 
 But simple and elementary and important as this truth may be, 
 mixed as it is with all our theological views, so underlying as it now 
 does all our christian experience and religious hopes, did not its an- 
 nouncement once shake all christiandom ? And did not thousands 
 offer up their lives and seal with their blood their testimony in favor 
 of this great truth ? 
 
 You now believe, and you glory in the belief, that all the power 
 in the State emanates from the people; and, therefore, that rulers 
 are rightfully elevated to their high positions by the suffrages of 
 men. Has there never been a time when the utterance of this truth 
 was treason I Has no one ever gone to the Tower, and from the 
 
Tower to the scaffold for questioning whether Kings are such by di- 
 vine riffht? Are there no coins still in circulation among us whose 
 superscription contains this sentiment ? It is, fortunately, locked 
 up in a dead language out of harm's way. 
 
 You now find no difficulty in defining the sphere of the church 
 and of the State. Neither now interferes with the duties or respon- 
 sibilities of the other ; and yet, though entirely disconnected, both 
 work harmoniously together in securing and promoting the temporal 
 and spiritual interests of men. But, for preaching this now univer- 
 sally received doctrine, did not the general court of Massachusetts 
 drive out, in the dead of winter, one of her ministers into the wil- 
 derness and cause him to pass fourteen weeks, and, in his own quaint 
 lan^ua^e, "not know what bed or bread did mean ?" 
 
 But enough and more than enough evidence drawn from the 
 records of the past. Whoever casts in his lot and identifies himself 
 with the destiny of anything great and good, but new, will necessa- 
 rily provoke hostility: and invite to himself all the animosity which 
 men feel towards those who invade or disturb the ancient realm of 
 thought. The vanguard in the army of reform is always exposed to 
 imminent peril. Advanced positions are not taken and held with- 
 out the most determined resistance on the part of those who have 
 long had them in undisputed possession. 
 
 II. A second argument in favor of our proposition may be drawn 
 from the nature and the interest of men ; and the changes which the 
 introduction of any great principle, until then unrecognized, effects 
 in the condition of Society. 
 
 The natural state of society is, without doubt, for wise and be- 
 neficent reasons, one of repose. The inclinations and interests of 
 the mass are both on the side of public tranquility. Moreover, there 
 is a tendency in the public mind to believe that the present order of 
 things, be that order what it may, does not admit of any great im- 
 provement, and that the point reached at present in the progress of 
 society does not admit of being exceeded. If there be imperfec- 
 tions they are such as are incident to all things human; and it is 
 better 
 
 " to bear those ills we have, 
 Than fly bo othera that we know not of. 
 Ami enterprises of great pith and moment, 
 With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
 And lose the name of action." 
 
 It must also be remembered that men's minds travel easily, only over 
 beaten paths and in well-worn ruts. The introduction of a new 
 
principle lifts them out of these ruts, and turns them aside from 
 these beaten paths, and is, consequently, attended with a loss of 
 confidence. If the current of thought take the new direction, who 
 can tell to what it may lead ? or who can give any assurance that it 
 will not be the destruction of all things made sacred by long usage 
 in the past and by a thousand tender and hallowed associations in 
 
 the present ? 
 
 If the sun is stationary and the earth is the body in motion, what 
 shall we do with the past firm convictions to the contrary? Nay, 
 worse, what shall we do with the very language of inspiration, touch- 
 ing this motion ? It speaks distinctly of the sun as rising and set- 
 tin-; of its going forth from the end of the heaven, and its circuit 
 being unto the ends of it, of its standing still and going backward, 
 as contrary to nature. 
 
 And they feared to have this great astronomical discovery go 
 forth to the world, lest it should upheave and overturn the founda- 
 tion of their faith and hopes. 
 
 If all power emanates from the people; if rulers derive their just 
 powers only from the consent of the governed , by what means can 
 the thrones of monarchs and despots be made secure ? If all men are 
 allowed to read the bible without restraint, and to entertain such 
 views of its teachings as may thus be impressed upon their minds, 
 who will vouch for the unity of the faith of the church ? And who 
 will be responsible for the disastrous effects of heresy and schism ? 
 If total abstinance from all that intoxicates be the true moral prin- 
 ciple, what will become of the families of those who have hitherto 
 derived their support from the sale of such liquors? and what shall 
 be done with the immense harvests of corn and barley, and the cap- 
 ital invested in distilleries, shipping, &c. ? Human nature and hu- 
 man interests, and the superstitions of men, being such as they are, 
 whither can you turn in earnest with any great, but, hithurto, unap- 
 plied truth and not stir up opposition and war ? It was in this sense 
 that the Savior meant to forewarn his disciples in all ages, that the 
 promulgation of Christianity would be like sending a sword (the 
 emblem of war) among nations; nay, even into private families. 
 
 IIL Another argument which I adduce is the care with which 
 men suard the spots where the sword has brought to an end some 
 long pending contest. There they build their loftiest and most en- 
 during monuments. Though no village may ever be built near the 
 battlefield; though the busy hem of commerce may never disturb 
 
10 
 
 its silence ; yet, around it the historian lingers long, with ever deep- 
 ening interest. He traces 'with care, onward from their very incep- 
 tion, the great truths which here outcropped, and in defense of which 
 tens of thousands of brave hearts rallied, and thousands of valuable 
 lives were freely offered up. He follows them onward still, as they 
 go back victorious and triumphant to enjoy a place ever more, un- 
 questioned in the nation's institutions and affections. To them the 
 orator and statesman turn the attention of their countrymen in sea- 
 sons of despondency. From a pilgrimage to them patriotism is in- 
 spired anew for great and heroic achievements. And when the 
 principles, there baptised in blood, have spread world-wide, then the 
 battle-field, where they received the arbitrament of war, becomes 
 the common and cherished inheritance of the entire human race. 
 Dr. Johnson, at the close of a visit to an island from which the 
 savage clans and roving barbarians of the Highlands had derived 
 the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion, justly re- 
 marks, " Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy 
 as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which 
 has been dignified by wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little 
 to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of 
 Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins 
 of Iona.'"' 
 
 IV. My last argument is derived from the common sense of man- 
 kind. This has its place in war as well as in philosophy, or the more 
 familiar and every day affairs of men. We may assume it as true 
 that men do not, for trifling and unworthy reasons, leave their pur- 
 suits, their gains, their neighbors, families and homes, with all their 
 associations and comforts. They do not plunge families into grief, 
 or afflict them with penury and want, merely to gratify the ambition 
 of a general, or to avenge wrongs in which the nation has no interest. 
 Wellington and Bonaparte, with their hosts, did not meet at Water- 
 loo without design or purpose. The eyes of the civilized world 
 were fixed upon them with intense anxiety. Every well-informed 
 subject in Europe, and every citizen in America, felt that he and his 
 posterity to the latest generation, all were to be vitally affected by 
 the issue of that final battle between those two great captains. 
 
 Our fathers of seventy-six did not shut up all their institutions of 
 learning, from the common school to the university; did not turn 
 their colleges into barracks for men, and their sanctuaries into stalls 
 for horses, without a cause. They did not leave their husbandry to 
 
11 
 
 women and "Cause an utter suspension of commerce; did not rush to 
 Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, Yorktown and Camden, merely in 
 defense of glittering generalities. Such a supposition is a libel up- 
 on their common sense. 
 
 Nor is it supposable any more now than then, that without cause, 
 greater armies than those commanded by Washington and Howe, or 
 even those commanded by the Iron Duke and the Emperor of the 
 French, are in the field, and, with the most terrible implements of 
 war and death, are confronting each other. Does the christian states- 
 man, whose life has been one of pre-eminent patriotism, without an 
 adequate reason, when suddenly summoned to depart this life, for- 
 bid his family to call away his own son from his post of duty to re- 
 ceive his parting blessing or even to share the bereavement of his 
 household? Do such men as Bancorft, Cushing, Hallett, Dickinson, 
 Dallas, Holt and others of equal eminence as scholars, orators or 
 statesmen; men whose lives have been given to their country and 
 whose loyalty is above suspicion ; bend all their energies, lay under 
 contribution all their wisdom and experience, and bring out all their 
 eloquence to hasten their fellow-citizens forward as one man in the 
 prosecution of this great contest, without giving any satisfactory 
 reason for what they counsel ? The common sense of men is not so 
 sadly at fault. The supposition is absurd. 
 
 Admitting then that the battle field has a deeper meaning than 
 that which appears upon its surface, it is the duty of the christian 
 and the citizen to learn, if possible, what it is. Such an inquiry, 
 while the contest is raging, all are aware is not an easy one ; nor, in 
 the absence of candor and impartiality, is such an inquiry likely to 
 prove successful. Let us then, divesting ourselves as far as possible 
 of whatever may bias our judgment, ascertain the significance of the 
 painful and trying conflict in which the nation is engaged. That 
 there is such a significance is plain from what we have already «aid. 
 If we fail to comprehend it, the historian, who, fifty years hence, 
 shall review this struggle, will not. 
 
 I. There are essential differences in soil, climate, and, of course, 
 in the products and material interests of the North and South. There 
 is also a difference in the social habits, institutions, culture and char- 
 acter between northern and southern men. These differences existed 
 at the outset of the government. But it was thought that the con- 
 cessions and compromises contained in the constitution had mastered 
 these difficulties, and under it the administration of the government 
 
12 
 
 would not be attended with any unusual embarrassment or peril. 
 And had all parties kept their status unchanged, this, without doubt, 
 would have been the case. But the human mind is seldom, for three- 
 quarters of a century at a time, stationary. This is not the law by 
 which it is governed. As to the sentiment of the North, touching the 
 institution of slavery, it may be doubted whether it is as decided in 
 its convictions of its inexpediency and wrongfulness now as it was 
 the day the constitution was adopted; and this, too, notwithstanding 
 much that has transpired, adapted in itself, to provoke the northern 
 mind into an attitude of more intense hostility. While there have 
 been provocations having this tendency there have also been strong 
 counteracting influences. Hence the vacillation of sentiment at the 
 north on this subject of deep national concern. Unless I am greatly 
 mistaken history shows a great unsteadiness in the popular convinc- 
 tion among us during the last seventy-four years. But amidst all the 
 exciting events of this period, the antagonism to servitude as the 
 permanent condition of any human being and as an essential part 
 of any political organization, never has been more clearly marked 
 nor expressed itself in more decided terms than it was, and was wont 
 to do, during the six years succeeding the termination of the strug- 
 gle that established our independence. Every one at all familiar 
 with the history of his country knows well that there was a cause 
 for this. So long had the attention of the people been turned in 
 one direction; so intensified had become their enthusiasm in respect 
 to liberty, under the influence of an eloquence, in power, perhaps, 
 never surpassed, that the very atmosphere seemed fragrant with 
 freedom. Hence the orations which some may perhaps have heard, 
 and many of us have read, and hence the poetry and poetic senti- 
 ment that has come down to us. How full of eulogy, of encomium, 
 of panegyric, in respect to this national virtue ! No name met with 
 so ready and universal a response, as 
 
 "Sweet land of liberty." 
 
 And no prayer went up more fervently from the American heart 
 than this : 
 
 And again 
 
 " From every mountain side 
 Let freedom ring." 
 
 "Let music swell the breeze, 
 And ring from all the trees, 
 Sweet Freedom's sonar." 
 
 Now, such a sentiment could not thus pervade the nation, and yet 
 the peoplo overlook or be indifferent to those in bonds. 
 
13 
 
 The enthusiasm which they felt in reference to their own freedom, 
 from the nature of the case, would not stop when it had obtained its 
 specific object, but would excite a sympathy for all in any manner 
 oppressed. Such we find to have been the case. Having this ori- 
 gin, the anti-slavery feeling was strong and active, free and untram- 
 meled, in all parts of the country, at the period alluded to. 
 
 Since that time there have been strong currents of influence set- 
 ting in from an opposite direction. Among these we may mention 
 that of the Democratic party as most potent. Without stopping to 
 inquire whether it is to the credit or discredit of that party, we must 
 confess that its control over the sentiment of the country in respect 
 to this subject has been almost absolute It has, at least, kept it, so 
 far as the North is concerned, at the greatest possible remove from 
 all fanaticism. The intimate relation existing for years between the 
 members of this ancient party organization North, and the members 
 of it South, have made it necessary that all recognition of this sub- 
 ject, as one of any special political interest, should be omitted in 
 making up periodical platforms. By this silence great victories 
 have been achieved ; and their ascendency in the government, with 
 here and there an exception, has been perpetuated from administra- 
 tion to administration. At the same time, the opposition, by what- 
 ever name called, have, with great caution, kept the public enuncia- 
 tions of their political faith safely within the limits of the most 
 weighty precedents. Though within the last six years these party 
 utterances have plainly been anti-slavery in their tone, there has not 
 been manifest the most distant intention of interfering with the in- 
 stitution where it does and may hereafter exist by State authority. 
 The Democratic party lays claim to the honor of having been the 
 conservative element in our government. And so far as the ques- 
 tion of slavery in the North is concerned, its claim should be al- 
 lowed. 
 
 On the contrary, the Southern mind has evidently undergone a 
 great change. At the close of the revolution, and at the time the 
 constitution was framed and adopted, it differed but little from the 
 Northern. The same enthusiasm in respect to freedom pervaded the 
 South as the North, and with nearly the same result, so far as the 
 sentiment in reference to slavery is concerned. The people of the 
 South, as well as those of the North, regarded it as inconsistent with 
 the sentiment, then in the ascendency, impolitic and wrong. The 
 following extract from a letter of Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Price, of 
 England, written in 1785, is an exponent of the sentiment then en- 
 
14 
 
 tertained : " Northward of the Chesapeake, you may find, here and 
 there, an opponent to your doctrine, (viz.: of emancipation) as you 
 may find, here and there, a robber and murderer, but in no greater 
 number. * * * * Virginia is the next State to which 
 we may turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of justice, in con- 
 flict with avarice and oppression ; a conflict in which the sacred side 
 is gaining daily recruits, from the influx into office of young men 
 grown and growing up. These have sucked in the principles of lib- 
 erty, as it were, with their mother's milk, and it is to them I look 
 with anxiety to turn the fate of this question." He adds, " The 
 College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, is the place where 
 are collected together all the young men of Virginia, under prepa- 
 ration for public life. They are there under the direction (most of 
 them) of a Mr. Wythe, one of the most virtuous of characters, and 
 whose sentiments on the subject of slavery are unequivocal." 
 
 From a deep moral conviction of its sinfulness and injustice; and 
 from a constant fear of the judgments that might fall upon commu- 
 nities and the nation as a consequence ; the Southern mind now rec- 
 ognizes it as the foundation of its political science ; as an essential 
 element of its civilization ; and regards its endless perpetuity the 
 highest christian duty. Between the writings of the sage of Monti- 
 cello and the late speeches of the Hon. A. H. Stevens, delivered at 
 Savannah and at Richmond, there is certainly as great a distance as 
 the human mind ever travels in three-quarters of a century. And 
 yet each faithfully, as far as a single mind can, represents the belief 
 of his time. How wide asunder, then, is the South of 1789 and the 
 South of 1861 ! 
 
 It is sometimes said that this great change in the South is the re- 
 sult of Northern interference and irritation. But we have already 
 shown that the North has merely maintained its original position ; 
 has been in the main consistent with itself; has abolished slavery, as 
 it had a right to do, within the older States, and prevented its intro- 
 duction into territory out of which new ones have been formed. 
 Also, at the formation of the Constitution, this was not only known 
 to be the attitude of the North, but that the South was not essen- 
 tially different. There must therefore have been a departure of the 
 South from this position, before irritation was possible. Besides, it 
 is unjust to the South, and a libel upon Southern intellect, to affirm 
 that a small party at the North, called Abolitionists, without influ- 
 ence over Northern intellect, whose meetings, even here, have re- 
 quired the protection of a heavy police, have driven the South to 
 
15 
 
 desperation and madness. Every true, well-informed Southerner 
 would repel the insinuation as dishonorable to his manhood. The 
 change, then, has been not in the Northern but in the Southern 
 mind. 
 
 With this view harmonize all the facts in the case. A separation 
 has taken place in all the great leading religious denominations of 
 the country ; but it will be seen, by reference to the records, that the 
 denomination in each case only came up to, but did not exceed in its 
 resolutions, or minutes, or canons, the sentiment once universal over 
 the country. It only occupied its ancient position in respect to the 
 principle of involuntary servitude; and, from a change in the senti- 
 ment of the South, this is offensive. Consequently, they can no 
 longer affiliate with those with whom they once took sweet counsel, 
 and walked to the house of God in company. 
 
 The Democratic party did everything that honorable and patriotic 
 men could do to prevent the dissolution of the party. They con- 
 ceded ; they were silent: they suffered the good name of their be- 
 loved organization to be tarnished by acts of questionable political 
 integrity ; but all to no purpose. Strand after strand of the cord 
 that had bound them together, through many years, in harmony, 
 parted, until it could hold no longer. 
 
 At Charleston, and again at Baltimore, it was evident that the 
 South was unwilling to go into the canvass upon old issues, or to co- 
 operate longer upon the old guarantees. It demanded a complete 
 endorsement of all the essential principles which in its progress it 
 had adopted ; and in case of refusal, threatened to break away for- 
 ever from its old political associations. Never was there placed be- 
 fore a party an issue upon which more depended ; and never was a 
 party more conscious of the grave responsibilities resting upon it. 
 Time was taken for deliberation. The delegates went back, and had 
 a fresh interview with the people. They returned, and did what 
 alone as high-minded men they could do — re-affirmed the well- 
 known doctrines of the party. The South withdrew, and affirmed 
 what Avas more in harmony with the new sentiments, now pervading 
 that section of the land. 
 
 The Republic has shared the same fate. While the North has 
 been and is content to abide under the Constitution and by the cov- 
 enants and compromises contained therein, the South has been, for a 
 long time, restive under them, and has sought an opportunity, too 
 anxiously, to break away from them. Hence, the movement, hav- 
 
16 
 
 ing for its object, so far as they are concerned, a change in the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, was begun by them. 
 
 It is not Lincoln's, but Washington's Jefferson's, Madison's, Ham- 
 ilton's government, or, in other words, the people's government of 
 1789, that they in truth object to. Hence, here as elsewhere, they 
 are the first to anticipate the rupture, and the first to prepare for it. 
 They are the first to take the sword, and carry the issue to the bat- 
 tlefield. 
 
 II. We are now prepared to answer the inquiry, What is the oc- 
 casion of the war now upon us, and what is the question now to be 
 decided by the sword ? It is not whether slavery shall be continued 
 or abolished. 
 
 A mind, gross and unaccustomed to discriminating and accurate 
 thought, can easily mistake the real issue, and affirm that it is " an 
 abolition -war." But as yet, so far as I know, neither party is anx- 
 ious to have such an issue introduced into the contest. Notwith- 
 standing the cry, that ever and anon salutes our ear, against " abo- 
 lition Yankees," &c, no part of the country would be more surprised 
 than the one most frequently using these opprobrious terms, should 
 the government declare all the bondmen in the land free, and com- 
 mence battling in earnest to sustain such a declaration. I appre- 
 hend that few are as yet ready for such a Jubilee. What then is the 
 great question ? It is this : Whether the government shall be ad- 
 ministered under the present Constitution, or whether it shall be set 
 aside and another substituted, more closely conforming to the pres- 
 ent views of the South in regard to the institution of slavery. That 
 this is the true issue may be seen from the fact that another consti- 
 tution, of this character, is now claiming to be the supreme law of a 
 portion of .the land. 
 
 The fact can not be disguised that there exist in this Republic two 
 rival civilizations, with elements widely different from each other, and 
 the two constitutions are their proper exponents. The old reflects 
 the type of the civilization of '76, and is based upon the great prin- 
 ciples of freedom and equality of rights ; and the new upon the as- 
 sumption that the natural condition of a portion of the human fam- 
 ily is that of subordination and servitude. No man can claim the 
 right of speaking for the South better than the Hon. A. H. Stevens, 
 of Georgia. His preeminence as a statesman, his power as an ora- 
 tor, and his present official position, all give him the right to speak 
 in behalf of the South. In his Savannah speech, delivered the 21st 
 
17 
 
 of March last, alluding to the new Constitution, he says: "It has 
 put to rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar 
 institution. African slavery, as it exists among us, is the proper 
 status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the imme- 
 diate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. The pre- 
 vailing ideas entertained by Jeiferson, and most of the leading states- 
 men, at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were, that 
 the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of 
 nature, that it was wrong in principle, socially., morally and polit- 
 ically. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They 
 rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an 
 error. Our new government was founded upon exactly the oppo- 
 site ideas. Its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests, upon the 
 great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that 
 slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal 
 condition." He intimates that other States may leave their present 
 connection and unite with them, under the new Constitution, " but 
 not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle." Every 
 thoughtful man Avill see that the question, which has brought this 
 peril to our government, and almost to our very doors, is a momen- 
 tous one. It has already driven wide asunder the sections of the 
 country entertaining opposite views in reference to it. It necessa- 
 rily creates a state of society altogether different ; forms individual 
 character upon a different basis ; and, in a word, destroys all sympa- 
 thy of one part for the other. Where slavery exists, the education 
 of children and youth bears little resemblance to their education 
 where it does not exist. The hospitality has also a widely different 
 type. The social brilliancy of the Capital, in years gone by, has 
 mainly been sustained by members of Congress and other pub- 
 lic functionaries from the South. It is this effect which the institu- 
 tion has upon all the relations of life, that has fascinated, almost in- 
 toxicated, the public mind of the South with admiration of it. It is 
 this that makes them so jubilant over their new constitution ; and it 
 is this that renders them so confident that they have not only a dif- 
 ferent, but a higher and better civilization than obtains at the North, 
 or anywhere else among the nations. And it is in defense of all this 
 that they seceded from the old and established their new form of 
 government, and now with such unanimity and enthusiasm appear 
 upon the battlefield. It is, on the other hand, in defense of the old, 
 that the North, with equal unanimity and enthusiasm, clad in the 
 panoply of war, confront them. 
 
18 
 
 Such are the real nature and significance and .magnitude of this 
 contest. And gentlemen, however honest, who think the war a trivial 
 one, which may be stopped by a few newspaper paragraphs and 
 stump speeches, have not well considered the question at issue. All 
 the history of the past tells us, however unwilling we may be 
 to listen to its message, that the conflict will be protracted and se- 
 vere ; and that it can be terminated only by a war in which the vic- 
 tory of the one part, and the defeat and exhaution of the other will 
 be complete and decisive. 
 
 III. It is not always in these great national conflicts that men, 
 even the most sagacious, have a dear, well-defined conception of the 
 ultimate issue to which Providence is conducting events. 
 
 "There's a divinity that shnpes our ends. 
 Rough hew them how we will." 
 
 It is true that in the beginning our ancestors aimed not at inde- 
 pendence. The beginning was a simple question of abstract consti- 
 tutional rights. When what they deemed an encroachment, a viola- 
 tion of these rights was continued, then they petitioned and remon- 
 strated, hoping thereby to effect a discontinuance of the grievance. 
 But as the discussion advanced the contest deepened, until war was 
 inevitable and independence a necessity. 
 
 The civil war now raging in this republic is, as we have shown, the 
 result of a growth and gradual developmentof the sentiment of the 
 South in reference to the proper, permanent position of the negro 
 race in the social economy. When the public mind becomes settled 
 as to the true position of the negro — that this position should be 
 given him, and he reduced to it, is only another right belonging to 
 the superior race; and the constitution of the country should be so 
 framed as to guaranty this among other rights, or to be intolerably 
 defective. One has been so made ; and the setting ap of this over 
 territory already under another, is, as all the world knows, revolution 
 or rebellion. And open rebellion is war. And so the war began. 
 Thus far all is plain; for all is history. The aim of the South has 
 been and is at present only to hold the position taken; not, however, 
 concealing the expectation that their advanced civilization will com- 
 mend itself soon to others, and ere long to all; and then their con- 
 stitution become the supreme law of the land. Thus they hope that 
 unity will once more return to the nation. 
 
 The United States government on the other hand is only striving 
 to maintain its former existence and power undiminished. It aims 
 
19 
 
 at nothing beyond. Bat is there a will and an arm among us potent 
 enough to restrain all concerned within the limits of their present 
 purpose? 
 
 Is there a prophet among us who can tell whither the current 
 now bearing us onward will ultimately fond us ? Can he tell us what 
 issues may not, from necessity, be mixed up, and become the leading 
 issues in this great conflict ? Can any one assure us that before 
 peace can be restored to the nation, and perhaps in order to its 
 restoration, necessity may not compel the government to undo the 
 heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free ? But whatever of good 
 or ill the Providence of God may have in store for us, one thing may 
 be certain : We shall not end the war as we began it. There will 
 be an end to it ; but during the struggle the sentiment of the whole 
 country will undergo a great change, and the administration of the 
 government will thence forward conform to this change 
 
 IV. We have need of humiliation and prayer, as may be seen 
 from what has been said. A great and exhausting war, like the one 
 we are engaged in, may not be in itself conclusive proof of great 
 national sins. It is evidence, primarily, of a great and radical dif- 
 ference of sentiment in relation to something within the proper 
 sphere of government, and of nothing more. But as the final issue 
 of the contest depends not altogether, nor mainly, upon unaided hu- 
 man wisdom or human prowess, but upon divine direction and bles- 
 sing, it is well to inquire whether we are in a condition as a nation 
 to receive aid from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Are we 
 conscious, is our conviction deep and unchanging, that our cause is 
 just; for 
 
 "Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just, 
 And lie but naked, though locked up iu steel, 
 Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 
 
 Have we, as a nation, been free from pride, arrogance and vain 
 glory ? If we have not, we do well to remember that He in whose 
 hands is our destiny, beholds the proud, however great their necessi- 
 ties, afar off. 
 
 Have we been careful to elect men to office who fear God and 
 reverence his will ; and who do not use the eminence to which our 
 suffrages elevated them to lead the nation away into practical politi- 
 cal atheism ? Have we not caused good men to feel that between 
 them and their representatives of different grades there is, morally,, 
 an entire want of sympathy? Does not the very name, "politi- 
 cian," "office-seeker," "office-holders," by the mere force of asso- 
 
20 
 
 ciation, call up before the mind a character which no moral man 
 would wish himself or any of his friends to possess ? Have we as 
 citizens flung away ambition, and have we been anxious that all the 
 ends aimed at might be our country's, our God's, and truths ? And 
 are we strong in our confidence that in all this war God will be our 
 goodness, our fortress, our high tower and our deliverer ? I greatly 
 fear that before we can thus good forward with well-placed confi- 
 dence, there is need of great humiliation and true confession of our 
 many and great offences before the Most High. 
 
 We shudder at the rehearsal of the impiety and madness of the 
 French in their revolution, worshipping Reason, in the form of a 
 beautiful but shameless female. Demoiselle Candielle, of the opera ; 
 or erecting on the ruins of the Bastelle a statue of nature, gigantic, 
 spouting water from two mammelles; and to these symbolic foun- 
 tains throngs of deluded citizens coming with the rising of the sun 
 to drink, and praise the wondrous device. But are we altogether 
 clean of the same folly and sin ? When we speak of the triumph of 
 right, without any consideration of our standing in the sight of Him, 
 without whose aid and blessing right can not gain the ascendency 
 over wrong; when our confidence of success in this struggle is based 
 upon the progress of society and the general result of revolutions ; 
 and when we rely upon superior s numbers and resources, wherein does 
 our practical atheism differ from that of the French in 1789, it is not 
 easy to be seen. The citizen is short sighted indeed who has not 
 seen, nay, who does not now see, that we are beset with difficulties 
 which are not under our control, and yet which, but for the restrain- 
 ing influence of God's hand, may at any moment so complicate this 
 whole question as to turn our advantages into weakness. 
 
 There is need then, special, pressing need of humiliation and 
 prayer ; and let no one feel that the services in which, at the sugges- 
 tion of our Chief Magistrate, we this day engage, are uncalled for 
 and of trivial importance. But whether we assemble in our sanctu- 
 aries or bend the knee around our domestic altars, or bow before 
 God in our closets, let us humble ourselves and cry unto God to spare 
 to us and our posterity the inestimable blessings so abundantly given 
 hitherto to this Republic. 
 
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