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A DISCOURSE 
 
 ON OUR 
 
 iNATIONAL AFFAIRS 
 
 DELIVERED ON FAST DAY, 
 
 MAY 9th, 1861, 
 
 By Hev. V^^ESLEY SMITH, 
 
 Pastor of the Fourth Street M. E. Church. 
 WHEELING, VA. 
 
 ) ■: 
 
 Publisliecl by Ileq[iiest. 
 
 WM. EWING, PRINTER AND BLANK BOOK MANUFACTURER, 
 CORNER MARKET AND MONROE STREETS. 
 
 18G1. 
 
e^* 
 
 ^ 
 
 
A DISCOURSE 
 
 ON OUR 
 
 NATIONAL AFFAIKS, 
 
 DELIVERED ON FAST DAY, 
 
 MAY 9th, 1861, 
 
 By Kev. A^^ESLEY SMITH, 
 
 Pastor of the Fourth Street M. E. Church, 
 WHEELING, VA. 
 
 P\Tblisli.ed by Request. 
 
 -<♦»*> 
 
 WM. EWING, PRINTER AND BLANK BOOK MANUFACTrRTR, 
 CORNER MARKET AND MONROE STREETS. 
 
 180J. 
 
IN EXCHANGl 
 Bos. Athen 
 
 
 v/\^' 
 

 DIVINE PROVIDENCE ACKNOWLEDGED. 
 
 And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspira- 
 tors with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee turn the 
 counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. II Samuel, xv: 31. 
 
 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, the counsel ofHushai 
 the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord 
 has appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the in- 
 tent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. II Samuel, 
 xvii: 14. 
 
 I have not read these passages of Holy Writ with a view 
 of entering into a lengthy discussion of tiie occasion 
 which gave rise to their utterance, but because they indi- 
 cate the course we should pursue in the present aspect of 
 our national affairs, which are strikingly analagous to the 
 condition of the Jewish nation at the time referred to in 
 the text. Now, as tlien, there is an armed rebellion 
 actively engaged to overthrow our government and des- 
 troy our national existence. 
 
 We are assembled here in the House of God in obe- 
 dience to the civil authorities of our city to humble our- 
 selves before the Divine Majesty, and to implore Divine 
 assistance to enable us to ascertain what is our duty as 
 citizens, in view of the storm that appears ready to burst 
 upon us, and in view of the diver.sity of sentiment enter- 
 tained in regard to the impending crisis. This I suppose 
 to be the object of the City Council and the Mayor in 
 requesting this to be observed as a day of humiliation, 
 fasting and prayer, and that the pastors and people 
 should assemble together in their several places of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 I suppose it will be admitted by all, that our Govern- 
 ment is either right or wrong in its present attitude 
 towards those who have defied its poAver and are in open 
 armed rebellion against it. If the General Government 
 is in the right, then every man and every combination of 
 men. whether the number be five hundred or five millions, 
 
who resist its authority are rebels and traitors. The 
 Government and its enemies cannot both be right. And 
 if the City Council and tlie Mayor expected me to come 
 here and pray to God to split the difference between them 
 and take part with neither, they have made a great mis- 
 take, I shall do no such thing. I shall prove from the 
 fathers of the republic, and the word of God, that our 
 Government is right, and then I shall ask God to defend 
 the right, if every man and woman in Wheeling, and in 
 the State of Virginia were opposed to me. And let it 
 be distinctly understood, that this momentous question, 
 involving as it does the freedom or enslavement of your- 
 selves and your posterity through all coming time, is not 
 to be settled by an appeal to passion or local preju- 
 dice, nor by your opinions or mine, but by an appeal to 
 the facts of history, and the Word of God. In the fur- 
 ther investigation of the subject before us I shall notice, 
 
 I. The great doctrine enunciated in the text, namely the 
 overruling providence of God in the affairs of men. 
 
 II. The lesson of instruction we may derive from this 
 subject in view of our present national difficulties. 
 
 I. The subject teaches the doctrine of God's over- 
 ruling providence. But it teaches, also, most emphati- 
 cally that he works by means, and that he can and does 
 use both good and bad men in the accomplishment of his 
 gracious purposes towards those who trust in him. He 
 causes the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder 
 of wrath he restrains. 
 
 Hence it is the duty of the Christian and the patriot 
 to use all lawful means in defence of his rights as though 
 everything depended on his own efforts, and then to trust 
 in God for success in defeating the schemes of his ene- 
 mies, as though he had done nothing at all. There is a 
 great deal of Bible philosophy in the sentiment attribu- 
 ted to that stern old puritan, Oliver Cromwell, in charg- 
 ing his soldiers to trust in God and keep their powder 
 dry. The bible is full of just such teaching. Tliis doc- 
 trine was well understood by David. Hence we find him 
 when driven from his throne by the unnatural rebellion 
 of an ungodly son relying for success on both Divine 
 and human agency, and that God in whom he trusted, 
 
cruslicd out tlic rebellion and restored lilni again to his 
 throne and government. 
 
 1. David made use of prayer to God, that he Avould 
 turn t!ie eounsel of that crafty, poAverful and unscrupu- 
 lous political intriguer, Ahithophel, into foolishness. It 
 seems that this man was a kind of prime minister or 
 secretary of state in the cabinet of the Jewish sovereigns, 
 and that his influence over the other ministers and even 
 over the mdnarch himself, was almost unbounded. In 
 the '2'Sd verse of the 16th chapter of this book Ave have 
 these words; — "And the counsel of Ahithophel which he 
 counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at 
 the oracle of God: so Avas all the counsel of Ahithophel 
 both with David and with Absalom." It is no Avonder, 
 then, that David dreaded his influence and guarded 
 against it by appealing to God to defeat it. Perhaps no 
 man, either ancient or modern, had a larger experience 
 in regard to the efficacy of prayer than Israel's pious 
 shepherd king. Had not God interposed in his behalf 
 in numerous instances, in ansAver to prayer, his enemies 
 had swallowed liim up. 
 
 2. David made use of the talents and influence of a 
 faitiifiil and devoted friend, one Avho seems to have been 
 second only in influence to Ahithophel among his cour- 
 tiers. This maa Avhose name was Hushai appears to 
 have 1)cen ardently attached to his laAvful king and deter- 
 mined to share his foitunes in the day of his adversity. 
 He came to meet David outside of the city of Jerusalem 
 as lie and his faithfal adherents Avere flying for their liveSj 
 Avith his coat rent and earth upon his head, as an evidence 
 of the deep distress he felt in consequence of the terrible 
 calamity Avhicli had fallen on the fugitive monarch. And 
 God Avas pleased to hear the prayer of David, and through 
 the instrumentality of Hushai Avhomhe persuaded to return 
 to the city; the good counsel of Ahithophel, which if it had 
 becnfolloAved would probably have resulted in the destruc- 
 tion of David and jiart of his hosts, Avas entirely defeated. 
 When these tAvo men hadboth given counsel t<)Absalom,Ave 
 are told that, "Absalom and all the men of Israel said the 
 counsel of Husliai the Archite is better tlian the counsel 
 01 Ahithophel. " For the Lord had apj)()inted to defeat 
 
the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the 
 Lord might bring evil upon Absalom." When wicked 
 men have forfeited their lives to divine justice, God gives 
 them over, and permits them to be blinded by the father 
 of lies, until they rush headlong on their own destruc- 
 tion. This was the case with Absalom at the time here 
 spoken of. While he was only thinking of reaching a 
 throne by wading through the blood of his father and 
 his king, he was rushing madly to a traitor's doom. 
 
 3. When David found that nothing else Avould do he 
 appealed to the arbitrament of the sword and the God 
 of battles. David no doubt regarded this as a dire calam- 
 ity, and labored to avoid it. He prayed that the counsel 
 of his enemy might be defeated, and thus far his prayer 
 was heard, but the counsels of the Almiglity in regard 
 to the author of this uriTiatural rebellion were not yet 
 accomplished. Absalom had forfeited his life and di- 
 vine justice could not be satisfied until that life was ta- 
 ken. With all his personal accomplishments he appears 
 to have been a vain, ambitious, revengeful, blood-thirsty 
 young man. Apart from all his other crimes, he had 
 forfeited his life by the rebellion in which he was 
 then engaged. God's law takes cognizance of the inten- 
 tions and purposes of the heart. There are crimes of 
 the heart where the overt act is never committed. Ab- 
 salom had conceived the most diabolical crime that it was 
 possible for a human being to commit, the destruction of 
 the life of his father and his sovereign, and that by a pre- 
 meditated act. God had a controversy with David also, 
 on account of the double crime of murder and adultery 
 in the case of one of his most valient officers, and the 
 seduction of his wife, thereby "giving great occasion to 
 the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme." The Lord sent 
 Nathan the prophet to bring this great sin to his remem- 
 brance in that inimitable parable recorded in II Samuel, 
 xii chap. There the baseness of David's conduct is 
 brought to light "by the rich man who had exceeding 
 many flocks and herds ; and the poor man who had noth- 
 ing, save one little ewe lamb which he had bought and 
 nourished up; and it grew up together with him, and 
 with liis children; it did eat of his own meat, and drink 
 
of his own cup, and laj in his bosom, and was unto him 
 as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the 
 rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of 
 his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man; but took 
 the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was 
 come to him." And David's anger was greatly, kindled 
 against the man; and he said to Nathan, as the Lord 
 liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely 
 die! And Nathan said unto David, "thou art the man," 
 Nathan then tells him what God had done for him in 
 delivering him from the hand of Saul, and giving him 
 his master's house, and the house of Israel and Judah, 
 and if this had not been enough he would have given him 
 more. That after all this he had despised the command- 
 ment of the Lord to do evil in his sight, having killed 
 Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the children of Am- 
 mon, and taken his wife to himself; "Now, therefore," 
 said the prophet, "the sword shall never depart from 
 thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast 
 taken the wife of Uriah the Ilittite to be thy wife." 
 Thus saith the Lord, " Behold, I will raise up evil against 
 thee out of thine own house, for thou didst it secretly; 
 but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the 
 sun." 
 
 Here the Almighty clearly asserts the great doctrine 
 of an over ruling Providence. That it is by him kings 
 rule and princes decree judgment. And, furthermore, 
 that as nations and governments, as such, will have no 
 existence in the world to come, their crimes must be 
 visited with national judgments in this world, that both 
 the rulers and the ruled may learn to fear God and work 
 righteousness. The standard of morality must have been 
 exceedmgly low in the Jewish Church at that thne, when 
 this henious crime was permitted to go unrebuked until 
 God sent a special message by Nathan. Or it may have 
 been that the public teachers of religion were afraid of 
 their popularity, or afraid they would be accused of 
 preaching politics should they rebuke the sin of the chief 
 magistrate. There is no doubt there were time-servers 
 in the ministry then as well as at the present time. Theso 
 faithless watchmen are thus described by the prophet 
 
Isaiah LVi: 10, 11, " They are dumb dogs they cannot 
 bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, 
 they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and 
 they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look 
 to their own way, every one for his gain from his quar- 
 ter." In this way the sin of the ruler became the sin 
 of the nation, and subjected them to the judgment which 
 had now fallen upon them in the rebellion of Absalom 
 and the civil war which grew out of it. 
 
 4. We pass to notice the successful issue of the con- 
 test upon which David and his army had entered. Al- 
 though the rebel forces under his ungodly son greatly 
 outnumbered those that remained faithful to their own 
 heaven appointed government, yet they met with a signal 
 defeat. The lion hearted Joalj(who was the Gen. Scott 
 of that army) charged at the head of his victorious le- 
 gions, bearing down all before them, and scattering the 
 rebel hosts like the chaff of the summer threshing floor 
 is scattered by the winds of heaven. 
 
 It appears by the account we have in the xv chapter 
 of II Samuel, that the beautiful Absalom had all the blan- 
 dishments of an Aaron Burr and as deep a depravity of 
 heart. Like the traitors in our own country who are in 
 arms to day to destroy the constitutional government of 
 the nation founded, by your patriot sires and owned 
 and blessed of God. Absalom stole the hearts of the men 
 of Israel by declaiming against the government of his 
 father and king, the best government and administered 
 in the best manner of any on the face of the earth at that 
 time. It was in regard to the justice and equity with 
 wdiich David administered the government, that God 
 said he was a man after his own heart. The charge made 
 by Absalom against the government of the king of Israel 
 and those made by the leaders in the present rebellion 
 rest upon the same foundation. They are sheer fabrica- 
 tions, having no foundation in fact. But we are taught 
 here a most important lesson of instruction; God grant 
 we may profit by it. If men would study this priceless 
 treasure, the Word of God and obey its precepts, there 
 would be neither treason nor rebellion to the end of 
 time. Let us listen to its words of warning. 
 
"And Absalom rose early and stood beside the way of 
 the gate; and it was so, that when any man that had a 
 controversy came to the king for judgment, that Absa- 
 lom called unto him and said, of what city art thou. And 
 he said, thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. 
 And Absalom said unto him, see thy matters are good 
 and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to 
 hear thee. And Absalom said moreover. Oh that I were 
 made a Judge in the land, that every man which hath a 
 suit or cause might come unto me and I would do him 
 justice. And it was so when any man came nigh to him 
 to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took 
 him and kissed him. And in this manner did Absalom 
 to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Ab- 
 salom stole the hearts of the men of Israel." 
 
 It seems from the account here given, that it is no new 
 thing for men to be the dupes of dishonest and design- 
 ing men, who by good words and fair speeches make 
 merchandise of them. Absalom persuaded the people 
 that the government of David was not administered in 
 accordance with the principles of justice and that if he 
 was at the head of affairs, he would give them their rights, 
 and thus the unfortunate dupes were led into open re- 
 bellion against the constitutional government of their 
 country, and they got their rights; rights they had nof 
 bargained for — the right to perish on the battle field as 
 rebels and traitors, without pity from God or man. Di- 
 vine providence fought for David on that eventful day aa 
 well as Joab." For the battle was there scattered over 
 the face of all the country; and the wood devoured more 
 people that day than the sword devoured. And the peo- 
 ple of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and 
 there was a great slaughter that day of tiventy thousand 
 men." Absalom, the leader in this rebellion, met his 
 doom from the hand of Joab while suspended by the head 
 from the boughs of an oak, thus indicating the purpose 
 of God, that treason should be punished with death by 
 hanging. 
 
 Ahithophel the chief counsellor in the rebellion had 
 hung himself, when he found his counsel was not followed 
 and Absalom was hung by divine providence, and twenty 
 
10 
 
 thousand of those who had entered into the conspiracy 
 were left to be devoured by the wild beasts in the wood 
 of Ephraim, So perislied that band of traitors, and so 
 perish all traitors in like circumstances until treason 
 shall cease to curse the world, and so they will perish so 
 long as God governs the universe. The leaders of the 
 rebellion having got their deserts, Joab blew the trumpet 
 and held back the people from pursuing their brethern. 
 David was borne back to his capital in triumph, where he 
 reigned for many years; died in a good old age, and went 
 home to that peaceful country where wars and discords 
 are unknown. 
 
 II. We come to notice tlio lesson of instruction we 
 may derive from this subject in view of our present na- 
 tional difficulties. 
 
 Before proceeding to this duty let me ask a few ques- 
 tions that we may ascertain whether we have anything 
 worth contending for? Let us not deceive ourselves. 
 We are on the eve of a most sanguinary and relentless 
 civil war, and shall be compelled to take sides either for 
 the government or against it. The time has come when 
 you must choose between constitutional liberty on the 
 one hand, and rebellion, treason and anarchy on the 
 other, and this state of things has been precipitated by 
 the action of your own convention recently assembled at 
 Kichmond. You may shut your eyes and stop your ears, 
 and cry peace; but I tell you there is no peace. The 
 clangor of arms, and the tramp of armed legions is all 
 around you and may shortly be at your doors. You will 
 be called upon to make great pecuniary sacrifices, and it 
 may be the sacrifice of life. War is an evil; civil war 
 a tremendous evil, but there is an evil a thousand fold 
 greater than war, and that is the iron heel of despotism; 
 a cruel and relentless despotism such as was inaugurated 
 by the Ilichmond star chamber in secret conclave, that 
 would trample all constitutional law under its feet 
 and supercede the ballot box by the cartridge box. A 
 despotism that would plunder our property by unjust 
 taxes, peril our lives by armed ruffians, and rob us of that 
 without which life would be a curse, our liberty. Let 
 us now and here count the cost and determine whether 
 
11 
 
 our country and its institutions are worth the sacrifioe 
 we may be called to make. 
 
 Have we a country, fellow citizens? Have we a coun- 
 try known at home and abroad as the United States of 
 America, a country that in eighty-five years has risen 
 from thirteen feeble and dependent colonies to thirty- 
 four states, constituting one of the mightiest nations on 
 the globe. A country whose constitution has been the 
 admiration of the whole civilized world, whose progress 
 under free institutions has paralysed tyrants in every land 
 and given hope to their downtrodden subjects, whose 
 glorious flag has been borne in triumph over land and 
 ocean, sheilding the citizen wherever it fluttered in the 
 breeze of heaven, without enquiring Mdiether he-Avas of 
 native or foreign birth, or whether he lived in South 
 Carolina or Massachusetts. Have we any evidence that 
 the God of providence had any hand in founding and 
 watching over this young giant empire? Has he any 
 designs to be accomplished through its instrumentality, 
 in the civil and moral regeneration of the world? And 
 did the noble patriots who erected this glorious temple 
 of liberty, cementing it with their blood and consecrating 
 it with their prayers, I say did they design that in less 
 than a century it should be torn to peices by the vandal 
 hands of those Avho had received and enjoyed the largest 
 share of its benefits. Or did they dig deep and lay its 
 broad foundations on the rock of immutable and eternal 
 truth and justice, so that although the rain and the floods 
 and the winds of treason and perjury and armed rebellion 
 might beat upon it, it should not fall, being founded on a 
 rock? Did these men intend that this country should 
 remain one united nation under one constitution and one 
 government down to the end of time? These are ques- 
 tions of the last importance to us and our children and 
 to unborn millions who are to come after us. If the 
 union of the states is merely a partnership from which 
 any one may withdraw at pleasure, then we never were 
 a nation and never had a government, and if this doctrine 
 of peaceable or forcible secession be admitted, we never 
 can have a republican government. A government that 
 should make provision in its fundamental law for its own 
 
12 
 
 destruction would be a monument of the ignorance or 
 mental imbecility of its authors and would excite the 
 scorn and ridicule of the whole world. 
 
 I shall now prove to you by the most unexceptionable 
 and conclusive evidence that the framers of the present 
 constitution and government of these United States, did 
 intend that the union of these States, upon the adoption 
 of the constitution by the people, should be perpetual, 
 and that they did believe that a division of the same for 
 any cause would be their destruction. As the rebel lead- 
 ers claim that the right of secession is a constitutional 
 right, it is necessary that I should prove that this absurd 
 claim has no foundation in fact, but originated in the dis- 
 ordered brains of its authors. 
 
 There cannot be too much importance attached to this 
 question as it is one involving our very existence as a 
 nation. It is one involving not only our civil but our 
 religious liberty. If the Richmond and Montgomery 
 traitors have a right to dictate to us at the point of the 
 bayonet what government we shall live under, they have 
 have precisely the same right to dictate what church we 
 shall belong to, and they claim this right at the present 
 time. They have driven peaceable citizens from their 
 places of worship by bands of armed ruffians in Texas, 
 Missouri, and in our own State, and they claim all this 
 as their right. This is not a question of party politics 
 or I should feel that I was offering you an insult in bring- 
 ing it into the pulpit, but it is one involving every inter- 
 est dear to man both for time and eternity. This is my 
 apology for pursuing the course of argument I have 
 marked out in the present discourse. 
 
 I shall now prove to you that the Constitution of the 
 United States makes no provision for a dissolution of the 
 Union, or for its own destruction, but for its amendment 
 and perpetuation, and that it positively forbids the States 
 to do the very things that the rebel States are now en- 
 gaged in, and the people of those States bound themselves 
 to observe this constitution as the supreme law of the 
 land. The provision for an amendment of the constitu- 
 tion is as follows. "■ The Congress, whenever two-thirds 
 of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose 
 
13 
 
 amendments to this Constitution, or on the application 
 of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, 
 shall call a convention for proposing amendments which 
 in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes 
 as part of this Constitution, when ratified by three-fourths 
 of the several States, or by convention in three-fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may 
 be proposed by Congress." This is clear and explicit. 
 It makes provision for amendments which when ratified 
 shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this 
 Constitution; but it makes no provision for one or more 
 States to secede and sot up for themselves and thus des- 
 troy both the constitution and our national unity. Again, 
 we have the following language, " This Constitution and 
 the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
 pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall 
 be made, under the authority of the United States, shall 
 be i\\e supreme law of tJie land; and the judges in every 
 State shall he hound therehy, anything in the Constitu- 
 tion or laivs of any State to the contrary notivithstand- 
 ing." This forever destroys the doctrine of State Sov- 
 ereignty, except in subordination to the Constitution and 
 laws of the United States, and as being part or parts of 
 the American Nation. In further proof of the oneness 
 of our nationality, we have this provision in the Consti- 
 tution. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to 
 all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
 States." 
 
 In the following provisions, the States severally in the 
 most formal manner divest themselves of every attribute 
 of independent sovereignty and nationality, and confer it 
 on the government of the United States. "No State 
 shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation ; 
 grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ur 
 emit bills of credit." These are the provisions of the 
 constitution which the president of the United States is 
 sworn to maintain, support and defend, and for the dis- 
 charge of this solemn duty he is denounced by these 
 traitors as a usurper and a tyrant. While openly defy- 
 ing the government by their armed legions, stealing its 
 property and firing upon its flag, and entering into 
 2 
 
14 
 
 treaties with each other, in direct violation of the clearly 
 expressed provisions of the constitution, they tell us with 
 ludicorous gravity, that they are only contending for 
 their rights and all they ask is to be let alone. In 
 further proof the intended perpetuity of the Union by 
 the fathers of the republic, I cite the ordinance by which 
 Virginia ceded the Northwestern Territory to the United 
 States, April 23, 1784. " The said territory and the 
 States which maybe formed therein, ahaW foj^ever remain 
 cl part of the confederacy of the United States of America, 
 subject to the articles of confederation, and to such alter- 
 ations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to 
 all the acts and ordinances of the United States, in Con- 
 gress assembled, conformable thereto." 
 
 Here there is not only no provision made for a disso- 
 lution of the Union, but it is positively forbidden. This 
 was the doctrine of Virginia statesmen in 1812,. when a 
 part of the New England States met in the Hartford 
 Convention and threatened to nullify the laws of the 
 United States on account of the destruction of their com- 
 merce in consequence of the war with Great Britain. 
 At a meeting of the leading statesmen held in Richmond 
 the following sentiments were expressed and endorsed by 
 the Richmond Enquirer of Nov. 1, 1814. "Neman, no 
 association of men, no State, nor set of States, has a right 
 to withdraw itself from the Union of its own accord. 
 The same poAver which knit us together can only unknit. 
 The same formality which forged the links of the Union 
 is necessary to dissolve it. The majority of the States 
 which form the Union must consent to the withdrawal of 
 any onehvAXM-h of it. Until that consent is obtained, 
 any atteniT^t to dissolve the Union, or obstruct the effi- 
 ciency of its constitutional law, is treason, treason to 
 all intents and purposes. Any other doctrine, such as 
 that which has lately been held forth by the federal repub- 
 licans, that :iny one State may withdraw itself from the 
 Union, is an abominable heresy. We call, therefore, 
 upon the government of the T'nion to exert its energies 
 when the season siiall demand it, and seize the first traitor 
 who shall sj»ring out of the hot-bed of the convention of 
 Hartford. This^ illustrious Union, which has been ee- 
 
15 
 
 mented by the blood of our forefathers, the pride of 
 America, and the wonder of the world, must not be 
 tamely sacrificed to the heated brains or the aspiring 
 hearts of malcontents. The Union must he saved when 
 any one shall dare to assail it. Counti'ymen of the East, 
 we call upon jo\x to keep a vigilant eye upon those 
 Avicked men who would plunge us into civil war and ine- 
 vitable disgrace. Wliatever may be the temporary 
 calamities which may assail us, let us swear upon the 
 altar -of our country to save the Union." How noble 
 was the bearing of Virginia at that day when she had 
 statesmen to guide her, and when she shone as a star of 
 the first magnitude in the political firmament, compared 
 with her humiliation and shame, hitched to the tail of a 
 rattle snake by political charlatans,led on by that moral 
 maniac, the Ahithophel of Accomac. 
 
 I shall close this part of the testimony by an extract 
 from the proclamation of President Jackson against nul- 
 lification in South Carolina in 1832. "The Constitution 
 of the United States, then, forms a government, not a 
 league. And whether it be formed by compact between 
 the States, or in any other manner, its character is the 
 same. It is a government in which all the people are 
 represented; which operates directly/ on the people indi- 
 vidualb/, not upon the States — they retained all the 
 power they did not grant. But each State having ex- 
 pressly parted with so many powei'S as to constitute, 
 jointly with the other States, a single Nation, cannot 
 from that period, possess any right to secede; because 
 such secession does not break a league, but destroys the 
 unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not 
 only a breach which would result from the contravention 
 of a compact, but it is an offence against the whole Union. 
 To say that any State may, at pleasure, secede from the 
 Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation; 
 because it M'ould be a solecism to contend that any part 
 of a nation might dissolve its connexion with the other 
 parts, to their ruin, without committing an ofience." 
 Having demonstrated by incontrovertible testimony, that 
 the framers of the Constitution, and every American 
 statesman who deserves the name, did intend that the 
 
hate' 
 
 Its,! 
 
 16 
 
 Union of these States in one nation should be perpetual {,,o^!iii 
 I shall now present a few extracts from the farewell a' 
 dress of President Washington to prove to you the esti '^^fffj) 
 mate placed by him upon the union of this nation an 
 the calamities he believed would follow its dissolutioi 
 These are the counsels and warnings of Washington, tl 
 hero, the patriot, the statesman, the Christian, whos 
 prayers did more for the accomplishment of America 
 Independence and the liberty you now enjoy, than h:l ^|jA 
 sword. The utterences of such a man are worth mor 
 than the opinions of all the rebel chiefs in allcottondon 
 In the language of Justice Story: " Who can preserv 
 the rights and liberties of the people, when they shall b 
 abandoned by themselves; who shall keep watch in th 
 temple when the watchmen sleep at their posts? Wh( 
 shall callupon the people to redeem their possessions, an( 
 revive the republic; when their own hands have deliberate' 
 ly and corruptly surrendered them to the oppressor, anc 
 have built the prisons or dug the graves of their own 
 friends." "The unity of the government," says Wash- 
 ington, "which constitutes you one people, is also now 
 dear to you. It is justly so; for it is the main pillar m 
 the edifice of your real independence. The support of 1 q^ 
 your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of yourj ^ 
 safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which ^j 
 you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, 
 from different causes and from different quarters, much 
 pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken 
 in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the 
 point in your political fortress against wdiich the batteries 
 of internal and external enemies will be most constantly 
 and actively (though often covertly and insiduously) di- 
 rected — it is of infinite moment that you should properly 
 estimate the immense value of your national Union to 
 your collective and individual happiness — that you should 
 cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to 
 it. Accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as 
 the paladium of your political safety and prosperity; 
 watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; dis- 
 countenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion 
 that it can, in any event be abandoned; and indignantly 
 
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to 
 alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to 
 enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the va- 
 ■rious parts. For this you have every inducement of 
 sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of 
 a common country, that country has a right to concen- 
 trate your affections. The nameof J.men'caw, which be- 
 longs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt 
 the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation 
 derived from local discriminations With slight shades 
 of difference, you have the same religion, manners, hab- 
 its, and political principles. You have in a common 
 cause fought and triumphed together. The independence 
 and liberty you possess, are the work of joint counsels and 
 efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes. 
 
 But these considerations, how^ever powerfully they 
 address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly out- 
 weighed by those which apply more immediately to your 
 interests. Here every portion of our country finds the 
 most commanding motives for carefully guarding and 
 preserving the union of the ivliole. 
 
 The North in an unrestrained intercourse with the 
 South, protected by the equal law of a common govern- 
 ment, finds in the productions of the latter, great addi- 
 tional resources of maritime and commercial enterprize, 
 and the precious material of manufacturing industi-y. 
 The South in the same intercourse, benefitting by the 
 agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow, and its 
 commerce exiiand, turning partly into its own channels 
 the seamen of the North; it finds its particular navigation 
 invigorated; and while it contributes in different ways, to 
 nourish and increase the general mass of the national 
 navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a mari- 
 time strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The 
 West must of necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of in- 
 dispensable outlets for its own productions, to the weight, 
 influence, and maritime strength of the Atlantic side of 
 the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of in- 
 terests as one nation. 
 
 While then every part of our country thus feels an 
 immediate and particular interest in the Union, all the 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of 
 means and efforts, greater strength, greater resources, 
 proportionably greater security from external danger, a 
 less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign na- 
 tions; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive 
 from union, an exemption from those broils and wars 
 between themselves, which so frequently afflict neigh- 
 boring countries, not tied together by the same govern- 
 ment; which their own rivalship alone would be sufficient 
 to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attach- 
 ments, and intrigues, would stimulate and imbitter. 
 Hence, likew^ise, they will avoid the necessity of those 
 overgrown military establishments, which under any form 
 of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are 
 to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican lib- 
 erty. In this sense it is that your JJnion ought to be 
 considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the 
 love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation 
 of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive 
 language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and ex- 
 hibit the continuance of the Union as a 'primary object of 
 patriotic desire. 
 
 In contemplating the causes which may disturb our 
 Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern, that any 
 ground should have been furnished for characterizing 
 parties by geographical discriminations — as Northern 
 and Southern, Atlantic and Western — whence designing 
 men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real 
 difference of local interest and views. One of the expe- 
 dients of party to acquire influence within particular 
 districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of 
 other disti-icts. You cannot shield yourselves too much 
 against the jealousies and heart burnings which spring 
 from these misrepresentations. They tend to render 
 alien Lo each other those who ought to be bound together 
 by fraternal affections. To the efficacy and permanency 
 of your Union, a government for the whole is indispen- 
 sable. 
 
 No alliance, however strict between the parts, can be 
 an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experience 
 infractions and interruptions which all alliances, in all 
 
19 
 
 time have experienced. Sensible of this momentoua 
 truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the 
 adoption of a constitution of government better calcula- 
 ted than your former for an intimate Union, and for the 
 efficacious management of your common concerns. This 
 Government, the offspring of your own choice, unenflu- 
 enced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and 
 mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in 
 the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, 
 and containing within itself a provision for its own amend- 
 ment, has a just claim to your confidence and support.^ 
 Mespect for its authority, compliance with its laws, ac- 
 quiesence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the 
 fundamental maxims of true liberty. 
 
 The basis of our political system, is the right of the 
 people to make and alter their constitutions of govern- 
 ments; but the constitution Avhich at any time exists, till 
 changed by an explicit act of the whole people, is sacerdly 
 obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power, and the 
 right of the people to establish government, presupposes 
 the duty of every individual to obey the established govern- 
 ment. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
 combinations and associations, under whatever plau- 
 sable character, with the real design to direct, control, 
 counteract or awe the regular deliberations and action 
 of the constituted authorities, are destructive to this 
 fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. And re- 
 member especially, that for the efficient management of 
 your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, 
 a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the 
 perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. Liberty 
 itself will find in such a government, with powers proper- 
 ly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is 
 indeed little else than a name, when the government is 
 too feeble to withstand the enterprizes of faction, to con- 
 fine each member of the society within the limits prescribed 
 by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tran- 
 quil enjoyment of the rights of freedom and property." 
 The above admonition, counsel and Avarning of the sage 
 of Mt. Vernon, needs no comment from me. It may be 
 said of him a^ Paul said of Abel, "He being dead yet 
 
20 
 
 speaketli." This profound statesman and philosopher 
 wrote as though God had permitted him to read the 
 scroll of the future and see by the spirit of prophecy the 
 combinations formed in our own times to destroy the 
 government for which he had periled his life, and to warn 
 us against them. If he had seen the armed rebellion 
 now in existence to blot out our country from the family 
 of nations and thus destroy the world's last hope in 
 man's capacity for self government, and had been ad- 
 dressing a letter of instructions to the present chief 
 magistrate, and the people of the Union, it could not 
 •have been more appropriate. God help us to heed the 
 warning and profit by it. In connexion with the above, 
 permit me to quote an extract from the farewell address 
 of a patriot and sage of our own times, president Jack- 
 son. After referring to the language of Washington, 
 just quoted, he says: — 
 
 "The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of Washington 
 to his countrymen should be cherished in the heart of every citizen 
 to the latest generation, and perhaps at no period of time could they 
 be more usefully remembered than at the present moment. For 
 when we loolc upon the scenes that are passing around us, and dwell 
 upon the pages of his parting address, his paternal counsels would 
 seem to be not merely the oti'spriug of wisdom and foresight, but 
 the voice of prophecy, foretelling future events, and warning us of 
 the evil to come. Forty years have passed since this imperishable 
 document was given to his countrymen. The federal constitution 
 was then regarded by him as an experiment — and he so speaks of it 
 in his address — but an experiment upon thesuccess of which the best 
 hopes of the country depended, and we all know that he was prepared 
 to lay down his life, if necessary, to secure it a full and fair trial. 
 The trial has been made. It has succeeded beyond the proudest 
 hopes of those who framed it. Every quarter of this widely extend- 
 ed nation has felt its blessings, and shared the general prosperity 
 produced by its adoption. 
 
 "But amid this general prosperity and splendid success, the dan- 
 gers of which he warned us are becoming every day more evideat; 
 and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to awaken the deepest 
 anxiety in the bosom of the patriot. We behold systematic efforts 
 publicly made to sow the seeds of discord between ditferent parts of 
 the United States, and place party divisions directly upon geogra- 
 phical distinctions; to excite the South against the North, and the 
 North against the South; and the possible dissolution of the Union 
 
21 
 
 has at length become an oi'diiiary and familiar subject of discussion. 
 Has the warning voice of Washington been forgotten, or have de- 
 signs already been framed to sever the Union? What have you to 
 gain by division and dissension. 
 
 "Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope that the 
 first line of separation would be the permanent one, and that nothing 
 but harmony and concord would be found in the new associations 
 formed upon the dissolution of the Union. Local interests would 
 still be found there, and unrestrained ambition. And if the recol- 
 lection of common dangers, in which the people of these United 
 States, stood side by side against the common foe — the memory of 
 victories won by their united valor — the prosperity and happiness 
 they have enjoyed under the present constitution — the proud name 
 they bear as citizens of this republic; if all these recollections and 
 proofs of common interests are not strong enough to bind us together 
 as one people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire 
 when these bonds have been broken and this Union dissevered. The 
 first line of separation would not last for a single generation. New 
 fragments would soon be torn off; new leaders would soon spring up, 
 and this great and glorious republic would soon be broken into a 
 multitude of petty States, without commerce, without credit — jeal- 
 ous of one another; armed for mutual aggression: loaded with taxes 
 to pay armies and leaders; seeking aid against each other from for- 
 eign powers;. insulted and trampled upon by the nations of Europe, 
 until harrassed with conflicts, and humbled and debased in sjiirit, 
 they would be ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any 
 military adventurer, and surrender their liberty for the sake of re- 
 pose. It is impossible to look on the consequences that would ine- 
 vitably follow the destruction of this government, and not feel indig- 
 nant when we hear cold calculations about the value of the Union, 
 and have before us a line of conduct so well calculated to weaken 
 its ties." 
 
 If these illustrious statesmen and patriots were so 
 alarmed at the bare prospects of a dissolution of the Union 
 and the untold calamities that would follow, how would 
 their indignation burn, were thej now living, to find 
 rebels in arms for the purpose of accomplishing this very 
 thing. And how would they urge the government to 
 put forth all its mighty energies to crush out this unna- 
 tural rebellion, and enforce the constitution and the laws 
 made in pursuance thereof in every State from Maine to 
 Florida. 
 
22 
 
 I might rest the question here as far as the evidence 
 from history is concerned in regard to the justice of our 
 cause, but in order to show the utter inexcusableness of 
 the rebel cause I shall present the testimony of two of 
 their principal leaders in our own State, substantiating 
 all that I have quoted from Washington and Jackson in 
 regard to the grandeur and glory of the constitution and 
 the Union and the maledictons of the world that should 
 be poured out upon all who would seek its destruction. In 
 a message to Congress, dated August 30th, 1844, John 
 Tyler, then acting president of the United States made 
 use of the following language: "I regard the preserva- 
 tion of the Union as the first great American interest. 
 I equally disapprove of all threats of dissolution, whether 
 they proceed from the North or the South. The glory 
 of my country, its safety and its prosperity, alike depend 
 on the Union, and he who would contemjAate its destruc- 
 tion, even for a moment, and form plans to accomplish 
 it, deserves the deepest anathemas of the human race. 
 
 Henry A. Wise, now a rebel and a traitor, thus spoke 
 of the Union and the constitution he is at this time la- 
 boring to destroy, on the 5th of July, 1858, to a large 
 assemblage gathered together to witness the obsequies of 
 James Monroe: "Listen to me, and to what I am going 
 to say — I wish that there was no noise, and that there 
 was silence in all the earth, and that I had the trumpet 
 of an archangel to sound it everywhere. When your 
 fathers attempted to form this Union they did not know 
 beforehand what sort of a Union it was to be. They set 
 to work and did the best they could under the circum- 
 stances. What they would accomplish no man could 
 tell. There was not a head upon either that had the 
 human wisdom to foretell what it was to be; but they 
 went to work for a union for the Union s sake. I go for 
 Union for Union's sake. They set to work to make the 
 best Union they could, and they did make the best Union 
 and the best governmeyit that ever was made. Washing- 
 ton, Franklin, Jefferson — all combined, in Congress or 
 out of Congress, in convention or out of convention, 
 never made that constitution; God almighty sent it down 
 to our fathers. It was a work, too, of glory and a work 
 
23 
 
 of inspiration. I believe that, as fully as I believe in my 
 bible. No man, from Hamilton, and Jay, and Madison; 
 from Edmund Randolph, who had the chief hand in ma- 
 king it — and he was a Virginian — the writers of it, the 
 authors of it, and you have lived under it from 1789 
 down to this year of our Lord 1858 — none of your fath- 
 ers and none of your fathers' sons, has ever measured the 
 height, or the depth, or the length, or the breadth of the 
 wisdom of that constitution." 
 
 Let us bear in mind that these two men who gave ut- 
 terence to the above patriotic sentiments, are the very 
 same men Avho by bribery and a system of terrorism un- 
 parrallelled since the reign of terror in France, brought 
 to bear on the convention at Richmond, precipitated 
 Virginia into open war against the general government, 
 for the purpose of destroying that very Union and Con- 
 stitution which Wise says was the w^ork of the Almighty, 
 and Tyler says the deepest anathemas of the human race 
 should fall on the man who should even for a moment 
 harbor the thought of its destruction, and then say 
 whether infamy was ever so deep and dark as covers 
 them all over, and consigns them to the lowest depths 
 of the traitor's perdition. 
 
 I think the above mass of testimony must satisfy 
 every unprejudiced mind that our Government is not a 
 mere co-partnership liable to be stung to death by a mis- 
 erable dissatisfied rattlesnake, but that the people of the 
 several states by adopting the present constitution did 
 become one nation^ by surrendering to the General Gov- 
 ernment every atribute of sovereignty, such as the right 
 to maintain an army or navy, to coin money, or make war 
 or enter into an alliance with each other, or any foreign 
 power. This is clearly expressed and implied in the sixth 
 Article of the instrument itself, which reads as follows: 
 '' This Constitution, and the laAvs of the United States, 
 nhall he the Supreme Law of the Land; and the judges 
 in every state Shall he hound thereby ^ anything in the 
 Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. The Senators and Representatives before 
 mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legis- 
 atures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of 
 
24 
 
 the United States and the several States, shall be bound 
 by oath or affirmation, to S7ippo7't this Constitution." 
 
 The testimony adduced further shows, that this was the 
 light in which this subject was received by the framers 
 of the Constitution, and it has been so regarded by 
 every American Statesman, down to the present time. 
 
 The doctrine of State Sovereignty claiming the right 
 of Secession, invented by these political charlatans of 
 the south, is one of the most transparent absurdities that 
 ever was invented outside of a hm^tic asylum. If one 
 State has the right to secede, every other State has pre- 
 cisely the same right, and then instead of this giant em- 
 pire, the glory and the hope of all lands, whose flag is 
 respected on every continent, and island, and ocean, we 
 should have thirty-four contemptible petty States, the 
 scorn and by-word of the civilized world. And any at- 
 tempt at a re-construction of any number of the disjointed 
 members into another confederacy, after admitting the 
 right of secession, is more insane still, for any dissatis- 
 fied member could hoist a rattlesnake or a pelican fla.g, 
 and march out at any time and set up for itself. Look 
 at those stars and stripes, surmounted by the eagle of 
 liberty, representing your glorious national motto, "E 
 Pluribus Unum," many in one, and say whether it is 
 not of the Lord's Mercy, that these men that have ex- 
 changed the bird of heaven for a vile, poisonous reptile, 
 are not transformed in his wrath, into rattlesnakes, and 
 sent hissing aiBong cane brakes and cotton plants until 
 some neo-ro slave would knock them on the head with 
 his hoe? 
 
 Let no man delude himself with the idea of a dissolu- 
 tion of the Union, and the destruction of the Federal 
 Government. Such a calamity will never be tolerated. 
 The Union must and will be preserved, and the rebelious 
 States brought back to their allegiance, if it cost a mil- 
 lion of lives and five hundred millions of money, and 
 this would be a cheap purchase, in view of the glorious 
 destiny that awaits us in the future. The time will come 
 when three hundred millions of freemen will find shelter 
 under the tree of liberty planted hj your patriot sires, 
 and be protected by the same paternal government and 
 
25 
 
 constitution under which you now live. If any person, 
 North or South, entertains the belief that the whole re- 
 sources of the government Avill not be employed to crush 
 out the present rebellion and maintain the integrity of 
 the Union, the following letter of instructions of the 
 Secretary of State to our minister to the court of France, 
 will dispel the illusion. Before the recall of Mr. Faulk- 
 ner from the French court he had given it as his opinion 
 in a conversation with M. Thouvenal the minister for 
 foreign affairs, that no force would bo used by this gov- 
 ernment to compel the rebel States to return to their 
 allegiance. Mr. Faulker was appointed by the late ad- 
 ministration, and like most of its appointees, is a traitor. 
 To counteract this delusion, Mr. Seward in his letter of 
 instructions to Mr, Dayton the new minister, uses the 
 following language Avhicli is the same as that sent to all 
 the other European Courts, and foreshadows the policy 
 of the administration in dealing with the present rebel- 
 lion, Mr. Seward says: 
 
 "The insurgents have instituted revolution with open flagrant, 
 deadly war, to compel the United States to acquiesce m the dis- 
 memberment of the Union. The United States, have accepted this 
 civil war as an inevitable rccctsity. Ihe Ccnstituticnal remedies 
 for all the complaints of the insurgents are still open to them, and 
 will remain so. But on the other hand, the land and naval forces of 
 the Union have been put into activity to save the Union from danger. 
 
 " You cannot be too decided or too explicit in making known to 
 the French Government that there is not now, nor has there been, 
 nor will there be any — the least idea — existing in this government of 
 suffering a dissolution of this union totakeplaceinany way whatever. 
 
 There will be here only one nation and one Government, and there 
 will be the same Eepublic, and the same constitutional Union, that 
 has already survived a dozen national changes, and changes of Gov- 
 ernment in almost every other country. These will stand hereafter 
 as they are now, objects of wonder and human affection. You havo 
 seen on the eve of your departure the elastisity-of the national spirit, 
 the vigor of the National Government, and the lavish devotion of 
 the national treasury to this great cause. Tell M. Thouvenel, then, 
 •with the highest consideration and good feeluig, that the thought of 
 a dissolution of this Union, peaceably or by force, has never entered 
 into the mind of any candid Statesman here, and it is high time that 
 it be diBmiseed by Statesmen in Europe. " 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 This official announcement places the determination of 
 the administration to put down the insurrection however 
 formidable it may have grown. A question arises here, 
 has it the men and the money to accomplish this? This, 
 also, is a question to be decided by the facts of history. 
 The census returns show that in the loyal States, inclu- 
 ding Maryland, and Western Virginia there are twenty- 
 two inillions four hundred and sixteen thousand six 
 Jmndred and eighteen whites, and only a fraction over 
 four hundred thousand slaves. And in the seceded States, 
 including Eastern Virginia, there is only a fraction over 
 five millions of whites to meet the grand armies of the 
 National Government at as many points as they may 
 choose to assail them, and to guard three and a half mil- 
 lions of slaves in their midst. 
 
 In answering an objection brought against this Gov- 
 ernment, that it is not strong enough. President Jeifer- 
 son in his first inaugural address uses this language. "I 
 believe this the strongest government on the earth; I be- 
 lieve it the only one where every man, at the call of the 
 law, would fly to ths standard of the law, and would 
 meet invasions of the public order as his own personal 
 concern." How triumphantly has this statement been 
 sustained in the late unparallelled uprising of the people 
 in all the loyal States, and in Maryland, Western Vir- 
 ginia, Kentucky and Missouri on the border. No gov- 
 ernment on the face of the earth, ever did raise and equip 
 such an army under similar circumstances, as is now in 
 the field and at the disposal of the president. During 
 almost fifty years of peace at home, our people had al- 
 most forgot the art of war, yet in less than two months 
 since the rebel batteries opened their fire on Fort 
 Sumptcr, an army of two hundred and fifty thous- 
 and men Avith all the munitions of war has sprung 
 into existence eager for the conflict. And although,, 
 through the unpai-allelled corruption of the late admin- 
 istration, tiiC national treasury was bankrupt on the 4th 
 of March last; having been plundered and robbed by 
 perjured ofiicials; and the navy scattered to the four- 
 winds, the- government offices, both civil and military, 
 filled with spies and traitors, and in a word, the govern*-' 
 
27 
 
 ment demoralized; yet, in three months everything is 
 changed. Tl^e wealth of twenty-two millions of freemen 
 is offered to the government to carry on the war, and the 
 army and navy have never been in such a state of effi- 
 ciency at any former period of our national existence. 
 We have the strongest government on the face of the 
 earth. The war is of God. This uprising is of Him. 
 
 On the other hand the rebel leaders are without a trea- 
 sury, without credit,without recognition as a government, 
 without a navy, and their army mostly composed of the 
 poor wdiites who have been degraded to a level with the 
 slaves. A writer from the South says, "Our armies I 
 fear cannot be depended on. Except the officers, they 
 are mostly poor whites who have no interest in the war, 
 and have been compelled to enlist or be shot. The plan- 
 ters and their sons are organized into home guards to 
 protect their families against servile insurrection, as v/e 
 are living over a slumbering volcano. The slaves are 
 locked up at night, and we barricade our doors and lie 
 down with loaded muskets and pistols at our heads. We 
 long for the government troops to deliver us from this 
 dreadful condition." 
 
 • But I promised in my introductory remarks to prove 
 the righteousness of our cause, and the right of the gov- 
 ernment in its present attitude towards those in arms 
 against it, both from history and the bible. Having 
 presented the historical evidence, I now appeal to the 
 word of God. Neither our wealth nor superior num- 
 bers, nor yet the superior valor of our armies could be re- 
 lied upon for success unless our cause was one upon which 
 we could invoke, and might expect the blessing of the 
 ruler of nations. The bible is the most wonderful book 
 in existence. It furnishes instructions for men in regard 
 to every personal, social and civil, as well as religious 
 duty. If there was no other evidence of its divine au- 
 thenticity, this would be sufficient. In the epistle of St. 
 Paul to the Romans, xiii. 1-7, the duty of the christian 
 citizen to the civil power is clearly taught in the follow- 
 ing language, as well as the fearful consequences, both 
 here and hereafter, of neglecting that duty. Hear the 
 Apostle and let him that heareth understand. 
 
28 
 
 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is nc 
 power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God: whosoevei 
 therefore re»isteth the power, resisteth the ordinance (jf God: and thej 
 that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are 
 not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou, then, not be 
 afraid of the power? do that which is good and thou shalt huvc praiso 
 of the same; for he is the minister to thee for good. But if thou do 
 that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: 
 for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him 
 that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for 
 wrath, but also for conscience sake: for, for this cause pay ye tribute 
 also; for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this 
 very thing. Kendur, therefore, to all their dues; tribute to whom 
 tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to 
 whom honor." 
 
 But this is not the onlj passage of holy writ teaching 
 the doctrine of submission to the civil magistrate and the 
 consequences of disobedience. The bible is full of it. 
 
 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, 
 whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governor's, as unto 
 them that an? sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the 
 praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well 
 doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. " — " Fear 
 God, honour the king." I Peter, 11, 13, 17. "Put them in mind 
 to bo subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be 
 ready to every good work." Titus, iii. 1. "I council thee to keep 
 the king's commandment, and that in regard to the oath of God. Be 
 not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing" — "whoso 
 keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's 
 heart discerneth both time and judgment." Ecclesiastes viii. 2, 3,5, 
 "Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have 
 strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By ma 
 princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth." Prov.viii. 
 14, 16. "Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God 
 forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his; and he changeth 
 the times and the seasons: he removeth kings and setteth up kings: 
 he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know 
 understanding." Daniel 11. 20, 21. "And tliey shall drive thee 
 from men, and thy dwelling .shall be with the beasts of the field: they 
 fihall make thee eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over 
 thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of 
 men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Daniel iv. 32. 
 
 These important passages of the word of God prove to 
 us beyond successful controversy the doctrine of an over 
 ruling providence, one of the most heart cheering doc- 
 trines of revelation. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth 
 rejoice. Clouds and darkness are round about him: right- 
 eousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." 
 These texts teach that God is the author of the civil 
 power, the fountain and source of all law, and the ruler 
 
29 
 
 of nations: that he is above all, and over all: God blessed 
 forevermore. That he is Lord of lords, and King of kings 
 and that his dominion is not only universal but absolute. 
 
 In asserting that the above quotations teach the doc- 
 trine that God is the author of the civil government I do 
 not mean that we are taught any particular form of gov- 
 ernment, such as monarchiai, aristocratic, or republican; 
 all these questions are left to be settled by the wisdom 
 of the parties concerned. Neither does the bible inter- 
 fere between different political parties into which men 
 may be honestly divided, under the same government, 
 such as whig, democrat, or republican; the word of God 
 is silent in regard to these distinctions, and so should be 
 the christian pulpit. But the great doctrine enunciated 
 in the above language of the inspired writers, is, that this 
 thing called civil government, without which society could 
 not exist, and civilization would perish, and man would 
 be reduced to the lowest grade of savageism and barbar- 
 ity, is an ordinance of God, and that they that resist this 
 power, resist the divine authority, and are in rebellion 
 against God. 
 
 God sets up the claim here of universal sovereignty. 
 "There is no power but of God: the powers that be are 
 ordained of God." The chief magistrate, by whatever 
 name he may be called, is the minister of God for good 
 to the law abiding citizen, to such, he is not a terror, but 
 a protection. "But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; 
 for he bearoth not the sword in vain: for he is the minis- 
 ter of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon hina that 
 docth evil. ' Here is the bible doctrine of the higher law 
 plainly asserted and proved. This sweeps away by a 
 single stroke the infidel doctrine, that has been spread- 
 ing so alarmingly, until it had demoralized our national 
 government and threatened to engulph us in ho))elcss 
 anarchy or despotism, namely, that God has nothing to 
 do with our national politics. The atheists of France in 
 their first revolution openly declared in their national 
 convention that there was no God, our public men for 
 years past have taught the same doctrine. Bight in the 
 face of the word of God, they taught that man was the 
 only source of civil power, that all power originated with 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 the people. The doctrine that God is the fountain of 
 civil power and that both the rulers and the ruled are 
 accountable to him, has been sneered at and made a sub- 
 ject of ridicule, as being the higher law doctrine. 
 
 This practical atheism, this utterly ignoring of the 
 doctrine, that the revealed will of God is the supreme 
 law of the land, has been the source of all our national 
 troubles. This is the cause of all the insubordination 
 in family, and church, and civil government. God has 
 been banished from amongst us, and we have acknowl- 
 edged only human authority, and that might be set aside 
 or suspended, as interest, or caprice, or ambition might 
 dictate. This has been the cause of all the mob violence 
 which tramples on the civil law and acknowledges none 
 higher, banishes or hangs its victims, and which has been 
 increasing from year to year until it has culminated in 
 the present insurrection which is nothing more than an 
 armed mob under an other name. 
 
 I desire just at this point to dissipate a most mischiev- 
 ous delusion which seems to have taken possession of the 
 minds of a portion of the people, both North and South, 
 namely, that the South have been deprived of their rights 
 in the Union and that it is on this account they have ta- 
 ken up arms. Some of you, perhaps, will be astonished to 
 learn from the facts of history that this oft repeated 
 story of Southern wrongs, is as baseless as the fabric of 
 a vision, and instead of this they have been constantly 
 encroaching upon the rights of the North. The people 
 of the South have never been deprived of a single consti- 
 tutional right by the governmant they are in arms to 
 destroy. Now for the proof. 
 
 First, I deny that this mere handful of men, this slave- 
 holding oligarchy is the South, or that their institution 
 is the only institution in which the Southern people are 
 interested. Nineteen twentieths of the Southern people 
 have no slaves, and these can go into the territories of 
 the United States, and live there without let or hind- 
 rence, and as the best jurists, both European and Amer- 
 ican, such as Blackstone, Chief Justice Marshall, Judges 
 McLain and Curtis have decided that slavery is the 
 creature of statute law, and cannot exist unless expressly 
 
31 
 
 provided for bj law, and as no such law protects it in the 
 territories, the master is deprived of no right by exclu- 
 ding slavery from free territory. 
 
 But let us examine the question of southern rights a little 
 further. This oligarchy has ruled the American nation 
 for nearly sixty years. They have had three fourths of the 
 presidents, and of the official patronage. They have de- 
 manded more room for their peculier institutions, and 
 the government purchased successively Louisiana, and 
 Florida, and Texas, at a cost first and last, of Five Hun- 
 dred Millions, and now these states go out of the Union, 
 because they did not get their rights. They demanded 
 Missouri, and a line establishing slavery south of it for- 
 ever, and this was granted. They demanded a fugitive 
 slave law turning the free states into a vast hunting 
 ground, and free citizens into a police force to catch run- 
 aAvay slaves, and they demanded that the General Gov- 
 ernment should pay all expenses, and this was complied 
 with. They demanded the repeal of the Missouri com- 
 promise line, and they got that also. Emboldened by 
 their success, they claimed the right to compel the peo- 
 ple of Kansas to accept a slave constitution, gotten up 
 by bribery and perjury, knowing at the same time that 
 four-fifths of them Avere opposed to it, and they demanded 
 that the whole power and patronage of the government 
 should be brought into requisition to enslave the freemen 
 of Kansas, and a corrupt and venal administration ac- 
 ceded to their wishes, but they failed in their ultimate 
 designs. Their object was to crush out republican liberty 
 on this continent, turn the general government into a 
 vast slave oligarchy, and carry slavery first into the free 
 territories and ultimately into the free states. For the 
 doctrine of Judge Taney, that an African or his des- 
 cendants has no rights that a white man is bound to re- 
 spect, reduces the whole African race to a level with a 
 horse or any other species of property, and it follows 
 that a man has a right to take his slave wherever he 
 could take his horse. This blasphemous dogma declares 
 that a whole race of men, made in the image of God, 
 thousands of whom are the children of their own masters, 
 because they have the blood of an African mother in their 
 
S2 
 
 veins, have no rights that a white man is bound to re- 
 spect. Finally in order to accomplish their purposes, 
 the J claimed as their right, that public morality and con- 
 stitutional law, should be superseded by perjury, and 
 robbery, and treason, in government officials, from the 
 president down, and that it was their right to banish, or 
 burn, or hang every man who differed with them and dis- 
 troy our national existence. This is not a war of sections. 
 It is not a war of the North against tlie South, but one 
 in the success of which on the part of the (ieneral Govern- 
 ment, the people of the South are more deeply interested, 
 than any other section. Hundreds of thousands of the 
 people of the south if they dare, would to day implore 
 the government to deliver them from the reign of 
 terror inaugurated by this oligarchy which is unparrelled 
 in modern history. It is a war in defence of our very 
 existence as a nation. A war for the preservation of 
 every thing worth living for or worth dicing for. A Avar 
 in defence of freedom of sj^eech and of the press, our 
 civil rights, and above all, fi'eedom to Avorship God. In 
 a Avord it is a Avar to settle the question and to settle it 
 for all coming time, Avhether we shall be slaves or free- 
 men, and whenever it comes to this my mind is made up. 
 In the language of I*atrick Henry, " Give me liberty or 
 give me death." Having proved by an array of evi- 
 dence that would convince any jury in Christendom that 
 our government is right in its present attitude towards 
 those in arms against it, -and in its determination to crusJi 
 out the rebellion and preserve the Union and constitution 
 of the United States, I shall noAV proceed to show Avhat 
 is our duty toAvards this government. Happih^ for us 
 we are not loft to conjecture here but we have the infali- 
 ble Avord of God for our cousellor. We should folloAv the 
 example of David the pious Avarrior king in like circum- 
 stances, namely, make our requests knoAvn unto God. 
 
 1. We should pray to God to defeat the counsel of the 
 Ahithophel of our country, and especially of him who 
 has involved the eastern portion of our own State in all 
 the horrors of civil war, to gratify disappointed ambition. 
 Whether Henry A. Wise shall die a natural death or suf- 
 fer the doom of a traitor, he will have a fearful reckon- 
 
83 
 
 ing at the bar of God, for the calamities he haa brought 
 upon his State, unless he averts it by timely repentance 
 and turning to God. 
 
 We should pray to God to defeat all the counsel of 
 the rebel chiefs, and if they are within the reach of mer- 
 cy, to bring them to a speedy repentance. And if he sees 
 that they have sold themselves to work wickedness, and 
 if he has given them over so that they never will re- 
 pent, then to take them out of the way, so that our South- 
 ern brethern may be delivered from their cruel oppres- 
 sion, and return again to their allegiance. We should 
 pray to God to preside in the councils of General Scott, 
 and his officers. And if our armies shall have to meet 
 those arrayed against them we should pray that they 
 may always be victorious, that terror may take hold of 
 the rebel hosts, and that they may fly before our. armies 
 BO that they shall not be compelled to destroy them, but 
 that they may be convinced of the wickedness of their 
 present course and speedily return to their homes and 
 be obedient loyal citizens. I have all confidence in the 
 wisdom of our statesmen, and the valor of our citizen 
 soldiers, but still our dependence is in the God of battles. 
 Both sacred and profane history testify that God doea 
 interpose on the battle field in answer to the prayer of 
 faith. 
 
 2. We should make use of human agency as David did 
 in the case of Hushai the Archite. 
 
 Our government should employ the most faithful and 
 trustworthy citizens both at home and abroad to ascertain 
 the resources of the rebel leaders, and everything per- 
 taining to their schemes and plans for carrying on ^e 
 war, and to defeat them by all honorable and lawful 
 means. 
 
 3. When all other measures fail, and it is evident that 
 these deluded men will be satisfied with nothing but war 
 or the destruction of the government, we are to accept 
 the stern necessity forced upon us, and appeal to the arbi- 
 trament of the sword and the God of battles as David did. 
 
 4. We call your attention to the certainty of our suc- 
 cess. There is the most indubitable evidence of the foot- 
 prints of God in our history. The American nation is 
 
34 
 
 the child of divine providence. And the purposes for 
 which he raised us up as one people will not be accomp- 
 lished until the jubilee trumpet shall usherintheglory and 
 peace of the long expected millennium. God concealed 
 this mighty continent, this world in miniature, until after 
 the reformation from popery; and the bible, the great 
 charter of civil as well as religious liberty, was declared 
 to be the book of the people as well as the clergy, else 
 we had been as degraded to-day, and as incapable of self- 
 government as the half savage Mexicans. From our na- 
 tion's infancy to the present time, God's superintending 
 providence has been over us, and it is just as evident in 
 the present conflict in which we are engaged, as in our 
 unparralled prosperity. 
 
 The war is of God, and is sent as a chastisement for 
 our national sins, sins in which the whole nation parti- 
 cipated either actively or passively. Prominent among 
 these is our denial of God's authority in our national 
 affairs; and profanity, drunkenness, licentiousness, sab- 
 bath breaking, pride, proscription for opinion's sake, 
 covetousness and oppression of the poor of every section, 
 both white and black, and murder. For years past life' 
 has been less secure at the South than among the savages 
 of Africa, or the western Indians. To be a citizen of 
 heathen Rome in the remotest part of the empire was 
 certain safety; to be an American citizen afforded no pro- 
 tection at the south during many years past, and to-day 
 it would be certain destruction. But divine providence 
 was neither slumbering nor sleeping all these years, and 
 now he is making inquisition for blood. The mere poli- 
 tician sees in this mighty marshalling of the hosts of war 
 nothing but a struggle between political parties for the 
 spoils of office. The statesman sees in it nothing but a 
 question of government or anarchy and military despot- 
 ism. But the Christian philosopher, the watchman of 
 Zion high up on his watchtower, above them all, with 
 the scroll of prophecy in his hand, prophecy which in its 
 wide sweep stretches from the fall of man to the general 
 judgment, sees in this coming conflict the accomplish- 
 ment of the purposes of God. I admit that the question 
 at issue is one of government or no government; but it 
 
35 
 
 is infinitely more than this. The great question at issue 
 in this controversy, and for which this most righteous 
 ■war has been undertaken is this. Whether the Chris- 
 tian civilization of the bible and the American Constitu- 
 tion, as advocated by twenty-two millions of freemen in 
 the East, West, and North, and by millions, also, in 
 the South, shall prevail on this continent, until the pre- 
 diction contained in the song of the angels which fell like 
 the music of Heaven on the ears of the Shepherd of Beth- 
 lehem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace 
 and good will toward men," shall ever be realized; or 
 whether the savagization inaugurated by this Southern 
 oligarchy, Avhich substitutes the dirk, and the pistol, and 
 the halter for reason and argument in private life; and 
 the cartridge box for the ballot box to settle questions of 
 state, shall ultimately triumph? 
 
 In a word, whether the sun of civilazation shall go for- 
 ward on the dial of time until it ushers in the millennial 
 glory, or whether it shall go backward until it, casts ita 
 shadow over this entire continent, and lands us in dark- 
 ness worse than that of the middle ages? This is the 
 real question at issue in this great conflict, and to those 
 who believe that God governs the world, the result is not 
 doubtful. The war will go on despite of all attempts to 
 arrest it, until the purposes of God are accomplished; until 
 upon this great theatre, with the world for spectators, 
 the great problem of man's capacity for self government 
 is solved for all coming time. Until our national flag 
 shall float over every citidal, and freedom of speech, 
 and of the press, and freedom to vote, and above all, 
 freedom to worship God shall be the acknowledged right 
 of every American citizen in South Carolina as well as 
 in Maine. 
 
 In conclusion let me address a word of encouragement 
 to every true patriot and christian. The Ruler of nations 
 has committed to us a trust such as he never committed 
 to any other people in the history of man. And I cannot 
 help believing thatHe has a great work to be accomplished 
 through our instrumentality as a Nation, in the political 
 regeneration of the world. The eyes of the downtrodden 
 millions of every land are turned to us as the day-star 
 
86 
 
 of their hopes. Snch is the awfully responsible situation 
 in which we are placed by the God of our fathers, that 
 if our experiment of self-government should prove a fail- 
 ure, our downfall would be followed by such a yell of 
 triumph from the civil and ecclesiastical despots of the old 
 world, who both hate and fear us, as would be second 
 only to the rejoicings of the fallen angels over the de- 
 fection of our first parents. 
 
 We are on the eve of the mightiest revolutions that 
 the world has ever witnessed. Popery, that embodiment 
 of cruelty, and villiany, and oppression, that has made 
 itself drunk with the blood of the saints, and Mehommed- 
 anism and heathenism and every other refuge of lies, 
 shall be ground as fine as the dust of the summer thresh- 
 ing-floor and given to the winds of heaven. God is at 
 the present time, by various instrumentalities, shaking 
 terribly the nations of the earth, and preparing the 
 world for the wide spread, universal triumph of the 
 Prince of Peace. God speed the day. 
 
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