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 S E ]| M O N 
 
 delivkr':d by tub 
 
 REV. SAMUEL B. BELL, D. D., 
 
 (pastor of the fiftieth street PRESBYTERIAN ClllKCH, BETWEEN 
 BROADWAY AND EIGUTII AVENCE.) 
 
 IIST STEVEIsT'S H^LL, 
 
 CORNER OF BKOAPWAY AND FOUTV-SEVENTU STREET, 
 NEW YORK tlTY, ON 
 
 THANKSGIYB'G DAY, KOV. 24. 1864, 
 
 AT A INION MEETING FOR THANKSGIVING, OF THREE OF TOK 
 NEIGHBORING CHURCHES. 
 
 ^ublisbeb by Ibc unanimous rcqutst of ibt (Tongrtgalion. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 APTIST& TAYLOR, BOOK AND JOB PlTIlfT&RS', 
 
 " sin" BllLDlSG. COR. FILIO.N AND NASSAU ST.". 
 
 1864. 
 
.E 55. 
 
 ► 
 
SERMON 
 
 Deuteronomy XVI : 13.—" Tnou shalt observe the Feast of the 
 Tabernacles (seven days) after that thou hast gathered in 
 
 THY corn and thy WINE." 
 
 Thanksgiving Day has come to be our Feast of 
 Tabernacles. It is kept by us, at the same relative time 
 as kept by the Jews — that is to say, after we have gather- 
 ed in all our crops. [Here the Proclamations by Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, President, Horatio Seymour, Governor, and 
 C. Godfrey Gunther, Mayor, were read.] These, our 
 chief executive officers, call upon us, among other things, 
 to give thanks to Almighty God for the health and 
 plenty of the land. And well we may, for there has 
 never been a more prosperous year than the past, through- 
 out the whole of our history ; save and except only those 
 portions of the country that have been visited by the 
 devastations of civil war. 
 
 This civil war is the only blight, upon what otherwise 
 might have been the happiest year in the existence of the 
 nation. By whose fault is this unnatural strife ? — When 
 we talk about our nation, whatsoever theme we discuss, 
 whatsoever topic we pursue, whither soever our conver- 
 sation tends, we feel that it is merely trifling, if not on 
 this — for underneath all, our minds and hearts are on 
 the war. We feel that this is the question of our age. 
 
There is no page in the history of mankind more fraught 
 with deepest interest and great events than the one "we 
 are now writing and living. History records no vaster 
 struggle — no longer line of battle — no mightier armies 
 — nothing to be compared with it, in the arms, equip- 
 ments, and terrible engines of death — and in all the 
 armaments and munitions and equipages of war. 
 
 The lands of a long line of our sister States smoke 
 with the blood of the sons of the Republic — the earth 
 and the air quake with the rush of armed hosts and of 
 horsemen and of huge wheeled cannon, and their terrible 
 roar in the mighty onslaught. The vast country over 
 which they sweep — houses, homes, trees, crops, farm- 
 marks, every thing go down — all cattle and sheep and 
 swine and fowl are devoured — all things that can be 
 eaten, or used for fuel, or made serviceable to man or 
 beast, are swept away. And human beings — the tender- 
 est ties that bind them broken — the most loving house- 
 holds scattered as if by the breath of the Almighty. The 
 land behind them is a desolation — scarce a place left 
 for the owl to dwell, that he may hoot there, or for the 
 bittern that he may cry there — only the raven, the buz- 
 zard and the vulture, they feast and fatten on the dead 
 that lie there. Every household throughout the entire 
 land mourns — some father or husband or brother or son 
 gone — gone from home — gone to the long, long home ! ! 
 from whence no traveler — no brave, horoic soldier, 
 even, ever returns ! 
 
 Whose fault is all this ? 
 
 "We may give thanks this day with our lips — and still 
 our hearts may be bleeding over all this, and it will be 
 no Thanksgiving. 
 
 This is the question — the throbbing question of our 
 age — of this year it is the only question. We must be 
 rio-ht in the sio:ht of God in this too. We must deter- 
 
mine to make ourselves right on this Thanksgiving Day, 
 or there can be no thanksgiving. 
 
 It is eighty years since the iirst National Thanksgiving 
 Proclamation was issued — only the life-time of a man. 
 Thau these eighty years the world has never seen a more 
 prolific or momentous period. It is true that the creation 
 of the world and man upon it, and tlie Noahic deluge 
 were more important among physical events, and the 
 appearance of II im of Nazareth was more important in 
 the religious history of man: but the period between 
 to-day and our iirst National Thanksgiving is more 
 memorable in civil and political events, than that of any 
 era in the history of man. It has witnessed the forma- 
 tion of the Republics of Central and South America. 
 It has witnessed the establishment and overthrow of two 
 Republics in France, and the rise and fall of the Great 
 Napoleon ; and the seating and the unseating of four 
 dynasties of kings in the French nation. And in 1848, 
 the sweep of the tide of constitutional liberty over Europe, 
 and then its backward return to the lethargy of tideless 
 stupor. It has witnessed the opening of Cliina and Japan 
 to the commerce and religion of Christians. 
 
 The emerging of Russia from a semi-barbarous, to the 
 front rank of the most powerful and enlightened of na- 
 tions, and the strange spectacle of imperial and oligar- 
 chal power voluntarily unbinding the fetters of many 
 millions of serfs. It has witnessed great wars in every 
 portion of the globe. The whole of Europe in the time 
 of the mighty French Captain, was a vast battle-field on 
 which every nation of the Continent had an army. The 
 conquest of India by the English, and the great Sepoy' 
 war. In China, the Chinese-English war. On the classic 
 ground that divides Europe and Asia, that witnessed the 
 wars and the fall of Troy; the armaments of Xerxes; 
 the invasion of Alexander of Macedon, and the hostile 
 array of Anthony and the Caesars, when they disputed 
 
6 
 
 for the mastery of the world — and the passage for cen- 
 turies of the hosts of the iron-clad crusaders against the 
 Saracen that held the holy sepulcre. 
 
 Even there, within these few years, we have seen the 
 strange spectacle of the Crescent and the Cross : England, 
 France and Turkey, old, hereditary, and inveterate ene- 
 mies, united on the Crimea and before Sebastapol waging 
 war, allied together. 
 
 These few years have seen the Greeks making war for 
 the old, classic, world-renowned, and world-sung liberty 
 they had lost; and in their struggle, enticing the sympa- 
 thies of enlightened mankind; commanding the eloquence 
 of the peerless Webster on the side of their struggle, and 
 the swords of Bozaris and Byron. And when that free- 
 dom was gained, we have seen them elect new masters; 
 and the successors of the Spartans, Lycurgus, Agesilaus, 
 and Lysander ; the successors of Epaminondas and Pelo- 
 pidas ; of Solon, ^Eristidcs, Miltiades, Pericles, Themis- 
 tocles, Socrates and Plato. The successors to such names 
 as these, we have seen traversing Europe, hunting for a 
 king, and at last selecting a young prince of Denmark, 
 whose only merit appears to be — that he was born ! 
 
 When men forget to know the value of liberty, they 
 cease to be men! and we cease to be interested even in 
 Greece! 
 
 But the strangest of all the spectacles is ourselves! 
 The whole world stands in astonishment and aghast at 
 us! Seven years we struggled for national existence, and 
 now great armies struggle to destroy. 
 
 We have Washington. We have his farewell address 
 — if a political paper could be inspired, it is inspired ! 
 We have the Declaration of Independence. We have our 
 Constitution — the political wisdom and the most perfect 
 political fabric of the ages. And yet we array ourselves 
 in civil strife — and with mightier armaments, and on a 
 
longer line of war tliaii history records, wo destroy each 
 other and the hopes of niun together ! 
 
 Whose fault is this? 
 
 But we turn from this picture for a little while longer, 
 whilst we still dwell on the view of the world during the 
 life-time of a man, the age of our Nation.- Upon the whole, 
 we can plainly discern that Light, Law and Liberty have 
 made good strides. The world has moved forward. Tho 
 fulcrum has been i)laced and the lever laiil right here 
 where we stand — in the foundations of the Republic of 
 America — and the world has been moved, forward. The 
 movement has been slow at times, uneasy, uneven, some- 
 times even backward ; but the result is onward. For 
 so short a period, greatly onward. Onward, beyond 
 all parallel, in any preceding eighty or a hundred, or 
 two hundred, or five hundred, or even a thousand years. 
 Yes, we calmly believe that we have given a greater 
 impetus for good to man, within the short space of four 
 score years, than had been given in any previous thou- 
 sand years of human history. And how do the words of 
 one of our great statesmen come home to us to-day — 
 " Whilst other peoples are moulding their institutions 
 after our own, we should be careful to preserve the pat- 
 tern." And shall we dare to live, to survive the de- 
 struction of the model ? 
 
 One Spartan survived the heroes of Thermopylae. 
 He had better far have died ; for his country disowned 
 him; and he became a fugitive and a vagabond, a hiss- 
 ing and a byeword in the earth. This will be our fate 
 in coming history, if we dare to live to survive tho 
 destruction of the American Republic. 
 
 Without any vain rhetorical flourish, but calmly and 
 coolly as my coolest judgment can make me — I declare 
 to you, that if our Republic must go down, we must 
 go down with it — let not a man of us survive the 
 general death. And then it may be like the martyrs 
 
8 
 
 of the Christian faith — every drop of our blood will do 
 more for the good of coming men, than could all our lives. 
 But the mad frenzy of the time, labors to shake the 
 fabric : — 
 
 " The plumed troops and the big wars, 
 That make ambition virtue: » « * 
 The neighing steed, and the shrill trump — 
 The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, 
 The royal banner ; and all quality ; 
 Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war. 
 And, ! you mortal engines, whose rude throats, 
 The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit." 
 • «'» « « » * • •« 
 
 Tell of tumultuous war! Not such war as is embalm- 
 ed in the verse of the Prince of Poets, but ignoble war; 
 civil strife within the bosom of our own mother-country, 
 struggling in the throes of death. 
 
 Who hath done this ? 
 
 Whose fault is this ? 
 
 The poorest thing that ever Avas done, is To Fight ! 
 
 It is a terrible responsibility to shed blood — to shed 
 the blood of a mortal man, but with immortal issues 
 hanging on his death; and when that man is our brother, 
 the responsibility becomes doubly fearful. 
 
 I do not believe, that there is a single man who feels 
 that he directly aided in bringing on this war, but what 
 would gladly give his life, if that would cause it to 
 cease. If he would not, he is base — below my power to 
 describe him. 
 
 " Conscience makes cowards of us all." 
 
 And so it should ; for if a man's conscience is not 
 with him, he is a murderer if he sheds blood, even in 
 battle. 
 
 We must not fight this struggle through, without an- 
 swering these questions : 
 
 First. — Are we in the right ? 
 
 And Second. — Is that Right worth the Struggle? 
 
 First, then. — Are we Right? 
 
9 
 
 • 
 
 And now my hearers I am going to be as exactly im- 
 partial, as it is possible for me to be; for if anything 
 that I utter to-day, may induce or nerve a single man 
 to persist in this struggle, or to buckle on his sword,- or 
 to shoulder his musket, and 1 be wrong, then his blood 
 and all the blood he may spill, will in some sense be on 
 my head. 
 
 To begin — I cannot begin at the vtry beginning. No- 
 body can tell where that was, how it was, when it was, 
 who it was. 
 
 There is no principle of justice more thoroughly esta- 
 blished than this; that he who strikes the first blow, in 
 malice, is responsible for all the after battle. In war, 
 they who deliberately and predeterminedly, and with fair 
 and square preparation wage the first battle — they are 
 answerable for all the after struggle. 
 
 Mark you, I do not say, that if men must fight, that 
 they may not begin to wage war for an idea, for a prin- 
 ciple, for what they may deem their rights. 
 
 But mark you too — God and mankind must judge 
 them whether they are right. If they be wrong, and op- 
 posing men are in the right, then the opposers have a 
 double cause to defend the battle, even to the " bitter 
 end." 
 
 Now to the history — and if we find that we are in 
 the wrong, let us lay down our arms on this Thanksgiv- 
 ing Day. It is better for us to gain a victory over our 
 errors, than to storm a Donnelson, or a Vicksburgh on 
 every river-bank, and sweep the Continent with our vic- 
 torious arms. 
 
 Let us have peace ! Though the world would laugh 
 us to scorn, and though our enemies iu arms would des- 
 pise, what they might choose to call our craven souls. To 
 be right, would be, to be on God's side, and would be a 
 joy in the midst of it all. 
 
 It is not necessary to speak of the driving of Mr. 
 
 Q 
 
10 
 
 Hoar from Charleston years ago. That was not waging 
 war. It is not necessary to dwell on the terrible mur- 
 ders of many Northern men, and some few women, in 
 Southern States, by lynching. We pass those over as 
 isolated cases, the dark, deep crimes being wrought by 
 wretches, which we trust were held in as great horror 
 by decent men in the South as in the North. Yet it 
 is awful to remember that the perpetrators of those 
 assassin deeds were never brought to justice, and pun- 
 ished for their crimes. But yes, the Avenging Angel 
 is sweeping on their trail even now. 
 
 It is a blessed thing for us to remember to-day that, 
 80 far as I know, we have never lynched or shed the 
 blood of a Southern brother upon our Northern soil. 
 We have rather paid court to them, and hefd their 
 assumed chivalry in higher admiration than our own. 
 Some mobs, assemblages, if you prefer, in the North 
 have rescued fugitive slaves, and assisted others to run 
 away. But the persons of their masters, and those who 
 were with them, have been held sacred — certainly not 
 a single one of their lives has been taken. 
 
 We pass over the murder of Methodist Clergymen 
 by lynching in Texas; though the blood curdles at the 
 thought that such deeds could be done in this free, 
 fair land, and not a single officer of the law to be 
 found to rescue, or even to rebuke the bloody criminals. 
 
 We pass over the sad Kansas struggle — we are 
 agreed if you choose to admit that all parties were 
 criminally at fault in that, and we will now cover 
 it with the mantle of charity, as too sad a thing to 
 bear in mind. 
 
 We can say nothing of John Brown ; his deed was 
 his own. Virginia punished him, and no one molested 
 the course of her laws. Let Henry A. Wise himself de- 
 liver his eulogy, when he says of him, — " He was the 
 bravest of the brave, and the truest of the true ! " He 
 
II 
 
 died a martyr — a mistaken martyr. But his name 
 shall live forever, for after all it was connected with 
 Liberty! "His soul is marching on." The notes of 
 his dirge-song are heard whistling in the winds that 
 lead the way of Sherman. 
 
 We, too, pass over perhaps the worst scene of all — 
 for although not so bloody, yet it was the most seri- 
 ous blow at the sacreduess of our Constitution of them 
 all. The scene is in Washington. A Senator of the 
 Union, in his place in the Senate, delivers a speech. 
 Now, for things thus spoken the Constitution expressly 
 provides that the person of the Senator shall be sacred 
 from all assault. A man of South Carolina, a Mem- 
 ber of the House of Representatives, reads the speech, 
 and then goes deliberately into the Senate Chamber and 
 fells the Senator to the floor with his cane, and re- 
 peats his blow when he is down. If the speech were 
 false, there were many Senators that could have answer- 
 ed it, and so answered it, if it were infamous, as to make 
 its author the contempt of the world. He had no 
 powers to relieve his fall ; he was in a very small 
 minority. That blow was a sad assault on the Consti- 
 tution. But had it ended there, it might have been 
 healed by the forgetfulness of time, and the charities 
 of men. But the criminal was lauded in eulogy for 
 his deed, and numberless presents were sent him as 
 testimonials to his virtue. 
 
 We pass over, the violent speeches and writings of 
 sectional fanatics, if that be their proper name — of 
 such as Lovejoy, at Alton, and Cassias M. Clay, at 
 Lexington. Most dearly did they pay for their free- 
 dom of the Press — their presses both . destroyed — 
 Lovejoy slain, and Clay barely escaping with his life. 
 
 We pass over all these, and the fierce debates in 
 legislative halls, in the mass meeting, on the stump, 
 and in books, and many more that might be named. 
 
12 
 
 None of them were waging war. To wage responsible 
 •war requires th3 assent of authorities, the levying of 
 soldiers, the organization of plans, and the institution 
 of some sort of government having power and command* 
 All that we have named were but ebullitions, mobs, guer- 
 rillas — heated frenzies of less or more numbers of men 
 liable to occur in the best regulated Governments, or in 
 what is usually termed a free knock-down at the elec- 
 tion polls. 
 
 But now, as far as we have gone — I leave it to 
 every candid mind that hears me ; On which side lies 
 the wrong? On which side the crime.? On which side 
 lies the blood? 
 
 All these things I have said were not war — they 
 were in many senses worse than war; — they showed 
 the dark passions of a spirit worse than that of war 
 — the brooding spirit of evil that will no longer trust 
 to reason, but rcsoi'ts to assassination. 
 
 When then did the war commence ? Do you ask ? Let 
 me read you the despatch that was sent throughout the 
 world : 
 
 " Charlestox, South Cakolixa, | 
 Friday,, April 12, 1861. f 
 
 " This morning, at four o'clock, Gen. Beauregard opened liis guns 
 upon Fort Sumpter." 
 
 Friday ! — fitting day — fitting omen of evil. Let that 
 Friday be black above all the Fridays of the calender, 
 save that one on which the sun went out at the death 
 of the Son of Man! The hopes of the world still reel 
 beneath the boom of that fatal cannon ; and how long it 
 shall stagger to the fall or to the rise — of this all 
 prophets and prophecies are dumb. 
 
 Are they dumb? The arm of the Omnipotent that 
 lieth underneath the Republic to hold it up, shall bring 
 to pass the word of the prophet, who foretells the safety 
 of the Union, and the confusion of all its foes. 
 
13 
 
 Remember — Beaurcg-ard hud been erecting his float- 
 ing batteries for weeks. The authorities of the so-called 
 Confederate States l.ad levied, ar.d had on the spot and 
 under arms, ten thousand soldiers against seventy in the 
 Fort. The Governor of the State of South Carolina, 
 PickeriS, was on the spot directing — Ex-Governor Man- 
 ning — Ex-Scnator Chestnut were there — Senutor Wig- 
 fall, of Texas, was serving as colonel uniler Beauregard, 
 General Lee, of Viiginia, now at the head of the rebel 
 forces, (now, while I am speaking, he and his armies 
 and Petersburg and Richmond that they delcnd, are being 
 wrapped round and I'ound, by Grant and his legions, with 
 the huge coils of the mighty boa that shall (?rush them and 
 theirs and the hopes of the rebellion together!) and many 
 others of note, all on the ground engaged in the assault, 
 some of them firing cannon with their own hands !• The 
 bombardment was kept up without cessation for one day 
 and nine hours, when the fort surrendered at one o'clock 
 on Saturday. 
 
 Hear the despatch that came on then : 
 
 " Had the surrender not taken place Fort Sumjiter would have heen 
 stormed to-night. The men are crazy for a fight." 
 
 I wonder whether they are crazy for a tight still ? 
 
 " The bells have been chiming all day, guns firing, ladies waving 
 handkerchiefs, people cheering and citizens making themselves generally 
 demonstrative. It is regarded as the greatest day in the history of South 
 Carolina." 
 
 I wonder whether the ladies are waving handkerchiefs, 
 to cheer on Sherman's advance ? 
 
 1 wonder how to-day is regarded by them ? with Sherman 
 and the veterans of Shiloh and Chattanooga, Lookout Moun- 
 tain, Kenesaw and Atlanta, in a march like that of Alexan- 
 der of Macedon, coming down upon their land like the 
 sweep of the Simoon ? and to beleaguer that same Charles- 
 ton by land, as it already is by sea ? and when in the last 
 
14 
 
 combined assault from the ocean and the main they shall 
 sweep over it and leave not one stone upon another that 
 shall not be thrown down ; and shall plough its founda- 
 tions and sow them with salt, so that the coming geogra- 
 pher shall not know the spot upon which it stood. 
 
 How will that day be regarded in the History of South 
 Carolina ? They that sow fire must reap Gehenna. They 
 will be "crazy" then, but it will not be "crazy for a 
 fight." Now is their time if they are "crazy for a fight" 
 
 — let them meet Sherman as he comes f 
 
 Now, look on the other side. Mnjor Anderson from 
 the fort returned the fire, giving especial directions to 
 his men to kill no person of the enemy but to aim only 
 so as to shatter the gun-carriages and dismount the can- 
 non: and not a single man was slain. He had but seventy 
 soldiers and twenty-five workmen within the fort. 
 
 "They would have had no provisioas iu two daj-s — the United 
 States Government had neither provisioned nor added to the men in 
 the garrison. And she had four men-of-war Ijing outside during the 
 whole action, that never fired a gun or took any part in the strife." 
 
 These are the despatches sent by the Charleston opera- 
 tor himself. Could any thing have been more forbearing 
 than our government in that trying time ? Very anxious 
 to give time for the foolish passions to cool and for the 
 sober second thought to have sway. But no such thing 
 
 — Virginia soon after seceded with the other States 
 already out, and immediately sent an army to take pos- 
 sesion of the armory and fortifications at Harper's Ferry. 
 The United States still made no defence but evacuated it. 
 
 The traitors were now preparing to take possession of 
 Washington : and the very first troops that entered into 
 the service of the country, simply to defend Washington, 
 the troops from Massachusetts, whilst on their way to 
 the capital, were stoned and fired into by the men of Bal- 
 timore, and the railroad track torn up before them. And 
 the Seventh Regiment, from New York, and other troops 
 
15 
 
 that followed, had to go by water to Annapolis, and 
 thence march to Washington. 
 
 The next deed of blood, was the murder of Ellsworth, 
 the gallant leader of the Zouaves. And the greatest civil 
 war of the ages, had fiercely begun. 
 
 But they iiad the riglit to begin the war, if they were 
 in the right — if they had just cause : of this there can 
 be no doubt. 
 
 Had they that just cause to exercise that right ? Wo 
 might summon a thousand of their own witnesses ; we will 
 only bring two forward: One is, Alexander H. Stevens 
 of Georgia, long in the councils of ^the Nation at Wash- 
 ington, and the ablest man in the Rebel States, and now 
 Vice-President of the so-called Confederacy. He was a 
 member of the Convention of Georgia, called to decide 
 whether the State should secede from the Union. These 
 are his wordsj which you have often read — spoken in the 
 midst of the South, and reproduced in the reports of the 
 Convention : — 
 
 " This step [Secession] once taken, can never be recalled, and all 
 the baleful and withering consequences that must follow (as they 
 would see,) will rest on the Convention for all coming time. When 
 we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the de- 
 mon of war, which this act of yours will inevitably invite and call 
 forth ; when our green fields of waving harvest shall be trodden down 
 by the murderous soldiery, the fiery car of war sweeping over our 
 land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the horrors and desola- 
 tion of war upon us; who, but this Convention will be held responsible 
 for it ? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this un- 
 wise and ill-timed measure, (as 1 honestly think and believe,) shall 
 be held to strict account for this suicidal act, by the present genera- 
 tion, and probably cursed and execrated b}' posterity for all-coming 
 time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this 
 act you now propose to perpetrate. 
 
 "Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reason you 
 can give, that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments — what 
 reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it 
 will bring upon us / What rea.sons can yi u give to the nations of the 
 earth to justify it ! They will be the calm and deliberate judges ia 
 the case ! and to what cause of one overt act can you name or point 
 
16 
 
 on which to rest the plea of justification ? What right has the North 
 assailed ? What interest of the South has been invaded ? What jus- 
 tice has been denied ? and what claim founded in justice and right 
 has been withheld ? Can either of jou to-day name one governmental 
 act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government at 
 Washington, of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge 
 the answer. 
 
 "Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, 
 under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century 
 — in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our 
 domestic safety — while the elements of peril are around us, with peace 
 and tranquillity, accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights 
 unassailed, it is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which 
 I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." 
 
 But even he was swept away on the mad frenzies 
 that ruled the time and the Southern mind ; and he 
 allowed himself to be made the Vice-President of their 
 violent so-called government. But he never took back 
 his testimony ; but plead before the world that they 
 were going to try a new and great experiment — that 
 is to say, to found a government, whose corner stone 
 should be Negro Slavery. 
 
 The next witness that we bring is a whole city — 
 Nashville. Nashville, situated almost in the geographi- 
 cal centre of the Slave States; and whose citizens are 
 acknowledged to be among the most elevated of South- 
 ern or Nortliern or of any other towns. In the very 
 midst of the opening of the troubles that now afflict 
 us, a solemn call was made for a mass-meeting of all 
 the inhabitants of the city, without any distinction of 
 party, sect, name, or position. That meeting assembled, 
 and there, ablest of men freely discussed all the merits 
 of the issues of the exciting times, on all sides. At 
 length the solemn question was put by the presiding 
 officer to that important assemblage, — 
 
 " Has any person here ever been wronged in person, liberty, or 
 properly, or in any manner by the Government of the United States? 
 If there be such a one, let him speak." 
 
17 
 
 There was no answer — there were none. 
 The second question was put : — 
 
 "JJoes any person here KNOW o/" any one that has evrr been wronged^ 
 in life, person, Itberti/, or property, or in any manner, by the Govern- 
 ment of the United States ? If so, let him speak I " 
 
 There was no answer — there were none ! 
 The question was put the third time: — 
 
 "fi'a.'j any person here any AUTHENTW KNOWLEDGE or infor- 
 mation of any one who has ever heen wronged in life, liberty, or property 
 or in any manner, by the Government of the United Stales ? If there be 
 such a one, let him speak ! " 
 
 There was no answer — there were none ! 
 
 Could any Government on the globe, or that ever was 
 on the globe, have stood such a test as that ? The shade 
 of Jackson, the hero of the Union, that sleeps near the 
 city, must have glowed in its tomb with re-ilhunined 
 fire, at the issue of the test! And even the solemn shade 
 of Polk, that sleeps nearer still, must have awakened to 
 a smile. And that would have been the verdict of every 
 city in the United States' — Charleston itself could not 
 have been an exception. And what is more, I verily be- 
 lieve it is the secret verdict of the secret conscience of 
 every honest son of tjie South. We know it to be of 
 their Aikens, and Sumptcrs, and Marions, their Botts, 
 and their Browulows. And that is the verdict of all the 
 nations of the earth! Not one of them will own them! 
 Not o;ie of them that pronounces their quarrel just: 
 although they have the ablest diplomatists at work in 
 every Court. 
 
 No people will own them, though their spindles and 
 their looms stand still and the spider builds his web and 
 woof in their silent angles, for the lack of cotton ; and 
 their workmen famish for lack of bread ! and though their 
 ships rot in the docks for lack of commerce.' 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Xo inspiration seizes the bosom of a heroic Lafayette 
 — to leave station, wealth, and ease, to fit out the ex- 
 pedition, and to head and cheer his men-at-arms to assist 
 in the struggle for their liberty ! Liberty / liberty ! 
 Who but a demented man would dream of applying the 
 sacred word to their struggle against a Government whose 
 only fault it was to give too great liberty? No great- 
 Steuben ; no chivalrous Pulaski ; no Rochambeau ; no De 
 Grasse : no noble, Sterling ! The conscience of no man, 
 the sympathies of no people are with them! Could the 
 eartli afford a better test ? Could it give a clearer ver- 
 dict ? 
 
 Why, in the very midst of our civil strife, the Poles 
 commenced the struggle for their freedom. Mark the 
 contrast. All the multitudes of Europe and universal 
 mankind were drawn to their side. Their rising was 
 
 for liberty — our insurrection is for Can the word 
 
 be spoken ? The ears of coming generations shall tingle 
 at it. The muse of history will blush for shame as she 
 records it ! Shall the word be spoken ? Our Rebellion 
 is for Slavery ! For the first time in the history of the 
 ages — in the name of freedom — men fight for Slavery ! 
 No wonder that no people will touch their quarrel! 
 
 But is it urged that there are those who do sympa- 
 thize with them among the people of foreign nations ? 
 Sift them ! You will find that it is the sympathy of cent, 
 per cent., or the sympathy of oligarchy, or the sympathy 
 of envy at the growing greatness of our great Republi c 
 
 But there are those abroad and at home who do sym- 
 pathize with them. I claim to be one of them. Nobody 
 sympathizes with them more truly than I do. From my 
 heart I pity a magnificent people (for they are magnifi- 
 cent, with all their faults) who, in the frenzy of madden- 
 ing counsels, rush crazily to arms, to bathe a most stu- 
 pendous wrong iu blood — trying to sanctify it by that 
 means! I pity them wlien, in tlio cool moments of the 
 
19 
 
 after, they see tlieir crime, and that they are compromised 
 to it — when pride and their martial name keep them to 
 the rack, and they must fight it through. 
 
 "But they do not like our opinions!" But if our 
 opinions be right, so much the worse for them. They 
 are the opinions of their own Washington, their own 
 Jefferson, Madison, Henry, Randolph, and all their truly 
 great men. They are the opinions of every enlightened 
 people. 
 
 There is no mode of existence, or form of. government 
 that 1 know of, that can hinder men from having opinions ! 
 It would be an awful government that did. There are 
 a great many people jvho hold and express their holding 
 with great contempt of expression — that lawyers are 
 knaves — and preachers hypocrites and knaves — and phy- 
 sicians quacks. But who ever thought of waging war 
 about it? In fact, it puts the professions on their good 
 behavior, and has a good effect generally — and all hands, 
 in the general result, get along very comfortably together. 
 
 " But we are Cavaliers and you are Roundheads " — 
 they cry against us. The omen is a bad one for them. 
 
 In time of peace the Cavaliers always win — but in 
 war — give me the Roundheads. 
 
 The Ironsides! It is long and hard to goad them! 
 They are slow in putting on their armor ! But when 
 once fairly in harness let the earth rejoice ! They carry 
 the psalm of victory at the point of their pikes ! And 
 of Liberty ! — all kinds of liberty in the tide of their 
 march. 
 
 But it would not be profitable to detail any more of 
 the causes of rupture. But there is but one more that 
 we must not omit: 
 
 " We hate tou ! We will not live witli you. We will secede." 
 
 Good ! You have the right to secede in the right 
 way. But in any other way you ask us to destroy the 
 whole government in an hour. 
 
20 
 
 Let but one State haul out of the Union, on her own 
 motion — and there, in that moment, is an end of the 
 Kepublic. And the government has no more right to com- 
 mit self-murder than a man has. Let a State, a commu- 
 nity, a county, a square yard of people and territory go 
 out, as a right, when they choose to ; and another, and 
 another, and another, and another may, will go to the 
 end — this is lower down even than the ridiculous. This 
 makes all government a farce — the idea could have had birth 
 no where but in a mad house — the people who could think 
 of seceding on such terms are simply a lunatic asylum. 
 
 1 asked a Supreme Court Judge — mark you a Supreme 
 Court Judge — a South Carolina Supreme Court Judge — 
 a pleasant gentleman, and a very pleasant acquaintance 
 of mine, I asked him : " Do you believe in the right 
 of the secession of a State from the Union at her own 
 will?" 
 
 " Undoubtedly I do," he replied. " Then you believe 
 that a county has the same right to secede from a State ?" 
 " Undoubtedly I do." " And the town from the county ?" 
 " Undoubtedly I do V " And the village from the town ?" 
 " Undoubtedly." " And your own plantation, farm or 
 house from all of them ?" " Most undoubtedly I do." 
 " What government would you have then ?" " I do not 
 want any government ! " he replied. 
 
 There is a horizon so low that it is impossible to get 
 an argument under it — and that is the horizon of South 
 Carolina. 
 
 Such a State as that must be saved from self-destruction. 
 Do we not use all possible means to save the suicide ? 
 Nevertheless a State may go out or be turned out of the 
 Union, but it must be by the same power that holds it in. 
 What is that power? "We the People." The first 
 words of the Constitution : The people framed the govern- 
 ment — they can unframe it. — No one else. — No power 
 else. 
 
21 
 
 When they ap:ain assemble in convention as they were 
 when the Constitution was framed — \yhen again they 
 may thus choose to assemble, they may permit any portion 
 of the country to go out ; or they may turn any portion 
 of it out — no other power can do either. To admit any 
 other way is simply to admit that we never had a gov- 
 ernment and that we never can have. But no, that was 
 too plain, too peaceful a way. Tiicrc was not glory 
 enough in this ! 
 
 " They were crazy for a fight.'' " Blood must be shed 
 to fire the Southern heart, or we can never get out of the 
 Union." — Again their own words. 
 
 If blood fires the Southern heart, it must by this time bo 
 raging with the fires of Tartarus. 
 
 How well I remember my feelings in those sad days ; 
 and I felt that they were the feelings of all men about 
 me. — Do anything, agree to anything, rather than see tho 
 Union dissevered — rather than invoke the dread arbitra- 
 ment of the demon of war ! and shed a brother's blood ! 
 We swallowed all their taunts with a smile, and still 
 hoped on ! 
 
 To attack one's courage, is wounding him among the 
 most sensitive chords of his being — still we heard them 
 say : — " The Yankees dare not fight." No indeed, we 
 dared not, until every other possible means were tried in 
 vain. 
 
 Indeed we knew, we dared not Jight to perpetrate that 
 awful crime, until we felt that the time had come, that 
 NOT to fight, was a greater crime ! A greater crime 
 against all mankind. 
 
 We heard them say : — 
 
 " Wh}', we will sow Mason aud Dixons Line with sixpences, and no 
 Yankee army will ever cross it — they will spend the remainder of 
 their lives looking for the silver." 
 
 And still we smiled. We hoped on still ! We heard 
 it proclaimed even in the Senate of the United States : 
 
22 
 
 " That they would pay off tlieir troops in Wall Street. That they 
 would call the roll of their slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill, and wa- 
 ter their war-horses iih the Aroostook ?" 
 
 And still we smiled. Still Ave forgave — for it was a 
 great stake for which we forebore. It was for the hope 
 oj man — the American Republic. 
 
 And then grave, and great, and wise men held coun- 
 sel at the Capital of the Nation in vain — for at last 
 they said, our brethren said — " Give us a blank sheet 
 
 OF PAPER, AND LET US WRITE OUR OWN TERMS, AND WE WILL 
 
 NOT ACCEPT THEM." The ticnd of discord could no further 
 
 go. 
 
 And then even in Charleston, a name to be infamous 
 forever, the howl of the opening war, told of the saddest 
 hour of history. When 1 heard it, even although my 
 home looked out upon the waves of the Pacific, and I was 
 removed from the scene by the breadth of a continent — 
 still it was the saddest day of my existence. It was the 
 saddest day in the lives of hopeful men throughout the 
 earth, as the news still went from land to land. As time 
 on his pinion, on his way around the globe, weeping — shed 
 down the news from his wings in his flight. 
 
 The war is waged by no wrong of ours. We accept 
 the battle gage. We marshal our phalanxes from the 
 ciiildren of the Pilgrims, and of the Sires of the Revolu- 
 tion — from the children of Erin, of Scotia, of Albion, of 
 the Norseland, and of the Rhine, and from all lauds who 
 have come to dwell with us, because we are freemen ! 
 and from true men, even in the midst of the insurrection. 
 From Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Tennessee, 
 and from many remoter regions of the South. 
 
 We slowly, painfully, draw our sword in the firmament 
 of freedom, and "God defend the right," and that right 
 is: — By war — by peace— by all true means: — we think, 
 in God's name, that right is to save the Union ! 
 
 The battle rages — it is the mightiest war of the ages 
 
/ 
 
 23 
 
 — it has ragcil for more than three years — it rages 
 still. See you those mounds heaped and pent — with here 
 and there a mummied limb, or )iead, or trunk, blaekening 
 in the air — at Manassas, at Donnelson, at Henry, on 
 th^ Islands of the Fatlicr of Waters, at Shiloh, at Cane- 
 Hill, on the Deltas of New Orleans, at Yorktown, at 
 Chickahominy, on the Malvern Hills, at Antietam, at 
 Fredcricksburgh, at Chancellorsville, at Murfreesboro, at 
 Baton Rouge, Port Hudson, and Vicksburgh, and the 
 battle-helds lining the banks of the Mississippi .' and be- 
 neath its tides, and the tides of the rivers of the West, 
 and of the East, and of the waves of the sea? At Get- 
 tysburg, at Chattanooga, in the Wilderness, at Atlanta ? 
 You will pard(Jh me ; for it may be 1 am over-estimating 
 the sacredness of these resting-places of our dead. Yet 
 it seems to me that Bunker Hill, that Saratoga, that 
 Princeton, that Long Island, that Germantown, the Bran- 
 dywiue, Eutaw Springs, the Cowpens, King's Mountain, 
 and the ancient Yorktown, show not more sacred relics. 
 For those who fill the later graves have fought and died 
 for a larger liberty, than did even the patriots of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 We thank Almighty God most devoutly this Thanks- 
 giving Day, that we believe we are right in this mighty 
 struggle ; and we pray His Great Name, if we are not, 
 that he would make us so. He seems to show us that 
 we are. The Northern States were never more prosper- 
 ous than to-day — prosperous in all things. I have said 
 we are prosperous ; but we begin to feel the Iron Hand 
 pressing us everywhere. The humblest denizen of the 
 tenement of the town, and the lowliest cottager of the 
 country, begin to feel its load — trade, manufactures, 
 commerce, feel its weight. The guantlct begins to crush 
 the currency and the social fabric. The heart of every 
 household heaves with sighs, and tears start from every 
 eye, beneath the grim grasp of the Iron Hand ! But 
 
IBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 "iriliriiiTiriT'iriM IT r I 
 
 012 027 022 9 # ^ 
 
 the Almighty will lift it. He will not let it crush us 
 utterly; for our cause, we believe, is His cause, and 
 the cause of all the dwellers upon His earth. 
 
 He defeats our armies at times — He makes us flee 
 before our enemies — and those we love go down in the 
 battle, in the pestilence, and in the hospital ! It is be- 
 cause we too have need of punishment — He would make 
 us repent of our sins. 
 
 Though our neighbors are great, very great sinners, 
 we must not forget the greatness of our own. And, if 
 there be no other expiation for us, then let us go down 
 with the Republic. But let it be like men worthy of our 
 memories, our name, our liberty, and the freedom for 
 which we struggle. • 
 
 Like the Cumberland, in Hampton Roads, every man 
 at his post of duty — every warrior at his gun — every 
 banner set at bowsprit, main-mast and taflfrail — every 
 star still there, sure as the stars of heaven ; and as our 
 dying shout as we go down, mingles with the hoarse re- 
 quiem of the waves that enshroud us — the echo shall 
 come from the soul of all human kind, that we were 
 worthy to fill the last, most glowing page in the history 
 
 of THE UNION ! 
 
 But this last page must not be written ! It will not be 
 written if we remember Him in whose hand our breath 
 is, and who holds the nations in the hollow of His hand : 
 if in the very spirit of a single and devout heart, we re- 
 solve at all hazards to be right, and in very truth, do 
 the recommendation of the President : 
 
 " I do recommend to my fellow-citizens, that they do reverently 
 humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and 
 fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events, for 
 a return of the inestimable blessings of jMiace, union, and harmony 
 throughout the land, which it has pleased Him to assign as a 
 dwelling-place for ourselves and our posterity throughout all gene- 
 rations." 
 
 END. 
 
[J\z ^^1 ^' 
 
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