CAUSES AND REMEDIES
OF TIlE
PRESENT CONVULSIONS:
A DISCO  URSE
BY 1REV. JOHN C. LORD, D. D.
-  I U F'i A. L O 0
JOSEPH WARREN & CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 178 WASHINGTON STREET,
1861.








CAUSES AND REMEDIES
OF THE
PRESENT CONVULSIONS:
iA  DISC)OURSE3
BY REV. JOHN C. LORD, D. D.
3 U  F' A L O:
jOSBEPE',AREN & CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 178 WASHINGTON STREET,
1 fR1








A DISCOURSE
DELIVERED ON THE DAY OF FASTING, HUMILIATION AND PRAYER
APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
AND BY THE MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA, JANUARY 4Tn, 1861;
BY JOHN C. LORD, D. D.,
PASTOR OF TIlE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BUFFALO, N, Y.
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through
the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire thou shalt not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the East, and
gather thee from the West. I will say to the North, give up, and to the
South, keep not back."-[Isaiah, XLIII, 2, 5, 6.
It would seem froni the amazement and alarm, which have resuited from the present convulsed state of the nation, that the people of this country have anticipated an exemption from those calamities, which, in the course of the divinegprovidence, have accompanied, and for a time checked, the outgrowth and progress of the
most fortunate empires since the beginning of time. We have
imagined, in ouruunprecedented prosperity,that weshould never be
moved, that we should never be in adversity, and that the divine
judgments'would fail to overtake us' for our national sins. We
have been justly punished for that vain-glorious boasting, which
has long excited the ridicule of the trans-Atlantic nations.Our Union, our wealth, our population, our rapid territorial
extension, have puffed us up with a pride and conceit, and filled
us with a false security, so foolish and heaven-daring, that it
has at last provoked the judgments of God. ]Not that it is the
purpose of the Most HIigh to destroy this great IRepublic in its
infancy, and with all the great providential ends of its existence




4
unaccomplished. We cannot believe this; the tbunding of the English Colonies in North America, their subsequent independence and
union cost too great a price, and were marked in their progress with
too many tokens of the ulterior purposes of the divine providence to allow so disastrous a conclusion. Are not the prayers
of the early Colonists, from the Bay of Massachusetts to the Gulf of
Mexico —of the Puritans of the North, the Presbyterians of the
middle Colonies, and the Huguenots of the South-yet had in remembrance before God? Are not their tears " preserved in His
bottle?" Are not the graves of the founders of the Republic, of the
men who gathered the feeble, distracted and insolvent States of
this continent into one great empire too fresh, as yet, for the de
struction of the mighty work, accomplished by their wisdom, foresight and mutual forbearance? Are the counsels of the Father of
his country so soon forgotten?l Have the people of the United
States been so suddenly bereft of their characteristic sagacity in
all that concerns their material interests, as to plunge with their
eyes open into the bottomless abyss of secession and dis-union?
Will they submit for any length of time to any movement in that
direction.  Not until all patriotism is extinguished, not until all
perception of national and individual interests is utterly lost, not
until they are prepared to dishonor the graves of the dead who
fell in every battlefield rorn Bunker Hill to Yorktown, and from
Yorktown to the swamps of South Carolina, "where rang the
shouts of Marion's men;"' nay, more, not until they pour contempt
upon the memory bf the men who fell in the last war upon the
Niagara frontier, and in the battle of New Orleans, can this Union be finally and hopelessly destroyed. Why, the bones of the
hero of New Orleans would rattle in their coffin at such a consummation. Tennesee must remove the remains of Andrew Jackson
from her soil, if she secedes, for his grave is a perpetual protest
against disunion. How swiftly fled the unholy spectre of treason
before the eagle eye and iron will of the stern old Patriot,
when, in the'proper exercise of his authority as Chief Magistrate,
he exorcised it by the strong hand.




It is vwith this view of the subject, because we believe that God
is chastising us in mercy as well as in wrath, for ever the Divine
Providence presents to us a mingled cup of judgments and mercies,
-because no great people or nation have ever reached the end of
their progress or the maturity of their power, without passing
through the fires of affliction, and undergoing the throes of intestine convulsions quite as formidable as the worst that threaten us
-that we have adopted the language of the Supreme Governor
addressed to his ancient people, the Hebrews, while smarting under the rod of Divine chastisement. The trials which threaten us
are not to be met by dismay, despondency and terror,-these can
only exasperate the malady of the body politic,-these can only
lead to pusillanimous counsels and undecided action,-rather let
us hear this voice from Him who led our Fathers to this continent
and planted here a great nation, developing for the benefit of mankind a perfection of civil and.religious liberty, before held unattainable. " When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When
thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West.
I will say to the Nolth give up, and the South keep not back."
While we humble ourselves before God by humiliation, fasting
and prayer, let us lay aside our despondency, let us take refuge
under the shadow of the wing of the Almighty, exclaiming, " God
is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in every time
of trouble, therefore will we not fear, if the earth were removed,
though the mountains were carried into the depths of the sea."
In the infancy of that great Republic of antiquity, which traversed
three continents with its victorious arms, which conquered all that
was worth conquest in Europe, Asia and Africa, intestine commotions repeatedly threatened its existence. What reader of history
has forgotten the numerous exigencies in which the Roman people
were compelled, by threatened disruption, to invest a Dictator
with absolute power for a time, with the injunction, "' to see that




the ItRepublic took no letrillenlt.  Who has i)rgottenr the civil
wars between the Patricans and the Plebians, deluging the streets
of the "Eternal City" with blood? Nor did these difficulties entirely disappear until the wonderful vitality of the Republic and
the love of liberty disappeared under the despotisms of the Coesars.
The very vigor of the body politic will produce eruptions in youthful and expanding Empires. There may be an excessive vitality,
producing dangerous symptoms, and shall we cower before the
first irregular action of these exuberant forces? Why, it was a
standing maxim of the statesmen and people of Rome, " never to
despair of the Republic," no matter if the enemy was at their
gates-no matter if civil war was desolating their hearths. Shall
the great Christian Republic of the 19th century, of which Rome
was the archetype, manifest less courage and less resolution in the
presence of similar dangers?  Is modern history less instructive'
How often has that great nation, which has girdled the earth with
her colonies, from whom we boast our own descent, been rent by
intestine commotions and desolated by civil wars, the last of
which that placed William and Mary upon the throne of Great
Britain, was within the memory of men living in our revolutionary
era. What perpetual desolations for the last eighty years have
made France a field of blood and a place of skulls, and yet she is
to-day at the head of the continental powels of Europe, prosperous
and progressive. Shall we fold ourhands in fear and despair, because that which has occurred in all vigorous nationalities, has
happened to us,-because the judgments with which God has chastened all nations for "pride, fulness of bread and abundance oft
idleness," have fallen deservedly on us 1" for reproof, for correction
and instruction in righteousness?"  No! no! Let us gird up the
loins of our minds. God does not call us to the spirit of fear, but
"of power and a sound mind."  Let us have no more whining,
no more irresolute counsels, no more desponding prophecies of
ruin; in such a crisis, let us show ourselves men, worthy sons of
the sires who faced the terrors, both of a foreign and civil war, in
their desperate struggle for freedom and union. For what was




thle contestl between thie  hVIligs ald lTorie  of the revolutionary
era, but the worst form of a civil warl inl whiclt it was not sectioln
against section, North against South, East against West, but houselold against household; nay, worse, it was a war at the llealtlh,
son against fathler and  father. against son.   Are we so degenerate as to faint il t;he first day of adversity? Trnly, in such
a case, our "strength is small" and we may well blecome a prey
to, "treason's stratagems and spoils."
But it may be said, "' this is a dlay of fasting, humiliatioln and'rayer, ill whicll we are called to look at the sad side of the prmesent convulsions whlichl threaten the integrity of oul Un ion and the
permanency of our government."  Truly it is a day of humiliation, tlhe setting apart of which was a highly properl act of the
Executive, whatever else may hlave been neglected; but fast ing
anid prayer do not imply irresolution and cowardice.  The Puritans, in their deadly struggle with the Stuarts, fasted and plrayed
to somne purpose; the soldiers of Cromwell, who carried Bibles inl
their knapsacks and made conventicles of their lnilitary quarters,
were tle bravest of tile brave.  It becomes us, indleed, to repent
of our sins, to retrace our steps, where we have been wrong, to
implore the divine guidance, and then to face our difficulties witlh
the courage and constancy of a true Christian patriotism.
We slhall endeavor, in the first l)lace, to improve the present
occasionl by a brief consideration of some of the causes of the discords which hlave resulted in convulsions which threaten the perpetuity of our Union and our institutions, and enlleavor, ill tile
secondl, to point ou)t tile remedies.
Anterior to the revolution, the Colonies were existing under
diffirenlt forms of social life.  Thle history of tile introduction of
African slavery is familiar.  It was at first tircecd upon tlle colonists by the mother country and afterwards extendled by the sllil
owners of New  England, who tound the importation:,f slaves
firom tie west coast of Africa a hlighlly profitable speculation. At
the time whel our preselnt Constitutioll was fi'aned a ld adopted.
thfere was no substanltial dliffirenee (of (opillio  ill the tlteoretical




Views of slavery between the -North and the Southl  In some of
the N orthern States it was not abolished until long after the union;
in all the States it was admitted to be an evil which would disappear by gradual emancipation in the process of time. No
public sentiment in any part of the United States denounced the
system as in itself sinful, and its abolition was simply a question
of expediency with reference to its influence upon the white
race and their material and moral interests. There was no dissension in respect to slavery at that time among the various denominations of Christians; North and South, the prevailing sentiment appears to have been that African servitude, existing under
the form and by the sanction of law, was a valid institution under
which both masters and slaves had their duties and their rights
to be enforced by the Church of Christ, precisely as they are in
the New Testament by Apostolic example and authority. No
considerable body of Christians doubted that the action of the
Savior and the Apostles in dealing with the relation of master
and slave, as they dealt with other legal existing relations was
binding upon the Church.
On the other hand, it was with equal unanimity maintained that
slavery is not the highest form of Christian civilization or of social
life; that while it is tolerated in both Testaments it is not expected
to be permanent or perpetual; that while it is providentially and
scripturally allowed, because it is one of the means by which inferior and indolent races have been and are elevated by enforced
subjection to labor and law, yet its abandonment was to be expected whenever its ends were fully accomplished. Both North
and South, it was agreed that slavery must at some time cease.
and that a system of free labor was undoubtedly to be preferred
whenever it could be safely and judiciously accomplished. It
was felt and acknowledged on all hands, that there were inherent
dangers and difficutilties in the system of servitude, more particularly where therme was a large preponderance of the slave
population. That these moderate, just and Christian views of the
subject were entertained by the follndera of the Republic in both




sections of the country, does not admit of a doubt. The debates
in the Convention which formed our excellent Constitution, establish this beyond all controversy. This agreement in sentiment
was one basis of the Union, and led to the mutual concessions by
which free and slave States were brought together in indissoluble
Union.
A primary cause of the present disorders is the abandonment
by multitudes both North and South of these moderate views, —
views in accordance with scripture, reason and experience.
More than thirty years since, a class of men in the North commenced a crusade against the South an'd Southern institutions,
denouncing slavery as the " sum of all villianies" and the slaveholder as the greatest of all villians. The vocabulary of abuse
was ransacked for epithets to heap upon our Southern brethren.
Kidnappers, murderers and thieves were among the mildest terms
applied to them by these pseudo philanthropists, whose hatred of
the master was far more apparent than their love of the slave.
Abandoning utterly the scriptural mode of dealing with slavery,
refusing the teachings and example of the Apostles who had to
do with in its worst. forms, they outraged equally decency and
common sense in their bitter denunciations and fanatical violence,
These extreme men whose infidel tendencies, then predicted, have
since become patent and apparent to all were never numerous in any
section, but they made up in noise what they wanted in numbers,
Christian denominations began at length to be influenced by this
continued clamor, many sincere but injudicious and impulsive
men in the ministry and membership of various churches were
led to believe that these brawlers had really advanced to a hiaher
standard of duty than had the Christian church; they were told
this so often that they began to believe it. What was the Gospel
of Rosseau and the French Encyclopedists and Jacobins, they
strangely mistook for the Gospel of Christ, and this was the
entering wedge of division in several denominations, resulting in
the secession of the Northern from the Southern branch.
On thesother hand, besides the natural exasperation felt by our




brethren of the slave States in view of such treatment, there
grew out of it as another result, a disposition on the part of extreme men at the South to glorify slavery. This was at first by
way of retaliation, but afterwards, and by a natural process, it became the settled conviction of these men that slavery was'Heavens'
first law' of society, that there was in the future nothing higher or
better-that their social condition was nearly millenial and that
all communities, and the North especially, would do well to adopt
the slave code, in which alone, they contended, is the perfection
of human society. The extremists of one party made slavery the
image of Hell, every master a demon and every slave a martyr
to the lash. Drawing upon their imaginations for their facts, they
filled the North with horrid tales and hideous pictures, and came
at last by constant'repetition to believe the fictions generated in
their heated fancies. The extremists of the Southern side made
the social condition of a slave State the image of Paradise, every
master a pattern of gentleness, every slave a model of obedience,
To these extreme opinions and their effect upon the people, both
North and South, may be traced unquestionably the origin of the
present disturbed condition of our common country. The first
direct blow struck at our Union was inflicted, I am sorry to say
it —but truth compels me to bear this testimony-by those Northern churches who virtually excommunicated their Southern brethren, saying in the arrogant spirit of the Pharisee,'Stand aside,
for I am holier then thou,' and this too with the inheritance qf
the profits of the slave trade in their possession and the proceeds
of the sale of what they are pleased to call the'human chattel'
in their pockets; for in the abolition of slavery in the Northern
Colonies and States, sufficient time was always given the master
to dispose of his slaves at the South, which was done in most cases
by the virtuous Northerners whose descendants and heirs are now
so abhorrent of property in man I
But, besides the unnecessary and unchristian antagonism upon
the moral and "religious questions involved in the existence of
slavery, there has been a constantly increasing political jealousy




between the two sections, which has mlaterially aided in producing the present disastrous state of things. Instead of rejoicing
over the unprecedented prosperity which God has given our conmmon country, many at the North have had a feverish jealousy of
the ascendancy of Southern statesmen in the national counsels.
They have not alleged that the country was badly governed,
but that the population and progress of the Southern States in
comparison with the greater increase of the North did not warrant
their overshadowing influence. The fact has been overlooked that
this was the necessary result of the superior sagacity of the South
in sending their best men to Washington and keeping them there,
while the election often of inferior representatives and the principle of rotation in office, prevailing among all political parties at
the North, has resulted in the natural predominance of those who
by their ability and long experience were best prepared to guide
the ship of state.
Now it is my solemn conviction, that this political ascendancy
of the South, solely the fruit of the folly of the ]North, has had
more to do with the result of the recent presidential election than
all the abolition theories and all the abolition speeches with which
the Northern States have been afflicted for the last thirty years.
There never has been, —I do not believe there ever will be,-a major
ity of Northern voters, disposed to disturb the social economy of
the South, or who would, knowingly, lend themselves to a violation of the rights of the slave states under the constitution. The
unhappy jealousy of southern predominance has far more influzence with northern men, than the outcry against slavery. The
truth is, Abolitionism proper has had its day at the INorth and is
in a feeble and declining cojldition, and is destined, if let alone,
to die the natural death of all such fanaticisms.
On the other hand, our Southern bretheren have been jealous
of the increasing predominance of the North in population, and
of the rapid increase of free states, disturbing the balance which
they fondly hoped to maintain, at least in the Senate. They have
ntudert'keu. to contend with the laws of nature, and the course of




12
the divine providence, by which the West and North West have
been occupied, and are now filling up with a hardy population
from  the despotisms of the old World, who can not only live but
grow  rich where a planter and his servants would starve.*   This
unnatural and unreasonable sectional jealousy is one of-the ilnitiating  causes which  has aided in  producing the calamities which
have called us together to day, to implore the divine forgiveness,
and the removal of the divine judgments.
A  third cause which we name in this connection, is the attempted violation of the Constitution by several of the Northern States,
in respect to the rendition of fugitive slaves. That the constitution guarantees  to the South the return of fugitive slaves is not
denied.  This was one of the compromises, and one of the conditions on which the Union was established.  The attempted secession at Charleston, which is in fact rebellion against the general
* The territorial question is an offshoot of these extreme views. Massachusetts
sends her free soil men, with rifles, into Kansas to keep out the horrible institution
of slavery. while South Carolina and other Slave States force an unnatural colonization, in a like antagonistic spirit, sending her slavery propagandists, with bowie
knives and blacks, to establish the' divine' institution, where the conditions of climate
and soil are utterly opposed to its success. Theoretically the question now  is
whether slavery, under the Constitution, follows the'lex loci.' or whether it exists
by virtue of the organic law without any special enactment to legalize it. Several
feasible methods have been proposed for the settlement of this irritating controversy.
The plan of Judge Douglas, to give to the inhabitants of evely Territory the sole
right to determine this question, has long been before the country; even the Chicago
platform does not preclude this plan of adjustment. The recent proposition of that
venerable statesman and true patriot, Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, would, in my
opinion, be entirely acceptable to the great majority of Northern men. The only
department of the government, in which it would be possible to secure inl perpetuity
to the South an equality in representation, is thejudiciary.
By an amendment of the organic law it might be made imperative upon the
President and Senate to appoint an equal number of the Judges of the Supreme
Court from the two sections, so that the free and slave states would be always equally
represented in that august tribunal, which as the Court of last resort, has the final
decision of all questions arising under the Constitution, and is really the only
Supreme power in the State. It might be fntther provided that all questions arising
under the Constitution in regard to slavery, and in respect to the constitutionality of
State enactments, and the rendition of fugitive slaves, should be decided by a bench
composed equally of Northern and Southern Judges and that all such questions
should be privileged, and receive the immediate attention and speedy adjudication of
the tribunal. The high character of the Supreme Court-the fact that thejudges are
placed beyond the heat of mere party strife, and have a reputation to sustain before
the country and the world, which must be dearer -to them than mere sectional sentimnent or approbation, would undoubtedly enable them, with a good degree of unanimity, to decide these exciting questions without delay. Where can they be settled
so faily and go satisfactorily?




13
government, is the natural result of this constructive treason at
the North, for it is in the nature of things, that one treason should
beget another; that the abandonment of constitutional compacts
in one State, should provoke open insurrection in another. Can
Massachusetts and Vermont expect to retain the blessings of the
Union, and enforce its authority upon others, while they set the
example of state legislation against the supreme law? Those who
are engaged in, and justify such legislation, dishonor the graves
of their fathers, they violate the sacred compact of the dead, they
rend a covenant made before Earth and Heaven, before angels
and men, upon which rests the peace and prosperity of more than
thirty millions of souls; they seek to blot out the last hope, and
the last experiment of a republican government, strong enough to
occupy a place among the great nations of the earth. Are not
these violations of good faith provocative of the divine indignation? Shall not God judge and avenge himself of such a people
as this?
The counter legislation and violence of the South, while it cannot be justified, for one wrong can never justify another, is yet a
natural consequence of the attempt at the North to evade and nullify one of the compacts of the constitution.:Nor can their natural
sensitiveness in regard to servile insurrections, justify the outrageous and indiscriminate violence which has disgraced portions of
the South, in their barbarous treatment of innocent Northern men,
without the forms of law, or even the color of provocation. Such
conduct serves as an apology for their traducers: it tends to alienate their friends, and call down upon them the just judgments of
God. There is a tone of bravado, a glorying in monstrous acts of
violence, a sneering at Northern thrift, an impeachment of Northern courage, on the part of a portion of the press at the South,
which is creating and exasperating a sectional feeling at the North,
drifting us on-to a bloody collision. That this is not an indication of
the general temper of the South, I know from a recent residence
of many months in a cotton-growing State. There is not a more generous, hospitable, chivalrous people on the face of the earth. The




14
ardent sun of the tropics has indeed communicated to them some
of its heat, and they are quick and impulsive in their friendships
and enmities; but they are ever ready to retract an erroneous
opinion, or correct a false judgment.  The church of God has nowhere more faithful and eloquent ministers, nowhere more exemplary and benevolent columunicants. That the great body of the
Southern people are not directly responsible for the gasconade of
a class of politicians and editors, who offend both the taste and the
moral feeling of the North, appears very plainly from the discourse
of the Rev. Dr. Dabney, of the South, upon the occasion of a fast
recently appointed by the Synod of Virginia. After describing
scenes in the French Revolution, he says:
Now I say unto you in all faithfulness, that the reckless and incapable
men whom you have weakly trusted with power or influence, have already
led us far on towards similar calamities. They have bandied violent words
those cheap weapons of petulant feebleness; they have justified aggression;
they have misrepresented our tempers and principles-answered, alas, by
equal misrepresentations and violence in other quarters-until multitudes of
honest men, who sincerely suppose themselves as patriotic as you think
yourselves, are really persuaded that in resisting your claims, they are but
rearing a necessary bulwark against lawless and arrogant aggressions. Four
years ago, an instance of unjust and wicked insolence was avenged, on the
floor of the Senate of the United States, by an act of violence most unrighteous and illjudged.  And now, not so much that rash and sinful act of retaliation, but the insane, wicked, and insulting justification of it generally
made by southern secular prints, directed by reckless boys, or professed
duellists, a justification abhorred and condemned by almost all decent men
in our section, is this day carrying myriads of votes, (of men who, if not
thus outraged, might have remained calm and just towards us,) for the
cause whose triumph you deprecate. Thus the miserable game goes on;
until at last, blood breaks out, and the exhausted combatants are taught in
the end, by mutually inflicted miseries, to pause and consider, that they are
contending mainly for a misunderstanding of each other.
"Whereunto can all this mutual violence grow? Do not the increasing
anger and prejudice, which seem so fast ripening on both sides for a fatal
collision, tell you too plainly? And when these rash representatives of
yours in our halls of legislation and our newspapers, shall have sown the
wind, who shall reap the whirlwind? When they have scattered the dragon's teeth, who must meet the horrent crop they will produce? N'ot they
alone; but you, your sons, your friends and their sons. So that these misleaders of the people, while you so weakly connive at their indiscretions, may
be indirectly preparing the weapon which is to pierce the bosom of your




fair-haired boy: and summoning the birds of prey, which are td pick out
those eyes whose joy is now the light of your happy homes, as he lays stark
on some lost battle-field. For God's sake then —for your own sakes, for
your children's sake, arise-declare that from this day, no money, no vote,
no influence of yours, shall go to the maintenance of any other counsels than
those of moderation, righteousness and manly forbearance."
To these solemn and prophetic admonitions, the North no less
than the South, would do well to take heed. It is to some extent
with us as it is with them. A class of politicians and editors are
ever fomenting, especially in New England, the discords of the
times, sowing the dragon's teeth of jealousy, suspicion and hatred,
provoking a storm which they have no power to quell and no true
patriotism or courage to meet. The " boys and duellists" of the
South have no monopoly of the " Satanic press": we have amongst
us those who are aiding in the unholy work of scattering firebrands, arrows and death; men wanting principle and bread; men
who, like Nero, are capable of fiddling amid the flames which they
have kindled-amid the falling towers of our Union and our Constituti:on. I am glad to except our local press from this incendiarism.
With this brief review of some of the causes which have led to
the present convulsed condition of the country, we hasten to consider the remedies of the evils, which seem to imperil our national
existence.
In the text, the Supreme Ruler addresses words of encouragement to the Hebrews, at the very moment when the nationdwas
smarting under his judgments.  "Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the
West; I will say to the North, give up, and to the South, keep
not back."  May we not apply these words to our own case by
way of encouragement, and interpret them as a promise to gather together the true patriots of our land from the East and the
West, to stand in the breach and stay the tides of faction and
disunion?  Is not the language of His providence to-day, to us,
"I will say to the North, Give up, and to the South, Keep not
ba-ck?  Without greatly violating the original meaning of these




words in their scriptural connection, may we not apply them, by
way of accommodation, to our own case, and see in them the
precise and only feasible solution of our difficulties?
It is literally true that God is saying in his providence to the
North'give up,' and to the South'keep not back.'  It is quite obvious that unless the North is prepared to give up her antagonism
to the constitutional guarantees for the rendition of the fugitive
slaves of the South, unless the free States give up their unlawful
intermeddling with the domestic affairs and local institutions of
their neighbors, a violent and bloody solution of our difficulties cannot be avoided.  It is equally true that if the South'keep back'
from accepting the proper guarantees for the future that their
constitutional rights shall be maintained, there can be no peaceable
settlement of our national animosities. There can be no doubt that
there is an increasing disposition at the North to remove all just
grounds of complaint, to repeal all unconstitutional State laws, and
to frown upon all intermeddling with the social system of the
South. We implore our Southern brethren not to'keep bacl' fi'om
these proffers of peace and good will. We solemnly assure them
that the element of abolitionism is by no means predominant in
the party which is about to assume the administration of the government and that however alarming the election of a sectional
candidate to the,chief magistracy may be assumed to be, it nevertheless becomes them to wait and see what course is taken by
the incoming administration. To move in advance of this is as
unwise as it is dangerous.  It would indicate a foregone conclusion, a secession for other reasons than those avowed, and justify
the allegation that there is at the bottom of the secession movement only the animosity of baffled politicians and the ambition of
reckless demagogues, who hope by an act of treason to found a
new Empire in which they can monopolize all offices of trust and
of honor. If the North will at once'give up' where they are wrong,
and the South'keep, not back' from a fair concession, if both will
suffer "bygones to be bygones" then a peaceable settlement of our
difficulties may be expected, a settlemeht worthy an enlightened




17
christian people, acceptable to God, and over which there will — be.
joy in Ileaven. But while we earnestly desire and pray for this
peaceful solution of our troubles, it becomes us to look beyond this
and see what other remedies may be found, in case this proves im —
possible.
Iam compelled to confess my amazement at much that has been
said in high places and sacred places, from the Executive chair
and in the Senate, from the forum and the pulpit, in regard to
peaceable secession, peaceful division and the peaceful abandonment of our union and government which has been represented
substantially, as incapable of resisting disintregration from treason:
If this be so, we have no government, but merely the shadow or
simulacrum of one, which ought to be scouted down and abandoned at once. Whatever a false and sickly sentimentalism may
pretend; however it may ape the, peace and good will of the gospel,
nothing is more certain than that the scriptural and Christian
doctrine of government is utterly at war with the imbecile and,
pusillanimous conduct inculcated by this new political dogma.
The Apostle declares that " the powers that be are ordained of
God," in which is intended all existing governments, whether administered under despotic or democratic forms, "Whosoever,"
continues the Apostle, "resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinf.
ance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves
condemnation."  Again, in the same connection, it is said of
rulers, meaning thereby governments in their executive action,
"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," continues the Apostle, " ye must needs be
subject not-only for wrath but also-for conscience sake." The idea
of any reserved, right of secession of a State is incompatible with
the existence of a general government, at war with the terms of
the Constitution itself and can hardly be maintained with sincerity
by any reflecting man. The Union could never have been formed
with this reservation, by the people of the United States —for our
Union is.not of the States.but of the people-nor could it.have




been adopted, with a right of secession.  Such a proviso would
hake been a nullification of the Constitution at its very inception,
and made it but a rope of sand. If we have a government that is
unable to protect itself against insurrection, let it be abandoned at
once. If our Union cannot be maintained under Republican forms,
let us have centralization, a monarchy and a standing army, for
these evils cannot compare with the absolute ruin that must follow
our division into numerous petty, distracted States, which, like the
Republics of South America, will become the scorn of mankind.
The recent attempted secession of South Carolina would be a
mere farce, notwithstanding the earnest and treasonable temper of
its leaders, were not the example almost certain to be followed
by the adjacent Gulf States. South Carolina contains less than
an eightiethpart of the white population of the United States. She,
is the Massachusetts of the South. It often happens that those
who hate each other are much alike, and so it is with the Bay State
of the North and the Palmetto State of the South. Both abound
with glorious revolutionary recollections, both have dishonored
them-both were foremost in accomplishing the great work of
Union-both have done what they could to destroy it-both have
produced an extraordinary number of able men, and both have
alike suffered from their ultra and fanatical opinions, either in politics or morals; both have been extreme advocates of State rights
-both have attempted to nullify the Constitution of the United
States-both are denunciatory, turbulent and violent, the one in
word the other in deed —both are filled with self conceit, the one
styling Boston the Athens of the North, the other claiming that
Charleston is the Thermopylm of the South! In both, the most
extreme opinions in regard to society and government prevail; the
one maintaining that the perfection of civilization is found in a
community with one white man, the master of a hundred ne —
groes; the other insisting that the beau ideal of philanthropy is
only seen where the lights and interests of a hundred whites are
sacrificed for the benefit of a single African. To these States; in
their mutual likeness and their mutual hatred, more than any
other, we owe the origin of the impending collision I




God forbid we should be compelled to resort to the stern- arbittament of the sword. The appeal to arms is the last remedy
against the destruction of the Republic-it is a sad one, but better than none. A civil, and even a servile war, with all their
horrors, are infinitely preferable to anarchy; no sacrifices are too
great for the preservation of our nationality, without which we
are but dismembered and worthless fragments of a once glorious
body whose dissevered limbs will be a perpetual stench in the
world's atmosphere. It has been said, indeed, that the forcible
suppression of secession, which is but another name for insurrection, must be followed by an alienation of feeling and create
bitter animosities which would render a future and forced Union
worthless. This is plausible at first view, but is contradicted by
uniform and universal experience. Have the civil contests of
England left behind them  any such results? Are the Vendean
Provinces of France less faithful and less attached to their
nationality to-day, because, within the memory of multitudes now
living, they were desolated by fire and sword in a protracted
civil war, the atrocities of which are almost unparalleled in the
history of intestine convulsions 8 Are not geographical bound&.
ries and commercial necessities, a common language and a come
mon faith, more invincible than human passions, and stronger
than the madness of any hour or any age? Does any sane man
really believe that the permanent separation of this great country is possible with an Anglo-Saxon race for its occupants, and
with all the material interests of commerce, and all the elements
of power dependent upon its union? Neverwere two sections
of a great country more mutually dependent on each other than
-the slave and free States. The cotton of the South has almost
-uniformly paid the enormnous balances which our foreign trade
has annually left against us through our excessive importations,
while the products of the North have always found their nearest:and best markets in the slave States, —they are in fact a necessity, and must be while cotton and tobacco' continue to be their:great itaples..  The xtebeliopof,    States against' the GeneralGaCv,




20
era*"~ it is like the:*evolt of the -members against the head,- and
can -never, in. the'-nature of the case, be permanent or-finally
successful.
But it may be replied, who can foretell the issue of such a striggle-who can say to whom, in such a war, the Most High will
award the victory? Doubtless, the issue of all events is, in a degree, hidden in the womb of time, and in the purpose of God; but
there are some things so plain that he " that runneth may read,"
in which " the way-faring man, though a fool, need not err."
I would I had a voice to penetrate the South, to warn them of
impending danger. They would recognize it as the voice of a
friend who has ever defended their rights and vindicated their
character; of one who, ten years ago, delivered a discourse in this
place, which had an almost unprecedented circulation throughout
the country, in which the scriptural view of slavery was presented,
and the rights of the South to a restoration of their fugitive slaves
maintained. From the then Chief Magistrate of the Nation, —our
eminent fellow citizen, Millard Fillmore, —whose wise and impartial administration of the government is acknowledged by all, I
received a letter of thanks, in which he recognized this discourse,
however humble the origin, as one of the instrumentalities of peace
in that stormy time. As a tried and known friend, I would warn
my Southern brethern of the perils of their position in their attempts to revolutionize the government. I would ask them in the
first place to consider in what position the Gulf States would be
placed by the act of secession. The mildest measure possible with.any administration, not itself in league to destroy the Union, would
be to close the ports of entry in every seceeding State. This block-tde, easily accomplished by a few war steamers, could not be resisted by the Gulf States; they have neither ships nor ship-builders, and before they could obtain either, they must become insolvent
and powerless, as:the result of their isolation. Let them look this
thing fairly in the face; for it is certain to follow, as it is certain
that: the government will not commit suicide. Let them look at it
in ahother point of view.l The opening of the Gulf ports as free




21
ports of entry -would at -once destroy the reveanue of the'cutr
and paralyze the commerce of the nation-virtually closing every
port of ~every non-seceeding State. Do the South imagine that
this will be permitted for an hour?  Let our Southern friends
take another view of the case. They propose secession as a defence of the slave economy; is not this a capital mistake? A farseeing statesman of Tennesee has declared that SECESSION IS
ABOLITION! Without here entering upon the argument, it
will be sufficient to suggest to the South whether they are not doing effectually the very thing which the abolitionists have vainly attempted for the last thirty years? Will a brave man commit
suicide because his life is threatened by a ruffian hitherto baffled
of his purpose?.   I speak to wise men, judge ye what I say!"
Will the border States fall, with their eyes open, into the snare of.secession, giving the Gulf States all the profit of the revolt, if
there be any, and assuming to themselves the immediate and certain ruin which must follow? Will they undertake to fortify and
guard a frontier of a thousand miles against the daily and nightly
flight of negroes deluded by a fancied elysium at the North?
Let us say in this connection, that the truefriends of the South,
outside of their own territory, are all at the North. There is no
nation or community on earth to whom they can look for sympathy or from whom they can expect aid, in this proposed exodus
from the Union. The fanaticism and prejudices of the European
nationalities are far mnore inveterate than the antagonism of the
Northern States. Attempted secession will unite all parties, and
all persons in the free states against them, not on account of slavery, but because they will be constrained to treat the enemies of
the Government and the Constitution as their enemies; not because they love the South less, but the Union more.'With the exception of a few rabid abolitionists who hate all government and
all law, there will be an entire unanimity in the free States in resistance to the proposed disruption of the Country. Can the slave:States afford to remain outside the community of nations, to be
treated as pirates at sea by the naval powers of the world, if they




h.otd. succeed in.opening the slave trade by a successful attempt
to establish a Southern confederacy? For that this will be the
first demand of the Gulf states, and their first action upon succesful secession, no man; can doubt who is familiar with public
sentiment in the extreme South. Are the Border states prepared
to accept this action and incur this odium, and sacrifice their local
interests to a foreign slave trade? Unless they are prepared to
do this, there will be a fresh secession and a new division among
the slave States themselves within twelve months after the inauguration of the proposed Southern Republic.
Truth compels me to say another thing, which I would gladly
omit, did not the present crisis demand on the part of the South a
most careful consideration of it at the present moment. I mean
the inherent and unavoidable weakness of slave States in a civil
contest with free States. Now,. I have lived among my Southern
brethern; I know their courage, always bordering upon rashness.
I know their virtues. I know that the slave, both socially and
morally, is in a far better condition at the South than the free black
at the North; for the former is treated as a kuman being, with
familiarity and kindness, and instructed in the gospel which
proffers alike to master and servant the blessings of salvaticn; the
other, not so much by any fault of his own, is made an outcast and
a vagabond, the very Pariah of our Northern civilization. These
things I know and confess, but I know also, and reflecting men
every where know, that an ignorant people in servitude, however
kindly treated, do not well understand their own interests; that an
imaginative race like the African are easily excited and deluded
by ideas of liberty and an Ethiopian Paradise at the North, which,
though it fades away like a miraget at their approach, still dazzles
their vision at a distance. Cannot the South see that a civil war,
to which all things seem now tending, must inevitably render the
servile population restless and uneasy, and at last dangerous? I
have not the least idea that a Northern army would incite or favor
insurrection, but they could have no power to prevent it, and in
tbe Gulf Statep at.east, the white population are. not su-fciently




23
nutmerous to engage in a civil war under a state of things which
would require every citizen to enrol himself among the police, organized to watch over the slave.
A civil war must necessarily disturb the very foundations of so.
ciety in the Slave States, while the Free States could easily spare
more than half a million of men, "the cankers of a calm world and
a long peace" —whose absence would not weaken us or disturb the
movement of a single factory, or take a mechanic from a solitary
workshop. Certainly, it becomes any people, however courageous
and resolute, however justly offended, to count the cost, before they
make thie plunge into the gulf of a civil-to which must be added,
the horrors of a servile war. Nlor is this commendable fbrethought
without the Divine warrant. Luke 14, 31, " What King going to
war against another King sitteth not down first and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him who cometh
against him with twenty thousand. Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an Ambassage and desireth conditions
of peace."
Nor will it be unwise for the North to consider what particular sectional profit,there will be, even in their success. They
may save the Union, but at a loss which it will take a generation
to repair. Suffer me to repeat, at this time, what I said ten years
since in this place, in the discourse before referred to, as applicable now as it was then.' There are no visionaries so wild as
those who dream that this vast Empire can be disunited peacei
fully, or that peace can ever be maintained between the North
and the South, under separate governments, with all the old
memories, the bitter prejudices, the unavoidable rivalries, the
unceasing disputes of jurisdiction, with the mouth of the Mississippi in one territory and its sources in the other, and with the
o inous slave question,j' embittered a thousand fold by the dismemberment of the country. If, in this unnatural contest, the
North should prevail over the South, it would be by making A
desert of the territory from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico,
and by'the destruction of both the races who now occupy it, a




24
vlctor —s  a sectional triumph barren of glory-the.jest ot tyrants, and the scorn of the world.
"I would appeal to the North and the South, by their common
ancestry, by the august memories of the revolutionary. struggle,
by, the bones of their fathers which lie mingled together at Yorktown and Saratoga, at Trenton and Charleston, by the farewell
counsels of the immortal Washington, to lay aside their animosities and to remember that they are brethren. I would remind
them that the Union has given us. the blessings which we enjoy-that under its Flag our victories have been won; our borders
extended; our wealth and population increased; our- ships respected in every port of every sea, until our national progress
has excited the admiration, or aroused the envy, of all the Nations and Potentates of the earth. I would warn them of that.
abyss.of ruin which fanaticism and treason are opening beneath
them; into which they would plunge our present. fortunes and
our future hopes. I- would beseech them to stand by the. Union,
to obey the laws, to frown upon agitation, in this crisis of our
beloved country. I would admonish them that failing to do this,
failing to sustain the free institutions, and to regard the mutual
compacts which we received from our fathers, we may expect as
a consequence the curses of posterity, the contempt of the world,
and the judgments of God-"
But I must draw to a close. I have endeavored to speak plainly, sincerely and truly, without fear or favor of North or South,
as a patriot and a christian, as a lover of my country, and as a servant of God. May the Almighty avert from us the horrors of a
civil war, and if he calls us to pass through an affliction, from
which no great nation has yet been exempted, may he give us
grace to meet the crisis with courage and constancy, not in mortal
terror, and with our heads bowed down as a bulrush. May God
deliver our rulers from the'spirit of fear,' and give them wisdom
and courage according to their day and the crisis they are comnpelled to meet. May the clouds which have risen at the South,
and. which begin also to appear in our Northern horizon, dis



('irlg  t',,ire. letrie  fire i    t befto'r "hle    meel t'li  lltid-lle!aveil inl a
(,, n'li'et  Vi'   1  Illluit  lllarike,   tlhe  il,e'S 4)'t fi'ree'dom ti l 1ri11, i   tili
Wi,,llt. a (-.oltfli.t which will brimn' Ilo r    1 -i.o' aId woein' t,)it')'lmlerable ll:,-usehlold. a,1d1 fill the.hnd -Xitlt  idiw>  atnlld  Oi,hIs.
I l:Il'cn. 0  Ld,,i   tihe pllver,)f tllv pl eoplt   ill the day,,f  lltei c'laei l-l
it          ele I 1   ii e    humniliation, aveit fir. l     thlelm  tlhy  thl teate  (ed
j.id(ne, t, pt,! retserve  tl fi    ll.e  iio fl (4 tl   e  States, destr( a   l,tA tl 
1we{o1)Ie tl:hotu  iidst l)lalit ill tlie  w-ildeln(es, wl1ose  donlinionts t}hl:l
ltast extell(leel  i'oll, oceai to 4ic)(-ea.   Say unto              i t  t in t le lllidst tf'
the perils whiih:t  surn'oun(l is as thou  (-idst to t1lty  hosel t )) p eople
ii:  t-he  anleieilt (lay-    Fea ir thou not, ti,.[  r        il ai t lvi   tlhee  be not
1iSeorOagedl.  tor  I amn  thi  (G4od; I I ill strengtheni  thee:  yea. I
will help thee; whent  tlIou passest tillouglih tlhe  wNater   I will bhe
witlh thee; when thlou walkest thri 1,'lti the  fire  thtou shalt. n-)t be.urn-ed, iieither sall] thetit  fltlieC kindle u1.)011m thl(c,.   Fear  uiot. fir I
am   witb thlee; I will!Nil-o'  t liv see(1  firoit tle  EI ast   1d,at1her
thee frico    the  West.   I xill say to tllr N,:r't,  givye up, and tI, t t,
Southl, keep not back."   An t1    and aie n.












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