and in all probability would, have been in different hands, but for the connivance of the very men who inaugurated this rebellion; and even after Mr. Lincoln was elected, that with Congress and the Supreme Court against him, he would have had no power whatever in the government, except to nominate men to offices in place of others to be put out, a power which, like

"The gun that, aimed at duck or plover,
Recoils, and kicks its owner over,"

is a power that will kill any administration; and if, instead of seceding, the Southern leaders had consented to help to administer the government, according to the forms of the constitution, Mr. Lincoln and his party would have had control of only the Executive branch, and been entirely powerless for any affirmative course of policy. The Legislative branch would have been against him. The Judicial branch would have been against him. He could nominate men to office, but the Senate could reject his nominations. He could make treaties, but the Senate could refuse to ratify them. And that is all there would have been of his administration, if they had not deserted their posts.

The change of administration, therefore, was not the cause of the rebellion. The plot was concocted long before. It was maturely deliberated on the part of the rebel leaders. They saw that they could not control the government beyond a certain point of time. They first hoped that they might nominate some of their particular men at the Charleston Convention, with a prospect of success at the election. But about January, previous to the Convention, they saw that such could not be the result, and that they could not be nominated, and from that moment we can trace the ripening and going on of secession with fearful and rapid strides. They claimed the right of secession-peaceable secession. They claimed such a right under the constitution of the United States They knew the claim was false; for every lawyer, every statesman, every man and woman and child knows that no such provision can be contained in the constitution, or can exist in the very nature of things. But they claimed that they had the right to secede, and that peaceably; and they did secede, as far as they could. They passed their ordinances of

secession in hot haste, and then when they were passed, before there was one single menace on the part of the government of any name or kind; and when a garrison of one company of soldiers-not a full company at that time—were holding the forts in the harbor of Charleston, placed there in a time of peace, placed there for purposes of peace; and that company starving in a Christian land, and under the broad flag of the Union, in a fortress within the limits of South Carolina, on a site of land, the jurisdiction of which had been ceded by South Carolina to the general government, and they within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; when that company of men were there in peace, and the South Carolinians had assurance from the government in every form that they were there for no hostile purpose; yet, in their hatred of the United States and of the flag of the Stars and Stripes, they felt it to be their duty, in their great spirit of freedom, to fire upon a government vessel carrying supplies of food, and then upon that starving company of men, placed there as a peace garrison, and to reduce that fortress. In the extreme spirit of peace, the government of the United States, the administration of Mr. Buchanan and of Mr. Lincoln both, committed a great fault in permitting those rebellious people to erect batteries to reduce a United States fortress. But in mistaken leniency it was done, hoping to bring them back to the fold of the Union, when all men should have known that they had no good feeling, that they had determined upon rebellion, and that there was no other way to treat them except by the strong arm of power. And had that been extended them even earlier, I think it would have suited their condition better. And it is not now too late. The popular breeze tells us it is not too late; and everywhere, since the people of the United States became thoroughly aroused, we see the triumphs coming on every hand; and within one week's time there will be events of great and startling interest between the rebels and the armies of the Union. We cannot doubt that that must be the result, for "truth is mighty and will prevail."

We are told that we should make the rebels propositions of peace. Parties attempting to stand upon that little isthmus between right and wrong cannot maintain themselves. Make propositions of peace? If you make propositions of peace you VOL. II.-7

must receive propositions of peace, and which shall be the superior and which the inferior? A proposition of peace to rebels presupposes equality. The power with which you propose to treat must be a power that has rights. Yet the rebel power declares continually that it will sever this government in twain; that it will divide it, and destroy the prestige of the great government of Washington. That is the question between us-the question that interests the whole American people. He who consents to make propositions of peace, consents to substitute anarchy for government. He who consents to make propositions of peace, consents to take lawlessness for loyalty. He who consents to make propositions of peace, consents to blot out the chapters of his Constitution, and to destroy the work of those who erected this noble fabric of government. Are these the friends of the government? If they have intelligence-if they have any sense or reason left, we might invoke the Father of Mercies to forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are the sappers and miners of the Constitution -more dangerous than all the armies of the rebels in the field. They may do more hourly to drive the dagger to the heart of the Constitution and destroy the Union than all their assailants in arms. We propose no such thing for rebellion. We intend to bring it to the judgment-seat. The only thing we say to the rebels is:

"Fear not; doubt not—which thou wilt,

We try this quarrel hilt to hilt."

We have no words for this rebellion but "put it down." Put it down by force; put it down with arms; put it down, not with propositions of peace, but with the strong arm of power. Put it down as a rebellion. It has already been tried and convicted. It only awaits the axe of the executioner, now suspended over it, and we propose to let the axe fall.

We are told that this would be coercing a State, and you cannot coerce a State. I agree that you cannot coerce a State of the United States that is true to its obligations. But suppose it is a state of sin and misery? That you can coerce. You cannot coerce a community, but you can arrest their thieves. You cannot coerce a city, but you can seize and punish its criminals. You cannot force people to be loyal and faithful

in all departments; but you can coerce down a riot if you try. So you can a rebellion. We would not coerce the loyal people, but the disloyal. We have propositions of peace, we have amity and good-will for the loyal Southern people, but we have arms for rebels and hemp for traitors, too. We are told that the right of habeas corpus must not be suspended, and all the musty volumes of the country are ransacked to find out if the President of the United States is a usurper and tyrant, because he would not allow armies to be betrayed, because he would not allow the citadel of the government to be ransacked, its archives destroyed and given to the flames, or, because he resisted traitors. They forgot that the war power underlies and stands all round the Constitution; that the war power supports and sustains the Constitution. But, we are asked, is not this a dangerous power? Certainly it is a dangerous power. War itself is always dangerous. When the sky is lowering, when the winds are howling, when the lightnings flash and thunders roar, you need not then ask, my friends, "Is not this a danger ous time?" You may say, like the boy who was caught out in a thunder-storm :

"Can you pray?"

"No."

"Nor I either, but something must be done."

Something must be done here. Treason is on every hand. The President of the United States knows not whom he may trust. He finds one betraying a command here, another stirring up traitors there. He finds one who is sworn to support the government, and invoking God to witness his oath, in arms against it. He merely resorts to the war power, and when he sees a traitor with his own eyes, or the eyes of another, he consigns him to Fort McHenry, or Fort Lafayette, or some other safe quarters, and serves him right. And when the history of this rebellion is written—and it will be written with a pen of fire, let those who now think they are playing a political game successfully, to come out successfully, beware. Let them turn, behold, and tremble. They will be there too. They will appear in no enviable light, and will feel like calling upon the rocks and mountains to fall to hide their faces from a betrayed and indignant people. When it is written, Abraham Lincoln will be more justified, in the sight of God and man, for the strong measures

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taken with perjury and treason in every form, than can be admitted now by those who oppose his administration.

but

But the right of the press has been violated. The President is called a great tyrant. How can any man apologize for that, unless he is an Abolitionist or a very black Republican? How is it possible for him to justify such an infringement of the rights of the press? But if a man speaks treason, he is guilty, of course. Hurry him off. Away with him. If he writes treason, and is detected, lay hold of him; if he prints treason he is sacred. You must not touch him. That is acting upon the principle that, when the mischief is wholesale, the wrong is to be excused on account of the great enormity of the offence. The right of the press is a great and sacred right. It has the right of discussion of government policy and of individual action, being responsible for the truth of what it publishes. But the press has no more-right to aid treason than I have. It has no more immunity from rascality. A treasonable press is as soon to be arrested as a treasonable wretch who crawls into a camp at midnight to betray or destroy.

And now I want to make an issue with Secessiondom in all its phases, from the lisping infant in the cradle to the full-grown and terrific monster. I say that, as a Democrat, I justify Abraham Lincoln in his suspension of the habeas corpus; in his suspension of a seditious and treasonable press, and in his arrest of mischievous individuals. I will stand upon it now and hereafter, and I dare all to take the decision of a trial upon principles of national law. The rule will be found laid down in Swift, one of the earliest writers upon war power, which shows that the King in such emergencies has absolute power. Why does he have it? For the same reason that I have absolute power for self-defence. The government is an existing being, as I have before said; it claims perpetuity; when its life is assailed it does not consult its astrologers or soothsayers to say whether it shall live; its instinct tells it, as it tells me, that self-defence is the great law of nature. It is not written in constitutions, it is written in the heart of man, and it lives there, whether it be for the government or for the individual.

And the American people, when the sober, second thought comes, will justify all these measures. Is it pretended that innocent men have been injured? Of course that will be the