“Public Meeting” Handbill, before July 10, 1832

Public Meeting.

The citizens of Adams County, adverse to the election of judges by the people, and opposed to Nullification, are requested to meet at the court-house, in the city of Natchez, on Thursday next, the 10th instant, at 11 o'clock.

The necessity for calling this meeting is deeply regretted; not the more so, that it has occurred at a period so close upon the election, than as affecting the political standing of a gentleman who has been placed before the people of Adams, by the spontaneous act of a large portion of its citizens, as a candidate for one of their highest gifts. It is believed by a large body of those of Judge Quitman's friends who sustained his nomination, and who intended by their votes to have contributed to his election, that he is a Nullifier in principle! That his opinions, frequently of late expressed upon the subject of nullification, are the same as Mr. Calhoun's and Mr. Hayne's; the ono its author, the other its first public propagator. Judge Quitman's friends in this county believe that nullification is unsound in theory, and contrary to the Constitution; that its tendency is anarchy, and that the effect of its practical application to any given case is disunion! They look to the indications in South Carolina, and despair of its permanency, while she asserts her right and intention to nullify a law of the United States. They look to the threats of her governor that, before the year is out, her citizens will be in arms; to the declarations of a portion of her delegation in Congress, who wish to go home and prepare for war. They are also well aware of the disposition of the leaders of the party to form a great Southern league to crusade against the Union. Under these circumstances, and at such a crisis, a large portion of Judge Quitman's friends can not sustain him, without sustaining nullification, and putting at issue in this state the question of union or disunion.

It is therefore thought proper that this meeting be called, with the view of endeavoring to produce such reconciliation as will prevent any serious division in the ranks of those opposed to the election of judges by the people, or, if that is found to be impracticable, to bring out another candidate in place of Judge Quitman. It is expected and desired that Judge Quitman will attend; and, if his opinions have been misrepresented, that his friends may be undeceived and again united.

many Citizens.

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 112-3

Montgomery Blair to Abraham Lincoln, March 15, 1861

Post Office Department

Washington March 15th 1861.

Sir

In reply to your interrogatory whether in my opinion it is wise to provision Fort Sumpter under present circumstances, I submit the following considerations in favor of provisioning that Fort—

The ambitious leaders of the late Democratic party have availed themselves of the disappointment attendant upon defeat in the late Presidential election to found a Military Government in the Seceding States. To the connivance of the late administration it is due alone that this Rebellion has been enabled to attain its present proportions– It has grown by this complicity into the form of an organized Government in Seven States and up to this moment nothing has been done to check its progress or prevent its being regarded either at home or abroad as a successful revolution– Every hour of acquiescence in this condition of things and especially every new conquest made by the rebels strengthens their hands at home and their claim to recognition as an independent people abroad. It has from the beginning and still is treated practically as a lawful proceeding and the honest and Union loving people in those States must by a continuance of this policy become reconciled to the new Government and though founded in wrong come to be regard it as rightful Government.

I in common with all my associates in your council agree that we must look to the people of these States for the overthrow of this rebellion and that it is proper to exercise the powers of the Federal Government only so far as to maintain its authority to collect the revenue and maintain possession of the public property in the states and that this should be done with as little blood-shed as possible. How is this to be carried into effect? That it is by measures which will inspire respect for the power of the Government and the firmness of those who administer it does not admit of debate.

It is equally obvious that rebellion was checked in 1833 by the promptitude of the President in taking measures which made it manifest that it could not be attempted with impunity and that it has grown to its present formidable proportions only because similar measures were not taken.

The action of the President in 1833 inspired respect whilst in 1860 the rebels were encouraged by the contempt they felt for the incumbent of the Presidency.

But it was not alone upon Mr. Buchanans weakness the rebels relied for success. They for the most part believe that the Northern men are deficient in the courage necessary to maintain the Government. It is this prevalent error in the South which induces so large a portion of the people there to suspect the good faith of the people of the North and enables the demagogues so successfully to inculcate the notion that the object of the Northern people is to abolish Slavery and make the Negroes the equals of the whites. Doubting the manhood of northern men they discredit their disclaimers of a this purpose to humiliate and injure them—

Nothing would so surely gain credit for such disclaimers as the manifestation of resolution on the part of the President to maintain the lawful authority of the nation – no men or people have so many difficulties as those whose firmness is doubted.

The evacuation of Fort Sumpter when it is known that it can be provisioned and manned will convince the rebels that the administration lacks firmness and will therefore tend more than any event that has happened to embolden them and so far therefore from tending to prevent collision will, ensure it unless all the other forts are evacuated and all attempts are given up to maintain the authority of the United States.

Mr. Buchanans policy has I think re-rendered collision almost inevitable & a continuance of that policy will not only bring it about but will go far to produce a permanent division of the Union.

This is manifestly the public Judgment which is much more to be relied on than that of any individual: I believe that Fort Sumpter may be provisioned and relieved by Captn Fox with little risk and Genl. Scotts opinion that with its war compliment there is no force in South Carolina which can take it – renders it almost certain that it will not then be attempted. This would completely demoralize the Rebellion. The impotent rage of the Rebels and the outburst of patriotic feeling which would follow this achievement would initiate a reactionary movement throughout the South which would speedily overwhelm the traitors. No expense or care should therefore be spared to achieve this success—

The appreciation of our stocks will pay for the most lavish outlay to make it one. Nor will the result be materially different to the nation if the attempt fails and its gallant leader and followers are lost. It will in any event vindicate the hardy courage of the North and the determination of the people and their President to maintain the authority of the Government, & this is all that is wanting in my judgment to restore it.

You should give no thought for the Commander and his comrades in this enterprize– They willingly take the hazards for the sake of the country and the honor which, successful or not, they will receive from you and the lovers of free Government in all lands.

I am Sir very respectfully

Yr obt sevt

M. Blair

To the President

SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner,* November 26, 1846

Cincinnati, Nov. 26, 1846.

My Dear Sir: I promised Mr. Vaughan, sometime ago, to write you in reference to the True American, but have been prevented by various circumstances from fulfilling the promise. I have little leisure now, but possibly a few words may be offered.

You are aware, doubtless, of all the circumstances relating to C. M. Clay’s¹ connection with the paper. I was well aware of that gentleman's aversion to editorial duty, and the last letter I rec'd from him before he left Louisville with his Company advised me that he should not continue the paper under his own charge any longer than was absolutely necessary. I had, however, no idea that its publication would be abandoned during his absence, or that he had given a discretionary power over the very existence of the paper to Brutus I. Clay, his brother, an open and avowed enemy of the movement and anxious to disengage his brother C. M. from what he (B. I.) deemed a false position. I am not yet willing to believe that Mr. C. M. Clay, in giving a general power of attorney to Brutus to act for him in all his affairs (including of course the paper) had any expectation that the American would be discontinued during his absence. He made an engagement with Mr. Vaughan² to edit it; he accepted with expressions of gratitude my own offer of assistance, which assistance, however, I am bound to say Mr. Vaughan's superior ability and tact rendered totally unnecessary; and, I feel very sure that at the time of his last letter to me he relied on the American as a powerful and indispensable auxiliary to the great effort which he designed to make on behalf of emancipation immediately after his return. Whether he afterward changed his purpose or not I am unable to say. I will not believe that he did except upon evidence. I am unwilling to condemn a man who has acted nobly, until I see proofs of absolute and total dereliction.

However, the paper by the act of B. I. Clay is discontinued. But the friends of Freedom in Kentucky are determined that it shall not stay discontinued. They have organized in Louisville and elsewhere, and have resolved that the paper shall go on under the charge of Mr. Vaughan, provided the necessary assistance can be had. To see whether this assistance can be had Mr. Vaughan has this day started for the east. I beg leave to commend him and his object to your kindest consideration. Mr. V — is a South Carolinian, and might, had he been willing to identify himself with the Nullifiers, have occupied almost any position in his native State. His principles forbade this, and he afterwards removed to this city. Almost from his first arrival his sentiments on the subject of Slavery have been advancing, until he now stands on the same or nearly the same platform which you occupy. I feel sure that no man fitter for the time and place can be found. As to the importance of the paper, it cannot well be overestimated. There is a vast amount of antislavery sentiment in the Slave States, which requires to be fostered and developed. All the hill country is favorable, except so far as mere prejudice prevents, to Freedom. The paper has a very good circulation in the Slave States. It is the link between the Antislavery sentiment of the North and South. It cannot be lost without great detriment to the cause both North and South. I trust, therefore, Mr. Vaughan's efforts will be liberally rewarded by the enlightened Friends of Humanity, Freedom, and Advancement in the East.

I do not often solicit such a favor, but may I beg a copy of your Phi Beta Kappa address? I believe I have heretofore thanked you for your 4th July Oration on the True Grandeur of Nations, and expressed the admiration with which its perusal inspired me — an admiration shared, I believe, by all readers of the document except the devotees of Conservatism, falsely so called.

Why can not the Friends of Freedom stand together? Why exact from me, a Democrat, addresses to the Whigs, or from you, a Whig, addresses to the Democrats? Is not the question of Freedom paramount, and is it not great enough in itself and its connexions for a party to stand on, without dividing addresses?

I pray you to pardon the liberty I have taken in writing this to one to whom I am almost wholly unknown, and believe me, With very great respect,

Yours truly,

[Salmon P. Chase]

_______________

* All the letters from Chase to Sumner are from the Pierce-Sumner Papers in the library of Harvard University.

¹ The wellknown Cassias Marcellus Clay.

² John C. Vaughan, cf. Wilson's Slave Power, II, 143-144, 510, and Pierce's Sumner, III, 165.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 111

Francis Lieber to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, August 10, 1863

August 10.

. . . I have the pleasure of sending you a copy of the Memoir to Mr. Secretary Stanton, of which I spoke in my letter of yesterday. Mr. Petigru has always been acknowledged, by friend and foe, to be the most accomplished lawyer of the South. He was a decided and efficient Union man in the times of Nullification. He is now seventy-five years old, and remains unmolested, as the “only Union man of South Carolina,” on account of his age and almost complete retirement, he has always been a good friend of mine. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 336

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: March 27, 1861

Wednesday – I have been mobbed by my own house servants. Some of them are at the plantation, some hired out at the Camden hotel, some are at Mulberry. They agreed to come in a body and beg me to stay at home to keep my own house once more, “as I ought not to have them scattered and distributed every which way.” I had not been a month in Camden since 1858. So a house there would be for their benefit solely, not mine. I asked my cook if she lacked anything on the plantation at the Hermitage. "Lack anything?” she said, “I lack everything. What are cornmeal, bacon, milk, and molasses? Would that be all you wanted? Ain't I been living and eating exactly as you does all these years? When I cook for you, didn't I have some of all? Dere, now!" Then she doubled herself up laughing. They all shouted, “Missis, we is crazy for you to stay home.”

Armsted, my butler, said he hated the hotel. Besides, he heard a man there abusing Marster, but Mr. Clyburne took it up and made him stop short. Armsted said he wanted Marster to know Mr. Clyburne was his friend and would let nobody say a word behind his back against him, etc., etc. Stay in Camden? Not if I can help it. “Festers in provincial sloth” — that's Tennyson's way of putting it.

“We” came down here by rail, as the English say. Such a crowd of Convention men on board. John Manning¹ flew in to beg me to reserve a seat by me for a young lady under his charge. “Place aux dames,” said my husband politely, and went off to seek a seat somewhere else. As soon as we were fairly under way, Governor Manning came back and threw himself cheerily down into the vacant place. After arranging his umbrella and overcoat to his satisfaction, he coolly remarked: “I am the young lady.” He is always the handsomest man alive (now that poor William Taber has been killed in a duel), and he can be very agreeable; that is, when he pleases to be so. He does not always please. He seemed to have made his little maneuver principally to warn me of impending danger to my husband's political career. “Every election now will be a surprise. New cliques are not formed yet. The old ones are principally bent upon displacing one another.” “But the Yankees — those dreadful Yankees!” “Oh, never mind, we are going to take care of home folks first! How will you like to rusticate? — go back and mind your own business?” “If I only knew what that was — what was my own business.”

Our round table consists of the Judge, Langdon Cheves,² Trescott,³ and ourselves. Here are four of the cleverest men that we have, but such very different people, as opposite in every characteristic as the four points of the compass. Langdon Cheves and my husband have feelings and ideas in common. Mr. Petigru⁴ said of the brilliant Trescott: “He is a man without indignation.” Trescott and I laugh at everything.

The Judge, from his life as solicitor, and then on the bench, has learned to look for the darkest motives for every action. His judgment on men and things is always so harsh, it shocks and repels even his best friends. To-day he said: “Your conversation reminds me of a flashy second-rate novel.” “How?” “By the quantity of French you sprinkle over it. Do you wish to prevent us from understanding you?” “No,” said Trescott, “we are using French against Africa. We know the black waiters are all ears now, and we want to keep what we have to say dark. We can't afford to take them into our confidence, you know.”

This explanation Trescott gave with great rapidity and many gestures toward the men standing behind us. Still speaking the French language, his apology was exasperating, so the Judge glared at him, and, in unabated rage, turned to talk with Mr. Cheves, who found it hard to keep a calm countenance. On the Battery with the Rutledges, Captain Hartstein was introduced to me. He has done some heroic things — brought home some ships and is a man of mark. Afterward he sent me a beautiful bouquet, not half so beautiful, however, as Mr. Robert Gourdin's, which already occupied the place of honor on my center table. What a dear, delightful place is Charleston!  A lady (who shall be nameless because of her story) came to see me to-day. Her husband has been on the Island with the troops for months. She has just been down to see him. She meant only to call on him, but he persuaded her to stay two days. She carried him some clothes made from his old measure. Now they are a mile too wide. “So much for a hard life!” I said.  “No, no,” said she, “they are all jolly down there. He has trained down; says it is good for him, and he likes the life.” Then she became confidential, although it was her first visit to me, a perfect stranger. She had taken no clothes down there — pushed, as she was, in that manner under Achilles’s tent. But she managed things; she tied her petticoat around her neck for a nightgown.

_______________

¹ John Lawrence Manning was a son of Richard I. Manning, a former Governor of South Carolina. He was himself elected Governor of that State in 1852, was a delegate to the convention that nominated Buchanan, and during the War of Secession served on the staff of General Beauregard. In 1865 he was chosen United States Senator from South Carolina, but was not allowed to take his seat.

² Son of Langdon Cheves, an eminent lawyer of South Carolina, who served in Congress from 1810 to 1814; he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and from 1819 to 1823 was President of the United States Bank; he favored Secession, but died before it was accomplished — in 1857.

³ William Henry Trescott, a native of Charleston, was Assistant Secretary of State of the United States in 1860, but resigned after South Carolina seceded. After the war he had a successful career as a lawyer and diplomatist.

⁴ James Louis Petigru before the war had reached great distinction as a lawyer and stood almost alone in his State as an opponent of the Nullification movement of 1830-1832. In 1860 he strongly opposed disunion, although he was then an old man of 71. His reputation has survived among lawyers because of the fine work he did in codifying the laws of South Carolina.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 22-5

Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren on the Nullification Crisis

(Private)

Washington, January 13th, 1833.

My dear Sir:

Yours of the 9th instant was handed to me by Mr. Wright last night, with whom I had some conversation on our general concerns, and I congratulate your state and my country for sending us a man of his integrity, talents and firmness, at the present crisis. It will give me pleasure to consult him on all your local concerns; and here I would remark that the Secretary of State and many of your friends in New York were the cause of the selection of Mr. Dewit.

I have received several letters from you which remain unanswered. You know I am a bad correspondent at any time, lately I have been indisposed by cold, and surrounded with the nullifiers of the south and the Indians in the south and west; that has occupied all my time, not leaving me a moment for private friendship, or political discussion with a friend.

I beg you not to be disturbed by any thing you may hear from the alarmists of this place; many nullifiers are here under disguise, working hard to save Calhoun and would disgrace their country and the Executive to do it. Be assured that I have and will act with all the forbearence to do my duty and extend that protection to our good citizens and the officers of our Government in the south who are charged with the execution of the laws; but it would destroy all confidence in our government, both at home and abroad, was I to sit with my arms folded and permit our good citizens in South Carolina who are standing forth in aid of the laws to be imprisoned, fined, and perhaps hung, under the ordinance of South Carolina and the laws to carry it into effect, all which, are probable violations of the constitution and subversive of every right of our citizens. Was this to be permitted the Government would loose the confidence of its citizens and it would induce disunion every where. No my friend, the crisis must be now met with firmness, our citizens protected, and the modern doctrine of nullification and secession put down forever, for we have yet to learn whether some of the eastern states may not secede or nullify, if the tariff is reduced. I have to look at both ends of the Union to preserve it. I have only time to add, that as South Carolina, has by her replevin and other laws, closed our courts, and authorized the Governor to raise 12,000 men to keep them closed, giving all power [to the] sheriffs to use this army as the posse comitatus, I must appeal to Congress to cloth our officers and Marshall with the same power to aid them in executing the laws, and apprehending those who may commit treasonable acts. This call upon Congress must be made as long before the 1st of February next as will give Congress time to meet before that day, or I would be chargeable with neglect of my duty, and as congress are in session, and as I have said in my message, which was before the So. C. ordinance reached me, if other powers were wanted I would appeal to Congress was I therefore to act without the aid of Congress, or without, communicating to it, I would be branded with the epithet, tyrant. From these remarks you will at once see the propriety of my course, and be prepared to see the communication I will make to Congress on the 17th instant, which will leave Congress ten days to act upon it before the 1st of February after it is printed. The parties in S. C. are arming on both sides, and drilling in the night and I expect soon to hear that a civil war of extermination has commenced. I will meet all things with deliberate firmness and forbearence, but wo to those nullifiers who shed the first blood. The moment I am prepared with proof I will direct prosecutions for treason to be instituted against the leaders, and if they are surrounded with 12,000 bayonets our Marshall shall be aided by 24,000 and arrest them in the midst thereof — nothing must be permitted to weaken our Government at home or abroad.

Virginia, except a few nullifiers and politicians, is true to the core. I could march from that state 40,000 men in forty days, nay, they are ready in N. C, in Tennessee, in all the western states, and from good old democratic Pennsylvania I have a tender of upwards of 50,000, and from the borders of S. C. and N. C. I have a tender of one entire Regt. — The Union shall be preserved. I write as usual in great haste.

Yr friend,

Andrew Jackson.

P.S. I will be happy to hear from you often, and see you as early as a just sense of delicacy will permit. My whole household salute thee affectionately.  A.J.

Martin Van Buren, Esqr.

SOURCES: Samuel Gordon Heiskell, Andrew Jackson And Early Tennessee History, Vol. 3, p. 500-2; Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years: Letter, Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren discussing the nullification crisis, 13 January 1833.

The Origin And Character Of The War

Lecture of Hon. Edward Everett.

Bryan Hall was crowded last evening in its utmost capacity with an intelligent and appreciative audience, assembled to listen to the celebrated lecture of the distinguished and venerable orator from Massachusetts, Edward Everett, upon “The Origin and Character of the Present War.”  Long ere the hour appointed for the commencement of the address the continual stream of people which had been pouring in since 7 o’clock had filled the spacious hall and galleries, and eagerly awaited the appearance of the eminent speaker.  At 8 o’clock Mr. Everett, accompanied by the Chairman of the Lecture Committee of the Young Men’s Association, E. W. Russell, Esq., made his appearance upon the stage, and was greeted with prolonged and enthusiastic applause.  After a few remarks by Mr. Russell, Mr. Everett came forward and opened his address with a brief introduction, in which he stated that, soon after the commencement of this war, it was said that the time for action had arrived; but with how much more propriety might it now be said since the brilliant victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Yorktown, and, as we have every reason to believe, the occupation of Richmond. (Tremendous applause.)  With this introduction, Mr. Everett proceeded to show that the present war is not, as is asserted, both here and abroad, by the enemies of the Union, an aggressive war on the part of the North.

The orator then proceeded to show that the present contest was commenced as far back as the year 1828, when South Carolina raised the cry of nullification on account of a tariff which was imposed upon sugar and cotton for the express purpose of introducing and encouraging their culture in the Southern States.  But we then had a President who did not understand the Constitution as Buchanan understood it, and that President was General Jackson.  The only privilege offered by him to the nullifiers, or any one found opposing the laws of the United States by force of arms, was that of a military execution.  In tracing the progress of this contest, the speaker’s allusions to President Jackson and General Scott were received with the most tumultuous applause.  He referred to the famous letter of Jackson in 1833, after the close of the nullification struggle, in which, with singular sagacity, as events had since proven, he declared that the tariff was then but the pretext for disunion and a southern confederacy.  The next pretext would be the slavery question.

The orator then proceeded to trace the rise and progress of the movement in England for the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and the influence it had upon the minds of certain persons on this side of the ocean; the slave insurrections in South Carolina and Virginia, which greatly excited the minds of the southern people; the Missouri Compromise of 1821; the exertions which were made during a number of sessions to settle the question of the non-introduction of slaves into the Territories; and the manner in which the South even more than the North, had made options relative to slavery a party test.

Upon Mr. Everett’s reference to the exertions which he had made to unite the hearts of the North and South, by attempting to inspire a reverence for the name of Washington and a sacred regard for his birthplace, the house rang with shouts of applause.

He then proceeded to show that the North had had as much cause for complaint and irritations by the tone of the southern journals, and speeches in Congress of southern men, as the South.  One was just as provoking as the other.

The South had been the petted child of the Union.  From the time of the Texas annexation to the compromise of 1854 and the administration of Mr. Buchanan, during which she was again favored in the forced settlement of the Kansas question against the will of the majority of the people, everything had been done to conciliate the South.  At length the election of 1860 placed the candidate of the republican party in the Presidential chair, and even then the utmost efforts were made to convince the South that its constitutional rights were the special care of the President and his friends, but the defeat of that very democratic party which southern conspirators had divided in Charleston was made the pretest for immediate secession.  South Carolina did not wait for overt acts, for she well knew that none would be committed.  She withdrew from the Union, declaring herself free and independent.  From this point Mr. Everett continued to delineate the progress of secession, step by step, and the brilliant instances of patriotism that illustrated the action of the North and northern men.  His mention of Gen. Anderson and Gen. Dix, and the conduct of the portions of the border states, especially Western Virginia and Northern Kentucky, was crowned with reiterated plaudits.  The labors of the Union Conference Convention received especial encomium, and a handsome tribute was paid to the name of Virginia and her dead patriots, chief among whom stood the immortal Washington.  The late and present position of Eastern Virginia was analyzed with much force.  Virginia tinctured with the heresies of nullification and secession, would not secede with South Carolina, but, if the right of the latter to secede should be denied, then would she stand by her.  The Teachings of her own Jefferson and Madison were perverted to the people until this right was declared to be established.

Still, Virginia would not move until the President should take measures to invade the South, as his preparations to maintain the government were called.  She would still cling to the Union, provided the Union would be divided, at will, by any and every discontented member.  The strategy of the States that had already seceded, bearing upon the melancholy privilege of Virginia to stock the plantations of the cotton States, soon changed even these dispositions, and by a wicked concert of trickery, at Richmond and Montgomery, the Old Dominion was betrayed to overt treason.  Next came the phase of open violence.  This was illustrated by a vivid description of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which the orator declared to have been a place of cool Machiavellian policy to force the United States government into hostilities, and to drive Virginia to the fulfillment of her promise to resist the march of national troops across her territory against the South.  That act, commencing on the 12^th of April, was, as Knox Walker, a member of the Confederate Cabinet, in a public harangue, declared the inauguration of the war, for the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln did not issue until the 15^th of April, and hence was not the cause or opening of the conflict.  That atrocious bombardment, which was intended to “fire the southern heart,” did fire the northern heart; and the flag that the same Walker boasted was, by the 1^st of may 1860 [sic], to float above the dome of the capitol at Washington, and soon thereafter over Faneuil Hall at Boston, will have to wait until it can regain its flight above its own Beaufort in South Carolina {Thunders of applause.}  Mr. Everett here graphically and touchingly depicted the horrors of the civil war throughout the country, and particularly the devastating punishment of Virginia and South Carolina.

Reverting then to the consideration of our government and Union in peace and prosperity, he painted a glowing picture of the future as it might be on this continent, with a vast confederacy of fifty or sixty free States, enjoying such glories and advantages as mankind has not yet dreamed.  All this bright vision foul secession blights.  The grand imposing position occupied only two years since by the United States among the nations is already jeopardized and where the South, even then, was ready to go to war with mighty England for a mere patch of Maine or Oregon, or face in arms, side by side with us, the combined power of Europe in defending the honor of the flag of stars, today she is willing to cast away the entire North – twenty great States – and herself pass under the protectorate of foreign monarchies.  Mr. Everett eloquently exposed the folly of secession, the designs of European despotisms, and the certain doom of this people when permanently divided, citing numerous historical parallels.  He concluded by invoking the vengeance of heaven and earth alike on the man who builds his fame, or rather conspicuous infamy, upon the ruin of his country, and declaring that the aims of such shall not succeed in the present instance, uttered a thrilling appeal to all the land to rally for the Union.

“Come as the winds come

When forests are rended;

Come as the waves come

When navies are stranded.”

Young and old, men and women alike, of all creeds and climes, who have sought homes and refuge on our soil with those it bore, and ye lovers of liberty throughout the world – come! come one, come all! to the rescue of the Union! –{Chicago Times.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 1