An Angel

BY MARY A. DENNISON.

A little pauper boy sat down on the curbstone, and tried to think.  His feet were bare, red and cold; but never mind that.  The chill air penetrated his ragged garments; but never mind that.  He wanted to think.  Who are these people passing him, looking so warm and comfortable?  What did it mean that they should be happy and cheerful, and he so sad?  None of them had such heavy hearts; that he was sure of.  He looked up into the cold blue sky.  What was it, and who lived up there? – Somebody had said once that God would take care of him.  Where was God?  Why didn’t he take care of him?  Oh! If he could only see God for one little minute, or the angel that the good men told him of when his mother died!  Did folks ever see God?  Did they ever see angels?

An organ grinder came near and took his stand.  The melody he played lightened the little boy’s heart somewhat; but it didn’t warm him; it didn’t make him less hungry.  He kept shivering in spite of the music, and he felt so all alone, so despairing!  Then the organ grinder passed away; he never heeded the little child sitting on the curbstone, he had so many things to think of.  The carriages passed by, and the carts, and a company of soldiers; but it was all a dumb show to him – he was trying to think; with such a dull pain at his heart. – Presently three or four coarse looking boys gathered behind him, and winked and laughed at each other.  In another moment, the youngest gave a thrust, and over went the poor little homeless child into the gutter.  One scream, one sob of anguish, as he gathered himself up, and looked after the boys, now flying away with shouts of mirth.  Oh! How cruel it seemed in them – how cruel!  The little hungry boy walked on, sobbing, and shivering to himself.  He didn’t know what he was walking for, or why he was living.  He felt out of place – a poor, forlorn spirit that had lost its way – a bruised reed that any one might break – a little heart so tender that a look was anguish, how much more a blow!

The little boy stood at last near the corner of a street.  An apple stand, at which he gazed with longing eyes, not far off, was tended by a cross looking old man.  There were cakes on the stand, and the poor little mouth of the homeless child watered as he saw one boy after another deposit his penny, and take his cake.  He had no penny, and though there was hunger in his eyes, the cross-looking old man never offered him a morsel.

The tempter came.  The old man’s back was turned.  A vile boy at his side – at the side of the homeless child – nudged his elbow.  “You take one,” he whispered; I’ll give you half.”

The little child gazed at him steadily.  He saw something in the bleared eyes that made him shrink; something that set his heart beating.

“I tell you, hook one,” whispered the boy; “I won’t tell, and we’ll go away and eat it.”

“I don’t want to steal,” said the homeless child.

“Oh! You fool,” muttered the brutal tempter, and smote him in the eyes, his heavy hand dealing a blow that sent the poor little child against the wall, his whole frame quivering with anguish.  The terrible blow had almost blinded him for a moment.  A great sob came up in his throat, “Oh! What have I done to be treated so?”  There never, never was a God, or He would not let him suffer so, and that because he refused to be wicked.  I don’t believe that ever a man in his deadliest bereavements suffered more than that sad little child.  His heart was literally swelling with grief, and though he could not reason about it, he felt as if there was a great and sore injustice somewhere.

He started to cross the street.  A dark, blinding pain still made his poor temples ring.

“Back! back!  Good heavens!  The child is under his feet!  Back! back!”

“Oh! Mamma, it’s our horses run over a poor little boy.  Oh! Mamma, mamma!”

“Is he hurt much, coachman?”  The woman is pale as ashes.  “Yes, he is hurt badly. – Take him right in; don’t wait; carry him right in and up stairs.  It was your carelessness.  The child shall [be] tended to.”

There is no anguish now.  Perhaps God saw he had borne all he could, and so took the poor little broken heart there to heal.  How very white and quiet!  “Oh! A sweet face – a sweet sweet face!” murmured the woman, bending over the boy; and tears fell upon his forehead, but he did not feel them.

“Oh, the poor little boy!” sobs Nelly, “the poor little boy!  I wish he had kept on the side-walk; I wish he had staid at home with his mother.”

Alas! in this world there was no mother to keep him.

The doctor came, said he was not dead, but would very likely die.  There was a hospital near.  The poor thing had better be sent there.  But the good woman would not allow that.  She would care for him herself, she said.  He had been injured by one of her horses, and she felt it was her duty to attend to him.  Besides it was likely the child had no mother.  Such a boy as he, with a face so sweet and girlish, so pure and loveable, would never been sent on the streets like that, if he had a mother.  Besides (and her tears fell) there was a little mound not yet green over just such a child.  No, no; it was not in her heart to put the poor wounded boy away.  Let him stay whether he lived or died.

The weary, weary days passed on.  One morning, the little boy opened his dim blue eyes, but he did not know himself.  His glance fell wearily on his hands.  There were white bands around his wrists, with ruffles on them.  The bed was so snowy white, too, and a crimson light fell over everything.

“Dear God! I am in heaven,” Murmured the child.  “Yes, God will take care of me now.”

What visions of loveliness glanced forth from the shadow behind the bed?  The beaming eyes looked love and [gladness] upon him.

“Oh! yes there is an angel!” he said softly.  “They won’t knock me over again; they won’t want me to steal apples here; and perhaps I shall never die again.  Now, I want to see my mother.”

“My dear boy, are you better this morning?” asked a low, soft voice.

He turned slowly, wearily.

“Is it mother?” he murmured.

“Oh! yes,” and there were quick sobs and tears, “yes my little child, I will be your mother, and you shall be my son.  Will you love me dearly?”

“Heaven! No darling, it is earth; but God sent you here to our hearts, and you shall be loved and cared for.  See here is a little sister and you will be very happy with her.  Kiss him, Nelly”

Her rosy lips touched his pale ones, and a heavenly smile lighted up his face.  The past was not forgotten, but it was gone.  No more mouldy crusts, oaths, harsh words and blows.  No more begging at basement doors, and looking half famished envy to a dog gnawing a bone in the streets.  No more fear of rude children who never knew where their own hearts lay; no more sleeping on door steps and listening in terror to the drunken quarrels of the vicious and depraved.

Yes the past was gone; and in the rosy future were love, home, even God and the angels.  Certainly sweet spirits had guarded that child and guided him out of seeming evil into positive good.  Surely henceforth he would put his hand trustingly in theirs and turn his face heavenward.  Yes, it was so to be.  The dear teachable child – a jewel picked from the mire, a brand snatched from the burning – was yet to illume the dark paths of this world with his holy, heaven-like teaching.  Like a dove he was to go forth over the waters and find the olive branch with which to garland his glad tidings.  Blessings, then on all who hold their arms out toward needy little children, making their homes arks of refuge!  Beautiful stars shall they have in their crowns of rejoicing, for surely there is no jewel brighter in the world, and perhaps in all eternity, than the soul of a little child. –{Wesleyan Methodist Magazine

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

Explosion of a Currency

Public attentions has been so exclusively directed to the military and navel movements of the Rebel Government that but comparatively little notice has been taken of its monetary progress, whether upward or downward.  Steam rams, turtles, forts, and rifle-pits, have filled the Northern eye, while the foul issue of a still fouler conspiracy have filled the Southern pockets.  We have shelled the turtles, sunk the rams, cleared the rifle-pits and captured the forts, facing the enemy at every point; but, singularly enough, have had no encounter with the Rebel currency.  It is true that we have obtained distant glimpses of the great carnival of rags in which the Southern zanies have been rioting.  Huge deposits of their fetid trash have been taken with their forts and passed from hand to hand among the victors, to be preserved as mute but greasy mementoes of typographical barbarism.  Samples have been sent home by the captors, to be pasted up in shops and bar rooms as curiosities, or preserved in the albums of collectors of Continental currency, that issued for a holy cause for the first time in American history, taking its place by the spawn of an unholy one.  But saving a short, abortive effort at the outbreak of the Rebellion, to peddle the worthless stuff in Northern cities, and the chance reports which reach us from our advancing armies or from fugitive loyalists, we know but little of the social and commercial results of this unexampled issue of an irredeemable currency.  In the hurrying tramp of advancing columns – in the excitement of battle – even after the peaceful occupation of the largest Southern cities – those flying historians of the war, the army correspondents and reporters seem to have given no attention to the currency question.  We may form some general idea of how it stands on learning that tea is selling at $4 a pound, and calico at $1 a yard; but of the wide-spread misery under which the South has suffered we shall learn no definite particulars until the domestic history of the Rebellion shall have been written.

History, however, enables us to conjecture what misery the South is yet to undergo from the collapse of its paper currency.  We know not what amount her treasonable Government has issued, but, from all the information obtainable through her newspapers, we presume it to be at least $300,000,000.  A fraction of the first issue was taken by her citizens in the early furor of the outbreak.  As the people held back, the banks were coerced into subscriptions, then into exchanges of their notes for Rebel bonds.  These resources exhausted, the leaders issued without limit and forced it on the people in payment for supplies, the armies carrying with them millions of unsigned scrip to be used whenever and wherever it might be required.  The true basis for redemption was the success of rebellion.  We have had other rebellions in this country, but this is the only one which attempted to manufacture its own money.  Its artificial basis was the cotton crop and redemption was dependent on success, because without the latter the cotton crop would fail to reach the European market.  But treason has run its bloody course with a rapidity that has astonished the nations.  Every basis, real and artificial, has disappeared.  Conscious of this, the cotton foundation for its bonds is ordered to be destroyed.  This act is the dying confession of the discomfited traitors.  The millions of paper they have issued is left to perish in the hands of the Southern people.  It was in every one’s possession.  As coin disappeared into thousands of private hoards, its place was supplied by paper, which immediately filled the channels of circulation.  It was that or nothing.  Both terror and necessity compelled its adoption.  Those who hesitated to receive it were suspected, while those who refused it were stripped of property and imprisoned.  Real money, in fact, ceased to be known in business transactions and the day of barter returned, the bartering of merchandise for paper.

But even this compulsory currency was insufficient to gorge the community.  Every individual was at liberty to issue whatever he could circulate.  As there was no small change, so each man made it for himself.  Barbers issued tickets good for a shave, groggeries such as were good for drinks, undertakers such as were redeemable in coffins, and even the gamblers and faro bankers issued similar tokens.  The entire fractional currency of all the Southern cities was made of this irredeemable trash.  From them it spread into the country, and as it was there absorbed, the makers issued more.  So pitiable was the southern destitution – so humiliating her dependence on the North, that, shut out from fresh supplies by a blockade which it was thought facetious six months ago to sneer at, these myriads of tickets were printed on brown paper, back of old letters, shop cards and bonnet boards.  The world has never seen a currency to equal it for rottenness.  The Continental currency had value at the beginning – even the French assignats were the representatives of a vast tangible property – but this whole Rebel currency has been the most stupendous swindle from the start that the world has ever beheld.  It falls dead upon the hands of every man who holds it, and $300,000,000 of loss cannot be so distributed in any community as not to impoverish thousands by the explosion.  What other generations suffered from Continental notes and assignats, the South must suffer with far greater severity from this universal collapse.

No history of the Continental currency has yet been written, and what we know concerning it must be gathered up from contemporaneous records in which it is incidentally referred to.  Neither has a history of the Colonial paper currency been written; but enough has been preserved to give us some idea of the wide spread ruin which has in every instance swept over the community which may have plunged into great issues of irredeemable paper.  Even cautions, prudent Massachusetts was compelled, in 1751, to redeem £1,792,236 of her paper, at a loss of 90 per cent. to the holders.  In 1712, South Carolina issued £48,000 in bills, which depreciated one third the first year, one half the second, and gradually sunk to almost nothing. – Only six months after the Declaration of Independence, public confidence in the Continental money was seriously impaired.  The Tories sneered at it, and the British counterfeited it.  In October, 1777, it had depreciated to three for one.  The belief was that even if independence were secured by the country would be found too poor to pay its debt; while domestic enemies declared, and the army unfortunately believed, that, if ever able to pay, it did not intend too.  Up to September, 1779, Congress had issued $160,000,000 of paper, and then resolved that the issues should at no time exceed $200,000,000.  But once entered on the career, its issues soon exceeded this limit, and the next year its paper sunk to seventy-five for one.  Coin was impossible to be had, and taxes could not be collected.  In 1781, Congress had issued $359,000,000 of paper, and at that date the earlier notes had sunk to five hundred for one of hard money.  Thenceforward, the depreciation went rapidly toward utter worthlessness.  It is known that millions of this paper were never redeemed, and that depreciation and repudiation combined inflicted untold distress upon the people.  Taxation followed, and this culminated in the Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania and in Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts, with alarming symptoms of an outbreak in New Hampshire and Connecticut.

All American history is full of warning as to the certain ruin to follow the gorging of a community with a paper currency for whose early redemption no certain provision may have been made.  The South can hope for no exemption from a similar fate.  Her currency began to depreciate from the moment it was issued.  The Continental Congress bore up for eight years under the waning value of its currency, but a single year has been sufficient to wipe out hundreds of millions in the South.  That Congress did repay many millions of its war debt by bonds which have long since been liquidated, but not a dollar of the enormous issues of the Southern Confederacy will be paid.  If a successful rebellion impoverished so many of our fathers, how many will an unsuccessful one convert into paupers!  The stake, moreover, which the South has hazarded in provoking this contest is immeasurably greater than that which all the Colonies possessed.  They had no banks, no railroads, no canals, no telegraphs, no steamers, no furnaces nor mines, nor any of the multiplied appliances of modern civilization into which the South has concentrated millions of capital.  All these have been dangerously crippled, some nearly ruined, others annihilated.  Her banks must be hopelessly insolvent; her State bonds may continue as footballs at the Stock Board, but redemption is almost impossible; while the great bulk of her Corporation stocks is comparatively worthless.  Thousand depended upon incomes thus derived, but now swept away. – Other thousands have meanly fattened upon slave labor; but, under the stunning blows rained down upon it by the stalwart North and West this dependence now reels to its dissolution.  No coupon is paid, no corporation declares a dividend.  Slaves are unsalable, while the title to all real estate is doubtful under the prospect of a wholesale sequestration.  Every prop on which her deluded people has rested has been knocked away.  Agriculture produces no crops, while every cannon fired by our advancing armies drives hundreds of families as fugitives from their homes.  Of all wars, those of invasion are the most frightful, and this the righteously desolated South as fully realized.  The crash must be proportioned to the magnitude of the interests involved.

But the full force of her monetary collapse is yet to come.  When peace lifts the curtain, and lays bare her pecuniary nakedness, we shall behold a perfect carnival of insolvency.  It will be aggravated by the obliteration of vast properties voluntarily destroyed.  The voluntary destruction is of itself an admission that confiscation is inevitable.  Here, then, is an accumulation of causes for a huge monetary explosion such as had no existence in the Revolution.  It is only on the return of peace that such explosions really culminate.  While the war lasts, a pervading pressure serves to brace up all hopes, all interests.  But this pressure relaxes with the return of peace, and the fast artificial system which the war compelled collapses into a desolating chaos.  This generation will soon witness a spectacle in the Rebel States such as history but faintly pictures as having succeeded the American Revolution, the overthrow of Napoleon, or the close of our second war with England.  The North has already gone through its portion of the terrible ordeal, and will now move forward with elastic enterprise, under invigorated energies, to new industrial achievements.  The currency explosion at the South is yet to come. –{Tribune.

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

Ulysses S. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, April 26, 1862

Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., April 26, 1862.

I will go on and do my duty to the very best of my ability, without praise, and do all I can to bring this war to a speedy close.  I am not an aspirant for anything at the close of the war.

There is one thing I feel well assured of; that is, that I have the confidence of every brave man in my command.  Those who showed the white feather will do all in their power to attract attention from themselves.  I had perhaps a dozen officers arrested for cowardice in the first day’s fight at this place.  These men are necessarily my enemies.

As to the talk about a surprise here, nothing could be more false.  If the enemy had sent us word when and where they would attack us, we could not have been better prepared.  Skirmishing had been going on for two days between our reconnoitering parties and the enemy’s advance.  I did not believe, however, that they intended to make a determined attack, but simply that they were making a reconnoisance in force.

My headquarters were in Savannah, though I usually spent the day here.  Troops were constantly arriving to be assigned to brigades and divisions, all ordered to report at Savannah, making it necessary to keep an office and some one there.  I was also looking for Buell to arrive, and it was important that I should have every arrangement complete for his speedy transit to this side of the river.

U. S. GRANT.

SOURCE: John Y. Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: Volume 5: April 1-August 31, 1862,  p. 78-9



Interesting Items From The Army

The correspondent of the N. Y. World from [Pittsburg], May 7, writes as follows:

CONDITION OF THE TROOPS.

We prefer to offer no complaints about the state of the army, but, lest some good people be led to expect too much from it we are bound to say that it is no means the grand army it is supposed to be.  In the first place it is not 166,000 strong; and in the next place, fully one-third of its numerical strength is not effective.  We witnessed a division review by Gen. Davis to-day and were pleased with the appearance of the troops on the ground.  We were however struck with the diminished size of the regiments.  Several regiments, which we had known, in their better days a full thousand strong turned out with less than three hundred men.  Sickness, battle, wounds, deaths, heavy detail for transportations, and the camp guard have caused the reduction. – the men left in the ranks look well, go thro’ the evolutions well, and, we firmly believe, will fight well.  The cavalry is worn down by roads and consequent scarcity of forage.  It will hardly ever be worth anything in an engagement.

The artillery horses are also much worn down, but the men have been improved by their past experience.  Several batteries which lost their pieces have been merged into other and older batteries, where they will probably do better.  The army is in good fighting order but is not large, nor need it be expected to accomplish impossibilities.  The whole army go [sic] into the next fight to conquer – the determination is fixed, they must conquer and will.

BRIGADIER GENERALS.

We have probably on the whole as many good officers as there are in any army in the world, and possibly as many bad ones!  Of officers of high rank this may be said, because we have so many of them.  Brigadiers are so numerous that no one person can be found who knows their names.  We hear day by day of the creation of new ones by the dozen, some of whom are heard of for the first time.  The bill limiting the number of Brigadiers is regarded favorably, and it is earnestly desired that these should be made for distinction in the field.

It is also a subject of some remark that, out of the number of recent creations the claims of Col. Sweeny, of the Twenty-second Illinois should have been quite overlooked in Washington.  We was made Brigadier General of three months’ volunteers under Lyon, lost an arm at Cherubusco, was in active service eight years in the west, distinguished himself at Springfield, and received three wounds in his gallant conduct at the late battle at Shiloh.

There is also the “fighting doctor,” as he is now called through the army – Dr. Conyn who during the Sunday’s fight fought one gun in the [company] with the Captain for two hours, in the thickest of the fight and afterwards commanded one of the siege guns, in the absence of its proper officers, which contributed to greatly to the repulse of the exultant enemy; Major Cavender also the heroic commander of the batteries of the Missouri First, whose deeds have shown conspicuously from the beginning of the war, in a series of desperate battles; both have been worthy recipients of promotion for their services to the country.

PERSONAL – GEN. HALLECK.

The appearance of some of our commanders may be interesting to those who have not seen them.

General Halleck in the field is hardly the same person who might have been seen quietly gliding from the Planters house to headquarters St. Louis.  He does not look a whit more military in appearance, but looks, in his new and rich though plain in uniform, as if he were in borrowed clothes.  In truth he bears a more striking resemblance to some oleaginous Methodist parson dressed in regimentals, with a wide stiff rimmed black felt had sticking on the back of his head at an acute angle with the ground.  His demeanor in front of his tent is very simple and business like.  No pomp, no unusual ceremony, no lack of order.  His camps are pitched on a declivity on the south side of the village of Monterey.  When on horseback his Wesleyan character is more and more [prominent].  He neither looks like a soldier, rides like one, nor does he carry the state of a Major-General in the field, but is the impersonation of the man of peace.  His face is large, tabular, and Teutonic; his eyes the eyes of a genius – a kind of indistinct gray, not without expression but of that deep welling kind that only reveals the emotion without indicating its character.

GEN. CULLUM.

Gen. Cullum, who is Chief of Staff and Chief of Engineers, is a bland gray bearded old gentleman, who seems to have been in his prime fifty years ago.  He is also accoutered in the black Quaker hat, and bears a close resemblance to common engravings of Don Quixote mounted on his steed Rozinante [sic].  He exults too, in some enormous and new-fangled [leggings], which e buckles upon his shrunken calves to the great merriment of all on-lookers.  From his conversation you will soon learn that he was on the staff of Gen. Scott in Mexico – a fact which he has not forgotten.  He is supposed to be a master of scientific warfare, and we believe has a very high opinion of his chief.

GEN. GRANT.

Gen. Grant a personage now somewhat notorious, is the same unalterable good natured little man he has so often been described. – He has none of the soldier bearing about him but is a man whom one would take for a country merchant or a village lawyer.  He has no distinctive features, there are a thousand like him in personal appearance in the ranks and it is by the conspicuous stars alone that he is distinguished as a high dignitary.  A plain unpretending face, with a comely brownish-red beard, and a square forehead, of short stature and thick-set.  He is we would say a good liver, and altogether an [unpronounceable] man; he is so like others as to be only described by general terms.  He is an inveterate smoker.

Apropos of this General, the passages published from a private letter of his containing a so-called vindication of his conduct at the late battle are the laughing stock of the entire army.  He is a sad jester.  To say that he was not surprised, to intimate that all are cowards who blame him, or to excuse his being absent from the field, are insults to the intelligence of all here.  None but the brave have I heard speak thus of him, and if by accident Gen. Halleck should be disabled and he succeed to the command it would be but the beginning of much trouble.

GEN. POPE.

Gen. Pope is a large, portly person, of sociable bearing, and marked by no unusual characteristics of feature.  He is the type of a bon vivant – evidently enjoys to the full the blessings of physical comfort.  He affects a snappish and positive manner, which is not innate, but is rather put on with his uniform.  He is, we should say, ambitions and vain; this prompts him to continual action.  He is not above speaking well of his own accomplishments. – He believes, however, in fighting the enemy, and this fact wins him the best opinions of his army.  His judgment is well demonstrated in the selection of his staff officers, who rate high above the average of such selections. – His army is commanded by some of the best officers in the service, and will do him great honor when opportunity officers.  Of the other leading personages with this column more at another time.

SWINDLING CONTRACTORS.

Now that the army is in the field, with bad roads and the stock tasked to their utmost to supply the necessary rations and forage, the knavish dealing of contractors presses more heavily than ever.  While we lay encamped by the river the rations of the horses and men could be eked out by various means.  We are surprised to learn that systematic frauds upon the government have long been common in furnishing the food of the men and horses.  In the latter case it has been brought to our notice.  So many pounds of hay, oats, or corn are allowed per horse; this is rated and measured out by the bale or stack.  We are credibly told that hardly a bale of hay or a sack of oats or corn holds its full weight.  Sacks are doled out to the Quartermaster for 150 pounds, weighing actually 140, 125 and even 120 pounds, with no evidence of any loss by carriage.  The same is the way with hay and potatoes.  Bales of hay are meted out at 380 pounds, weighing less and 300.  With the hard bread, bacon and beef, there is probably not so much opportunity of fraud, as they are marked weights as issued from the scales.  The loss, I need hardly say, comes upon the poor beasts, who are now called upon to do double duty.  It is difficult to say whether the purchasing Quartermasters [sic] is privy to this swindle, but in charity let us presume he is not.

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

Proclamation Calling Militia and Convening Congress

April 15, 1861

By the President of the United States

A Proclamation.

Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law,

Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details, for this object, will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.

I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to re-possess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.

Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at 12 o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July, next, then and there to consider and determine, such measures, as, in their wisdom, the public safety, and interest may seem to demand.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this fifteenth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand, Eight hundred and Sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-fifth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SOURCES: Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 4, p. 331-2; The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

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.

31st Illinois Infantry

Organized at Jacksonville, Ill., and mustered in at Cairo, Ill., September 18, 1861. Attachced to District of Cairo to October, 1861. 1st Brigade, District of Cairo to February, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, District of Cairo, February, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, District of West Tennessee, and Army of the Tennessee, to July, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, District of Jackson, to September, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, District of Jackson, to November, 1862. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, Right Wing 13th Army Corps (Old), Department of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 17th Army Corps, to April, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 17th Army Corps, to July, 1865.

SERVICE.--Duty at Cairo, Ill., till February, 1862. Expedition to Belmont, Mo., November 6-7, 1861. Battle of Belmont November 7. Reconnoissance of Columbus, Ky., January 16-22, 1862. Operations against Forts Henry and Heiman February 2-6. Capture of Forts Henry and Heiman February 6. Investment and capture of Fort Donelson, Tenn., February 12-16. Garrison at Fort Donelson till April 22. Moved to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., April 22-25. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Moved to Jackson, Tenn., June 4-7, and duty there till November. Action at Burnt Bridge, near Humboldt, Tenn., September 5. March to relief of Corinth and pursuit to Ripley October 3-12. Actions at Chewalla and Big Hill October 5. Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign November 2, 1862, to January 10, 1863. Reconnoissance from LaGrange November 8-9, 1862. Moved to La Grange, thence to Memphis, Tenn., January 10-19, 1863, and to Lake Providence, La., March 10. Moved to Milliken's Bend, La., April 17. Passage of Vicksburg and Warrenton batteries April 22 (Detachment). Movement on Bruinsburg and turning Grand Gulf April 25-30. Battle of Thompson's Plantation, or Port Gibson, May 1. North Fork Bayou Pierre and Ingraham's Heights May 3. Battles of Raymond, Miss., May 12. Jackson May 14. Champion's Hill May 16. Big Black River Bridge May 17. Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., May 18-July 4. Assaults on Vicksburg May 19-22 and June 25. Surrender of Vicksburg July 4. Duty there and at Big Black till February, 1864. Stephenson's Expedition to Monroe, La., August 20-September 2. Expedition toward Canton October 14-20. Bogue Chitto Creek October 17. Meridian Campaign February 3-March 2, 1864. Meridian February 13-14. Chunkey Station February 14. Meridian February 14-15. Brandon February 16. Canton February 29. Veterans on furlough March and April, 1864. Rendezvous at Carbondale, Ill., and moved to Cairo, Ill., thence to Clifton, Tenn., and march to Ackworth, Ga., via Huntsville and Decatur, Ala., and Rome, Ga., April 28-June 8. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign June 8-September 8. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Assault on Brushy Mountain June 15. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Nickajack Creek July 2-5. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Howell's Ferry July 5. Battle of Leggett's Bald Hill July 20-21. Battle of Atlanta July 22. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Ezra's Chapel, Hood's second sortie, July 28. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Pursuit of Hood into Alabama October 1-26. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Pocotaligo, S. C., January 14. Salkehatchie Swamps February 1-5. Barker's Mills, Whippy Swamp, February 3. Binnaker's Bridge, South Edisto River, February 9. Orangeburg, North Edisto River, February 11-12. Columbia February 15-17. Battle of Bentonville, N. C., March 20-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 19. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June 8-11, and Provost duty there till July 19. Mustered out July 19 and discharged at Springfield, Ill., July 31, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 9 Officers and 166 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 Officers and 293 Enlisted men by disease. Total 471.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1058-9

Dollins' Independent Cavalry Company

Organized at Cairo, Ills., with 31st Illinois Infantry, and mustered in September 18, 1861. Attached to 1st Brigade, Military District of Cairo, to February, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Army Tennessee, to July, 1862.

SERVICE.--Duty in District of Cairo, Ills., till February, 1862. Expedition from Bird's Point, Mo., to Belmont, Mo., November 6-7, 1861. Battle of Belmont, Mo., November 7. Expedition from Cairo into Kentucky January 16-21, 1862. Operations against Fort Henry, Tenn., February 2-6. Investment and capture of Fort Donelson, Tenn., February 12-16. Moved to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., March 6-13. Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., April 6-7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Raid on Mobile and Ohio R. R. April 29-May 14, and skirmish at Purdy, Tenn., May 4. March to Purdy and Jackson, Tenn., June 4-7, and duty there till July. Assigned to Stewart's Battalion, Illinois Cavalry, as Company "C," July, 1862, which see.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1033

South Carolina Nullification Ordinance of 1832

AN ORDINANCE,

TO NULLIFY certain Acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be Laws, laying Duties and Imposts on the Importation of Foreign Commodities.

Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by various acts, purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports, but in reality intended for the protection of domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation, certain foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the Constitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent of the Constitution, which provides for equality in imposing the burdens of taxation upon the several States and portions of the Confederacy; — And, Whereas, the said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which the Constitution of the United States authorizes it to effect and accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenue, for objects unauthorized by the Constitution;

We therefore, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do Declare and Ordain, and it is hereby Declared and Ordained, That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially an act entitled "an act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the nineteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also, an act entitled "an act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers, or citizens; and, all promises, contracts and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall hereafter be had in affirmance thereof, are, and shall be, held utterly null and void.

And it is further Ordained, That it shall not be lawful for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the said acts, within the limits of this State; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to adopt such measures and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this Ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, within the limits of this State, from and after the first day of February next; and the duty of all other constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the limits of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to this Ordinance, and such acts and measures of the Legislature as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto.

And it is further Ordained, That in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn in question the authority of this Ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken, the Courts of this State shall proceed to execute and enforce their judgments, according to the laws and usages of the State, without reference to such attempted appeal, and the person or persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of the Court.

And it is further Ordained, That all persons now holding any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, under this State, (members of the Legislature excepted) shall, within such time, and in such manner as the Legislature shall prescribe, take an oath, well and truly to obey, execute and enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature, as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such person or persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up, as if such person or persons were dead or had resigned; and no person hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, (members of the Legislature excepted) shall, until the Legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner, have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be impannelled in any of the Courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be in question this Ordinance, or any act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath, that he will well and truly obey, execute, and "enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature, as may be passed to carry the same into operation and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof.

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the Government of the United States, and the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain this, our Ordinance and Declaration, at every hazard, Do further Declare, that we will not submit to the application of force, on the part of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to obedience; but that we will consider the passage by Congress of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens, or any act abolishing or closing the, ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act, on the part of the Federal Government, to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union: and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government, and do all other acts and things, which sovereign and independent States may of right do.

Done in Convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America.

JAMES HAMILTON, Jr., President of the Convention,

and Delegate from St. Peter's.

James Hamilton, Sen

Richard Bohun Baker, Sen.

Samuel Warren,

Nathaniel Heyward,

Robert Long,

J. B. Earle,

L. M. Ayer,

Benjamin Adams,

James Adams,

James Anderson,

Robert Anderson,

Wm. Arnold,

John Ball,

Barnard E. Bee,

Thos. W. Boone,

R. W. Barnwell,

Isaac Bradwell, Jr.,

Thomas G. Blewett,

P. M. Butler,

John G. Brown,

J. G. Brown,

John Bauskett,

A. Burt,

Francis Burt, Jr.,

Bailey Barton,

A. Bowie,

James A. Black,

A. H. Belin,

Phillip Cohen,

Samuel Cordes,

Thos. H. Colcock,

C. J. Colcock,

Chas. G. Capers,

Wm. C. Clifton,

West Caughman,

John Counts,

Benjamin Chambers,

I. A. Campbell,

Wm. Dubose,

John H. Dawson,

John Douglas,

Geo. Douglas,

F. H. Elmore,

Wm. Evans,

Edmund J. Felder,

A. Fuller,

Theo. L. Gourdin,

Peter G. Gourdin,

T. J. Goodwyn,

Peter Gailliard, Jr.,

John K. Griffin,

Geo. W. Glenn,

Alex. L. Gregg,

Robert Y. Hayne,

William Harper,

Thomas Harrison,

John Hatton,

Thomas Harllee,

Abm. Huguenin,

Jacob Bond I'On,

John S. Jeter,

Job Johnston,

John S. James,

M. Jacobs,

J. A. Keith,

John Key,

Jacob H. King,

Stephen Lacoste,

James Lynah,

Francis Y. Legare,

Alex. J. Lawton,

John Lipscomb,

John Logan,

J. Littlejohn,

A. Lancaster,

Benj. A. Markley,

John Magrath,

John S. Maner,

W. M. Murray,

R. G. Mills,

John B. McCall,

D. H. Means,

R. G. Mays,

George McDuffie,

James Moore,

John L. Miller,

Stephen D. Miller,

John B. Miller,

R. P. McCord,

John L. Nowell,

Jennings O'Bannon,

J. Walter Phillips,

Charles Parker,

William Porcher,

Edward G. Palmer,

Charles C. Pinckney,

Wm. C. Pinckney,

Thomas Pinckney,

Francis D. Quash,

John Rivers,

Donald Rowe,

Benjamin Rogers,

Thomas Ray,

James G. Spann,

James Spann,

S. L. Simons,

Peter J. Shand,

James Mongin Smith,

G. H. Smith,

Wm. Smith,

Stephen Smith,

Wm. Stringfellow,

Edwin J. Scott,

F. W. Symmes,

J. S. Sims,

T. D. Singleton,

Joseph L. Stevens,

T. E. Screven,

Robert J. Turnbull,

Elisha Tyler,

Peter Tidyman,

Isaac B. Ulmer,

Peter Vaught,

Elias Vanderhorst,

John L. Wilson,

Isham Walker,

William Williams,

Thomas B. Woodward,

Sterling C. Williamson,

F. H. Wardlaw,

Abner Whatley,

J. T. Whitefield,

Samuel L. Watt,

Nicholas Ware,

Wm. Waties,

Archibald Young,

R. Barnwell Smith.

{attest.} ISAAC W. HAYNE,

Clerk of the Convention

SOURCE:  South Carolina General Assembly, Journal of the conventions of the people of South Carolina, held in 1832, 1833 & 1852, P. 49-53

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