|
THE NOMINATION OF MR.
LINCOLN.-THE PARAMOUNT QUESTION BETWEEN THE PARTIES.-HOW SHOULD
WORKING-MEN VOTE? - HIS COURSE IN THE EVENT OF DISUNION. - HIS RELATIONS
TO MR. DAVIS. - THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE. -LETTERS.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was
nominated for the presidency by the Republicans in convention at Chicago
in the month of May, 1860; and John C. Breckinridge in April following,
at Charleston, S.C., by the proslavery Democrats. The other candidates
were John Bell and Stephen A. Douglas. The main question between the two
leading parties was freedom, or slavery, in the immense Territories of
the Union; or, in other words, shall free, or servile, labor have the
ascendency in this country? Long and carefully, both in and out of
Congress, had Mr. Wilson studied this question under every form and
bearing; long had he contemplated the tremendous interests involved in
the issue of the question; and he therefore threw himself into the
contest with unfaltering energy, addressing vast and enthusiastic
audiences in many States with. eloquent and effective words of warning,
counsel, and encouragement. In an address at Myrick's Junction, Mass.,
on the 18th of September, in reference to the paramount question of the
parties, he said, -
"Issues growing out of the existence of
human slavery in America are now the paramount issues before the nation.
Shall slavery continue to expand? shall it continue to guide the
counsels of the republic? or shall its expansion be arrested, its power
broken, and it forced to retire under the cover of the local laws under
which it exists? These issues loom up before the nation, dwarfing all
other issues, and subordinating all other questions. Public men and
political organizations are forced to accept the transcendent issues
growing out of the existence of slavery in America.
"The American Democracy, which for
twenty-five years has borne the banners of slavery, won its victories,
and shared in its crimes against humanity, though broken into fragments,
struggles on, faithful still to the interests of slavery. Breckinridge
and Lane accept the creed of slavery expansion, slavery protection, and
slavery domination; Douglas 'don't care whether slavery is voted up or
voted down;' and Johnson, commended by the Massachusetts Democracy at
Springfield for his 'honest and fearless promulgation of Democratic
truth,' proclaims that it is best that capital should own labor.'
The American Democracy, demoralized by slavery, has ceased to speak of
the rights of man: it now speaks only of the rights of property in man.
The Republican party, brought into existence by the aggressions of
slavery upon freedom, cherishing the faith of the founders of the
republic, and believing with their chosen leader, Abraham Lincoln, that
'he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave,' pledges
itself, all it is, all it hopes to be, to arrest the extension of
slavery, banish it from the Territories, dethrone its power in the
National Government, and force it back under the cover of State
sovereignty." After
giving the proslavery record of Mr. Bell, he closed by these strong
words:- "Men of old
Puritan and Revolutionary Massachusetts, upon whose pathway the star of
duty casts its radiant and steady light, - you who believe with Benjamin
Franklin, that 'slavery is an atrocious debasement of human nature;'
with John Adams, that 'consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of
trust;' with John Quincy Adams, that 'slavery taints the very sources of
moral principle;' with Daniel. Webster, that 'slavery is a continual and
permanent violation of human rights,' 'opposed to the whole spirit of
the gospel and to the teachings of Jesus Christ,'-reject, I pray you,
reject with loathing, the false and guilty doctrine, that, in this
crisis of the republic, 'it is the part of patriotism and duty to
recognize no political principle;' turn from a candidate whose record is
blurred, blotted, and stained with words and deeds for human slavery;
spurn with scorn all affiliation with men who in the South are vying
with the slave-code Democracy in fealty to the slave propagandists, -
who in the North are scoffing and jeering at the sacred cause of
liberty, organizing Democratic-aid societies, peddling and dickering
with Democratic factions, to defeat men whose only offence is their
unswerving fidelity to the cause of human nature now in peril in
America, and 'consecrating,' in the words of Whittier,
'their baseness to the cause
Of Constitution, Union, and the Laws.'
"Rally, men of Massachusetts, to the
standard of a party that proclaims its principles and its policy, -a
party that would engrave in letters of living light upon the arches of
the skies, so that time nations might read it, its undying hostility to
the domination and extension of slavery in America. Rally to the support
of a candidate for the chief magistracy of the republic who penned these
noble words: "This
is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave must consent
to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.'
On the question, "How ought working-men to
vote? Mr. Wilson said, contrasting free with servile labor, in a speech
of signal force delivered at East Boston on the 24th of October, -
"Self-interest, self-respect, the love he
bears his wife, and the hopes centred in those who inherit his blood and
bear his name, all urge, press, command, the poor man, the mechanic, the
laboring-man, to rush to the ballot-box on the 6th of November, and vote
to take the government of his country from the unhallowed grasp of men,
who, by word and deed, have proved themselves the mortal enemies of free
labor and free-laboring men, and to place that government in the hands
of statesmen who will maintain time rights, interests, and dignity of
free labor.
"Glancing over this assemblage of the freemen of East Boston, I see
before me the manly forms of toiling men, who, through weary days and
sleepless nights of personal toil, have won for themselves positions of
independence, or who now, by the scanty wages of manual labor, support
themselves and the dear and loved ones of their household. And I say to
you, men of Massachusetts, slavery is the unappeasable enemy of the free
laboring-men of America, of the North and of the South. Ay, I repeat,
slavery is the unappeasable enemy of the free laboring-men of America,
of the North and of the South. The party that upholds slavery in
America, that would extend its boundaries, increase its influence and
its power, is the mortal enemy of the free white laboring-men of the
United States. I declare to you, men of Massachusetts, arid, if I could
be. heard, I would proclaim it in the ear of every laboring-man in
America, the slavery of the black man has degraded labor and the white
laboring-man of the South, and dishonored the white laboring-man of the
North. Some writer (I think it was Carlyle) has said that the Indian
away on the shores of Lake Winnipeg cannot strike his dusky mate but the
world feels the blow. Put the brand of degradation upon the brow of one
workingman, and the toiling millions of the globe share in that
degradation. Slavery makes labor dishonorable, puts the brand of
degradation upon the brow of manual labor, free as well as slave,
blights the homes of the free laboring white men of the South, and casts
its baleful shadows over the homes, the fields, and the workshops of the
laboring-men of the North.
"In 1620 - two hundred and forty years ago -
freedom and slavery came to the shores of America. Freedom took the
rugged soil and still more rugged clime of the North: slavery took the
genial clime and sunny lands of the South. Freedom, starting from
Plymouth, has advanced with steady step westward, crossed the Rocky
Mountains to the shores of the Pacific seas, founding commonwealths
which recognize the eternal laws of mans being: slavery, starting from
Jamestown, has advanced westward and southward into the depths of the
continent, founding States of privilege and caste. The results of these
two antagonistic systems are plain to the comprehension of all men.
"Here, in these free commonwealths, are
twenty millions of freemen, with free speech, free press, free schools,
free churches, and free institutions. Here all questions that concern
humanity are examined and discussed by the unfettered press and the free
thoughts and words of men. Here 'labor,' in the words of Daniel Webster,
'looks up and is proud in the midst of its toil.' here the laboring-man,
who daily goes forth with a brave heart to toil for his loved ones, wins
not only bread by the sweat of his face, but the applauding voice of men
who honor labor, who believe the laborer is worthy of his hire. Here the
toil of the working-man is lightened by ennobling motives, by
aspirations which expand the mind and elevate the soul. The toil which
wearies his arm is to make glad the home of wife and children; to smooth
adown the declivity of life the steps of parents to whom he owes his
being; to lift the burdens of life from brother, sister, or friend; or
to win for him competence, independence, positions of power, the lofty
and glittering prizes of ambition. Here the laboring-men in all the
fields of manly toil are working out a condition of society for the
toiling masses more elevated than can be found in any other portion of
the globe. Here agriculture, commerce, manufactures, the mechanic arts,
churches, schools, libraries, the institutions of refining civilization,
flourish in vigor and strength. Such are the magnificent results of
freedom in the North.
The results of slavery in the South glare
upon us from every rood of the land stained by its existence. The fruits
of slavery are bitter to the taste, and sickening to the soul of man.
There are auction-blocks, where man made in the image of God is sold
like the beasts that perish there are chains and fetters for human
limbs, whips to scourge and torture the body, and laws to debasr and
brutalize the mind and soul of man. There labor is dishonored, laborers
degraded, despised. 'To work,' said William Ellery Channing, 'in sight
of the whip, under menace of blows, is to be exposed to perpetual insult
and degrading influences. Every motion of the limbs which such a menace
urges is a wound to the soul.' To work beside the bondmen urged on to
toil by the menace of blows degrades the poor white laborer to the
abject condition of the slave. To continually eat the bread of enforced
and unrequited toil, to look upon labor extorted by the menace of the
lash, upon the laborer thus degraded, excites in the bosom of the
slave-master that scorn for manual labor, and that contempt for laboring-men,
now so manifest in the slave States of republican America.
The deterioration, exhaustion, and
desolation of the soil of the South, under the culture of unskilled,
untutored, unrewarded slave-labor, stands confessed by even the
champions of that cleaving curse. Thousands of square miles, millions
of' acres of the best soil of the Western world, have been blighted,
blasted, desolated, by the polluting footsteps of the bondman. The
champions of slavery, men who would eternize it, extend its boundaries
and its dominion over the National Government, have borne testimony to
the desolating effects of the Southern system of agriculture, which
means the Southern slave-labor system, upon the most prolific soil of
the continent.
"Breckinridge," he said, "bears aloft the banner of slavery expansion,
slavery protection, and slavery domination; and around that black flag
rallies the Democratic masses of the South, and the men of the North who
believe with Mr. Buchanan that 'the master has the right to take his
slaves into the Territories as property, and have it protected there
under the Federal Constitution;' that 'neither Congress nor the
Territorial legislature, nor any human power, has any authority to annul
or impair that vested right.' Benjamin F. Hallett tells the assembled
Breckinridge Democracy of Massachusetts that there can never be a
successful Democratic party in the free States: so he goes with the
slave-code Democracy of the South. There can never be a successful
Democratic party in the North! What an admission is this! There can
never be a successful Democratic party in the land of free speech, free
press, free schools, free labor, and free educated workingmen trained in
self-government! Successful Democracy buds and blooms only in the land
of bondage, where the right to think, to discuss, to act, is not
recognized; where labor is dishonored, and laboring-men despised! Surely
the working-men of the North can not, will not, sustain by their
suffrages that false, foul, profane Democracy which draws its life, its
soul, from slavery.
"Douglas 'don't care whether slavery is
voted down or voted up.' To him it is a matter of supreme indifference
whether a million and a half of the square miles of America shall be
gladdened by the footsteps and beautified by the hands of freemen, who
acknowledge no man master; or whether they shall be seared, blasted,
desolated, by 'The
old and chartered lie,
The feudal curse, whose whips and yokes.
Insult humanity.'
"The laboring-men of the North, ay, and of the South too, should never
forget nor forgive that heartless declaration. The peerless Washington
cared whether slavery was voted down or voted up in the Territories; for
he 'trusted we should have a confederacy of free States,' and he deemed
the ordinance of 1787 'a wise measure.' The working-man who votes the
Douglas and Johnson ticket votes for a president who 'don't care whether
slavery is voted down or voted up,' and for a vice-president who
'believes capital should own labor.' Can a working-man, who eats his
bread in the sweat of his face, give such a vote? Such a vote would be a
betrayal of the cause of the toiling masses of America, an. act of
self-humiliation which should bring the blush of conscious shame to the
cheek. "The
Republican party, brought into being by the necessities of the country
and the needs of the age, rejects the wicked dogma, that slaves, the
creatures of local law, are recognized by the Constitution as property,
that the Constitution of republican America carries slavery wherever it
goes, and that the national flag protects slavery wherever it waves. The
Republican party 'cares whether slavery is voted down or voted up' in
the Territories, rejects with horror the idea that 'capital should own
labor,' disowns the craven declaration that 'it is the part of
patriotism and of duty to recognize no principle,' And bravely and
hopefully accepts the duties now imposed upon the people of the United
States by the providence of Almighty God. The Republican party proclaims
its living faith in the self-evident truths of the Declaration of
Independence, now scoffed at and jeered at by the leaders of the slave
Democracy as rhetorical flourishes,' 'glittering generalities,'
'self-evident lies,' 'farragoes of nonsense,' pronounced by Breckenridge
'abstractions,' which, if carried into practice, would 'lead our country
rapidly to destruction,' and declared by Douglas to mean only that
'British subjects on this continent were equal to British subjects born
and residing in Great Britain.'
The Republican party believes with its
chosen leader, Abraham Lincoln, that 'these expressions' of apostate
Democratic politicians, 'differing in form, are identical in object and
effect, - the supplanting of the principles of free government, and
restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy;' that 'they
would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the
people;' that 'they are the vanguard, the sappers and miners, of
returning despotism.' The Republican party believes too, with its noble
candidate, that the 'abstract truth' of the Declaration is 'applicable
to all men and all times;' that 'to-day, and in all coming days, it
shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the harbingers of
re-appearing tyranny and oppression. Accepting as its living faith the
creed of the equality of mankind, the Republican party recognizes the
poor, the humble, the Sons of toil, whose hands are hardened by honest
labor, whose limbs are chilled by the blasts of winter, whose cheeks are
scorched by the suns of summer, as the equals, before the law, of the
most favored of the sons of men.
Believing with the republican fathers of the
North and of the South, with Washington and Franklin, Adams and
Jefferson, Henry and Jay, Morris and Mason, Madison and Hamilton, King
and Munroe, Pinckney and Martin, and their illustrious associates, that
slavory is 'a sin of crimson dye,' 'an atrocious debasement of human
nature,' 'a dreadful calamity,' which 'lessens the sense of the equal
rights of mankind, and habituates us to tyranny and oppression;'
believing with Henry Clay, that 'slavery is a wrong, a grievous wrong no
contingency can make right,' - the Republican party is opposed to
slavery everywhere. Recognizing the rights of the States, it does not
claim power to abolish slavery in the States by Congressional
legislation but it claims the power to exclude slavery from the
Territories ; and, by the blessing of God, it will use every legal power
and make every honorable effort to expel slavery from every rood of the
territory of the republic.
Working-men of Massachusetts, you who eat
your bread in the sweat of the face, would you make the self- evident
truths of the charter of independence again the active faith of America;
would you weaken the influences of slavery and the power of the
slave-masters over the National Government; would you expel slavery and
its degrading influences from the Territories; would you bring Kansas as
a free commonwealth into the Union; would you suppress the reviving
African slave-trade, now dishonoring the nation; would you erase from
the statutes of New Mexico the inhuman slave-code, and the more infamous
code authorizing employers to degrade white laboring-men with blows,
while it denies all means of protection by closing the courts against
their appeals for redress; would you set apart the public domain for
homesteads for the landless would you construct a railroad across the
central regions of the continent to the Pacific; would you adjust the
revenue-laws so as to incidentally favor American labor; would you win
back our lost influence with the nations south of us on this continent,
and thus increase and develop our manufacturing and commercial
interests; would you reform existing abuses, strengthen the ties of
interest and affection which bind these sister States together, and put
the republic in the van of advancing nations, - then commit, fully and
unreservedly commit, yourselves to the cause of republicanism, to the
support of the Republican party and its tried and trusted candidates.
Born in the ranks of the toiling masses, reared in the bosom of the
people, trained in the hard school of manual labor, Abraham Lincoln and
Hannibal Hamlin are true to the rights, the interests, and the dignity
of the working-men of the republic worthy to lead their advancing hosts
to victory for the vindication of rights as old as creation, and as wide
as humanity." Mr.
Schuyler Colfax and many others wrote to the author, thanking him for
this speech ; and the general tenor of the letters may be seen from
this: - BIDDEFORD,
ME., Nov. 19, 1869.
DEAR SIR, -YOU have made but very few
political speeches during your life that I have not read. No one
appreciates more than I do the herculean labors that you and your noble
colleague and associates have made in enlightening the national mind and
heart upon the aggressions of time slave-power. What a glorious triumph
you have achieved I What a revolution has been effected, and how
peacefully! I have many times expressed to my family and friends time
thought so eloquently enforced by our mutual friend, Henry Ward Beecher,
in his recent sermon on the times (which I think is the greatest speech
he has ever made), - that hereafter the 6th of November, 1860, will be
ranked by the historian as an era of equal importance with the 22d of
December, 1620, and the 4th of July, 1776.
I subscribe myself, with high respect and
regard, Your
obedient servant,
CHARLES PACKARD, On
the triumph of the Republicans in Mr. Lincoln's election in November,
the South, led on by Messrs. Mason, Hammond, Davis, Floyd, and other
kindred spirits, who foresaw that freedom, so persistently resisted, was
now coming into the ascendant, inconsiderately passed, State after
State, the ordinance of seccession, and gradually withdrew its
representatives from Congress.
Mr. Wilson clearly saw the magnitude of the
proceeding and the tremendous stake at issue: he knew the strength of
the North in numbers, wealth, and principle he knew the weakness of the
South; and hence he had no fear for the ultimate result: but from the
unity of sentiment, from the animus of the South, lie openly avowed to
his associates that the struggle would be desperate and terrible.
With calm and manly earnestness lie
performed his senatorial duties, ever protesting that his party had no
design to interfere at all with the domestic institutions of the States,
and that, if they fell, it would be in consequence of their impetuous
action, and upon their own responsibility.
He had already fearlessly expressed his mind
in a speech in the Senate on the 25th of January preceding, in which he
refers to the following remark of Mr. Chingrnan of North Carolina "As
from this Capitol so much has gone forth to inflame the public mind, if
our countrymen are to be involved in a bloody struggle, I trust in God
that the first-fruits of the collision may be reaped here." He said, -
This language, Mr. President, admits of but
one interpretation. Gentlemen from the South who are in favor of a
dissolution of the Union do not intend, in so doing, to secede from this
Capitol, nor surrender it to those who may remain within the Union.
Having declared, that, if lives are to be sacrificed, it will be
poetically just that they should be sacrificed here on this floor; and
that, as so much has gone forth from this Capitol to inflame the public
mind, it is but propel' that the first-fruits of the struggle should be
reaped here, the senator gives us, therefore, distinctly to understand
that there may be a physical collision, 'a bloody struggle;' that the
scene of this conflict is to be the legislative halls of this Capitol.
To simply say, in reply to this threat, that Northern senators cannot
thus be intimidated, is too tame and commonplace to meet the exigency.
Therefore I take it upon myself to inform the senator from North
Carolina that the people of the free States have sent their
representatives here, not to fight, but to legislate; not to mingle in
personal combats, but to deliberate for the good of the whole country;
not to shed the blood of their fellow-members, but to maintain the
supremacy of the Constitution, and uphold the Union and this they will
endeavor to do here, in the legislative halls of the Capitol, at all
events and at every hazard. In the performance of their duties they will
not invade the rights of others, nor permit any infringement of their
own. They will invite no collision; they will commence no attack: but
they will discharge all their obligations to their constituents, and
maintain the government and institutions of their country in the face of
all conceivable consequences. Whoever thinks otherwise has not studied
either the history of the people of the free States, or the character of
the men dwelling in that section of the Union, or the philosophy of the
exigency which the senator from North Carolina seems to invoke. The
freemen of the North have not been accustomed to vaunt their courage in
words: they have preferred to illustrate it by deeds. They are not
fighting-men by profession, nor accustomed to street broils, nor
contests on the 'field of honor' falsely so called, not are they
habitual wearers of deadly weapons. Therefore it is, that when driven
into bloody collisions, and especially on sudden emergencies, it is as
true in that as it is sound in philosophy, that they are more desperate
and determined, and more reckless of consequences to themselves and to
their antagonists, than are those who are more accustomed to contemplate
such collisions. The tightest band, when once broken, recoils with the
wildest power. So much for the people of the free States. As to their
representatives in this Capitol, I will say, that if, while in the
discharge of their duties here, they are assaulted with deadly intent, I
give the senator from North Carolina due notice here to-day, that those
assaults will be repelled and retaliated by sons who will not dishonor
fathers that fought at Bunker Hill and conquered at Saratoga, that
trampled the soil of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane to a bloody mire, and
vindicated sailors' rights and national honor on the high seas in the
second war of independence. Reluctant to enter into such a contest, yet,
once in, they will be quite as reluctant to leave it. Though they may
not be the first to go into the struggle, they will be the last to
abandon its dishonor. Though they will not provoke nor commence the
conflict, they will do their best to conquer when the strife begins. So
much their constituents will demand of them when the 'bloody struggle'
the senator contemplates is forced upon them; and they will not be
disappointed when the exigency comes. I say no more: I wait the issue,
and bide my time."
Mr. Wilson for a long period had been serving on the Military Committee
of the Senate, of which Mr. Jefferson Davis was chairman; and had thus
become familiar with his schemes for strengthening the military
condition of the South: lie had not, however, anticipated that secession
from the Union was so close at hand. Though opposed to each other in
principle, the personal relations between himself and Mr. Davis were at
that time pleasant; and once at least, when Mr. Wilson closed a strong
speech in the Senate, the Mississippi senator came across the floor, and
thanked him cordially for the manly expression of his views. It was
while on Military Committee that Mr. Wilson, in opposition to the
chairman, carried the "Signal-service Bill" through Congress, and thus
conferred a lasting benefit upon the country. It is not probable that
Mr. Davis himself, until the election in November, imagined the
secession of the slave States very near. South Carolina had always led
the van in opposition to the North and now, in the culmination of the
long argument, it was for her to cast the fatal die. Mr. Wilson, with
his Northern friends, deplored her folly; but he foresaw that her first
shot would break the chain of the slave, and that, in spite of the
tongues of soothsayers, the Union and the Constitution still would
stand. He knew,
perhaps as well as any man, the comparative strength of the contending
parties. He saw in Mr. Lincoln's overwhelming vote in the electoral
college the sentiment of the nation. He well understood that the
struggle was, and had been, whether free, or servile, labor should rule
the country; and that his party, which had arisen from a small band
branded by the name of Abolitionists in 1840 to place by such a vast
majority a president in the chair, in 1860, had grown too slowly, fought
too steadily on the line of sacred principle, to be intimidated by an
ordinance, or even by the cannon of seceders from the Union. He pointed
out the impending danger, yet hoped, that, by the policy of the incoming
president, some reconciliation might be made without recourse to arms.
But the vantage-ground now reached must be
main- tamed. An indignant people had at the polls declared that slavery
must not be extended. By that declaration ho must stand. He would not
interfere with the " peculiar institution " in the States; he would
exhibit courtesy, forbearance, and fraternity to the South: but the vast
Territories of the Union must not be surrendered to the domination of
the slaveholding power. In this position, he, with his associates, stood
intrenched: so that when Mr. Crittenden's compromise, which made
concessions to the South, came up in the Senate, he opposed it in a
manly speech delivered on the 21st of February, 1861. With the clearest
apprehension of the situation, with the history of the whole struggle
fresh in memory, with the ominous prospect of disunion rising up before
him, and with a spirit fired by the love of human freedom, he meets the
question in a strain of fervid eloquence, vindicates the friends of
liberty, and unfolds the iniquity of the offered compromise.
After an eloquent introduction, he thus
describes the distracted state of the nation : -
"One year ago these chambers rang with
passionate and vehement menaces of disunion. Statesmen to whom were
committed the destinies of United America, with the oath of fidelity to
the Constitution fresh upon their lips, insolently, scornfully,
defiantly threatened to shiver the noblest edifice, the fairest fabric,
of free government ever erected by the toil or blessed by the hopes and
prayers of humanity, if the people, the people of the free North, dared
through the ballot-box assume the control of the affairs of the
republic. These disloyal avowals were flashed over the wires scattered
broadcast over the land. Timid conservatives shrank appalled before
these angry mutterings of meditated treason, and, with 'bated breath and
whispering humbleness,' counselled submission. But these treasonable
menaces unnerved not the souls of the ever loyal freemen of the North :
they fired the hearts and rekindled the patriotism of the unselfish
masses, - of the farmers who till their own fee-simple acres, unpolluted
by the foot of the bondman; of the mechanics whose hands are skilled by
art; of the laborers who recognize no master but Almighty God. Impelled
by the fervid and unextinguishable impulse of freedom, by the purest and
most unselfish patriotism, the unseduced, unpurchased, unawed freemen of
the North calmly thronged to the ballot-box, and struck from faithless,
corrupt, and disloyal hands the reins of power.
"The treasonable words of last year have now
hardened into deeds. Madness and folly rule the hour. Treason holds it
carnival here in the national Capitol. Men high in the national councils
plot conspiracies against the government they are sworn to defend, and
clasp the hands of the assassins of the Union. Men. to whom have been
intrusted official duties and responsibilities talk of the dismemberment
of the republic, not in the sad accents of patriotism, but with the
gleeful chuckle of an irrepressible joy. States vauntingly proclaim
their withdrawal from the Union made by the fathers, recall their
representatives in these chambers, capture the fortresses of the nation,
insult, dishonor, and fire upon the flag of the republic, seize the
public property, and even erase from their festive days the hallowed
anniversary of national independence, with all its glorious associations
and thrilling memories. Never, no, never, since the morn of creation,
has the historic pen recorded a conspiracy against the rights of man
democratic institutions so utterly causeless, so wicked in its purpose,
so regardless of the judgment of the civilized world and the approval of
Almighty God." He
makes this reference to Mr. Benton's views:-
"But, sir, this wicked plot for the
dismemberment of the Confederacy, which has now assumed such fearful
proportions, was known to some of our elder statesmen. Thomas H. Benton
ever raised his warning voice against the conspirators. I can never
forget the terrible energy of his denunciations of the policy and acts
of the nullifiers and secessionists. During the great Lecornpton
struggle in the winter of 1858, his house was the place of resort of
several members of Congress, who sought his counsels, and delighted to
listen to his opinions. In the last conversation I had with him, but a
few days before he was prostrated by mortal disease, he declared that
'the disunionists had prostituted the Democratic party;' that 'they had
complete control of the administration;' that 'these conspirators would
have broken up the Union if Col. Fremont had been elected;' that 'the
reason he opposed Fremont's election was that he knew these men intended
to destroy the government, and he did not wish it to go to pieces in the
hands of a member of his family.'
Repelling the reiterated charge that
"Massachusetts hates the South," he said, -
"In the halls of Congress, in the public
journals, before the people, everywhere, the Christian people of the
North are accused of hatred towards their countrymen of the South; and
these oft-repeated accusations have penetrated the ears and fired the
hearts of the men of the South to madness. The people of Massachusetts,
of New England, of the North, hate not their countrymen of the South. I
know Massachusetts; I know something of the sentiments and feelings of
her people. During the past fifteen years I have traversed every portion
of the State, from the sands of the capes to the hills of Berkshire;
spoken in nearly every town; sat at the tables and slept beneath the
roofs of. her people. Around those tables and beneath those roofs I have
heard prayers to Almighty God for blessings on slave and on master. From
thousands of Christian homes in Massachusetts, New England, the North,
tens of thousands of men and women daily implore God's blessing upon the
whole country, upon the poor slave and his proud master. Around the
firesides of the liberty-loving, God-fearing families of Massachusetts,
I have often heard the men, stigmatized as 'malignant, unrelenting
enemies of the people of the South,' on their bonded knees, with open
Bible, implore the protection and blessing of Almighty God upon both
master and slave, upon the people of the whole country. Gentlemen of the
South visiting Massachusetts on pleasure or business are ever treated by
all her people with considerate kindness and fraternal regard. The
public men of the South are ever welcomed to Massachusetts, treated with
courtesy by all, and sometimes with 'complimentary flunkeyismn' by the
few. I assert positively, without hesitation or qualification, that the
people of Massachusetts, ay, of New England, manifest more kindness and
courtesy towards their felow-countrymen of the South sojourning among
them than they do towards their fellow-countrymen of the central States
and of the West. Yancey, Henry, Hilliard, and other distinguished sons
of the South, were, during the late canvass, listened to in New England
with attention and the utmost courtesy; and that, too, when quiet
citizens of Massachusetts were, in portions of the South, subjected to
the greatest indignities...
"Not one, no, not one, in a thousand of the
men who voted for Abraham Lincoln, cherishes in his heart a feeling of
hatred towards the South, or the wish to put the brand of inequality or
degradation upon the brow of his countrymen of that section of the
Union. They would as generously contribute of their treasure, they would
as freely pour out their blood, for the defence of the South, as they
would for the protection of their own Northern homes. Believers in that
Christianity which unites all men as brethren, which makes man
unutterably clear to his fellowman, which impels its disciples to raise
the fallen, and to labor for the elevation of the poor and the lowly of
the children of men, oppose the wrong, yet hate not the wrongdoer."
He thus defends his constituents from the
imputation of fanaticism: -
"The distinguishing opinion of Massachusetts
concerning slavery in America is often flippantly branded in these halls
as wild, passionate, unreasoning fanaticism. Senators of the South, tell
me, I pray you tell me, if it be fanaticism for Massachusetts to see in
this age what your peerless Washington saw in his age, - 'the direful
effects of slavery.' Is it fanaticism for Massachusetts to believe as
your Henry believed, that 'slavery is as repugnant to humanity as it is
inconsistent with the Bible and destructive to liberty'? Is it
fanaticism for her to believe as your Madison believed, that 'slavery is
a dreadful calamity'? Is it fanaticism for her to believe with your
Monroe, that 'slavery has preyed upon the vitals of the Union, and has
been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed'? Is it
fanaticism for her to believe with your Martin, that 'slavery lessens
the sense of the equal rights ol mankind, and habituates us to tyranny
and oppression'? Is it fanaticism for her to believe with your Pinckney,
that it will one day destroy the reverence for liberty which the vital
principle of a republic'? Is it fanaticism for her to believe with. your
Henry Clay, that 'slavery is a wrong, a grievous wrong; no contingency
can make it right'? Surely senators who are wont to accuse Massachusetts
of being drunk with fanaticism should not forget that the noblest men
the South has given to the service of the republic in peace and in war
were her teachers.
"Massachusetts in her heart of hearts loves liberty, loathes slavery. I
glory in her sentiments; for the heart of our common humanity is
throbbing in sympathy with her opinions. But she is not unmindful of her
constitutional duties, to her obligations to the Union, and to her
sister States. Up to the verge of constitutional power she will go in
maintenance of her cherished convictions; but she has not shrunk, and
she does not mean to shrink, from the performance of her obligations as
a member of this confederation of constellated States. She has never
sought, she does not seek, to encroach by her own acts, or by the action
of the Federal Government, upon the constitutional rights of her sister
States. Jealous of her own rights, she will respect the rights of
others. Claiming the power to control her own domestic policy, she
freely accords that power to her sister States. Conceding the rights of
others, she demands her own. Loyal to the Union, she demands loyalty in
others. here and now, I demand of her accusers that they file their bill
of specifications, and produce the proofs of their allegations, or
forever hold their peace."
Thus grandly he speaks of the spirit of the
State he represents: -
"In other days, when Adams, Webster, Davis,
Everett, Cushing, Choate, Winthrop, Mann, Rantoul, and their associates,
graced these chambers, Massachusetts was then, as she is now, the object
of animadversion and assault. I have sometimes thought, Mr. President,
that these continual assaults upon the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
were prompted, not by her faults, but by her virtues rather; not by the
sense of justice, but by the spirit of envy and jealousy and
uncharitableness. Unawed, however, by censure or menace, she continues
to move right on, upward and onward, to the accomplishment of her high
destinies. She is but a speck, a mere patch, on the surface of America,
hardly more than one four-hundredth part of the territory of the
republic, with a rugged soil, and still more rugged clime. But on that
little spot of the globe is a Commonwealth where common consent is
recognized as the only just basis of fundamental law, and personal
freedom is secured in its completest individuality. In that Commonwealth
are a million and a quarter of freemen, with skilled hand and cultivated
brain; with nine hundred millions of taxable wealth, and an annual
productive industry of three hundred and fifty millions; with mechanic
arts and manufactures on every streamlet, and commerce on the waves of
all the seas; with institutions of moral and mental culture open to all,
and art, science, and literature illustrated by glorious names; with
benevolent institutions for the sons and daughters of misfortune and
poverty, and charities for humanity the wide world over. The heart, the
soul, the reason of Massachusetts send up perpetual aspirations for the
unity, indivisibility, and eternity of the North-American republic: but
if it shall be rent, torn, dissevered, she will not lose faith in God
and humanity; she will not go down with the falling fortunes of her
country without making a struggle to preserve and perpetuate free
institutions. So long as the ocean shall roll at her feet, so long as
God shall send her health-giving breezes and sunshine and rain, she will
endeavor to illustrate, in the future as in the past, the daily beauty
of freedom secured and protected by law."
On the money question he truly says, -
"But the senator from Texas tells us that
money is the sinew of war; that we of the North have no money; that they
gather gold in hundreds of millions from the stalk of the cotton-plant.
They send the negro, he says, to the field: he gathers cotton from the
stalk, brings it to the gin-house, puts it through the necessary
process, and rolls out a bale of five ten-dollar gold-pieces. But the
senator did not tell us that it might have cost six ten-dollar
gold-pieces to get this bale of five ten-dollar gold-pieces. The senator
seems to belong to that class of political economists that never count
the cost of maintaining 'King Cotton.' I would remind the senator that
we of the North take this bale of cotton the negro picks, pay the five
ten-dollar gold-pieces, stamp upon it our skill, art, civilization, send
it back, and they of the South promise to give five bales of the next
crop for it; but I regret to say, sir, we are often forced to take fewer
than are promised. I would remind the boastful senator that the people
of the cotton confederacy are in debt to the amount of millions; that
they are not paying fifty cents on the dollar of their indebtedness;
that the proceeds of the last cotton-crop will not extinguish that
indebtedness. I would remind the senator, who tells us we of the North
have no money, that they pick it by millions from the stalk of the
cotton-plant, that the working-men of Massachusetts, whom gentlemen of
the South predicted would be in a state of starvation and insurrection
ere this, have on deposit, in the savings-banks alone, forty-five
millions of dollars, - millions more than are deposited in all the banks
of the seven seceding States by merchants, bankers, planters, and all
classes of their people."
Of the compromise he remarks,-
"The senator proposes to amend the
Constitution so as to provide that 'in all the territory now held or
hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude thirty-six degrees and
thirty minutes, slavery or involuntary servitude is prohibited; and, in
all territory now held or hereafter acquired south of that line of
latitude, slavery shall be recognized as existing, and shall be
protected by the territorial legislature during its territorial
existence.' This, sir, is called a compromise of the slavery question in
the Territories of the United States. A Compromise! - a compromise of
the slavery question in the Territories! It is, sir, a cheat, a
delusion, a snare. It is an unqualified concession, a complete surrender
of all practical issues concerning slavery in the Territories, to the
demands of slave propagandism."
He closes this masterly effort in these
comprehensive words: -
"But the senator from Kentucky asks us of
the North, by irrepealable constitutional amendments, to recognize and
protect slavery in the Territories now existing or here-after acquired
south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes; to deny power to the Federal
Government to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in the forts,
arsenals, navy- yards, and places under the exclusive jurisdiction of
Congress; to deny to the National Government all power to hinder the
transit of slaves through one State to another, to take from persons of
the African race the elective franchise; and to purchase territory in
South America or Africa, and to send them, at the expense of the
treasury of the United States, such free negroes as the States may
desire removed from their limits. And what does the senator propose to
concede to us of the North? The prohibition of slavery in Territories
north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, where no one asks for its
inhibition; where it has been made impossible by the victory of freedom
in Kansas and the equalization of the fees of the slave commissioners.
And this - this plan of concession - is called a compromise, - the
Crittenden Compromise, - to be supported by the representatives of
millions of Northern freemen, on pain of having their fidelity to the
Union questioned by the senator from Illinois, and his confederates in
and out of this chamber.
"Such, Mr. President, are the propositions
of the senator from Kentucky, when we of the North are asked to put into
the Constitution of the United States beyond the power of the American
people ever to change or repeal. The unclouded reason, the enlightened
conscience, the love of country and of our race, - all, forbid that
Northern freemen should commit these crimes against mankind, our
country, and the cause of popular freedom and republican institutions.
We can not, no, sir, we dare not, do so. We fear-should we consummate
these wrongs to our country, to our race-the perpetual reproaches of
insulted reason and violated conscience, the irreversille judgment of
earth and of heaven. We fear that our names will be enrolled, not with
the benefactors of mankind, but with those who have betrayed the cause
of time people. We fear-should we assent to this eternization of slavery
in the Constitution our fathers framed to secure the blessings of
liberty— that we shall sink, 'after life's fitful fever,' into
dishonored graves, amid the curses of a betrayed people; and that our
names will be consigned to what Grattan, the great Irish orator, called
'oppression's natural scourge, - the moral indignation of history.'"
This speech drew forth expressions of
admiration from all sections of the country, which appeared in the
public journals, or in resolutions, or in private letters. Mr. Whittier
the poet wrote as follows -
AMESBURY, 23d 2d mo., 1861.
MY DEAR WILSON, - I have this moment
finished reading thy admirable and timely speech. It is as I wished it,
- manly, frank, and dignified. Especially I was gratified by the portion
of it directed to Crittenden's plan. The tribute to the colored citizens
is a very noble and eloquent one, and ought to shame every Massachusetts
man whose name is on the Crittenden petitions.
Very truly thy friend,
JOHN G. WHITTIER
The gifted Mrs. L. M. Child wrote thus -
MEDFORD, March 10, 1861.
DEAR AND HONORED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FREE
OLD COMMONWEALTH, - I have just finished reading aloud to my husband
your speech on Mr. Crittenden's proposed amendment to the Constitution;
and I cannot refrain from writing to thank you for it with my whole
heart. Eloquent, able, true, brave words, such as the times need. I had
seen extracts from your speech which made my heart throb with a generous
joy. I was almost afraid to read the entire speech, lest some word,
meant for conciliation, but which would be compromise, should abate
somewhat my exultation in the honest and true expression of
Massachusetts fieling; but, as I proceeded, the reading was only
interrupted by exclamations of" Well done, Wilson! ". "That is manly! "
"That's a good hit! " &c. You have made many able speeches; and I have
often felt grateful to you for true, manly utterance. In your speech,
"Are working-men slaves?" I greatly admired the dignified frankness with
which you announced yourself a working-man; for no feeling in my soul is
stronger than respect for labor. The physical courage and moral bravery
you manifested on the subject of duelling commanded my unqualified
respect. You stood firmly in your position, took back no word you had
uttered, but simply said, ' Duelling is a barbarism; my conscience and
reason are opposed to it; the conscience and reason of my constituents
are opposed to it; and no force of example shall degrade me to its
level." That is what I have always wanted Northerners to say. If all
Northern men would manifest the same moral courage, slaveholders would
be compelled to respect freedom of speech, or resort to assassination.
They could no longer murder their opponents, or threaten it, under the
painted mask of "laws of honor."
But, much as I have admired several of your
former speeches, you have never so completely gained my heart as in this
last one. I have so often closed the reading of Republican speeches with
the remark, "Ah! they think only of the interests of white men: they
ignore the monstrous and perpetual wrongs that we are helping the South
to inflict upon the colored race."
Yours with great respect and gratitude,
L. MARIA CHILD,
Hon. H. WILSON, U. S.
Senator. From
Gerrit Smith the following letter was received: -
Hon. HENRY WILSON. PRINCETON, Feb. 26, 1861.
My dear Sir, - I have just finished reading
your manly, bold, strong, and eloquent speech of the 21st instant.
Heaven bless you for it! Let there be no compromise with men whilst they
are in the attitude of rebels. When they shall have returned to their
allegiance, then deal with them not only justly, but generously. If the
people of the slave States-not merely the politicians -shall tell us
that they wish to leave us, then let them go, if they will go peaceably
and decently. But we can never consent to their going in a way that will
disgrace us, demoralize and destroy our government. Nor can we consent
to a small secession on any terms. We cannot let the Gulf States go
unless most of the other slave States go with them. We cannot consent,
for the gratification of a few States, to lose the mouth of the
Mississippi, and to leave ourselves comparatively defenceless on the
south. Give my love
to dear Sumner, and tell him that I hope to read a grand speech from him
before the session closes. With great regard, your friend,
GERRIT SMITH.
Mr. Amasa Walker wrote as follows: -
NORTH BROOKFIELD, March 11, 1861.
DEAR SIR, - I have received your speech on
the Crittenden Compromise, and read it with great satisfaction.
You have met the true issue fully and ably,
and will receive the approbation of all your constituents, and, I doubt
not, of the Republican party generally.
Your friend and servant,
AMASA WALKER.
Hon. HENRY WILSON, U. S. Senator,
Washington, D.C.
But perhaps, of all the testimonials of gratitude which the senator
received for his great speech, none was more acceptable than the
following from an association of that race whose wrongs lie had been so
long struggling to remove:-
At a regular meeting of the Union
Progressive Association, - a literary society composed of young colored
men, - held at their rooms Feb. 27, the following vote of thanks was
unanimously adopted: -
Whereas, The adoption by Congress of
that monstrous proposition known as the Crittenden Compromise would
extend, perpetuate, and give the sanction of law to that infernal system
which keeps four millions of our brethren in bondage, and would deprive
us young colored men of Massachusetts of prospective rights, the
enjoyment of which we have looked forward to with the most ardent
anticipations; and
Whereas, In this hour of our peril, when there are so few men
occupying places of trust who have the moral courage to plead our cause
and defend our rights when they are assailed, we should be recreants to
our race and to ourselves did we not recognize the value and importance
of words spoken in our behalf by our friends at this time therefore
Resolved, That the grateful thanks of
this association are tendered to the honorable senator from
Massachusetts, Henry Wilson, for his able analysis and lucid exposition
of the enormities of the "Crittenden Surrender," and also for his manly
recognition and eloquent enumeration of the services of our patriot
fathers in the war for American independence. We shall ever hold his
name in grateful remembrance for the noble and gererous words uttered on
that occasion, worthy as they are of a son of old Massachusetts.
WILLIAM C. NELL, President.
R. Z. GREENER, Secretary.
To the Honorable Senator from Massachusetts,
HENRY WILSON.
BOSTON, Feb. 27, 1861. |
