the entertainment of such views, as Mr. Greeley, its
chief editor, has shown by many citations in his book, "The American
Conflict." The Albany "Argus," about the same time, said, in language
which Mr. Greeley characterizes as "clear and temperate": "We sympathize
with and justify the South as far as this: their rights have been
invaded to the extreme limit possible within the forms of the
Constitution; and, beyond this limit, their feelings have been insulted
and their interests and honor assailed by almost every possible form of
denunciation and invective; and, if we deemed it certain that the real
_animus_ of the Republican party could be carried into the
administration of the Federal Government, and become the permanent
policy of the nation, we should think that all the instincts of
self-preservation and of manhood rightfully impelled them to a resort to
revolution and a separation from the Union, and we would applaud them
and wish them godspeed in the adoption of such a remedy."

Again, the same paper said, a day or two afterward: "If South Carolina
or any other State, through a convention of her people, shall formally
separate herself from the Union, probably both the present and the next
Executive will simply let her alone and _quietly allow all the functions
of the Federal Government within her limits to be suspended. Any other
course would be madness_; as it would at once enlist all the Southern
States in the controversy and plunge the whole country into a civil
war.... As a matter of policy and wisdom, therefore, independent of the
question of right, we should deem resort to force most disastrous."

The "New York Herald"--a journal which claimed to be independent of all
party influences--about the same period said: "Each State is organized
as a complete government, holding the purse and wielding the sword,
possessing the right to break the tie of the confederation as a nation
might break a treaty, and to repel coercion as a nation might repel
invasion.... Coercion, if it were possible, is out of the question."

On the 31st of January, 1861--after six States had already seceded--a
great meeting was held in the city of New York, to consider the perilous
condition of the country. At this meeting Mr. James S. Thayer, "an
old-line Whig," made a speech, which was received with great applause.
The following extracts from the published report of Mr. Thayer's speech
will show the character of the views which then comm