y
equaled in the history of Civil Commotions. Its overthrow of the
Federal authority has not only been sudden and wide-spread, but has
been marked by excesses which have alarmed all and been sources of
profound humiliation to a large portion of the American People.
Its history is a history of surprises and treacheries and ruthless
spoliations. The Forts of the United States have been captured and
garrisoned, and hostile flags unfurled upon their ramparts. Its
arsenals have been seized, and the vast amount of public arms they
contained appropriated to the use of the captors; while more than
half a million dollars, found in the Mint at New Orleans, has been
unscrupulously applied to replenish the coffers of Louisiana.
Officers in command of revenue cutters of the United States have
been prevailed on to violate their trusts and surrender the
property in their charge; and instead of being branded for their
crimes, they, and the vessels they betrayed, have been cordially
received into the service of the Seceded States. These movements
were attended by yet more discouraging indications of immorality.
It was generally believed that this Revolution was guided and urged
on by men occupying the highest positions in the public service,
and who, with the responsibilities of an oath to support the
Constitution still resting upon their consciences, did not hesitate
secretly to plan and openly to labor for, the dismemberment of the
Republic whose honors they enjoyed and upon whose Treasury they
were living. As examples of evil are always more potent than those
of good, this spectacle of demoralization on the part of States and
statesmen could not fail to produce the most deplorable
consequences. The discontented and the disloyal everywhere took
courage. In other States, adjacent to and supposed to sympathize
in sense of political wrong with those referred to, Revolutionary
schemes were set on foot, and Forts and arms of the United States
seized. The unchecked prevalence of the Revolution, and the
intoxication which its triumphs inspired, naturally suggested
wilder and yet more desperate enterprises than the conquest of
ungarrisoned Forts, or the plunder of an unguarded Mint. At what
time the armed occupation of Washington City became a part of the
Re