," or else he would have suppressed them altogether. But his
utterance is that of one who has certain views for the first time placed
before him, and shrinks from the consequences of their advocacy--shrinks
from "the violence implied" in them--although for some reason he dares
not refuse to place those views before the people.
And, in carrying out his promise to do so--"In stating this argument,"
presumably of the Rebel Conclave, "in favor of freedom, 'peaceably if we
can, forcibly if we must'"--the language used is an admission that the
argument is not his own. Were it his own, would he not have said in
"making" it, instead of in "stating" it? Furthermore, had he been
"making" it of his own accord, he would hardly have involved himself in
such singular contradictions and explanations as are here apparent. He
was plainly "stating" the Rebel Conclave's argument, not making one
himself. He was obeying orders, under the protest of his fears. And
those fears forced his trembling pen to write the saving-clause which
"qualifies" the Conclave's second-hand bluster preceding it.
That the Rebels hoped for Northern assistance in case of Secession, is
very clear from many speeches made prior to and soon after the election
of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency--and from other sources of information.
Thus we find in a speech made by Representative L. M. Keitt, of South
Carolina, in Charleston, November, 1860, the following language,
reported by the Mercury:
"But we have been threatened. Mr. Amos Kendall wrote a letter, in which
he said to Colonel Orr, that if the State went out, three hundred
thousand volunteers were ready to march against her. I know little
about Kendall--and the less the better. He was under General Jackson;
but for him the Federal treasury seemed to have a magnetic attraction.
"Jackson was a pure man, but he had too many around him who made
fortunes far transcending their salaries. [Applause.] And this Amos
Kendall had the same good fortune under Van Buren. He (Kendall)
threatened us on the one side, and John Hickman on the other. John
Hickman said, defiantly, that if we went out of the Union, eighteen
millions of Northern men would bring us back.
"Let me tell you, there are a million of Democrats in the North who,
when the Black Republicans attempt to march upon the South, will be
found a wall of fire in the front. [Cries of 'that's so,' and
applause.]"
Harper's Weekly of May 28, 1864, comme
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