FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  
el. Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, most forcibly says: 'Every man who has any remaining loyalty to the nation, or any hope and desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the Confederacy, must see that what is meant by the outcry against coercion is in the interest, of secession, and that what is meant is, in effect, that the Federal Government must be terrified or seduced into complete cooeperation with the revolution which it was its most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to prevent.' Jefferson Davis, in his late message, says: 'Let us alone, let us go, and the sword drops from our hands.' But what does this involve? The admission of the right of secession, which, as has been proved, is fatal to all national unity and preservation. Even if this arrogant demand was complied with, would peace be thus possible? Would not the breaking up of the Union involve the people in calamities that no patience, or wisdom upon the part of the North could avert? Remember a long border in an open country, stretching from the Atlantic, possibly even to the Pacific, is to be defended. Will the bordering people sink down from war, and all its exasperations, and become as peaceful as lambs? Constituted as human nature now is, will the dissolution of the Union create with the great North and South the experience of millennium prediction, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them'? Here is a line crossed by great rivers; we are to shut up the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, on Ohio and Western Virginia; we are to ask the Western States to give up the mouth of the Mississippi to a foreign power. Is it reasonable to suppose that no provocation will occur on this long frontier? Will no slaves run away? What is to be gained by a dissolution of the Union? Not peace; for if, when united, there exists such cause of dissension, the evil will be tenfold greater when separated. Not national aggrandizement, for division brings weakness, imbecility, and a loss of self-respect; it invites aggressions from foreign powers, and compels to submission to insults that otherwise would not be given. Not general competence, for the South is quite as dependent upon the North as the North upon the South. Disunion is a violent disruption of great material interest
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

people

 

secession

 
States
 

dissolution

 

national

 
Western
 

involve

 

foreign

 

interest

 

rivers


crossed
 

Chesapeake

 
prediction
 

millennium

 

experience

 

nature

 

create

 
leopard
 

fatling

 

suppose


respect

 
invites
 

aggressions

 

powers

 

imbecility

 
aggrandizement
 

division

 
brings
 
weakness
 

compels


submission
 

Disunion

 

dependent

 

violent

 

disruption

 

material

 
competence
 

insults

 

general

 

separated


greater

 

provocation

 

frontier

 
slaves
 
reasonable
 

Virginia

 

Mississippi

 

dissension

 

tenfold

 

exists