. If any doubt heretofore existed
as to the right of coercing a State, or upon whom rested the
responsibility for beginning the war, or who were the real enemies of
the Union, or where prominent members of the Democratic party would
stand, it had now disappeared. The partisan was lost in the patriot.

Daniel S. Dickinson travelled two hundred miles to be present at this
meeting, and his attitude, assumed without qualification or
reservation, especially pleased the lovers of the Union. Of all men he
had retained and proclaimed his predilections for the South with the
zeal and stubbornness of an unconverted Saul. Throughout the long
discussion of twenty years his sympathy remained with the South, his
ambitions centred in the South, and his words, whether so intended or
not, encouraged the South to believe in a divided North. But the guns
at Sumter changed him as quickly as a voice converted St. Paul. "It
were profitless," he said, his eyes resting upon the torn flag that
had waved over Sumter--"it were profitless to inquire for original or
remote causes; it is no time for indecision or inaction.... I would
assert the power of the government over those who owe it allegiance
and attempt its overthrow, as Brutus put his signet to the
death-warrant of his son, that I might exclaim with him, 'Justice is
satisfied, and Rome is free.' For myself, in our federal relations, I
know but one section, one Union, one flag, one government. That
section embraces every State; that Union is the Union sealed with the
blood and consecrated by the tears of the revolutionary struggle; that
flag is the flag known and honoured in every sea under heaven; that
government is the government of Washington, and Adams, and Jefferson,
and Jackson; a government which has shielded and protected not only
us, but God's oppressed children, who have gathered under its wings
from every portion of the globe."[771]

[Footnote 771: _Life, Letters, and Speeches of Daniel S. Dickinson_.
Vol. 2, pp. 4-7.]

Fernando Wood, until recently planning to make New York an independent
city, now declared the past buried, with its political associations
and sympathies, and pledged the municipality, its money and its men,
to the support of the Union. "I am with you in this contest. We know
no party, now."[772] Of the fifty or more speeches delivered from the
several platforms, perhaps the address of John Cochrane, whose
ridiculous Richmond oration was scarcely a month old, p