Shall we now acknowledge that we sacrificed a million
of lives and expended billions of treasure to enforce a Constitution
which is not worthy of respect and preservation?
Those who advocated the right of secession alleged in their own
justification that we had no regard for law and that their rights of
property, life, and liberty would not be safe under the Constitution as
administered by us. If we now verify their assertion, we prove that they
were in truth and in fact fighting for their liberty, and instead of
branding their leaders with the dishonoring name of traitors against a
righteous and legal government we elevate them in history to the rank
of self-sacrificing patriots, consecrate them to the admiration of the
world, and place them by the side of Washington, Hampden, and Sidney.
No; let us leave them to the infamy they deserve, punish them as they
should be punished, according to law, and take upon ourselves no share
of the odium which they should bear alone.
It is a part of our public history which can never be forgotten that
both Houses of Congress, in July, 1861, declared in the form of a solemn
resolution that the war was and should be carried on for no purpose of
subjugation, but solely to enforce the Constitution and laws, and that
when this was yielded by the parties in rebellion the contest should
cease, with the constitutional rights of the States and of individuals
unimpaired.
Pages:
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494