This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[151]
“No, sir; when we come from Massachusetts on this errand, we shall not leave a single traitor behind, unless he is hanging on a tree.”
“Well, we shall see.”
“You will see; I know something of the North, and a good deal about New England, where I was born and have lived for forty-two years. We are pretty quiet there now because we don't believe you mean to carry out your threat.
We have heard the same story at every election these twenty years. Our people don't believe you are in earnest.
But let me tell you, as sure as you attempt to destroy this Union, the North will resist the attempt to its last man and its last dollar.
You are as certain to fail as there is a God in heaven.
One thing you may do, you may ruin the Southern States, and extinguish your institution of slavery.
From the moment the first gun is fired on the American flag your slaves will not be worth five years purchase.
But as to breaking up the Union, it cannot be done.
God and nature, and the blood of your fathers and mine have made it one, and one country it must, and shall remain.”
Afterwards in talking with the South Carolina Commissioners who were there to present the ordinance of secession to the President, a similar conversation occurred:--
“The North won't fight.”
“The North will fight.”
“If the North fights, its laborers will starve and overturn the government.”
“If the South fights, there is an end of slavery.”
“Do you mean to say that you, yourself, would fight in such a cause?”
“I would; and by the grace of God, I will.”
Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney-General of the United States, as the legal adviser of the government, gave an opinion that the acts and doings of the men of the secession convention of South Carolina in voting to secede from the Union was legally definable as a riot, for the suppression of which the forces of the. United States could not be lawfully used.
As Mr. Black and myself were personal friends, having known each other well as lawyers, and having been employed as opposing
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.