Lincoln and nullification.
The nearest approach to any exposition of the
President's views upon the momentous questions which now agitate the country, has just been vouchsafed by the
Springfield (Iii.)
Republican, which is considered the home organ of the
President elect.
According to that journal, of the 13th inst., the business of
Mr. Lincoln will be to see that ‘"the
Union is preserved at all hazards, and from all assaults,"’ and "that those who would destroy the law would be dealt with by the strong arm of the law." That journal does not state whether this applies to nullification at the
North, as well as secession at the
South.
It refers to
Mr. Lincoln's
Leavenworth speech, in which he said:
‘
"You Democrats greatly fear that the success of the Republicans will destroy the
Union.
Why? Do the Republicans declare against the
Union?--Nothing like it. Your own statement of it is, that if the
Black Republicans elect a President, you won't stand it. You will break up the
Union.
That will be your act, not ours.
To justify it, you must show that our policy gives you just cause for such desperate action.
Can you deny that?-- When you attempt it, you will find our policy is exactly the policy of the men who made the
Union--nothing more, nor nothing less.
Do you think you are justified to break up the government rather than to have it administered by
Washington, and other great and good men who made it and administered it?
If you do, you are very unreasonable, and more reasonable men cannot, and will not submit to you. While we elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you submit.
Old John Brown has been hung for treason against a State.
We cannot object, even though slavery is wrong.
That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed and treason.
It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.
So, if constitutionally we elect a President, and there fore you undertake to destroy the
Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as old
John Brown was dealt with.
We can only do our duty.
We hope and believe that in no section will a majority so set as to render such extreme measures necessary."
’
According to a Springfield telegraphic dispatch of Nov. 17, published in the New York
Herald,
Mr. Lincoln remarked on that day to a visitor, in regard to an expected public definition of his policy in advance of his inaugural, as follows:
‘
"During the last six years I have placed my views on all public questions so fully and frequently on record, that all those desiring may learn them by simply referring to it. If my past associations obtain no credit, present ones will be treated no better."
’
Whatever may be the variety of opinions in the
South upon the right of secession, there is no interruption of the mutual regards and affections of the people of the
Southern States.
If it is the calculation in any quarter, that nine of the
Northern States shall be permitted to nullify the laws with impunity, but that if a single Southern State imitates their bad example she is to be visited with the pains and penalties of treason, and that the
South itself, as intimated by the
Republican, is to perform that duty, we imagine they are calculating without their host.
The subjoined table shows the penalties imposed in the several Northern disunion States on those officers or citizens who may aid in preserving the
Constitution in fact by enforcing the
Fugitive Slave Law, viz:
It will be seen from the above that the
Northern States are nearly all in a position of practical disunion; that is, they have refused to sustain the
Constitution which their fathers adopted.
Is the
Federal Government going to put down nullification there, and will the
North stand with drawn sword at its back, ready to sustain the laws, even if it has to desolate its own firesides and spill the blood of its own children — as the
South is expected to do?
That is the question.
Let us have even-handed justice all round.
