Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 2.
Frank Moore, Ed.

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“ [213] and patriotic efforts have signalized the times in which they lived, have not been lost. Have the labors of Calhoun been forgotten, when he declared a few years ago for the secession of South Carolina? and that secession would be the consummation of their liberties?”

The review I have taken of the causes assigned for secession, reduces them to three only, which have foundation in fact — the election of a President by a sectional vote, the Personal Liberty laws of four States, and the exclusion of the South from the common territory. As to the first, nothing more need be said: it was produced by the act of the South itself; let not the South complain. As to the second, it is too insignificant as a justification of rebellion, to deserve a moment's notice. Concerning the last, it is as clear to me as the sunlight around us, that it is a shallow subterfuge, and that the South, in reality, cared nothing about the Territories. If the right to take their slaves there was of such value, as, when interfered with, to justify them to their own consciences in revolutionary violence, can they tell — can any man tell — why they should take a step which would inevitably exclude slavery from the Territories forever? Did they believe that an institution could be planted there by war, which they could not carry there in time of peace? Did they hope that, with sword in hand, they could wrest from the Government a vast domain, from which the people of the North should be shut out, except upon such terms as the South might, as an independent power, prescribe? Did they suppose that fear would grant what justice and equity refused? Did they imagine that after seceding from the Union, and thereby renouncing all rights flowing from the Union, they could obtain more easy access to the Territories? No: they knew that secession from the Union was secession from the common property of the Union, as well as from its Constitution. It is, therefore, manifest, that they did not secede because the Territories were closed, or were threatened to be closed against them; for, by seceding, they barred and bolted the gates of the Territories against themselves forever.

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The duty of Missouri.

My friends, time does not permit my following any further this doubling trail of perfidy and treason. I have endeavored honestly to expose it to your view, for it is the trail Missouri has been urged by her now fugitive Governor to follow, and Missourians, when they take it up, should understand well what they are after, and where they are to be led. Let him who is willing to make Missouri the unwelcome appendage of a Confederacy founded on the principles and erected by the means I have exhibited to you, take her into that position when he can. I rejoice to believe that there yet remains in our State enough of virtue, honor, and patriotism, to make the time far distant when it can be done. I will not discuss the question whether Missouri--to use a common expression — ought to “go North,” or “go South.” Missouri has no going to do. Her duty is to stand loyal to the Union and the Constitution. The National Government has put no wrong on her, and she has no occasion to wrong herself by an attempt to change her relations to it. But if, in an evil hour, she should be betrayed into the contagious revolt, which has drawn into its vortex other States that had no part in the original treason of the cotton States, let the participants in any such movement understand that the Government which never before made its arm really felt, will be felt then, and that to their discomfiture.

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Concluding remarks.

A few words more, and I have done. We are in the midst of an unnatural and consuming civil war. Some four hundred thousand men are under arms, and we know not at what moment the land may tremble under the shock of contending hosts. It is a sight to make the world weep. The cause of humanity, the claims of freedom, the spirit of Christianity, all demand that this terrible conflict should be stayed. But, from the depths of a troubled spirit, I ask, how can it be? A part of the nation rebels-declares its revolt irreconcilable — announces that it asks no compromise or reconstruction, will consider none, even though permitted to name its own terms — defies the power of the Nation — wages war upon the National Government, and cries out, “all we ask is to be let alone!” How can they be let alone, without destroying the Union and the Constitution? If any man will tell me that, I will say, Let them alone. With unequalled skill in raising false issues, the secessionists in our midst labor to fan the flame of rebellion here, by impressing upon the minds of all within the reach of their influence, that the controversy of the revolted States is with “Abe Lincoln;” when those States are in arms against the supreme constitutional authority of the Nation. They seek by every contrivance to excite odium against the Government, because “Abe Lincoln” is, in accordance with the Constitution, at the head of it: a very sufficient reason for changing the Administration, at the proper time, by the votes of the people, but not the least justification or apology for rebellion. They stigmatize every man as a Black Republican or an Abolitionist, who adheres to the Constitutional Government of his country, in its efforts to protect itself from subversion. They are convulsed with holy horror at the exercise of alleged unauthorized powers by “Abe Lincoln,” to preserve and defend the Constitution, and in the next breath they declare that we have no Constitution. They hypocritically profess a deep concern and sacred regard for that great charter of our liberties, and at the same moment show themselves ready to aid in the fiendish work of its utter destruction. “Abe Lincoln,” fulfilling his sworn