Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

Stephens's matter and manner were the reverse of all this. He was calm, cool, dignified, dispassionate, and solemn, but apparently earnest. “My object,” he said, “is not to stir up strife, but to allay it; not to appeal to your passions, but to your reason.” With the fervor which patriotic impulses inspire, and the apparent candor as well as sagacity of a philosopher, he commented on the election just ended, its significance, and its probable bearing upon the future history of the country, and especially of the Slave-labor States. “Let us reason together,” he said. “Shall the people of the South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think that they ought. In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally chosen, to that high office, is sufficient cause for any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country. To make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it, because a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the Government, by Withdrawing from it, without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves? Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate is to befall this country, let it never be laid to the charge of the people of the South, and especially to the people of Georgia, that we were untrue to our national engagements. Let the fault and the wrong rest upon others. If all our hopes are to be blasted — if the Republic is to go down — let us be found to the last moment standing on the deck, with the Constitution of the United States waving over our heads. Let the fanatics of the North break the Constitution, if that is their fell purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. I shall speak presently more of their acts; but let not the South--let us not be the ones to commit the aggression. We went into the election with this people. The result was different from what we wished; but the election has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the Government, and go out of the Union on that account, the record would be made up hereafter against us.”

Mr. Stephens then showed, that with a majority of the United States Senate and of the Supreme Court politically opposed to him, the new President would be powerless to do evil to the Slave system. “Why, then,” he asked, “should we disrupt the ties of this Union when his hands are tied, and he can do nothing against us?” “My countrymen,” he continued, “I am not one of those who believe this Union has been a curse, up to this time. True men, men of integrity, entertain different views from me on this subject. I do not question their right to do so; I would not impugn their motives in so doing. Nor will I undertake to say that this Government of our fathers is perfect. There is nothing perfect in this world, of a human origin-nothing connected with human nature, from man himself to any of his works. . . . But that this Government of our fathers, with all ”