Aggressions of the North.
But we advance still a step further in the argument, to show from Northern authorities alone, still other
aggressions of the
North against the
South,
in bringing on this war. In his speech, entitled
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187]
‘Under the flag,’ delivered in
Boston, April 21st, 1861,
Wendell Phillips used this language, which we are persuaded is the opinion of many misinformed people to-day, both at the
North and at the
South.
He says:
“For thirty years the
North has exhausted conciliation and compromise.
They have tried every expedient; they have relinquished every right, they have sacrificed every interest, they have smothered keen sensibility to national honor, and Northern weight and supremacy in the
Union; have forgotten they were the majority in numbers and in wealth, in education and in strength; have left the helm of government and the dictation of policy to the
Southern States,” &c.
We propose to show, from
the highest Northern sources, that so far from the above statement being true, it is
exactly the opposite of the truth.
General John A. Logan, afterwards a
Major-General in the
Federal Army, a
United States Senator and a candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the
Republican ticket, in a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, on the 5th of February, 1861, uses this language:
The Abolitionists of the North have constantly warred upon Southern institutions, by incessant abuse from the pulpit, from the press, on the stump, and in the halls of Congress, denouncing them as a sin against God and man. * * * By these denunciations and lawless acts on the part of Abolition fanatics such results have been produced as to drive the people of the Southern States to a sleepless vigilance for the protection of their property and the preservation of their rights.
The Albany
Argus of November 10th, 1800, said:
We sympathize with, and justify the South as far as this: their rights have been invaded to the extreme limit possible within the forms of the Constitution; and beyond this limit; their feelings have been insulted, and their interests and honor assailed by almost every possible form of denunciation and invective; and if we deemed it certain that the real animus of the Republican party could be carried into the administration of the Federal Government, and become the permanent policy of the nation, we should think that all the instincts of self preservation and of manhood, rightly impelled them to resort to revolution and a separation from the Union, and we
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would applaud them, and wish them God-speed in the adoption of such a remedy.
The Rochester
Union, two or three days later, said:
Restricting our remarks to actual violations of the Constitution, the North has led the way, and for a long period have been the sole offenders or aggressors. * * * Owing to their peculiar circumstances, the Southern States cannot retaliate upon the North without taking ground for secession,
