The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One in the Government of the United States.: Its Cause, and How It Should Be MetStreight, Abel D.
History
The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One in the Government of the United States.: Its Cause, and How It Should Be Met
Streight, Abel D.
Secession; United States -- Politics and government -- 1857-1861
"2. The congress shall have power to declare the punishment of
treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood,
or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted."
Now has not South Carolina "levied war?" Has she not collected armies to
resist the United States? Has she not obstructed the collection of the
revenue of the nation? Has she not even taken the fortifications and
arsenals and confiscated the property of the United States? All these
things has she done, and if this be not "levying war"--if this be not
"treason"--rank "treason," I know not what is. And yet, strange as it may
seem, there are men in all the States so wedded to party that they
encourage and justify South Carolina in her mad secession schemes, and by
so doing give "aid and comfort" to the sworn "enemies" of the United
States. Did they ever think that they too are traitors, and that they are
as legally deserving of a halter as the madest secession hotspur of South
Carolina?
Like the old tories of the revolution, they are, however, but few in the
Northern States, and their number, thanks to the intelligence of the
people, is rapidly growing less. Soon will there be but one sentiment in
all sane minds upon this subject. All will see that this Union must be
preserved, unbroken by rebels, and traitors be brought to condign
punishment, unless we would insanely jeopardise all for which our fathers
fought and bled and died upon the battle fields of the revolution.
To aid in creating a healthy public sentiment upon this important subject,
I will now give some of the arguments in favor of the Union and of the
present constitution, advanced by some of the early fathers of the
republic. To do this, I shall first draw largely from certain political
papers, entitled the "Federalist," written while the adoption of the
present constitution was pending, and addressed to the people of the State
of New York, to explain the principles of the new constitution, and to
enforce the propriety and necessity of its adoption. They were the united
productions of John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, three
brilliant political lights.
In the first eight numbers of these papers the dangers of foreign force
and influence, and of war between the States, and the effects of internal
war in producing standing armies unfriendly to liberty, were portrayed in
a very masterly manner. Several other papers follow from which I quote
largely, as they are just as appropriate now to show the benefits of a
stable and consolidated Union, and the evils of _disunion_, as then:
"THE UTILITY OF THE UNION AS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST DOMESTIC FACTION AND
INSURRECTIONS.
"A firm union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of
the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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