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
In my opinion, the best way to stop this disunion and treasonable clamor,
is for all friends of the Union to come out and call meetings, and pass
resolutions such as are appropriate for the times, telling our enemies
that it was for this Union our fathers fought, bled and died, and we will
do (if necessary) as our fathers did. Let there be but one sentiment, and
the unbroken ranks of eighteen millions of freemen will do more to silence
treason than all the constitutional amendments that could be prepared by
twice the number of pacificators that are now offering their services to
induce the government to meet the traitors on what is termed "middle
ground." It is this continued wavering and uncertain position of the
people that give those who are plotting our destruction such full and
perfect confidence in their final success. Few men could be found who
would enter the enemies ranks, if the certainty of being dealt with
according to the laws of our country was before them. The boasted bravery
of those chivalrous gentlemen who are now firing the hearts of the
ignorant with bitter hatred against the noblest government on earth, would
hesitate, reflect, and recoil at the sight of the hangman and the gallows.
I question not their bravery, neither do I doubt their determination, but
with the certainty of defeat before them, would they strike the fatal
blow? Every sane man is apt to count the chances of success when he enters
upon any very important undertaking, and if there is nothing before him
but humiliation and defeat, where is the man who would be found fool hardy
enough to risk his life in such a hopeless enterprise? They are few and
far between. We are told that unless the nation gives way to these
traitors, that the war that will ensue will be the most bloody and
desperate ever known to civilized man. There is no doubt but they will
fight, but will they be found any more brave and determined in destroying
than we will be in maintaining our glorious country? I presume not. Then
we can easily discover the character of the war by deciding upon the
course we would pursue in such a contingency. This talk about such a war
being any worse than other wars, is a mere bugbear, sent out to frighten
the timid into submission, and the less notice there is taken of it, the
more unfrequent will it be referred to. It is a noticeable fact, that
those who are bringing about this great calamity are the very ones who are
picturing to our visions the horrible consequences that would result from
an effort to stop their career. Can impudence go further? Could Arnold
have done more to have accomplished his base and ignoble purpose?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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