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THE EFFECT OF DISUNION ON SLAVERY.

SUPPOSING the State to have seceded, and war to have opened, what trophies do you look for?-what are you to gain?

Will you win greater security for the institution of slavery in the States? You do not want it. The Supreme Court hasised an impregnable bulwark for its defence. And even the Republican party has voluntarily tendered you an amendment of the Constitution forever guaranteeing slavery in the States against even the touch of Federal legislation.

Will you strengthen your claim to the common Territories? Here too the Supreme Court, by the Dred Scott decision, has settled your rights; and the administration party in Congress have abandoned the Wilmot proviso. They have passed territorial laws without any restriction whatever-thus leaving every slaveholder in the South free to enter the Territories with his slaves, and even throwing the ægis of judicial protection over that species of property when there.

Shall we, by secession and war, lose fewer slaves than by obtaining a better execution of the fugitive slave law? Why, by secession you annul the fugitive slave law, and forfeit all its benefits. Moreover, you bring Canada, the great asylum for fugitive slaves, to the Virginia border; so that, to get his freedom, a slave has but to cross a narrow stream or an imaginary line; and, by avoiding all obligation to return fugitives, and discouraging all willingness to do so, you create other asylums north of us, immediately contiguous to the border slave States-the inevitable consequence of which will be not only that those States will lose a much larger number of slaves than heretofore, but that in a few years slavery will disappear from them altogether.

With Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and Indiana, and Illinois, and Iowa made enemies- —as enemies, and bitter enemies, secession will surely make them-no human power can prevent the extinction of slavery in the States of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Fire will not more effectually reduce the fagot to cinders, or water extinguish flame, than secession will bring slavery in those States to annihilation.

In my judgment, there is no safety for this institution save in the Constitution of the United States. There it is recognized and protected. No other property is specially protected. Slaves are represented; no other property is. This Union of ours is the great bulwark of slavery. Nowhere

else has it flourished; and break up the Union when you will, you knock away its strongest prop. A southern confederacy will be to it its deadliest blast, if not its grave. The whole civilized world is intensely hostile to slavery; and the moment a new confederacy is formed, based on the single idea of slavery, numerous and malignant antagonisms will be provoked which may endanger the institution. But under the shield of the Constitution of the United States these antagonisms, whether foreign or domestic, are, and ever will be, harmless. In that blessed instrument it is a recognized institution-part and parcel of our frame of government, and of our social and industrial system--to the protection of which the entire power of the great Government of the United States stands pledged before the entire world. Thus secure under the wing of the Union, why shall we risk its security by rushing on untried experiments?—Joseph Segar, 1861.

THE GAINS OF DISUNION.

FOR what, then, are we plunging into the dark abyss of disunion? In God's name, tell me. I vow I do not know, nor have I ever heard one sensible or respectable reason assigned to this harsh resort. We shall lose everything; gain nothing but war, carnage, famine, social desolation; wretchedness in all its aspects, ruin in all its forms. We shall gain a taxation, to be levied by the new government, that will eat out the substance of the people, and "make them poor indeed." We shall gain alienation and distrust in all the dear relations of life. We shall gain ill blood between father and son, and brother and brother, and neighbor and neighbor. Bereaved widowhood and helpless orphanage we shall gain to our hearts' content. Lamentation, and mourning, and agonized hearts we shall gain in every corner where "wild war's deadly blast" shall blow. We shall gain the prostration of that great system of internal development which the statesmen of Virginia have looked to as the basis of all her future progress and grandeur, and the great hope of her speedy regeneration and redemption. We shall gain repudiation; not that Virginia will ever be reluctant to redeem her engagements, but that she will be disabled by the heavy burdens of secession and war. We shall gain the blockade of our ports, and entire exclusion from the commerce and markets and storehouses of the world. We shall gain the hardest times the people of this once happy country have

known since the War of Independence. I know not, indeed, of one single interest of Virginia that will not be wrecked by disunion. And, entertaining these views, I do shrink with horror from the very idea of the secession of the State. I can never assent to the fatal measure. No! I am for the Union yet. Call me submissionist or traitor, or what else you will, I am for the Union—" while hope's light flickers in the socket."

And if I may presume to tender an humble exhortation to my colleagues in this hall, I would say to them, as I said to a number of my respected constituents, who recently called on me for my views of the crisis that besets us: "As Washington advised his countrymen, cling fondly to the Union. Take every chance to save it. Conference with the border States, convention of the slave States, general convention of all the States-try these and all other conceivable means of saving the Union from wreck. And when all conceivable expedients shall have seemingly failed, if there be but one faint ray of hope, let that light you to yet one more effort to save it."-Joseph Segar, 1861.

THE TIME FOR ACTION, NOT QUESTIONS.

FELLOW CITIZENS: we are cast on perilous times. The demon of discord has inaugurated his terrible court, and it becomes us, as a great people, to act in a manner becoming this Government and people. In a somewhat extended service I have entertained my own views of what each section of this confederacy owed to the other. Through a spirit of forbearance, fraternity and friendship, I had hoped, notwithstanding there might be subjects of irritation, that the healing influence of time and the recollection of the great names and greater memories of the revolution would call back all to their duty, that all might be harmonized, and that we might all march on together like brethren to a great and common destiny. But while we were revelling in these dreams a fortress has been attacked and reduced, or evacuated. The flag of the country has been insulted, public property seized, and civil war exists this day by the action of those who should be, and are our sister States-by those who are our brethren. In this great crisis it is no time to inquire for causes remote and distant; it is no time to inquire who holds the helm of the ship of state; it is no time to inquire what interest or section placed him there. The

only question is, does he steer the ship between the Scylla and Charybdis which threaten our Union, according to the lights of the Constitution? If he does, he is to be sustained. I shall not pursue this matter in an angry spirit. I would make every effort to bring back every wandering lamb to the fold again. I would not levy war for aggression-I would levy it for defensive peace. I would not do it to despoil others. I would arm, and that in a manner becoming this Government and people, not for aggression, but for defence -for the purpose of retaining our honor and dignity, not only at home, but among the nations of the earth. The most brilliant successes that ever attended the field of battle could afford me no pleasure; because I cannot but reflect that of every one who falls in this unnatural strife, be it on one side or on the other, we must, in our sober moments, exclaim,

Another sword has laid him low,
Another, and another's;

And every hand that dealt a blow-
Ah, me! it was a brother's.

There is no time for hesi

But we are called upon to act. tation or indecision-no time for haste and excitement. It is a time when the people should rise in the majesty of their might, stretch forth their strong arm and silence the angry waves of tumult. It is time the people should command peace. It is a question between union and anarchy-between law and disorder. All politics for the time being are and should be committed to the resurrection of the grave. The question should be, "our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country."

But while I would prosecute this war in a manner becoming a civilized and Christian people, I would do so in no vindictive spirit. I would do it as Brutus set the signet to the death-warrant of his son-" Justice is satisfied, and Rome is free." I love my country; I love this Union. It was the first vision of my early years; it is the last ambition of my public life. Upon its altar I have surrendered my choicest hopes. I had fondly hoped that in approaching age it was to beguile my solitary hours, and I will stand by it as long as there is a Union to stand by-and when the ship of the Union shall crack and groan, when the skies lower and threaten, when the lightnings flash, the thunders roar, the storms beat, and the waves run mountain high, if the ship of State goes down, and the Union perishes, I would rather perish with it than survive its destruction.

Fellow citizens, let us rally round the flag of our country. I love that flag, with all its stars and stripes-that flag of my fathers-that flag that is known and honored throughout the earth, wherever civilization has travelled. I love it still. Let us maintain our flag in the same noble spirit that animated the gallant Anderson, and never desert it while one star is left. If I could see my bleeding, torn, maddened and distracted country once more restored to quiet and lasting peace under those glorious stars and stripes, I could almost be ready to take he oath of the infatuated leader in IsraelJephtha-and swear to sacrifice the first living thing that I should meet on my return from victory.

Hon. D. S. Dickinson, 1861.

WHAT IS OUR COUNTRY.

THE majesty of the people is here to-day to sustain the majesty of the Constitution-and I come, a wanderer from the far Pacific, to record my oath along with yours of the great Empire State. The hour for conciliation has passed, the gathering for battle is at hand; and the country requires that every man shall do his duty. Fellow citizens, what is that country? Is it the soil on which we tread? Is it the gathering of familiar faces? Is it our luxury, and pomp, and pride? Nay, more than these, is it power, and might, and majesty alone? No, our country is more, far more than all these. The country which demands our love, our courage, our devotion, our heart's blood, is more than all theseour country is the history of our fathers-our country is the tradition of our mothers—our country is past renown-our country is present pride and power-our country is future hope and destiny-our country is greatness, glory, truth, constitutional liberty-above all, freedom forever! These are the watch-words under which we fight; and we will shout them out till the stars appear in the sky, in the stormiest hour of battle. I have said that the hour for conciliation is past. It may return; but not to-morrow, nor next week. It will return when that tattered flag is avenged. It will return when rebel traitors are taught obedience and submission. It will return when the rebellious confederates are taught that the North, though peaceable, are not cowardlythough forbearing, are not fearful. That hour of conciliation will come back when again the ensign of the Republic will stream over every rebellious fort of every Confederate

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