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ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, the Vice President over the Southern Confederacy, said, when the question of Secession was pending before the people of Georgia:

"What right has the North assailed? What justice has been demanded? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can either of you name to-day one single act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Governmeut at Washington, of which the South can complain. Ichallenge the answer."

THE REBEL IVERSON ON THE "CAUSE." During the debates in the last Congress before the several states, except South Carolina, had seceded, Mr. IVERSON, a distinguished Senator from Georgia, in the Senate Chamber, said:

"Sir, before the 4th of March, before you inaugurate your President, there will be certainly five states, if not eight of them, that will be out of the Union and have

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formed a constitution and form of Government for themselves. * ***** You talk about repealing the personal liberty bills as a concession to the South! Repeal them all to-morrow, sir, and it would not stop this revolution. *****Nor do we suppose there will be any overt acts on the part of Mr. Lincoln. For one, I do not dread these overt acts. I do not propose to wait for them. * * *Now, sir, we intend to go out of this Union. I speak what I believe upon this floor, that before the 4th of March, five of the Southern states, at least, will have declared their independence; and I am 'satisfied that three others of the cotton states that are now moving in this matter are not doing it without due conconsideration. We have looked over the fleld.

THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN NO "CAUSE "

Gov. RHETT, in the South Carolina secession convention, in December, 1860-just after the Presidential election-said:

"The election of Lincoln was not the cause of secession. Disunion has been a cherished project for the last thirty years."

Senator TOOMBS, in his Georgia speech, brought up the old original grievance about Northern commercial advantages.

THE REBEL BENJAMIN TRIED TO CREATE A

"CAUSE."

Early in 1860 Senator BENJAMIN made a speech denouncing DOUGLAS, and eulogizing

LINCOLN. This was circulated all over the North under the franks of Republican members of Congress, and when BENJAMIN had succeeded in electing LINCOLN he seized the event as a warrantable pretext to dissolve the Union.He knew that with DOGLAS as Presdient he could not use the slavery question as a pretext, hence the effort to create a causus beli, and then take advantage of it.

THE CAUSE DATES FROM THE BEGINNING.

From the beginning there has been a powerful party opposed to our form of government. If the reader will consult Elliott's Debates, and the "Madison Papers," and make himself familiar with the tone of opinion that prevailed in the National and State Conventions that formed and adopted our present Constitution, he will perceive that a powerful minority existed in those days against the principles declared by our Constitution. Mr. MASON was in favor of "a President for life, his successor being chosen at the same time-a Senate for life, &c. Various were the objections to the Constitution, but most of them arose from local prejudices and interests. Some memɔers of the South Carolina Convention objected to a Union under the Constitution, because it gave too much commercial advantage to the Northern States, while members of the New England Conventions were equally opposed because of certain Southern advantages, among which was the Fugitive clause, and the three-fifths representation, &c., and in all the debates of those times the student of history will find a marked coincidence between the reasons advanced against adopting the Constitution, and those of latter-day politicians against its enforcement. It was predicted at the time, by those in favor of a "strong government," that it would be, just what Beecher says it is, the "father of troubles."

THE THREE PARTIES THAT FORMED THE CONSTITUTION.

Mr. CAREY, in his Olive Branch, a work of some 450 pages, published in 1815, says there were three classes in the National Convention that formed our Constitution-the purely Democratic, who had a constant dread of Federal encroachments, and were for gaguing the power of the General Government to the lowest scale; a Democratic Republican party, that desired to invest the Federal Government with just enough power to make it efficient, and no more; and the Monarchists, "a small but active division," who utterly repudiated a Republican form of government. This faction ultimately attached themselves to the Federal party.

HAMILTON'S STRONG GOVERNMENT."

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, a leading Federalist of that day, under date of New York, September 16, 1803, in a letter to TIMOTHY PICKERING, Esq., defined his idea of government, from which we select the following:

"The highest toned propositions which I made in the

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Rhode Island was ever attached to the mon

archial form of government, and refused to accredit delegates to the national convention. North Carolina held back for a long while, and in every State a most determined opposition was manifest, but at last the Democratic spirit prevailed, and for a time the factious "Charterists" yielded assent. Then, as now, the opponents of the constitution opposed it for diverse reasons, according to location, but they acted together as one man, for the same purpose, each granting to the other the right to use pretexts the most popular in the several sections to which they belonged. The opponents in New England sought the pretext of slavery, and other localized popular ideas, while those equally opposed in the South, used the commercial pretext for their opposition, and this parallel of mutual opposition for different and local reasons, has been kept up to this hour.

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2d. The South Carolina Rebellion of 1832, when the oppressive tariff laws" (called by South Carolina, before the constitution, Northern commercial advantages) were made to figure as the pretext. This Rebellion, though formidable, and enlisting the bitteost passions of that portion of the South, was principally confined to the hot-spurs of South Carolina, whose ancestors had opposed the constitution, and hated our form of government, and whỏ longed for an opportunity to put in operation their cherished system of Aristocracy, similar to that of England, and who held, with the same class hailing from New England, that "a national debt was a national blessing." But, failing to use this pretext with sufficient success to arouse armed resistance, the excitement was finally quelled, partly by Old Hickory's firmness, and partly by Mr. CLAY'S compromise tariff of 1833, and partly from the want of a disloyal peasantry to back up the malcontents.

The Great Abolition Rebellion.

3d. The great Northern rebellion, which particularly manifested itself in public laws, (personal liberty bills) inflamatory declamations and resolves by leading men, which appealed to the people on the pretexts of slavery aggression," to resist the laws of Congress and the mandates of the Supreme Court of the U. S. [See Charles Sumner's speech at Worcester, Aug. 7, 1854, and Wisconsin conspiracy.] This rebellion was formidable and threatening to the worst degree. The wealth of the North was poured out, free as water, to set in motion a train of circumstances that should "fire the Northern heart" to resistance, vi et armis, as was the case in many instances, particularbut encouraged by their partizans in office and ly in Wisconsin, where armed mobs, unrebuked

Maryland resolved not to take a vote, and voted to suppress the records of ayes and noes, and then immediately adjourned. RANDOLPH and MASON, of Virginia, and GERRY, of Mas-out of office, forcibly, and for a long time sucsachusetts, refused to sign the constitution, as cessfully resisted the laws of Congress and the decisions of the Court of last resort. [The members of the National Convention; the proofs of these outrages will appear under the former, however, finally favored it, and was charged by PATRICK HENRY with what was head of "Revolutionary spirit of Republicanakin to bribery. ism.] This rebellion partially developed itself between the periods of 1854 and 1860, in which the Sharp's Rifle raid in Kansas, the HELPER "crisis" and the JOHN BROWN raid formed no inconsiderable parts of the general conspiracy. All these and their kindred plots had their germ in revolutionary guilt, occasionally cropping out' in the role of monster petitions to Congress from the New England states, praying for a dissolution of the government. The pretext for this, not altogether bloodless revolution, was the slavery question, but the gist of the indictment goes back of the Constitution.

This opposition to our government has never ceased from that day to this, and to weld all the links of our historical chain, we will consider

THE FOUR REBELLIONS.

These, we can but briefly notice, as it is essential to a proper appreciation of the details that are in various ways their cotemporaries and causes, as we shall show in the progress of

this work.

Shays' Rebellion.

1st. The SHAY's Rebellion, which broke forth with armed resistance to the Government, in

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The Great Rebellion of 1861. 4th. The great Southern rebellion of 1861,

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the disasters of which are too fresh and pain-
ful to be recited here. The pretext for this
rebellion was the slavery question, and he who
reads may learn, without a tutor, that this
pretext was used only because it was the most
convenient to arouse the Southern fears and
prejudices and to "fire the Southern heart" to
the pitch of armed resistance to what South-
ern demagogues had educated the people to
believe, was danger and destruction to their
domestic happiness. Thus did Prætonean cun-
ning inaugurate Macedonian strite, and the re-
sult is a worse than Carthagenian war.
Having thus briefly and historically sketch-
ed antecedent events down to the advent of our
present troubles, let us enquire,

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THIS WAR?

As we have seen, the real, long slumbering cause or motive for this war existed not so much in hatred of slavery as in the hatred for the Constitution, which manifested itself long before the adoption of that instrument, and was confined to no section. The Northern Abolitionists and the Southern nullifiers, while they used antipodeal means, were banded together to accomplish the overthrow of the gov-. ernment, for the proof of which "let facts be submitted to a candid world."

J. Q. ADAMS PRESENTS A PETITION FOR DISSO-
LUTION.

On the 24th of February, 1842, John Quincy Adams presented a petition in the House of Representatives, signed by a large number of citizens of Haverhill, Mass., for a peaceable dissolution of the Union, "assigning as one of the reasons, the inequality of benefits conferred upon the different sections. [See Blake's History of Slavery, p. 524.

MR. ADAMS DEFENDED BY SOUTHERNERS.

This caused great excitement in Congress,
and although ostensibly aimed at slavery, Mr.
Adams found many of its warmest defenders
among slaveholders at the South. In the
course of the debate, Mr. Botts of Va. warmly
defended Mr. Adam's, and considered the pre-
sentation of this petition a bagatelle, compared
with the open advocacy for dissolution by Mr.
Upsher, the then Secretary of the Navy.
[See p. 527.

GIDDINGS PRESENTS A PETITION FOR DISSO-
LUTION.

On the 28th of February, 1842, Mr. GIDDINGS presented a petition from a large number of abolitionists or Austinburg, in his district, praying for a dissolution of the Union, and a separation of the slave from the tree states. Mr. TRIPLETT, of Kentucky, considering the petition disrespectful to both houses, moved that it be not received. Ayes, 24; (for reception) noes, 116.-[See Ibid, p. 529.

existed, North as well as South, in favor of a
dissolution of the Union, as the feeling existed
at the close of the 18th century against the
system of Government we did adopt. The old
embers of dissolution were still alive, and only
required an excitement to fan them into a blaze.
Two things, motive and opportunity are ne-
cessary for the perpetration of any wrong.-
The motive for dissolution consisted in the
original desire, patented for heirs and success-
ors, to have what HAMILTON and his friends.
termed a "strong government," generally un-
derstood to mean an aristocracy, similar to that
of England, with such modifications as might
be adapted to the occasion. Among the objects
to be attained was a large standing army and a
heavy public debt, owned by the favored few,
to whom the masses should pay tribute, under
the guise of interest that the main public offi-
ces should be held by the rich and noble for
long periods, or for life, &c. These, among
other things, were the motives for dissolution,
and a separation between the Northern and
The aristocrats of each sec-
Southern states.
tion desired a monopoly in these and sundry
other franchises, but the original weakness of
the colonies, and the fear of foreign powers,
together with the will of the Democratic mass-
es, prevented dissolution in 1787-9. Still,
the motive existed, and the only thing wanting
was the occasion. The argument was often
and vigorously advanced, that "a great na-
tional debt would be a national blessing" ___

even as late as 1840 this was a leading argu-
ment, and the various propositions to distribute
and to engage in a general system National
the proceeds of the sales of the public lands,
Improvements-the establishment of a monster
National Bank, &c.—all had their germ in the
desire to create a great national debt. Prohib-
itory tariffs, under the specious guise of "pro-
tection to American industry," were also to
play their part in clipping the amount received
from customs, and thus to swell the national
debt, but the laboring masses saw in all these
efforts to create a heavy national debt, the
foundation for their enslavement, to sweat out
taxes to pay the interest. The West saw that
Wall street, State street, and the monetary
marts of the East would act as sponges for all
time to suck up the entire revenue of its indus-
try, and they put a veto on all those measures.

OBJECT OF THE KNOW NOTHING ORGANIZA-
TION.

Though the motive still existed in its original power, the occasion had not yet arrived, and it was feared never would so long as the Democratic legions, who thronged our shores, as refugees from aristocratic and pauperized Europe, were permitted to vote, and the occasion was sought in the abridgment of the elective franchise, so as to exclude this powerful influx of voters from the polls, through the mystic operations of the Know Nothing order. This object, although successful in most of the New England States, utterly failed in the MidThese two simple facts show that the feeling dle and Western States. The Cleveland Her

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FACTIONS OF BOTH SECTIONS DESIRED DISSO-
LUTION.

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ald, a sheet that has always opposed the Democratic party, said:

"We unhesitatingly aver that seven-tenths of the foreigners in our land, who bow in obedience to the Pope of Rome, are not as intelligent as the full blooded Africans of oua state--we will not include the part bloods.” CHICAGO TRIBUNE ON TRIBUNE ON "VOTING CATTLE.?? The following, from the Chicago Tribune, though out of chronological order, will equally illustrate our point, that the opponents of Democracy have deemed it necessary to their purpose to browbeat the foreign voters into silence. În alluding to the monster torch light procession that turned out to welcome Douglas to Chicago, October 5, 1860, the Tribune said:

"Taken altogether, the squatter reception, last evening, fell below what had been promised, but furnished an instance of what a few determined wire pullers can do with a few hundred voting cattle"--(alluding to the Irish and Germans.)

KNOW NOTHINGISM ILLUSTRATED.

In a Republican meeting in Putnam county, Illinois, in 1860, Mr. ELIJAH W. GREEN delivered himself as follows:

"MR. CHAIRMAN:-It is claimed by some here to-day, that it is not policy to nominate a full ticket, on account of the Dutch. Some suppose we should not nominate a man against ROTHEMAN. I say, Mr. Chairman, we don't want to favor the Dutch; we don't want to borrow any Dutch votes, nor trade them any white votes. If they don't want to vote our ticket, let them go to hell!! have white votes enough, and can do without them. Neither do we want the Irish Catholics in our party. We have white men in our party, and don't want the Irish or

Dutch."

MORE KNOW NOTHINGISM.

We

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'It is our opinion, as our readers well know, that no man of foreign birth should be admitted to the exercise of the political rights of an American citizen." -Albany Daily Advertiser.

threatning danger, than a repeal of all naturalization "We could not find any other remedy against the laws."-Col. Webb, of New York.

"All naturalization laws should be instantly repealed, and the term preceding the enjoyment of civil rights extended twenty-five years."-Mr. Clark, Whig Mayor of New York.

All the leading Know-Nothings of the country, who have not seriously relented their heresies against foreigners, are to-day members ef the Republican or "Union" party.

We could fill volumes with similar extracts, but the foregoing must suffice.

Still, the occasion had not ripened. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.The "strong government" party could not get all the machinery of our Government into their hands. They came very near it under the Elder ADAMS, and attempted to circumscribe the elective franchise, or rather to mould it more to their purposes, by the Alien law, and to hush up the Democratic sentiment of the country, by the Sedition law, but the spirit of the people was too strong, and the effort was abandoned.

TREASON OF THE FEDERAL CLERGY.

The next effort was to weaken this Government in its struggles with Great Britain in 1812-15, to the end that the world might see Democracy in America was a failure, and then would come the millenium of the "strong government." Then, as ever since, many of the

A Republican candidate for the Senate, in leading clergy were with them. The Rev. Mr. Rock Island county Ill., in 1860, said:

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Suppose I were to tell you that I despise the Pope and hate the Papists, and detest the Irish Catholic voting cattle, who swarm around our polls at election times!-* The Douglasites depend upon the faithfulness and ignorance of their Irish Catholic allies. We expect nothing from the Catholic element in the next election. All that was worth having of New York Americanism and Know Nothingism joined the Republican party weeks ago."

FEDERAL KNOWNOTHINGISM.

"The real cause of the war must be traced to the influence of worthless foreigners over the press and the deliberations of the Government in all its branches.--Response to the Message of Gov. Strong, of Mass., by the Assembly, June, 1814.

GEN. SCOTT'S VIEWS.

"1 now hesitate between extending the period of residence before naturalization, and a total repeal of all acts of Congress on the subject-my mind inclines to the latte.."—General Scott in his celebrated Native American Letter.

And, at another time he continued

"Concurring fully in the principles of the Philadelphia movement."

Which "movement" was started for his benefit by the Native American party, in 1852.

"If I had the power, I would erect a gallows at every landing place in the city of New York, and suspend every cursed Irishman as soon as the steps upon our shore."Remarks of Mathew L. Davis on receiving the news of the Democratic triumph in New York, in 1852.

GARDNER preached an anti-war, sermon in Trinity Church, Boston, (1814) in which he said:

"The Union has been long since virtually dissolved, and it is full time that this part of the United States should take care of itself."

The Rev. Dr. PARISH said:

"How will the supporters of this anti-Christian war endure the sentence-endure their own reflection-endure the fire that forever burns- the worm which never dies-the hozannas of heaven, while the smoke of their torments ascends forever and ever."

Said the Rev. DAVID OSGOOD:

"Each man who volunteers his services in such a cause, or loans his money for its support, or by his conversation, his writings, or in any other mode of influence, encourages its prosecution, that man is an accomplice in the wickedness, loads his conscience with the blackest crimes, brings the guilt of blood upon his soul, and in the sight of God and His law is a murderer."

The Olive Branch, a work of that day, said: "To sum up the whole, Massachusetts was energetic, bold, firm, daring and decisive in a contest with the General Government, she would not abate an inch. She dared it to the conflict. She seized it by the throat and determined to strangle it."

TREASON OF THE FEDERAL PRESS...

The Boston Gazette, the New England organ of the Federalists, said:

"Any Federalist who lends money to the Government, must go and shake hands with JAMES MADISON, and claim

fellowship with FELIX GRUNDY. Let him no more call himself a Federalist, and friend to his country! He will be called by others infamous."

SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT "REPROBATED."

In the Boston Centinel, Feb. 14, 1817, we find a long Federal address, which was written (probably by JOSIAH QUINCY) in reply to a Democratic Address of a previous date, and in answering a certain paragraph, this Federal Address proceeds to declare

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"There is, however, one feature in this address at once so unprincipled, and so mischievous that it seems impossible for any inan of the most common honesty or patriotism to notice it without reprobation. We allude to that part of it in which Massachusetts is called upon to relinquish her opposition to the General Government. Fellow citizens, (cotinues the Federal Address) in whatever point of view we consider this appeal (that is to desist in opposition to the General Government) whether as intended to influence the electors in Massachusetts, or as a faithful representation of the principles which govern our rulers, in the General Government, nothing can be more shameless or degrading!"

In 1817, the Boston Centinel's main objection to General DEARBORN, Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusets was, that he was a friend of THOMAS JEFFERSON.". Boston Centinel, March 8, 1817.

THE FIRST PROPOSITION IN CONGRESS TO DISSOLVE THE UNION.

JOSIAH QUINCY, who was then on the Federal ticket for State Senator, and has never changed his politics to the present hour, but has of late been an ardent "Republican,' made a speech in Congress, on the 14th of January, 1811, in which he declared that the purchase of Louisiana and admission of the State into the Union, would be a

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"Virtual dissolution of the bonds of the Union rendering it the right of all, as it would become the duty of some, to prepare definitely for separation-amicably, if they might-forcibly if they must."-Hildreth's History U. S., Vol. 4, p. 226.

And to be more explicit Mr. Quincy reduced his threat to writing and sent it to the Clerk, whereupon Mr. POINDEXTER rose to his feet and declared it as the

“First time that on this floor a threat had been made to

dissolve the Union,"

WHAT RHODE ISLAND DID FOR THE WAR.

"Rhode Island did actually order out and put upon duty an army of fifteen men, after having duly consulted on the matter with the 'Council of War'-Gov. MARTIN and CHRISTOPHER FOWLER, Eiq. It was not, however, thought, (in the language of the Governor) that this guard was capable of resisting an invading foe of any considerable magnitude."--See his Message, vol. 14, p. 169. Niles' Register, 1815, vol. 8, p. 39.

QUALIFICATIONS AND DISQUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERS OF MASS. LEGISLATURE.

During the last War with Great Britain, Massachusetts took the following action:

1st.

That a member of that body was not disqualified to hold his seat on account of having taken an oath not to bear arms, dc., against the enemy!

the Army of the United States."-Niles' Register, 1815, vol. 8, p. 13.

A NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY.

On the 8th of October, 1814, a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature submitted a report by Mr. OTIS, chairman, in favor of calling a convention of the New England States with the end and object of forming a New England Confederacy. This measure passed and the Hartford Convention was its progney.

THE DEMOCRATS PROTEST.

On the 15th of the same month a protest was entered by thirteen Senators and by seventyfive members against this treason and insipient secession.

"Ambition has destroyed every other Republic on earth," say the Senate protestants. The House protest concludes as follows:

"The reasoning of the report is supported by the alarming assumption that the Constitution has failed in its objects, and the people of Massachusetts are absolved in their allegiance, and adopt another. In debate it has been reiterated that the Constitution is no longer to be respected just what is reiterated through the redical press and speeches to-day] and the resolution is not to be deprecated. The bond of our political union is thus attempted to be severed, and in a state of war and common danger, we are advised to the mad experiment of abandoning the combined energies of the nation might afford, for the selfish enjoyment of our present, though partial resources.-The resolutions of the Legislature, it is to be feared, will be viewed by other States as productive of this consequence, that Massachusetts shall govern the Administration, or the Government shall not be administered in

Massachusetts. [Precisely what South Carolina done in 1832 and 1861.] Jealousy and contention will ensue. The Constitution, hitherto respected as the character of national liberty and consecrated as the ark of our political safety, will be violated and destroyed, and in civil dissentions and convulsions, our independence will be annihilated, our country reduced to the condition of vanquished and tributary colonies, to a haughty and implacable foreign foe.-[LEVI LINCOLN, JR., and seventy-five others." -Niles Register, vol. 1, p. 155.

MASSACHUSETLS "SET UP" FOR HERSELF.

The same legislature that passed these resolves voted to raise an army for "state defence" of 10,000 strong, &c., and actually made all the necessary preparations to go out of the Union, as much so as South Carolina did in 1861, except the going. Massachusetts also appointed a "Board of War," and was thus preparing to become an independent nation.— Niles' Ragister, vol. 7, p. 147.

GOV. STRONG ON THE BOARD OF WAR.

In Gov. STRONG's message to the legislature, dated the 16th of January, 1816, he refers to the resolve of the year previous, which required the "Board of War" to close accounts "of this commonwealth with the United States, and file the same in the Secretary's office," which was done.-Niles' Register, v. 9, p. 416.

FEDERALS TOAST THE HARTFORD CONVENTION

At a dinner in honor of Washington's birthday, in Philadelphia, Feb. 18, 1815, the following toast was drank:

2d. The House of Representatives resolved that a Reverned member of this body was disqualified to hold his "The Hartford Convention, the dignified apostles of the seat therein, because he had been appointed a Chaplain in | true political faith.”—-Niles Register, v. 8, p. 14.

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