would settle the question. I think that after the President and Vice-President-elect had resigned, there would be as much difficulty in settling who was to take their places as there was in settling it before. I do not wish, sir, to say a word that shall increase any irritation; that shall add any feeling of bitterness to the state of things which really exists in the country, and I would bear and forbear before I would say any thing which would add to this bitterness. But I tell you, sir, the plain, true way is to look this thing in the face-see where we are. And I avow here -I do not know whether or not I shall be sustained by those who usually act with me-if the issue which is presented is that the constitutional will of the public opinion of this country, expressed through the forms of the Constitution, will not be submitted to, and war is the alternative, let it come in any form or in any shape. The Union is dissolved and it cannot be held together as a Union, if that is the alternative upon which we go into an election. If it is pre-announced and determined that the voice of the majority, expressed through the regular and constituted forms of the Constitution, will not be submitted to, then, sir, this is not a Union of equals; it is a Union of a dictatorial oligarchy on one side, and a herd of slaves and cowards on the other. That is it, sir; nothing more, nothing less. THADDEUS STEVENS, OF PENNSYLVANIA. (BORN 1792, DIED 1868.) ON SECESSION; RADICAL REPUBLICAN OPINION; IN THE secession and rebellion of the South have been inculcated as a doctrine for twenty years past among slave-holding communities. At one time the tariff was deemed a sufficient cause; then the exclusion of slavery from free Territories; then some violation of the fugitiveslave law. Now the culminating cause is the election of a President who does not believe in the benefits of slavery, or approve of that great missionary enterprise, the slave-trade. The truth is all these things are mere pretences. The restless spirits of the South desire to have a slave empire, and they use these things as excuses. Some of them desire a more brilliant and stronger government than a republic. Their domestic institutions and the social inequality of their free people naturally prepare them for a monarchy surrounded by a lordly nobility-for a throne founded on the neck of labor. The men now on the stage of action must determine whether they have courage enough to maintain the institutions which their fathers gave them. This is a great responsibility, but in my judgment not a difficult one. I would certainly not advise the shedding of American blood, except as a last resort. If it should become necessary, I see no difficulty, with the ordinary forces of the United States, to dissipate the rebels, whether of high or low degree. But before a resort to arms the ordinary tribunals of the country should be tried. There are laws against treason, misprision of treason, murder, and sedition. Many citizens will inquire: Dare we violate these laws? Dare we commit these crimes? Shall we not finally be overtaken by vengeance? I do not say that a State can commit treason. Corporations cannot be hanged. But if a State pass treasonable acts, and individuals attempt to execute them, and thus come in armed collision with the government, they will be guilty of treason, and the State enactments will be no shield, for they will be nullities. |