Lecompton forgery upon Congress, thus
mainly contributing to the downfall of the Union; yet, when the vote was
taken in the fall of 1860, a majority of the popular suffrage of the
South was given to those candidates for the Presidency who had denounced
and opposed this measure, over the candidate, (now in the traitor army,)
who gave it his support. Thus, on this, as on every other occasion,
where the people of the South have not been overborne by violence and
terror, they have rejected at the polls the action of the secession
leaders.

But the disaster was precipitated, when the same President, rejecting
the advice of the patriot Scott, refused to reinforce our forts, when
menaced or beleaguered by traitors, and announced, in his messages, to
our country and all the world, the secession heresy, fatal to all
government, that we had no right to repel force by force, on the part of
a State seeking, by armed secession, to destroy the Union. The absurd
political paradox was then announced by the President, that a State has
no right to secede, but that the Government has no right to prevent its
secession. It was this wretched dogma, that paralyzed our energies when
they were most needed, gave immunity to treason, and invited rebellion,
rendered our stocks unsalable, and induced thousands, at home and
abroad, to believe that the Federal Government was a phantom, which
existed only in name.

If Andrew Jackson had then been President, the rebellion would have been
crushed by him in embryo, as it was in 1833, without expenditure of
blood or treasure.

Surely, it is some palliation of the course of the deluded masses of the
South, that they heard such pernicious counsels, and from such a source.

If, as our army advances, there has not been an open, general return of
the masses to the Union, we must recollect, that when we did occupy
parts of the South, and then withdrew, how soon the resurging tide of
the rebellion swept over the devoted region, what scenes of horror and
desolation ensued, how the homes of those who had welcomed our flag were
given to the flames, whilst death was the portion of others. But let us
crush out the very embers of this rebellion, cherish the devoted
patriots of the South, drive out to other lands the rebel leaders, give
to the ruined and deluded masses ample assurance of permanent
protection, and they will resume their allegiance to the Union.

As a final result, we should not desire to hold the