nowledge to be just, and which, if the call were made by the
Executive, would at once be hurled on the rebels by an indignant people,
like the rush of destiny.

Now, I grant, for I do not wish to make the matter worse than it is
against them, that in the North, individuals have demanded more than the
South were able, at once, to give. Some have pushed reform faster than it
would bear, faster than the laws of Providence would allow; but it was
honestly and conscientiously done. We have sometimes in our warmth,
uttered irritating words; but all this has been returned by blows, and by
savage vindictiveness. We have shown a willingness, of late, to yield some
things; to abide by the sense of the whole people; but these States are,
by their rulers, declared _out of the Union_, without appeal to the
people; they have commenced the war, and now they are regarded by the
whole world as in a state of rebellion, not of justifiable revolution.
They would submit to no method of adjustment that we could honorably
allow. They desired war, as they have been for years preparing for it, at
the expense of the Government, and in its service and trust, drawing their
life from the bosom which they now sting; and because freedom will no
longer bow, as it has done for a whole generation, to their will, they
rebel, proclaim a system of piracy, and threaten the subjugation of the
whole American people. It is a deep, and long determined treason, running
into the whole national life, and is become to ourselves a question of
_personal_ liberty.

III. What then, we ask, _is the duty of all citizens when good government
is assailed by rebellion_?

Doubtless, _one_ duty is to inquire whether they have in any way
contributed criminally to the occasion or the causes of such rebellion;
whether they have demanded too much of the disaffected, or encouraged a
wrong spirit in them by coinciding with views leading to their present
attitude; whether they have participated in any way with a policy
calculated to irritate, to defy, to provoke honest minds to anger? Whether
as individuals, as Christians, they have been bitter and harsh, and
vengeful, or are so now; and if they find any such spirit, it becomes them
to repent, and school themselves into Christian charity and moderation.
But, notwithstanding any possible error in the past, the Christian citizen
must consecrate himself to the defence of the government and its _policy_;
for however, there is