d States, both North and South, greeting;
and when the people of the North shall have fulfilled their duties
to the constitution and to the South, then, and not until then,
will it be proper for them to take into consideration the question
of the right and propriety of coercion."

In support of this famous resolution, Judge Thurman addressed the
convention, and, among other things, is reported to have said:

"A man is deficient in understanding who thinks the cause of
disunion is that the South apprehended any overt act of oppression
in Lincoln's administration. It is the spirit of the late
presidential contest that alarms the South.... It would try the
ethics of any man to deny that some of the Southern States have no
cause for revolution.... Then you must be sure you are able to
coerce before you begin the work. The South are a brave people. The
Southern States can not be held by force. The blacks won't fight
for the invaders.... The Hungarians had less cause of complaint
against Austria than the South had against the North."

When we reflect on what the rebels had done and what they were
doing when this resolution was passed, it seems incredible that
sane men, having a spark of patriotism, could for one moment have
tolerated its sentiments. The rebels had already deprived the
United States of its jurisdiction and property in about one-fourth
of its inhabited territory, and were rapidly extending their
insurrection so as to include within the rebel lines all of the
slave States. The lives and property of Union citizens in the
insurgent States were at the mercy of traitors, and the National
flag was everywhere torn down, and shameful indignities and
outrages heaped upon all who honored it.

This resolution speaks of fulfilling the duties of the people of
the North to the South. The first and highest duty of the people of
the North to themselves, to the South, to their country, and to
God, was to crush the rebellion. All speeches and resolutions
against either the right or the propriety of coercion merely gave
encouragement, "moral aid and comfort," more important than powder
and ball, to the enemies of the Nation.

Do I state too strongly the mischievous, the fatal tendency of
these proceedings? The resolution adopted by the peace Democra