FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  
," or else he would have suppressed them altogether. But his utterance is that of one who has certain views for the first time placed before him, and shrinks from the consequences of their advocacy--shrinks from "the violence implied" in them--although for some reason he dares not refuse to place those views before the people. And, in carrying out his promise to do so--"In stating this argument," presumably of the Rebel Conclave, "in favor of freedom, 'peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must'"--the language used is an admission that the argument is not his own. Were it his own, would he not have said in "making" it, instead of in "stating" it? Furthermore, had he been "making" it of his own accord, he would hardly have involved himself in such singular contradictions and explanations as are here apparent. He was plainly "stating" the Rebel Conclave's argument, not making one himself. He was obeying orders, under the protest of his fears. And those fears forced his trembling pen to write the saving-clause which "qualifies" the Conclave's second-hand bluster preceding it. That the Rebels hoped for Northern assistance in case of Secession, is very clear from many speeches made prior to and soon after the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency--and from other sources of information. Thus we find in a speech made by Representative L. M. Keitt, of South Carolina, in Charleston, November, 1860, the following language, reported by the Mercury: "But we have been threatened. Mr. Amos Kendall wrote a letter, in which he said to Colonel Orr, that if the State went out, three hundred thousand volunteers were ready to march against her. I know little about Kendall--and the less the better. He was under General Jackson; but for him the Federal treasury seemed to have a magnetic attraction. "Jackson was a pure man, but he had too many around him who made fortunes far transcending their salaries. [Applause.] And this Amos Kendall had the same good fortune under Van Buren. He (Kendall) threatened us on the one side, and John Hickman on the other. John Hickman said, defiantly, that if we went out of the Union, eighteen millions of Northern men would bring us back. "Let me tell you, there are a million of Democrats in the North who, when the Black Republicans attempt to march upon the South, will be found a wall of fire in the front. [Cries of 'that's so,' and applause.]" Harper's Weekly of May 28, 1864, comme
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Kendall
 

making

 

argument

 

stating

 

Conclave

 
Hickman
 

language

 

Northern

 

Jackson

 

threatened


shrinks

 

Federal

 

General

 

hundred

 
Mercury
 

reported

 

letter

 
Colonel
 
treasury
 

thousand


applause
 

Harper

 
Weekly
 

volunteers

 

attraction

 

million

 

November

 

Democrats

 

defiantly

 

eighteen


millions

 
fortunes
 
magnetic
 

fortune

 

Republicans

 

Applause

 

transcending

 

attempt

 

salaries

 

assistance


peaceably

 

forcibly

 

freedom

 

promise

 
involved
 

singular

 

accord

 
Furthermore
 
admission
 

carrying