toeasur* r qom 
 
 COL. GEORGE WASHINGTON FLOWERS 
 MEMORIAL COLLECTION 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 W. W. FLOWERS 
 
 JOSEPH RU7.ICKA 
 BOOKBINDERS 
 
Cr> zr?z 
 

 
 ARAYOFLIGHT; 
 
 ^eisilwl 
 
 OR, < 
 
 A-TREATISE ON THE SECTIONAL TROUPLES. 
 
 REUW0U8L1 m MORALLY CONSIDERED. 
 
 BRYAN TYSON. 
 
 N. (' . 
 R A I r H o •' 
 
 .1' 
 
 
 ' 
 
A RAY OF LIGHT; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE SECTIONAL TROUBLES. 
 
 RELIGIOUSLY AND MORALLY CONSIDERED, 
 
 BY 
 
 BRYAN TYSON. 
 
 BROWER'S MILLS. N C . 
 
 PUBLISHED BY T II i: A 1 Til R 
 
 1862. 
 
r* 
 
THE FLOWERS COLLECTION 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 My object in writing this little book is that we may 
 soon see these sectional troubles, that threaten to des- 
 troy o.urojice happy country speedily settled, and without 
 the further spilling of blood. 
 
 I do not claim perfect originality for this work. I am 
 thus indebted to Messrs. A. H. Stevens of Georgia and 
 Edward Everett of Massachusetts for valuable extracts 
 from their Writings. I am also indebted to that exc3l- 
 lent paper, the Fayetteville Observer, for valuable ex- 
 tractS/Which are not credited, and to many othersources- 
 M} r reasons for doing so are, that I have changed some 
 of them from their original text and they can't there- 
 fore, in their present shape be properly credited to their 
 respective sources, and another is that by doing so the 
 thread of the discourse would be broken and their use- 
 fulness thus probably impaired. I have therefore en- 
 deavored to give them in as connected a link as possible. 
 little book, owing to the shortness of time since 
 I first conceived the idea of writing it, together with 
 my own inability, is doubtless defective in many parti- 
 j, but owing to circumstances I consider it best to 
 put it to press immediately, rather than to keep it ofi 
 fur a longer time fen* the purpose or making such of 
 us as 1 might be able to do. With these 
 remarks I herewith submit the following pages to a 
 careful perusal of the reader. 
 
 
A RAY OF LIGHT ; 
 
 OR, A TREATIES ON THE SECTIONAL TROUBLES, 
 Iitiicfiousty and mordlly considered. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE SECTIONAL TROUBLES. 
 
 *I)ear Friends: — I, having a universal desire for the 
 welfare of my fellow man, am induced to write the fol- 
 lowing, and will feel amply compensated for my trouble 
 in doing so, should it tend, even to a small degree, to 
 alleviate their sufferings and better their condition — to 
 stop the torrents of blood that now flow, or tBat occa- 
 sionally flows, or that that is within their veins giving 
 life and vigor to the system, destined soon to flow:— this 
 parts soul and body, and sends a soul to everlasting 
 Lappiness or everlasting woe. Man is a compound berng 
 taking on two states ot existence, the one in this world, 
 at longest, is but short, the one in the next has eternity 
 for its measure. He is there to live a miserable or 
 happy creature forever and ever. It should be the 
 great business of this life to prepare for the next. The 
 time of our probation here is short enough to prepare 
 for this great change, without inventing machines and 
 all manner of warlike instruments with which to shorten 
 the davs of our fellow man, sending them into a bound- 
 
 279486 
 
6 
 
 less eternity without one moment's warning, creating 
 orphans and widows and an amount of misery that can 
 never be told. 
 
 Wars then are a great evil and are generally a dread j 
 fur scourge to any nation that engages therein. The 
 victor is generally loser. The good and tb»3 bad suffer, 
 together. Why is it that enlightened man thus becomes 
 arrayed with hostile intent against his fellow man ? I 
 think it must be owing to the depravity and wickedness 
 of human nature, T will venture to say that there never 
 was a war but some one was in fault. By some party 
 or some individuals acting differently it might have been 
 avoided. Yes, I think I can safely say that by all acting 
 according to the golden rule, " As ye would that others 
 should do unto you, do ye likewise unto them," fortius 
 is the -law and the prophets, that there would be no 
 wars. It is I think by wrong men being in power that 
 wars are generally brought about — men who are not 
 willing to give and take, but are determined to have 
 every thing their own way, let the consequences be as 
 they may. I will illustrate this a little by a piece on 
 walking the streets. 
 
 Have you ever walked through the crowded streets 
 of a great city ? We will say for instance that it is 
 Broadway, New York. What shoals of people pouring 
 in from opposite quarters like torrents meeting in a 
 narrow valley ! You would imagine it impossible for 
 them all to get through, yet all pass on their way witlu 
 out stop or molestation. Were each man to proceed 
 exactly in the same line in which he set out, he could 
 not move many paces without encountering another full 
 in his track. They would strike against each other, fall 
 back, push forward again, and block up the way for 
 themselves and those after them, and thus throw th e 
 whole street int o confusion. 
 
All this is avoided by every rran yielding a little. 
 Instead of advancing squai with arms stuck 
 
 out, every one who knows l¥ow to walk the streets glvdea 
 along, his arms close, flexible, his t#ack gently winding, 
 leavingno^ a tow inches on this side, now a few oni that, 
 spas to pass and be passed without scarcely touching ki 
 the smallest possible space. He pushes no x>ne into' the 
 kennel nor goes into it himself. By mutual accommo- 
 dation the path, though narrow, holds them all. 
 
 Like litis is the march of life. 
 
 In our progress through the world a thousand things 
 stand continually in our way. Some people meet us 
 full in the face with opposite opinions and inclinations. 
 Some stand before us in our pursuit of pleasure or in- 
 terest, and others follow close upon our heels. Now 
 we ought in the first place to consider, that the road is 
 as free for one as for another ; and therefore we have no 
 right to expect that persons should go out of their way 
 to accommodate us any more than we out of ours to 
 accommodate them. 
 
 Then if we do not mutually yield and accommodate, 
 we may expect to be continually getting in difficulties 
 that might have been worn off by this balm of peace — 
 mutual accommodation. 
 
 We should remember what Solomon says: 
 
 u A soft answer turncth away wrath., but grievous 
 words stir up confusion." 
 
 And again. 
 
 "By long forbearance is a prince persuaded and a 
 soft tongue breaketh the bone." 
 
 We should also not be too ready to reply to what we 
 may hear said about us. 
 
 By an observance of these rules and by not beingtoo 
 hasty to resent supposed injuries, many difficulties 
 
8 
 
 might be killed off at the start, as it were, which after- 
 wards grow into something very serious. But begin to 
 work with them, one evil word calleth for another, and 
 the farther you go the worse things get to be, and they 
 thus soon get to be almost past healing. 
 
 It is like pulling at a splinter on a cross grained piece 
 of timber. The more you strip it up the deeper it runs 
 into the timber until it runs quite across the piece. 
 Instead of doing this, smoothe it down, and it will all 
 soon be right. 
 
 So in life we meet up with many cross grained people, 
 who may do many things not right, but, instead of cre- 
 ating difficulties with them out of trivial matters, make 
 the necessary allawances for human nature and pass on. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was said to be a man of such per- 
 fect control over himself that he was but rarely if ever 
 known to get out of humor. If any one were to try to 
 offend him, he would "turn it upon him in some mild 
 way so as to make him his friend rather than his enemy 
 "What a pity it is that such a spirit does not more gen- 
 erally pervade the bosom of man. 
 
 We should recollect that our Heavenly Father is slow 
 to anger, and of much forbearance towards us. Had 
 he dealt with us as he might in justice have done, long 
 ere this we might have ridden the pale horse into the 
 valley and shadow of death, and there have been lifting 
 our fruitless cries for mercy, where neither mercy nor 
 hope could ever have reached us. But we are yet the 
 spared monuments of his meecy. Therefore, it be- 
 eometh us to act with much forbearance towards our 
 fellow man. 
 
 A timely observance of these inestimable rules would? 
 I think, have kept us out of our present difficulties. 
 
 Our once happy country is now involved in a terrific 
 
civil strife, such probably as has not been since the 
 creation of the world. 
 
 After looking at some of the causes of this war, T witf 
 then give ray opinion as to what I think of the general 
 issue, and what I think, under the trying times, we had 
 best do. 
 
 This lousiness has been brooding in Congress for a 
 great while. Ambitious men, and men of opposite 
 opinions and inclinations, have frequently got up dis- 
 sensions there, as in the caning a {lair of Brooks of South 
 Carolina and Sumner of Massachusetts. There was also, 
 some years ago, a Congressman from Californa, who 
 shot a waiter in "Wil lard's hotel. There has also at 
 times been serious opposition made to the South in re- 
 covering their fugitive slaves, sometimes resulting even 
 in bloodshed. 
 
 There was also, the affair of John Brown k Co. at 
 Harper's Ferry. I do not wish to be understood as ar- 
 guing the case in favor of these wicked men in making 
 an unprovoked attack upon their brethren of the South 
 and inciting their slaves to insurrection. But I do 
 think had the South have been more lenient upon that 
 occasion that it would have had a very great bearing 
 upon our present troubles. I\ot but they deserved 
 death, they doubtless <li I. But as the greater part of 
 their number had been either killed or wounded, I think 
 it was a sufficient warning to the balance, and that they, 
 the surviving ones, could with all safety to the common- 
 wealth have been spared at least their lives. I think, 
 had they been pardoned upon their giving good and 
 ample bond for their better behavior in future, that it 
 would have had an excellent eft'ecl in reconciling the 
 two sections. The good e fleet that such a coursewould 
 as I believe, have had in reconciling the two sections, is 
 
10 
 
 my main reason for arguing that they should not have 
 been hanged. 
 
 These Northern fanatics had learned at least two im- 
 portant lessons by this affair, which would probably 
 have been of benefit to them and to us for generations 
 to come. One was their in ability to accomplish any thing 
 by such an undertaking, and the other, and by far the 
 most important lesson that they learned was, that our 
 servants were by no means so much disaffected as they 
 had supposed, and would therefore, not join the North 
 in a crusade against the South to gain their liberties, 
 not even when opportunity offered. Having learned 
 these things, I don't suppose they would hardly ever 
 have tried the thing over again. 
 
 It therefore, think a better plan than hanging these 
 men would have been to have liberated them, and even 
 have had a good minister to pray for them on their de- 
 parture, and tell them any time they wished to try the 
 like, to come on again. As they appeared to be a party 
 of fanatics or mad men, let us of the South, as a great 
 and forgiving people, have shown that we could be 
 satisfied without desiring their blood. Such a course 
 as this, I think, would have made the people of the 
 North ashamed of themselves, and they would not there- 
 for ■•■. have tried the like soon again if ever. Such a 
 qou ;ea? this, I think, would have united the North 
 aridSouxh in perpetual hon Is. An »th er reason that I h^tve 
 For arguing that ihe : ;e m< ■'. >uld not have be 
 i \ that the main pers n <"< rth con 
 
 ■ - a . inging it about, w< 
 
 i five sen im- 
 
 punity, I think those actively engaged h suf- 
 
 fered enough, or at least enough to do, and ii ve c >uld 
 then have managed it in such a way as to have made 
 
11 
 
 the balance (instigators) ashamed of themselves, I 
 think it would, under the circumstances, have been the 
 best course that we could have pursued. 
 
 So strongly was I impressed that there was something 
 ominious in this affair, that I wrote to Governor Wise 
 desiring that they should not be hung. I also stated to 
 him that as they appeared to be a party of fanatics or 
 madmen, and having by this experiment learned that our 
 servants were by no means ao much disaffected as they 
 had supposed, and that they could not, therefore, ac- 
 complish anything by such an undertaking, that by 
 pardoning them. I thought it might eventually 
 as an advantage in uniti g the two sections Lkil ing 
 out the strong sectional feeling. 
 
 But it appeared to sffect, but in doing this, I 
 
 was discharging whal I conceived to be my duty . 
 that was all that I could do. 
 
 In Congress some years ago, they were, I believi , 
 about too months electing a Speaker of the House. 
 These things all taken together no doubt, ten led to in- 
 flame their respective sections, and thus make the breach 
 between the two sections greater, and I think, also goes 
 to prove conclusively that we had not the right men in 
 power. Men who wish to serve their country, should 
 not go to Congress armed with Bowie knives, canes and 
 pistols, ready to resort to violence even upon trivial 
 matters. They should, also, I think, be men that are 
 williug to give and take. 
 
12 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 The immediate case of our difficulties and of the 
 Southern States seceding, was the election of Abraham 
 Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States. It is 
 true, there were other causes, but this is the one that 
 gave action to the others. South Carolina was the first 
 to secede. Her Convention passed the ordinance of 
 secession by a unanimous vote of 169, all the members 
 voting, on December 20th, 1860. Florida, Georgia, 
 Alabama, Mississippi,LouisanaandTexas soon followed, 
 making seven in all. The balance of the slave States 
 would, in all probability, have remained in the Union 
 as they were for some time to come, had it not been for 
 the affair growing out of the capture of Fort Sumpter, 
 and the call of the President soon after for 75,000 addi- 
 tional troops. 
 
 The field here opens far and wide. It will be impos- 
 sible for me to give the subject anything like a thorough 
 investigation, but I will endeavor to glance at some of 
 the leading items. In the first place, I will remark that 
 I do not look upon secession as the immediate cause of 
 the war, or at least not so much so as some of the sub- 
 sequent acts, for the following reasons. The States 
 evidently formed the Union, and I think, each state 
 should have the right to secede at pleasure. "We will 
 say that thirteen persons form a copartnership for the 
 purpose of transacting any business whatever, and sub- 
 sequently take in others upon the same footing to the 
 amount of thirty two in all. After trading together for 
 a number of years, and growing pretty strong, some 
 one, two or a half dozen of these persons wish to with- 
 
13 
 
 draw and set up business for themselves. No one 1 
 presume will deny their having a perfect right to do so. 
 Even so with the states. It is the people of the states 
 that compose the states, and they have the same right, 
 I think to withdraw and set up for themselves, as 
 though there were but thirteen individuals. But in 
 this case, it should, I think, always be submitted to a 
 popular vote of the people. But I do not say that it is 
 best thus to secede and split up, but rather the reverse, 
 because in union there is strength. Better if possible 
 allay the difficulties and time will soon make all right 
 again. 
 
 Then, as stated before, I look upon the acts that were 
 committed after the seceding of the states as having 
 more to do in bringing on the war than I do upon 
 secession itself. 
 
 A subject fraught with so much importance as seces- 
 sion is, should always, I think, be left to a popular vote 
 of the people, for fear that the minority might rule, and 
 a state be declared out of the union by these Conven- 
 tions, when a majority of the farmers and mechanics — 
 the bone and and the sinew of the country, and the 
 men who have the most of the fighting to do, if there is 
 any done, arc for peace and union. I therefore, think 
 they should have a say-so in the matter. The people 
 that are good enough to tight, I think should also be 
 good enough to vote upon a subject of so very great 
 importance. Let the question be put fairly to the peo- 
 ple at the polls, and let them vote fairly upon it, for or 
 against secession. If there be a majority against seces- 
 sion, let them remain in the Union, but if a majority in 
 favor of secession, I think they should be allowed to 
 depart in peace. Let the majority rule, and be certain 
 you have the majority. 
 
14 
 
 I will illustrate this idea by reference to the last Pre- 
 sidential electiou. 
 
 Lincoln was constitutionally elected, receiving 180 
 electorial votes, whilst the other three candidates received 
 jointly but 123, but at the same time these three candi- 
 dates received more votes than Lincoln did by 1,001,- 
 248. So had the election have depended on the popu- 
 lar vote, the election would have been thrown in the 
 House, and in all probability Mr. Lincoln would have 
 been defeated. 
 
 Even so, probably with some of the States that have 
 been passed out of the Union unanimously by Conven- 
 tions, the result might have been different, had the 
 people have voted directly on if, for or against secession 
 at the ballot box. But even if the result had been the 
 same, the people are the sovereign power and should, 
 therefore, have spoken directly upon it. A State being 
 carried out of the Union, even unanimously by a Con- 
 vention, is not always conclusive evidence that even a 
 majority of her constitutional voters are in favor of it. 
 
 If a man is to be tried for his life for murder, we will 
 say it is necessary before convicting him, that his guilt 
 be established beyond a shadow of doubt, lest an inno- 
 cent man should suffer. Even so in this case. Before 
 a State secedes, I think it should be established beyond 
 a shadow of doubt, that a majority of her constitutional 
 voters are in favor of taking such a step, and this can 
 only be known by deciding it at the ballot box. 
 
 "When South Carolina seceded it is said that only 
 10,000 votes were cast for the members of the Conven- 
 tion that passed her out of the Union — 10,000 out of 
 over 60,000. See 1. (Appendix.) 
 
 Although South Carolina was passed out of the Union 
 unanimously by her Convention, there is no certainty 
 
15 
 
 that there was even a majority of her constitutional 
 voters in favor of secession. The fact is, it. seems as it 
 might have been otherwise. 
 
 In 1850 we had a great crisis among us, resulting, I 
 believe, mainly from the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise. There were then many persons among us 
 disirous of disrupting every tie and going immediately 
 out of the Union. South Carolina always foremost in 
 such things, made the attempt to go out, bother people 
 voted upon it and put it down. And who can tell but 
 the. same would have been the result of 1860, had her 
 people have had an opportunity of voting directly upon 
 it. But her politicians, and no doubt widely too for 
 their schemes, kept this thing away from them, and it 
 is therefore left in doubt to this day, whether or not the 
 majority ruled. Soon after the John Brown raid, South 
 Carolina sent Commissioners to Virginia in order to 
 bring on general secession, 
 
 The people of our own State have always been ram- 
 pant about the rights of the people, such as free suffrage, 
 ad valornm, &c, and great hobbies have been made of 
 these things. But upon a subject I trow of the most 
 importance that has been before the American people 
 sinee the days of the revolution or the war of 1812, they 
 were not permitted to speake directly upon it. These 
 things, I think they ought to have done anduotto have 
 left the others undone. 
 
 When our Legislature resolved to call a Convention 
 
 ■ passed an act that each and every Ordinance passed 
 
 is Convention should be submitted to the people 
 
 al (ioation or rejection before it should become a 
 
 . . See -1. 
 
 That would, in my opinion, have been doing things 
 up in the right way. If after the Convention had passed 
 
1C, 
 
 the Ordinance of secession it had then been submitted 
 to the people to ratify or reject at the polls, and they 
 had ratified it, I don't think any nation upon earth 
 should have had any right to have interfered therewith. 
 But the Convention at length passed the Ordinance of 
 secession (20th May,) and it was not submitted to the 
 people for ratification or rejection according to the act 
 prescribed for the Convention, that was voted for on 
 the 28th of Febuary, 1861. Why was this not done ? 
 "Who is responsible ? 
 
 But I will here remark that the members of the Con- 
 vention voted for on the 28th of Febuary, did not as- 
 semble from the fact that a majority of the people voted 
 "no Convention." But why did not this same act ap- 
 ply to the Convention that was subsequently convened 
 and passed the Ordinance of Secession ? I can't see why 
 it should not have applied in the last case as well as the 
 first. 
 
 I will here remark that the Constitution of the United 
 States was, I believe, submitted to the people for rati- 
 fication or rejection at the polls. So why was not the 
 Constitution of the Confederate States submitted in the 
 same way? This thing was discussed in the Confeder- 
 ate Congress, but a gentleman from Alabama opposed it, 
 and the thing fell through. I look upon this though as 
 of much less importance than I do upon the Ordinance 
 of Secession. I think by all meaus, the people of the 
 seceding States should have voted directly on that. 
 
17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TAKING OF FORT SUMPTER. 
 
 The Secession of South. Carolina as lias been before 
 stated, took place on the '20th December, 1860. 
 
 Six other States mentioned soon followed. They 
 soon leagued together and erected a Provisional Gov- 
 ernment at Montgomery, Alabama, and elected Jefter- 
 scn Davis ©^Mississippi, President and A. II. Stephens, 
 of Georgia, Vice President. Soon after this, the au- 
 thorities of the Southern Confederacy sent Commis- 
 sioners to Washington to treat respecting the forts, 
 public property, &c. The authorities at "Washington 
 refused to receive them in their official capacity, but 
 expressed difference for them as gentlemen, See 3. So 
 their mission availed them nothing, and they returned 
 from whence they came, after first having expressed 
 the conviction that they deemed war inevitable. Lithe 
 mean time, the authorities of South Carolina demanded 
 Fort Sumpter of the Federal Government, Major An- 
 derson Commanding. It seems that the Federal Gov- 
 ernment would have given up this Fort without any 
 difficulty, had not the Southern authorities demanded 
 a regular surrender of the fort. See 4, 5, 6, 7. 
 
 Col. Lamon, an agent of the Federal Government 
 was then, I believe, sent to Charleston, lie informed 
 Governor Pickens, that he was authorized to make 
 arrangements for the withdrawal of the Federal troops 
 from sumpter, and proposed a vessel of war as the best 
 means of effecting this. This was refused. See Cause 
 and Contrast, page 171, and appendix 8. 
 
 The authorities at Washington then sent a Mr. Fox, 
 who declared that his mission was entirely pacific and 
 
18 
 
 wished to be permitted to visit Fort Sumpter. Through 
 the intervention of Captain Hartstene, his wish was 
 complied with. But intercepted dispatches disclosed 
 the fact that whilst at Fort Sumpter lie concocted a plan 
 for supplying the Fort by force. From what I can find 
 out it was a plan simply for supplying the Fort with 
 provisions, and I think, was not for the forcible rein- 
 forcement of the Fort, as is said in Cause and Contrast, 
 page 172. And farther, this plan was not, I don't 
 think concocted with the Federal Government previous 
 to Mr. Fox's leaving Washington, as is held out by the 
 same author and upon the same page, but it seems to 
 have been a plan concocted at Fort Sumpter, between 
 Mr. Fox and the authorities of the Fort, and which plan 
 was subsequently adopted by the Government at Wash- 
 ington. See Western Sentinel of April 26th. My 
 reason for thus speaking, is, that I desire to speak 
 nothing but what is true, if I know it, and if I see any 
 thing wrongly stated, I wish to correct it, let it be on 
 which side it may. It is the only fair way to come at 
 things. 
 
 The authorities at Washington, I believe, next 
 sent Lieut. Talbot and a Mr. R. S. Chew, to inform the 
 authorities at Charleston that Fort Sumpter would be 
 provisioned (the supplies were cut off the 7th of April) 
 peaceable if practicable — forcibly if necessary. It seems 
 there was no intention to reinforce the fort but simply 
 to supply it with provisions. / / 
 
 The following from the Brother Jonathan of 20th 
 April, 1861, may also throw some light on the sub- 
 ject: "Perhaps too, the publication of the gov- 
 ernment plan by which means the Charlestonians 
 were fully put on their guard, had something to 
 do with the delay. The army and navy officers entrus- 
 ted with the fitting out of the expedition from New 
 
19 
 
 York, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday last kept their 
 secret well. No man could find out a word from them. 
 But Wednesday morning— long before the expedition 
 reached, or could reach Charleston— the New York 
 Tribune revealed the whole plan. It gave the name of 
 the commander, Lieut. Col. Harvey Brown, of the 2nd 
 artillery, and on Thursday it reported and enlarged 
 upon the plans, &c. 
 
 On Thursday, therefore, Gen. Beuregard, the com- 
 mander in chiei of the forces of the "Southern Con- 
 federacy," demanded the evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
 Major Anderson replied that 1)2 should surrender, if 
 not reinforced, when his supplies were exhausted. His 
 exact language was: "I regret that my sense of honor 
 and my obligations to my government prevent my com- 
 pliance," and added, "Probably I will await the first 
 shot, and if you do not batter us to peices we shall be 
 starved out in a few days." 
 
 From the above it would seem that General Beaure- 
 gard was hurried to make his demand from the fact 
 that a fleet was on its way from New York to supply 
 the fort. 
 
 The authorities concerned failing to agree as to the 
 terms of surrender, fee, Gen. Beauregard opened fire 
 on the fort on Friday morning, the 12th of April, 
 at half past 4 o'clock. 
 
 The firing continued all that day and until about 12 
 o'clock at night. It was resumed at an early hour next 
 morning, and continued until 2 o'clock, P. M., when 
 the fort surrendered, with no loss on either side except 
 the wounding of a few by the explosion of one of Maj. 
 Anderson's guns wh 1st saluting bis Hag. 
 
 Here T conceive, is the turning point as to the jus- 
 tification of this war. If the national honor and exi- 
 
20 
 
 I 
 gencies of the case rendered it necessary to fire upon 
 
 and capture the fort, and induct civil war at that time, 
 
 then was the act justifiable; otherwise, it is rendered 
 
 more doubtful. It appears though that certain of our 
 
 public men at that time would not do anything towards 
 
 bringing about a reconciliation so as to restore all to 
 
 the Union again, from the fact that they did not want 
 
 union with the Northern States, let them make 
 
 whatever concessions they would. In fact there were 
 
 some who appeared to be lor making the breach greater 
 
 in order to draw those States yet content to remain in 
 
 the Union into the affray, and thus unite all the slave 
 
 States into a Southern Confederacy. See 11, 12, 13, 14, 
 
 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 
 
 Another thing that no doubt tended to inflame the 
 North and cause them to take up arms sooner against 
 the South, was the threats at the South of attacking 
 Washington City, and probably other cities at the North 
 at an early day. See 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. 
 
 It seems that we might soon have liad p^ace, and have 
 had an honorable one too, with the exception probably 
 of the Territories, for there was a great reaction taking 
 place at the North in favor of the South. See 30, 31, 
 32. And further, Rhode Island, Maine and Wisconsin 
 had repealed their Personal Liberty Bills, and Massa- 
 chusetts had modified hers. 
 
 But the main difficulty in the way was, that many of 
 our leading rnen did not want union, and therefore 
 refused to work for it, the breach in the meantime 
 becoming greater. But if the counsels of the conser- 
 vative men had prevailed, we should now have had 
 peace instead of war. But the extreme politicians of 
 the North and the South have precipitated the country 
 into dissolution and bloodshed. Thev have created a 
 
21 
 
 future through which no eye can penetrate— a future of 
 blackness, of darkness teeming with armies. In all 
 probahilitv'thesc troubles will eventually result in the 
 downfall of many of these unprincipled politicians 
 North and South. 
 
 So after suming up the whole, if the Southern 
 authorities acted at the taking of Fort Sumpter as has 
 .been represented, it seems that they did not act for the 
 best ro avoid a difficulty. If they could have got pos- 
 session of the fort after it was evacuated, it seems they 
 ought to have been satisfied without desiring that they 
 should surrender as prisoners of war, when as yet there 
 had been no war. 
 
 And if Col. Lamon proposed a vessel of war to bear 
 them oif in, I think they should have accepted it, 
 though it had not been fully in accordance with their 
 wishes. I think they had better have yielded a little 
 than to have stuck out and brought on such direful 
 consequences. Maj. Anderson and his soldiers, in all 
 probability, went to the forts of Charleston in a war 
 vessel, and if the authorities at Washington desired 
 that they should depart in one, I can't see why they 
 could not, consistently with the honor of the State and 
 Confederate States, have been permitted to have done 
 ao. I fear that V\ 15 and IT were in too many hearts of 
 the Southern people to admit of an easy adjustment. 
 It seems they were in for secession, and nothing else, 
 which in my opinion would have been all right if all 
 that wanted to secede had done so by the voice of their 
 people, and had set up their own government and said 
 no more about it. But it seems that there were some 
 lis who were for getting as many as they could in 
 tliis secession move by peaceable means, and then in 
 order that they might draw the balance of the slave 
 
22 
 
 States, yet content to remain in the Union, into the 
 affray, they must kick up a dust and have a fight at 
 Fort Sumpter, right or wrong, when it appears that it 
 might have been honorably avoided, at least for a time. 
 
 I think it would have been better if the Southern 
 authorities had not been so hasty in cutting off the sup- 
 plies from Fort Sumpter. They might, I think, without 
 any danger to their cause, have permitted M'aj. Ander- 
 son at least to have got supplies from Charleston. This 
 would have given more time for the settlement of the 
 difficulties. 
 
 But they knew that the remaining slave States had 
 generally passed resolutions against coercion. They 
 probably desired the co-operation of these States, think- 
 ing that it would present a more formidable front, and 
 thus tend to back out the Nortli and avoid bloodshed. 
 About this time there were a good many persons of 
 other States dabbling in the affairs at Charleston, which 
 did not concern them. These instances have already 
 been given. It is also stated that Maj. Anderson had 
 agreed to give up the fort Monday at 12 o'clock if he 
 was not provisioned in the time. 
 
 In conversation with a soldier that assisted at the 
 taking of Fort Sumter, he said that Maj. Anderson had 
 agreed to give up the fort Monday, the 15th, if the 
 United States flag was not fired on in the time ; and he 
 said the reason they did not wait until then and get the 
 fort in that way was, that they were afraid the Federal 
 fleet would run in and reinforce them before that time. 
 
 There appears to be conflicting statements, and in 
 these times it is hard to get at absolute certainty, but 
 I give the facts as nigh as I can and leave the reader 
 to judge for himself. The following will probably 
 throw some light upon the subject, 
 
23 
 
 The following correspondence was telegraphed from 
 Montgomery, Ala., to Ex President Tyler by his son, 
 who was at that place : 
 
 Charleston, April 8th, 1861. 
 To L. P. Walker, Dear Sir.— An authorized messen- 
 ger, from Lincoln has just informed Gov. Pickens and 
 myself that provisions will be sent to Fort Sumter, 
 peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must." 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
 Montgomery, April 10th, 1861. 
 "To General Beauregard, Charleston:—!? you have 
 no doubt of the authorized character of the agent who 
 communicated to you the intention of the Washington 
 Government to supply Fort Sumter by force, you will 
 at once demand its evacuation ; and if this be refused, 
 proceed in such a manner as you may determine to 
 
 reduce it. Answer. 
 
 L. P. WALKER. 
 
 Charleston, April 10, 1861. 
 To L. P. Walker:— The demand will be made to- 
 morrow at 12 o'clock. 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
 Montgomery, April 10, 1861. 
 r lo General Beauregard, Charleston: — Unless there 
 are special reasons connected with your own condition, 
 it is considersd proper that you make the demand at 
 an earlier hour. L. P. WALKER. 
 
 Charleston, April 10. 
 
 To L. P. Walker :-~The reasons are special for 12 
 o'clock. G, T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
24 
 
 Charleston, April lltb, 1861. 
 To L. P. Walker:— -Demand sent at 2 o'clock. Al- 
 lowed until 6 o'clock to answer. 
 
 Charleston, April 11th, 1861. 
 To L. P. Walker: — Maj. Anderson replied, "I have 
 the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your commu- 
 nication demanding the evacuation of this Fort, and to 
 say in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which I 
 regret that my sense of honor and of my obligations to 
 my Government prevents my compliance." He adds 
 verbally: " I will await the first shot, and if you do not 
 batter us to pieces, we will be starved out in a few 
 days." Answer. 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
 Montgomery, April 11th, 1861, 
 7o Gen. Beauregard, Charleston ; — AVe do not desire 
 needlessly to bombard FortSumpter. If Maj. Ander- 
 son will state the time at which, as indicated by him, 
 he will evacuate, and agree that, in the meantime, he 
 will not use his guns against us, unless ours should be 
 employed against Fort Sumpter, you are authorized 
 thus to avoid the effusion of blood. If this or its equi- 
 valent, be refused, reduce the Fort, as your judgment 
 decides to be the most practicable. 
 
 L. P. WALKER. 
 
 Charleston, April 12th, 1861. 
 To L. P. 'Walker; — He would not consent, I will 
 write to clay. 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
25 
 
 Charleston, April 12, 1801. 
 
 To L. J\ Walker:— Wc opened fire at 4 30 A. M. 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD. 
 
 CHAP T E R I V . 
 FURTHER PARTICULARS. 
 
 Althoug the remaining slave states had generally 
 passed resolutions against coereion, the autliorities of 
 the Southern Confederacy did not wait to be coerced, 
 but fired the first guns themselves. 
 
 On the 3rd of January, 18G1, a vessel loaded with ice 
 from Boston and bound to Savannah, and which, owing 
 to stress of weather, had put into Charleston harbor, was 
 fired upon. This I believe was the first shot fired. 
 
 I will here remark that this vessel was first hailed, or 
 ordered to haul to, and upon her refusing to do so, she 
 was fired upon. 
 
 January 10lh, Star oi^ the AVest, fired into. "Would 
 it not have been well for the authorities at Charleston 
 to have been a little more forbearing. If, as has been 
 said, they could have got possession of the fort by wait- 
 ing until Monday, would it not have been well to have 
 waited until that time, or until they had attempted to 
 bring in a fleet to provision and reiuforce the fort. 
 For they had Morris Island, which lay in the only 
 channel leading to the forts, and to Charleston, strongly 
 fortificd, so as to resist probably, any fleet that might 
 be brought against them. They thus had things so 
 arranged, that they could in all probability, have per- 
 ished out the garrison, let the time have been long or 
 short Would it not then have hceu better to have got 
 possession of the fort in this way, <>i ut Least to have 
 
waited until Monday to have seen whether or not it 
 would then have been given up upon conditions already 
 mentioned. Or if the Southern authorities had made 
 out that they did not care for their holding Fort Sumter, 
 
 so they did not reinforce it, and have permitted them 
 to supply its garrison, or even permitted them to have 
 got what they desired from Charleston, the probability 
 is that they would soou have got tired of the fort and 
 abandon ed it, 
 
 But by manifesting: too great a desire to get posses- 
 sion of the fort, its occupants, and particularly as they 
 wercalittlc hostile, might have thought that it would be 
 doing the Charlestonians too great a favor to yield so 
 easily, and that they must therefore put them to some 
 little trouble to get in possession thereof ; such is human 
 nature. Therefore I think a better plan than bringing 
 on the crisis immediately would have been to have per- 
 mitted them to have held the fort a month or two, in 
 the mean time having it understood that the fort should 
 not be reinforced. Good time would thus have been 
 given for settlifigtoe difficulties and aii might have even- 
 tually 'wound up peacably. And should i iiey have even- 
 tually seemed like holdingon to the fort too long, it might 
 have been captured a month or two hence as well, pro. 
 bably, as when it was done. 
 
 But there were certain people at the South, who have 
 already been hit upon, that seemed to think that by 
 having a little collision at Foil Sumter, the Boirfherti 
 States would all foe united., a Southern Confederacy be 
 established and things wind up peaceably. Pa&t experi- 
 ence should have taught them b this. The 
 ball once p 'oiling- where it will 
 stop. It i liki • iron at the i 
 ru'3t hamiuci dovvn oue end of the blocm with a tilt 
 
hammer, they then pi .ill, it 
 
 hold, draws it through, ai.d thus i bar 
 
 of'non. with oui : The tighl com- 
 
 menced at Fort r drawn the whole nation 
 
 into I y, and when or I yet to 
 
 bo told. 
 
 I will illustrate this a littte farther by giving a story 
 that I have frequently heard ail old gentleman re li 
 
 He said upon a c< . rtain night h< I himself 
 
 miles from home. Where lie 1 
 or what hii business- was I do not now recollect. A.s 
 he was going along homew ,i sud- 
 
 denly appear in the road before him, which wont on 
 in the same direction he was . tie could see 
 
 something like pitch dropp »m it, drops that, 
 
 would burn as they fell towards the ground. lie thus 
 kept on lor some time, the light keeping before him, all 
 the time, but what bothered him was, that he could see 
 no person with the light. \i app ing on 
 
 of itself. it went out beside the road and stoped. 
 
 behind a large pine. Up to this time, our friend says 
 he had not experi >\ fear, but as he began to ap- 
 
 proach the pine, he began to get a little kind 
 and just as he the pine, he thought about 
 
 the thing jumping out aiid catching him, and the first 
 thing he knew, he found himself running. A start he- 
 said was all he wanted. The farther he ran, Uic worse- 
 It w: ire raid, about three miles 
 home, and he ran ev< and jumped two or three 
 fences the ilmost 
 
 and out of breath, and bolting a 
 the d took it o >r and 
 
 all came doWn in the middle of the Boor. This h 
 
 ed his old Lady I talked it over 
 

 and after a while they both, I believe, recovered from 
 their fright. 
 
 I have frequently heard this old gentleman relate this 
 story, and from a long acquaintance with him, I can say 
 that I have no reason to dispute his word. It may have 
 been shown him, probably as a warning in some way. 
 
 Pie said after he got started, the farther he ran the 
 "worse he got scared, and the less probability, it seems, 
 there was of his taking up. He thus ran his race quite 
 through, and as a last act, demolished his door and 
 scared his old lady as aforesaid. 
 
 So with our difficulties. It was much easier to have 
 avoided them before taking a start, than it is now to 
 stop them, after they have commenced. Each day 
 creates grealer difficulties, and renders it more difficult 
 to reconcile the two sections. 
 
 Wars may be compared to law-suits, and Dr. John- 
 son compares people at law to two persons dipping their 
 heads under water, and daring each other to hold under 
 the longest. Wars and law-suits are generally not ter- 
 minated until one or the other of the parties become 
 exhausted of means, and therefore can't carry them any 
 farther. 
 
 In the case of our friend,we said that his getting fright- 
 ened and running, ultimately frightened his old lady; so 
 he was not the only sufferer in consequence of his getting 
 frightened. So with this war that is now upon us. The 
 fight commenced at Fort Sumter has drawn all, both 
 great and small, throughout the entire length and 
 breadth of our land, into these troubles. Even the 
 female sex has been drawn into the affray, and ma- 
 ny a bitter tear has been shed by them, though the}- 
 had nothing to do in bringing on the war. The good 
 
29 
 
 and the bad suffer together. Our leadiug uieu should 
 by all means, as much as possible, avoid a beginning of 
 such difficulties. 
 
 The immediate cause of the Revolutionary war 
 was, I believe, the tax of three pence a pound on 
 tea, and the blockade of the port of Boston. The 
 East Iudia Company had sent large amounts of tea 
 to various American ports; that which was sent to 
 Boston the Bostonians were determined to have noth- 
 ing to do with ; and not only that, but a party dis- 
 guised as Indians went on board their ships and staved 
 and emptied their cargoes into the sea. The mother 
 country determined to punish the Bostonians for their 
 disobedience, as a father would a disobedient son, and 
 without any thought, I presume, of bringing on a war, 
 had the port of Boston blockaded. In the meantime: 
 a little fight had occurred between some of the soldiers 
 and Bostonians, in which there was three of the latter 
 killed. The fight thus commenced soon ripened into 
 the Revolutionary war, which lasted eight years. 
 
 The war of 1812 was mainly brought about, I believe^' 
 by the impressment of four seamen from off the Ches- 
 apeake, Commodore Baron commanding, by Capta'n. 
 Humphries, of the Leopard. Thus we see that great 
 etrects frequently spring from little causes. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN ISSUES HIS PROCLA- 
 MATION CALLING FOR 75,000 TROOPS. 
 
 April l-~>, 1801, President Lincoln issued his proclam- 
 ation calling for 7o.000 troops. Requisitions were made 
 
upon Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, 
 Kentucky, Arkansas aud Mary-aria, to furnish their 
 quota of these troops. The States mentioned refused 
 to obey the call, and what I think was a great deal 
 worse, the}' went immediately out of the Union in con- 
 sequence. I believe in doing thus, these States, at the 
 least, acted hastily. Any one reading the history of 
 our country at that time will, doubtless, admit that there 
 was a need of more soldiers to carry out government 
 purposes. For "Washington City had been menaced, 
 and probably other cities North, as has been already 
 shown. lie had to have more troops or give up the 
 government, that was certain, for with the troops he 
 already had, he could not have assigned more than 
 1:000 to the most important stations, and what would 
 they have been to the strong armies then being raised 
 in the South. 
 
 We will say that if the President nail no*i. called on 
 these States mentioned to have furnished their quota of 
 men they would have been angry, and I think more 
 justly too, for he would then evidently have been look- 
 ing on them with distrust, as much as to say, you are 
 not the men that I want to cany out my government. 
 I want men of my own party who elected me to office* 
 for upon them I can depend. 
 
 And after he called on these States to furnish their 
 quota they were still angry, and so what was lie to do? 
 Sit still and let the usurpers of,. power at the South 
 overrun the Capital and tear down the government. I 
 call them usurpers, because they had n< derived their 
 power directly from a majority of the constitution:!! 
 voters of the South as has already been shown. If the 
 question of secession had been submitted to a popular 
 vote of the people for decision, and they had said do 
 
31 
 
 thus and so, then, in my opinion, it would all have been 
 right. But the way it was, the politicians, I think, 
 were the men that had the most of the Bay so in the 
 matter. 
 
 Much fault has been found of the President be-ause 
 lie called for these troops without waiting for the au- 
 thority of Congress, or without first convening Goi- 
 grcj s, the right they say to raise armies and declare war 
 belonging solely to that body. I will here remark that 
 atthe time of issuhuxhisproelamation ©adliagfor 76,000 
 hat he alep ordered the convening of both 
 ugress, to take pla<ce on the -!th of Juty 
 U>11 owing. This, owii eireomsl a-. I pre- 
 
 sume, ■•..: lir'iase, before 
 
 M !.e convened, there fiist bad to ba 
 lions held in seven States, and in all fifty representa- 
 tives chosen, ai'ier leaving out tin ceded States. Of 
 f, thirteen would have been chosen in Virginia on 
 .■;y. ihe r day of her State election. 
 
 So it .-emus that he could not have convened Om 
 
 d the necessary rixiops in a much shorter time 
 
 thai) three u.- four month-', had he waited first to have 
 
 convened Congres , and in that time it might have, 
 
 late. 
 
 You will please permit me to state here, that if I am 
 
 wongiy informed,, the Constitution of the United 
 
 Stat* s, permits the Presi lent to call out the Militia in 
 
 of an invasion or insurrection against a State or 
 
 the< iriea a]< iovernment. A ud in ismucfa as secession was 
 
 no! provided for in the Constitution, I can't see how it 
 
 In acted uncons itutionally in issuing his 
 
 titxii calling for .the 75,000 troops. If such a 
 
 was then being taken in the South be not 
 
 termed an insurrection against the general government 
 
 at know what you would call one. 
 
These last States, Virginia, North Carolina, &c, sece- 
 ded from the fact that they thought the President wan- 
 ted these troops, with which to coerce the seceded 
 States. I will here remark that if at the time those first 
 seven States seceded that there was a majority of the 
 constitutional voters in these states in favor of remain- 
 ing in the Union, that I believe the President to have 
 been right in issuing this Proclamation in order to put 
 down the rebellion, but then, if there was a majority in 
 favor of going out of the Union, then I believe him to 
 have been wrong. But the way it was, we can't tell 
 whether the majority of the constitutional voters in these 
 states were in favor or against secession, and therefore 
 can't tell whether or not Lincoln was right in issuing 
 his proclamation calling for these troops. But if 
 these states seceded by a minority vote, unless the gen 
 eral government had taken steps to coerce or bring them 
 back, there was no other power left to do so, and if let 
 alone the first step towards an Aristocratical Govern- 
 ment would thus have been taken. It is therefore to 
 be regretted that all the states that chose to secede had 
 not submitted it to the popular vote of their respective 
 states for ratification or rejection. Our course would 
 then have been more clearly defined. I will here re- 
 mark that I presume I am as much opposed to Black 
 republican misrule and oppression as any one, but 
 I was not for taking such a decisive step until such 
 treatment had been shown towardsus, and if it had thus 
 become necessary for us to act, I think it should have 
 been submitted to the people to give their assent or dis- 
 sent thereto. "We have a brave, bold high minded set 
 of people, and had the North have infringed on their 
 rights, I don't think they would have been long in offer- 
 ing a proper resentment, and if the causes had been 
 
justifiable, T not only consider it their privilege but 
 actually their duty to have seceded or withdrawn from 
 the general government. One great reason for arguing 
 that the ordinance of secession should have been sub- 
 mitted to the people is, that whatever would have been 
 right in the matter, I think they would have done ; if 
 it had been right, and justice had demanded it, they 
 would doubtless have seceded, but if the causes had not 
 been justifiable, I don't think they would have seceded, 
 They did not have any ends to accomplish like many 
 of the politicians. They would therefore have consid- 
 ered the matter cooly and deliberately and would not 
 have seceded, I don't think for trivial causes. 
 
 Inasmuch as it w r as mixed up with uncertainty* 
 whether or not the majority ruled at the seceding of 
 the several States, would it not have been well for the 
 governors of the states yet remaining in the Union to 
 have made some inquiries of the President as to what 
 disposition he proposed making of these troops, before 
 seceding and bringing on such direful consequences. 
 Maryland furnished her quota of troops, and the Presi- 
 dent gave the Governor of that State a pledge that ho 
 would use the troops thus furnished only in defense of 
 their own State or Washington City. Perhaps he 
 might have made the same disposition of the troops 
 from this State, had our Governor have complied with 
 his Proclamation, or even showed a disposition to do 
 so. Or he might probably have begged off from furnish- 
 ing any troops, and yet remained in the Union, and 
 particularly as the Northern States had furnished more 
 than the To, 000. I don't here, wish to be understood 
 as advising that we must stoop to any thing dishonora- 
 ble in order to remain in the Union. 
 
 The first thing I think, for the States to do after se- 
 
ceding, even if they had done go by a popular vote, was 
 to take care of themselves, and to fight when force was 
 brought against them, and not to have threatened an 
 in.ji',- >voked attack against Washington City and other 
 points North. The North declare that it was the threat 
 against the North, principally Washington City, that 
 first caused them to take up arms against the South . 
 
 CIIAPTERV1 
 LETTERS OF MARQUE ISSUED. 
 
 Letters of marque were issued by President Davis on 
 the 17th of April, 1801. This did not appear to be 
 guarding either our homes, or our rights, but was at 
 once, I think, taking the war to where it need not be. 
 This circumstance reminds me of a remark of Benja- 
 min Franklin, upon a certain occasion. He said many 
 times a man having but little money is more free with 
 it than if he had a good deal, in order that people may 
 not think he has but little. So with the Southern Con- 
 federacy. They having but few or no vessels, wished 
 to make up for the deficiency by making this vain boast 
 to the world. 
 
 Afi^jp the Southern authorities passed what is called 
 the sequestration act, confiscating all property or debts 
 due Northern people. Was this justice ? Was it right? 
 Perhaps these sums due Northern citizens, may have 
 been for work and labor done, and this was sold here 
 to the people of the South at fair prices and with aper- 
 fect understanding that they were to be paid. Per- 
 haps there are persons at the North who have incurred 
 debts in getting up this merchandise ; they there have 
 to pay these debts, but here the property or dues as the 
 
oo 
 
 case may be, is confiscated and applied to government 
 purposes, is this Justice ? Perhaps these claims, too 
 arc going to our friends at the North, men whose hearts 
 are with us. Their claims, too are confiscated. These 
 claims do not belong to government. They never pur- 
 ehased them nor paid value for them ; therefore in my 
 opinion, they had no right to interfere therewith. I 
 think, they should have been let alone, and at the close 
 of the war let the people of the south pay to those of 
 Hie North their just dues and viee versa, Confiscating 
 these dues will, I think, only cause the war to be Waged 
 more fiercely against us. 
 
 JC II A P T E R V 1 1 . 
 
 FEKSOSAL LIBERTY BILLS. 
 
 Again it may he argued that the north acted uncon- 
 stitutional in passing those Personal Liberty Bills. So 
 they did. There were originally but thirteen states, 
 twelve bf which were slave holding, and slavery was 
 guaranteed under the constitution of 1787. But were 
 they an offense justifiable of secession^ breaking up the 
 Union and what is a great deal worse, bringing upon 
 us this horrible war.? [ trow not. These liberty bills 
 had such a very small effect on us here, that we scarce- 
 ly knew of their existence until these sectional troubles 
 broke out. If they had been an offense jus of 
 
 mi, why did not the border slave suites, thai suf- 
 fered most by them, firsl ? They lost probably 
 an hundred fugitives to wb 
 
 lost one. Wb Mithern 
 
 hardly< .fugitive, thufirst ^secede? 
 
 And after all, is secession any remedy for the evil? 
 
36 
 
 Will there not, in all probability, half a dozen flee from 
 their masters and seek homes in Northern States to 
 where there did one before, and without the least hope 
 of their ever being recovered, for in case of separation 
 they will not then, I presume, give us the benefit of the 
 fugitive slave law. If the two sections were separated, 
 would not this thing tend soon to involve them in war 
 again. It is true there has sometimes been opposition 
 made to the owners in recovering their fugitive slaves 
 from the north, but probably there were ten, twenty or 
 even fifty given up peaceably to where there was one 
 forcibly taken from his owner, or one that he was pre- 
 vented by violence from getting. Generally about those 
 that w T ere recovered peaceably there was nothing said, 
 whilst an account of those that were forcibly taken from 
 their masters, or such as they were prevented from 
 getting, was in almost every newspaper throughout the 
 land, and particularly at the South. 
 
 It is said by the people of the north that the fugitive 
 slave law has times more than once, caused free persons 
 of color to be enslaved. See 33. I expect though, the 
 number thus brought away was but few, whilst many 
 have escaped from the south to the north who have 
 never been recovered. 
 
 In the summer of 1855, there were servants that ab- 
 sconded from the city of Norfolk, Va., in one month 
 alone to the value of about $30,000. If they could stand 
 this and not secede, why could not the people of more 
 southern states, who had lost but very few servants if 
 any, by their absconding to the North. And if these 
 liberty bills had been a grievous and universal thing, 
 were there no way to remedy the evil only in secession. 
 Could not the people of the south have imposed heavy 
 taxes on goods of Northern manufacture, and thus 
 
■->! 
 
 have kept back their goods, and also their vessels that 
 brought them. This would soon have built up the ne- 
 cessary manufactories among us and we would not then 
 have needed their goods. If the trade of the North had 
 thus been cut oft and their vessels kept at home, 
 there would have been but few of our servants taken 
 there I assure you. Or if we preferred still to trade with 
 the north to a certain extent, we should have built our 
 own vessls with which to have done our trading, and 
 not have had all our freighting done by northern ves- 
 sels. This would also, to a very great extent, have 
 stopped the running away of our servants and seeking 
 homes in northern states. This course would also 
 have teuded much towards building up the south, in 
 making us a manufacturing and commercial people. 
 It would also have vastly strengthened our money mar- 
 ket and would have eventually done away with these 
 money panics, that have been occurring at intervals of 
 a few years for a good many years back. Our overtra- 
 ding to the North and they overtrading to Europe has 
 been two of the main fruitful causes in bringing about 
 those panics. 
 
 In illustration of this I will bring forward some facts. 
 
 At the time of President Buchanan's inauguration, 
 there were in the United States some 1400 banks with 
 specie in their vaults to the amount of $63,000,000. 
 
 We have been trading to Europe, to the West Indies, 
 and to other powers, to such an extent that we actually 
 traded out all our cotton, tobacco, rice, &c, that we 
 exported, and then sent away annually, $30,000,000 in 
 specie besides. For the single item of coffee we have 
 been paying fifteen and a half million dollars annually. 
 This sum or the amount that our imports exceeded our 
 exports ($30,000,000) had to gg in gold aud silver, aud 
 
53 
 
 came indirectly from the vaults of the southern banks, 
 Because the people at the north have to pay specie for 
 these goods what they lack of having exports enough 
 to pay with — mostly southern cotton, rice, tobacco, tur- 
 pentine, &c. Onr merchants then go north and buy 
 these goods and give them in exchange our banknotes. 
 The northern merchants or brokers then send back 
 these notes and with them draw the specie from our 
 banks, and we having no place to draw from principally 
 feel the effects of these money panics. So it will be seen 
 that two years thus trading will exhaust our banks of 
 nearly every dollar in their vaults. 
 
 These panics would, doubtless, have been more fre- 
 quent and of a more serious nature had it not been for 
 the large influx of gold from California. 
 
 In a little over ten years gold has been brought from 
 California to the amount, I believe, of $479,000,000- 
 During the fifty years previous there was produced in the 
 whole United States, I helicvc about $20,000,000 
 worth. This gold was once with us, but owing to our 
 tariff and system of free trade, is now, to a great ex- 
 tent, in Europe or some other foreign power. All these 
 panics, &c, I think might have been prevented, our 
 servants kept at Iioinc, and nobody hurt by putting up 
 a high protective tariff, and, to a great extent, prohibi- 
 ting both Northern arid European manufactures, I 
 think we should have a tariff such as would cause our 
 exports to equal, if not exceed our imports. We have 
 the an vantage, and why not make use of it to a certain 
 extent. I would hot be for passing such a law as this 
 in retaliation for anything that the North may have 
 done, but I actually think such a law necessary for our 
 we'll being as a people. We should also have had our. 
 own vessels to carry on our commerce. The scale. 
 would then soon have turned, and instead of sending 
 
$ 
 
 ourspecie out of the country, wc should been bringing it 
 iu both from in North and from hlurop 
 have the 
 
 the North and Europe cannot well do wil ' '.ml wo 
 
 had better, hi my opinion, have \ en if 
 
 we had had to have paid somehfgh* une 
 
 article of homo, manufacture. In time competition 
 would have gotten up among our man ire, and 
 
 the articles would thus soon have been brought down 
 suflicicntly low. Our paper currency would then | 
 for these gdods, and there would bo but very seldom^ 
 if ever any, run upon our banks. Our banks would 
 then probably h: u on the best foundation of any 
 
 in the world, k panics would then ever 
 
 have been beard of, for we Would always have bad 
 plenty of gold and silver aniqng us. Would it not, 
 therefore, have been better to have brought the North 
 to their senses by passing luws to this elt'eet, than it 
 was to kick up at small offences, \ry the doubtful ordi- 
 nance of secession, and in place of the lesser evils bring 
 on others infinitely greater? 
 
 But it may bo aig-ued that we had not the power to 
 pass laws relative to the tariff, &c, whilst in the union. 
 But il seems to me with the rights the states had that 
 each state could have pa • • 1 a law that would have 
 answered about the same purpose as though it had been 
 passed by the general government. At all events, I 
 think the people of the South had as good a right to 
 ich law- .. North had to pass^thoae 
 
 personal Liberty bills, ami I think by passing such laws 
 that the north Would eventually have been brought to 
 their error, ami that they were as much defendant 
 on. and in' in slave labor as the people of 
 
 the South. They haiglrt thus eventually have been 
 
40 
 
 brought to see their error and as a consequence repeal- 
 ed those offensive Libert}' bills. At all events I think 
 such a course would have kept off these difficulties for 
 a considerable time if it had not effectually healed them 
 I think by taking the proper course that these difficul- 
 ties might have been settled peacably, but even if they 
 could not, let us have shown the disposition to keep 
 them off as long as possible, so that if the worst did 
 come that the fault of no part of it could be laid to us. 
 The last hope of bringing about a reconciliation 
 should first have been lost before bringing on such a 
 dreadful calamity as a civil war. Let us hope that the 
 storm may soon blow over, and that these difficulties 
 may soon be settled honorably, fairly, and peacably, 
 and without any farther spilling of blood. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 TREATMENT OF SERVANTS. 
 
 Again it may be argued by the people of the North 
 that in many instances, the people of the South are so 
 cruel to their servants that there was a need of some- 
 thing being passed in the shape of Personal Liberty 
 bills to protect them from harsh treatment. 
 
 It is to be regreted that effective laws are generally 
 lacking to protect the poor African from the cruel treat- 
 ment to which he is sometimes submitted. I am hap- 
 py to believe, though, that the treatment of servants is 
 fast changing for the betterfrom what it has been. The 
 following rules are intended in the main to apply to 
 the exceptions of good treatment we now and then 
 meeting up with a case, but they are very rare in this 
 section. But still upon these exceptions there should, 
 
41 
 
 I think be some stringent binding laws passed in order 
 to enforce humanity upon them if they will not practice 
 it without. It is no pleasure for me to speak upon this 
 subject as I shall, before I get through the work, but I 
 shall do so solely as as a duty I think I owe to my God 
 and f How man. Then as before intimated I believe 
 there should be some stringent laws passed restricting 
 the privileges of cruel masters, for they can and some- 
 times do, strip and tie their servants and then literally 
 cut their hides to peiees with the lash and there is no 
 one to raise his voice in behalf of the poor African. 
 They have also sometimes been paddled with a paddle 
 having holes bored in it, to ahorrible degree. He cries 
 and begs for morcy with all his might, but still the 
 cruel lash keeps coming. 
 
 There is evidently a law needed in behalf of these 
 people. But the people of the north are not the ones 
 to make it. The people should here, I think, have 
 taken it into their own hands, and have passed laws 
 such as would have insured their general good treat- 
 ment. 
 
 I therefore, think a law somewhat like the following 
 would be well. 
 
 That no master, nor other person, should at any one 
 time give his servant more than six stripes upon his 
 bare back, unless it be for some very grievous offense. 
 In that case, if the master should be desirous of giving 
 his servant more than six stripes at any one time, let 
 him take the offending servant before some acting jus- 
 tice of the peace, and there make his complaint against 
 him, and if the magistrate shall so adjudge, he may 
 then and there give his servant as many a3 thirty-nine 
 lashes upon his bare back. 
 
 This plan would, I think, have a good moral effect 
 
42 
 
 upon the servant, because he would be ashamed to 
 be thus publicly whipped, and one such whipping 
 would, I think, do more good in restoring order and 
 discipline that half a dozen would given privately. I 
 therefore, think that he would endeavor to the utmost 
 to avoid such a whipping by doing his duty as nearly 
 a? possible, from the fear of being thus exposed. Such a 
 course of treatment would have as much or probably more 
 to do in keeping them in their line of duty than the pun- 
 ishment itself. Therefore let us use means as much as 
 lay in our power, to bring them to their duty without, 
 resorting to rought means. But let us hope that there 
 would never be any need fbr going over the six stripes 
 and not even that many, if it can well be avoided. 
 
 There should evidently be tome restrictions put upon 
 cruel masters, for they frequently inflict greater punish- 
 ment than they are aware of, as they feel no part of the 
 pain thus inflicted themselves. If a master should vi- 
 olate this law, i. e. give more than six siripes at any 
 one time, only as prescribed above, let the servant tho- 
 treated go out free. See 84. 
 
 I don't wish to be understood as advocating the doc- 
 that slavery is wrong. If God has p laced them in a 
 condition to be slaves, and decreed that they should be 
 such, I don't know that it should particularly concern 
 us more than to treat them well. 
 
 Whether or not it be right and consistent with the 
 will of Almighty God to own slaves, I am unable at 
 present to tell. We find them here, and I think the 
 best thing that we can do with them at present, is to 
 keep them and treat them with kiwkiesa and humanity 
 and if it be not consistent with the will of Almighty 
 God, to keep them thus, He will doubtless in time 
 make it known to us, 
 
48 
 
 Where servants are <proper]v and well treated t li« \- 
 are in all probability, in a much happier and bettor con- 
 dition than they Would be, freed and at the north, 
 ■whither many -of them have gone, or in their native 
 ■country, Liberia. 
 
 Travelers universally give it as their opinion, (so Sir 
 
 as my knowledge goes,) that the servants at the couth, 
 
 they are well treated, are in a much happier and 
 
 better condition than the tree blacks at the north are in- 
 
 That there were servants in old times admits not of 
 cLou.bt. See 
 
 Though from She ab >ve it seems that the Hebrews 
 only were commanded or permitted to own servants or 
 bondmen. In justification of this. See 36. 
 
 If the Hebrews only were eommamled or permitted 
 to own -servants or bondmen, ii is evident that no other 
 nation hath a right to own them under that command. 
 
 The Hebrews were the chosen people of God, and had 
 themselves suffered bondage and various afflictions, and 
 the probability is that this privilege was granted them to 
 make up for sonic of their reverses, or because they 
 were the special and chosen people of God, our right, 
 to retain or own bondmen under this com- 
 mand, will depend on oar establishing that we arc ef 
 Hebrew descent. I leave the reader to satisfy ljimsclf 
 on tiii.- point. If we can establish that we arc of He- 
 brew descent, then have we a right to hold bondmen 
 under that provision ; otherwise we mast derive our 
 right to hold them from some other so.ui;< 
 
 But if we had that we arc not of Hebrew i 
 how about it then?? Why, as we rind them here, and 
 as it is admitted that they arc better off here in a state 
 of servitude, than they would be iu their native Country, 
 Liberia, or in the Northern States free, whither many 
 
41 
 
 of tliern have gone, I don't know what better we cancfo 
 with them than to keep them here as they are, and 
 treat them well. 
 
 They are evidently better oft' here, provided they are 
 well treated, where they have the light of the Gospel, 
 than they would be in a heathen land. Therefore, 
 transporting them here it seems must have been an ad- 
 vantage to them, provided they are well treated. 
 
 Seems like it is more than our brethren at the north 
 should reasonably expect that the blacks of Africa 
 should be transported from the desert waste of a tropical 
 country to one far more genial and fertile, and freed 
 solely at our expense. The original stock of slaves here 
 was purchased by our forefathers, either of slavers, or 
 from those Northern States which have since abolished 
 slavery. And if it were right thus to bring them here 
 and tree them solely at our expense, they might as wel 
 argue that we had best continue to spend our money 
 for these people in order to get therii to a better coun- 
 try. For no philanthropist, I presume, would argue 
 that it would be best to send the slaves that are here 
 back to the desert wastes of Africa, from whence they 
 came. And there is no Scripture nor moral law that 
 I have ever seen that would go to prove that it is our 
 duty thus to transport them from the desert waste of a 
 tropical country, for the sake of getting them to one far 
 more genial and fertile. 
 
 This generation did not bring them here, or cause 
 them to be brought. Therefore iu my opinion we are 
 not responsible for their being here. So if their being 
 brought here is a godly or an ungodly act I think nei 
 ther the credit nor the blame, as the case may be, of 
 any part thereof rest with us. We find them here and 
 as aphilanthrophic people I think we should not do any 
 hing to worse their condition, which in my opinion- 
 
l; 
 
 would be done were they freed and sent back to the 
 parching sands of Africa from whence they came. And 
 if it be wrong to have them here in servitude, it would 
 seem to be our duty to send them back from whence 
 they came. 
 
 The servants that are here in my opinion are much 
 better oft*, where they are well treated, than their 
 brethren in Africa and are likewise probably of some 
 advantage to us here as well as to the people of the north 
 and the various European nations. For they are much 
 better adapted for working the cotton, rice and sugar 
 plantations of the south than the white man is. Be- 
 cause they can labor with impunity among various epi- 
 demic diseases of the south, wheie the white man would 
 soon sicken and die. 
 
 I will give an example of this. 
 
 During the prevalence of that dreadful scourge, Yel- 
 low Fever, in Norfolk' in the summer of 1855, there 
 died, I believe, about 3,000 people. During this most 
 distressing time of sickness, suffering and death, the 
 negroes escaped with almost perfect impunity. I only 
 heard of one or two being sick of yellow fever ai.d 
 they might possibly have been sick of some other dis- 
 ease. I can't say with certainty that it proved fatal 
 among the blacks in the first instance, whilst among 
 the whites at the time of its greatest rage, there died 
 nearly one hundred per day. I was there for a consid- 
 erable time, myself among the fever, and I know that 
 I heard it remarked, that the fever took but little or 
 no effect on the black population. This goes to prove 
 that they arc muck less liable to be affected by the dis- 
 eases of warm climates than the whites, and are, there- 
 fore much better adapted for working in the cotton, 
 rice and sugar plantations of the South. 
 
4G 
 
 But I don't consider this even {^justifiable excuse for 
 reducing them to bondage, provided 
 li'eve it not to he in accordance with Qoii's will, thj 
 
 them. We not knowing the will of God, with cer- 
 tainty upon tlijs subject, I think we had better keep them 
 as they are for the present, and ifit be not consistent with 
 His will to keep them thus, lie will, I think, doubtless 
 in time make it known to us, as has been before stated. 
 
 Those persons that arc so desirous of seeing the ser- 
 vants at the south emancipated. I think would do well 
 to look into the thing and see whether their condition 
 would be bettered by thus freeing them. "We have 
 abundant evidence to prove that their condition, as it 
 now is, is generally speaking, a great deal better than 
 that of their free brethren either north or south. In- 
 deed, -where they are well treated, they may be said to 
 be among the happiest peoj le in the world. For they 
 generally couple off at an age as early as they are sus- 
 ceptible of. There are no questions of property nor of 
 a worldly character to decide with them, for their wo- 
 men are all like Lycurgus would have those of Sparta, 
 all equal as to property, 37. There are but few or no 
 cases of celibacy among them, and they have but few 
 or no cares as to their rising families ; all goes well and 
 in old age, they are taken good care of. So I think, 
 when they are well treated, that they. are about the 
 happiest people that the sun shines on. 
 
 In order that the reader may know the condition of 
 some countries where emancipation has taken place, I 
 refer him to 33. 
 
C II A P T E R I X . 
 
 TREATMENT OF SERV coSrnsi 
 
 We will now look at what we call good treatment oi 
 servants. That there nlust be some mode of punish- 
 islmient for the disobedient, can't bedeniod bypersons 
 knowing anvthing of the management of servants. 
 
 The mode and the degree arc the things to "be attain- 
 ed to. 
 
 "When chastising is resorted to, it should he done 
 ■with a light hand, so as not to cut the skin, and witji 
 an eye single to their benefit, giving no more than may 
 he absolutely necessary to insure obedience. Do not 
 mark them up anil send them down to iheif graves 
 hearing the marks of the cruel lash. Some cruel per- 
 sons in chastising become excited, and the poor n 
 hollowing and beging lor mercy, duty excites them and 
 causes them to apply the lash more cruelly. Such per- 
 sons ought to have a wooden negro to whip upon, that 
 could hoi] without the operator knowing but 
 
 what it was a genuine negro that he was at work upon. 
 . for human flesh to bear such immense 
 torture. \^engeai th totheXbrd, ami I don't 
 
 think any (me here is authorized to in.ui'ci hell i 
 earth. The Lord will, 1 think, d I such 
 
 risible at the la; ill v. 
 
 ve and mild mean . at that is 
 
 actuated o> < : h love and veneration : 
 
 say b 
 
 I'vanfs. 
 
 I i .' 
 food that you pari 
 
i8 
 
 .1 think I can sum up in a few words all that is neces- 
 sary for the good government of servants. Fed well, 
 clothe well, and when it be necessary and unavoidable 
 whip well. You must keep them in subjection either 
 with the rod, or bv creating feelings of love and veuer- 
 ation in them towards you as a master. 
 
 If you can govern by this latter mode, which is by 
 far the best, there will then be but little or no need of 
 resorting to rougher means. You must though keep 
 order and discipline among them or they will soon render 
 you so as not to be able to treat them well, for left to 
 their own will they soon cease to work to much ad- 
 vantage. They would soon get to be like bees when 
 transported to the island of Jamaica. They then soon 
 cease to lay up honey and divert themselves by flying 
 about the sugar mills and stinging the hands at work. 
 The reason that they thus cease to lay up honey I pre- 
 sume is that they can always get plenty of the neces- 
 sary food without that trouble. Past experience has 
 generally proven this to be the case with servants where 
 they have either been emancipated or left to their own 
 will even. In either case they soon get to be like the 
 bees — cease to work to much advantage. 
 
 Butas has already been remarked, good masters make 
 good servants. Try as much as possible to get them to 
 take an interest in affairs as though they were their own. 
 And in order that your servauts may thus become in- 
 terested in your affairs, I think it necessary for you to 
 give your business your personal attention and become 
 interested in it yourself before you can except your 
 servants to take a proper interest in your affairs. 
 
 Give them time to work for themselves, half of each 
 Saturday we will say, to make something to buy nec- 
 essaries with. This course will cause time fly as it were 
 
43 
 
 and they will be apt to attend more cheerfully to (heir 
 business during the week with the hope in the end of 
 working some for themselves. 
 
 I will here mention somewhat a novel plan for the 
 treatment of disobedient servants. There is a gentleman 
 not a great ways from this place who, for disobedience 
 ot his servants, causes a table to be spread with the 
 choicest dainties he has; the offender must then sit 
 down and take a hearty repast. This is all the punish- 
 ment he inflicts, very rarely if ever resorting to any 
 rougher mode. I think they are under as good disci- 
 pline, attend to business as closely, and are likewise as 
 profitable to their owner as any in the whole country. 
 The feeling of love here predominates. It has a moral 
 effect on them, and causes them to take care of things 
 as though they were their own. Let us hope that laws 
 will soon be passed concerning these people, such as at 
 least will clear us from having any sin to answer for on 
 their account. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BLOCKADE ESTABLISHED. 
 
 Alius having been appealed to, President Lincoln, 
 on the 19th April, 1861, issued his proclamation order- 
 in;- the ports <>t" the seceded States to be blockaded. 
 Eight days thereafter, or on the 27th, he issued another 
 proclamation ordering the still farther blockade of the 
 ports of Virginia and North Carolina, the inhabitants 
 thereof having seized upon certain of their forts, &c, 
 and Yirginiahadalsosccededon the L7th of April. North 
 Carolina did not secede until the 20th of May. Toiin- 
 3 
 
>0 
 
 essee, Arkansas, and I believe, Missouri, soon seceded 
 also. 
 
 June the 10th., the battle of Great Bethel near York- 
 town, Va., was fought. The war thus commenced soon 
 became general. The history of it from that time down 
 to the present I leave with the reader. 
 
 Let us now go back and take another view of the 
 beginning of these difficulties. 
 
 I will ask the question, was secession under the cir- 
 cumstances best ? I will give it as my opinion that the 
 causes were not justifiable, and that it was therefore not 
 for the best. The last hope of bringing abouta reconcil- 
 iation should, I think, first have been lost before tak- 
 ing such a step. It is easy to tear up a government 
 but hard to put one right again. 
 
 About the time secession was taking a good start 
 among us, I heard several gentlemen in their speeches 
 assert " That it is now no time to talk but a time to act, 
 the time for talking, they said, had passed." And 
 farther after the war had commenced, it was a common 
 thing for this same class of men to say, "That it is now 
 no time to talk of the causes of the war, how it came 
 about," &.c. The war, they said is upon us and we must 
 light out. Eight or wrong, it seems we must fight out 
 without once looking back to see whether or not we 
 are right. If we be wrong how can we expect heaven 
 to crown our efforts. I at the time differed in opin- 
 ion with these gentlemen, and I do not believe that 
 it is yet too late to talk. In fact I believe it is a time 
 that our greatest and most conservative men should be 
 called forth, so as, if possible, to settle this distressing 
 question without any farther shedding of blood. 
 
 The first thing then that I think we should do, even 
 now at this late hour, is to go back and look into the 
 
51 
 
 causes of this war; with an impartial eye, and if we find 
 
 that "we. are in an error, or that the fault of any part of 
 it rests with us, let us set in right there to work, and not 
 cease until we change it to what is right By doing 
 this is the only way that we may expect to get upon a 
 sure foundation. If in an error, T think we had better 
 to retract than to continue in it, for the Scriptures, I 
 think, somewhere say that "The Lord will abhor the 
 deceitful and bloody man." Then until we first con- 
 form to His will as near as we can as a nation and peo- 
 ple, how can we expect Him to give us success in spilling 
 the blood ot our fellow man. Then let us inspect this 
 fabric that has been rearing si nee secession took its start 
 closely, and if we find any thing in the structure that 
 is wrong, let us tear down and build of anew whatever the 
 cost. If we can detect any error in this fabric, I think 
 we had better do this than for it to eventually tumble 
 and fall and crush us in the ruins. 
 
 And if there be manifest error in it, until this be done 
 I look upon the prayers ascending from our pulpits for 
 the. success of our arms, right or wrong as it were, as 
 solemn mockery. I think it unbecoming a minister of 
 the gospel, cither North or South, to pray that we may 
 succeed by force of arms; that we may kill, oh, a great 
 many thousand of the enemy, and drive them back ut 
 terly discomfited and sorely by the force of arms ! 
 
 In order that I may make my position plainer, I will 
 use the following illustration : We will say that a master 
 workman gives an apprentice a job of work to do, and 
 be, instead of doing the work well, bungles over it in 
 some way, or perhaps does a part of it wrong. He then 
 applies to his master for more work. Does he give it 
 to him ? No! He tells him to go and do the work well 
 that he gave him before, and he will then give him more. 
 
So of our sectional truobles. If we can find anything 
 in the past relative to our government, or to these sec- 
 tional troubles that is wrong, right back there we should' 
 go and begin, and not cease until it is done right. 
 
 I will illustrate this a little farther: We will say that 
 one professes religion; gets a fresh and bright hope. 
 For awhile all goes well, but after awhile temptations 
 arise ; he is seduced and led away from duty ; he sins 
 against heaven and Divine light. The Scriptures some- 
 where say to the effect that "If any after having receiv- 
 ed Divine light, fall away, it is impossible to renew 
 them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify Christ 
 afresh, and put him to an open shame." What then ! 
 They can't be saved in their sins, and they can't repent 
 and get religion over again, and give in another chris- 
 tian experience, for that would be crucifying Christ 
 afresh. What 'then must they do? Why all such 
 doubtless recollect the first sin, and even the first time 
 they committed this sin after professing, and right back 
 to that place they must go and get forgiveness for this 
 sin, before they may expect to make much progress in 
 grace. Were it not for the words " unto repentance," 
 in the text, it would certainly be a bad case with all 
 that backslide ; and, though they can't profess religion 
 and get it over again, they can go back and seek for- 
 giveness for what they have done, and if they seek in 
 the right way, they will be apt soon to obtain it, and be 
 led forth in the green pastures in which they once 
 roamed, and things thus all be brought right again. 
 But as I said before, until they do this, they need not 
 expect to make much progress ingrace. 
 
 So as regards our country. Somebody is wrong. 
 Somebohy is in fault and responsible for the much blood 
 being spilt, the many valuable lives lost, the much snf- 
 
53 
 
 fcring produced, and for the many orphans and widows 
 made by this great and mighty struggle. And that 
 fault wherever it is, or whatever persons may be in it, 
 is doubtless based in wickedness. 
 
 I therefore think that a better prayer for our minis, 
 ters would be to pray, that those that are in fault and 
 principally instrumental in bringing on these difficul- 
 ties may be brought to see their error, that their course 
 may be changed, and that they may soon unite for set- 
 ling these difficulties peaceably, honorably and fairly, 
 and without the farther spilling of blood. 
 
 Notwithstanding the doubtfulness of the justness of 
 some of our proceedings, our clergy and laity still im- 
 plore the God of heaven for aid and protection, and 
 that they may be successful in this their undertaking, 
 and expect Ilim to bend as it were to suit their cases, 
 and to aid them, when the justice of their appeal to 
 arm's is at least questionable. If the foundation of the 
 structure be wrong, you may build upon it until the 
 fabric shall reach the skies and the whole fix is wrong. 
 The first thing, I think, that should be done in. that 
 rase is to tear down and begin of anew. Lay the foun- 
 dation right, thcu build upon it in the same way, and 
 we may then expect to have a permanent government. 
 
 I am not like a certain Ex-Governor in an adjoining 
 state, and who is now a general in the Confederate ar- 
 my, who in a speech upon a certain occasion said, il My 
 motto is my country ; may it always be right ; but 
 right or wrong my country." I look upon such as this 
 as misguided patriotism. I think all true patriots 
 should bo for their country when right, and if their 
 country be wrong, let them use their utmost endeavors 
 to put it right, and if they Tail to do this, then let them 
 go for what is right. For if one's country is wrong, 
 
54 
 
 what better evidence need we to want that our govern- 
 ment is administered by bad wicked men ; I therefore, 
 think, instead of backing them, endorsing their pro- 
 ceedings, and imploring God's protection for same, that 
 a better plan would be to strike a blow, where in my 
 opinion, it rightly belongs. Strike it at those bad 
 wicked men in power, liemove them from office, and 
 instead thereof, put in good pious men, men who hold 
 direct communion with God. You may then expect 
 soon to have a good and permanent government, for 
 such men will not go for any thing wrong if they know 
 it. 
 
 T will illustrate this idea a little. 
 
 There was some years ago upon one of our western 
 rivers, a steamboat making one of her regular trips. 
 
 Among the passengers was one who had about his 
 person a large sum of money. Night coming on, he 
 had requested of the Captain a private room, which was 
 given him, and he had retired. From some cause or 
 other, probably from the boat becoming more crowded, 
 it became necessary for him to have a comrade, ac- 
 cordingly there was one put in with him. Our friend 
 says that in the very looks of his guest, ho thought he 
 could detect the robber, and his very long beard gave 
 him a still more savage appearance; so he eyed him 
 closely. But this gentleman, after undressing himself 
 knelt down and prayed a short fervent prayer, lie 
 prayed for the welfare of his wife and little ones at 
 home, for a safe trip, &c. He then got up and got in 
 bed. Our friend after seeing this, had no fears of his 
 companion. He soon dropped off to sleep, awoke in 
 the morning and all was right. 
 
 This is the effect of true religion. Government in 
 the hands of such men, all will be well. The prayers 
 
55 
 
 of such people avail much. For they will not pray 
 nor go for any thing that they do not believe to be in 
 accordance with the will of Almighty God. 
 
 If we could put through any design which we do not 
 believe to be in accordance with the will of Almighty 
 God, we should not do it, though it might at present 
 appear to he of much advantage to us. We may rest 
 assured, that sooner or later the judgment of God will 
 be upon us; for any thing built not in accordance with 
 II is will can't stand. 
 
 I will mention for instance the case of Moses at 
 Kadcsh in the desert of Zin. The laralites there bo- 
 came thirsty for water and chode with Moses forbring- 
 ing them up out of Egypt. Moses was there command- 
 ed to speak to the rock before their eyes, and it should 
 give forth his water. "Take the rod, and gather thou 
 the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, 
 and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes ; and it 
 shall give forth his water, and thou shaft bring forth to 
 them water out of the rock; So thou shalt give the 
 congregation and his beasts drink." Xumb. 26 : 8. 
 
 Moses smote the rock with his rod twice, the water 
 flowed abundantly for the people and beasts. All 
 drank and it appeared that all might be well, but not 
 so ; Mioses had not obeyed the command of the Lord, 
 he had smitcn the rock instead of speaking to it; and 
 for violating this command, he was prohibited from 
 entering the Land of Promise. Though the smiting of 
 of the rock had probably caused the water to flow as it 
 would have done had he spoken to it, yet he had not 
 obeyed the command of God. Though he had by com- 
 mand smitten the rock at Horeb and caused the water 
 to flow there, 1 presume pretty much at it did here, and 
 though he had smiten it probably unthoughtedly, think-. 
 
56 
 
 ing that be must now bring the water in the same way 
 that be did at Horeb, and particularly as he was com- 
 manded to take bis rod with him, yet it would not 
 all excuse him, and for disobeying this command he 
 was permitted only to behold the Promised Land. There- 
 fore to obey a command of God we must do just what 
 is commanded, nothing more nor less. Though it may 
 appear to go well at the time, as it did with Moses, 
 yet there will be apt sooner or later to be a curse of 
 some kind upon the offender.- 
 
 What I wish to prove by the foregoing is that as wars 
 can't be established in justice according to the word of 
 God, a curse of some kind certainly awaits the guilty 
 party, though at present they may even be victors. 
 
 Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sin- 
 ner destroyeth much good. 
 
 Let us first be sure we are right then may we reason- 
 ably expect God's aid in crushing out our enemies. 
 
 I will here state again that I do not believe the causes 
 were justifiable for secession for the following reasons 
 and that therefore, at least, a portion of the wrong must 
 be on our side. 
 
 The President was constitutionally elected, though 
 by a party antagonistic to the interests of the South 
 (mostly as regards the teritories) had their principles 
 been caried out. Notwithstanding this I think we 
 should have waited until he had done some unconsti- 
 tutional act before seceding and bringing on such dire- 
 ful consequences. Because though of the Eepublican 
 party he had in his inaugural, I believe, stated that he 
 had no desire or disposition to interfere with the in- 
 stitutions of the South, meaning slavery. 
 
 And in some of his speeches he said I always told 
 you that we would beat you ; that could have been kept 
 
■n 
 
 off longer by nominating Stephen A. Douglas for the 
 Presidency than in any other way, but now that we 
 have beaten you I expect you wish to know what we 
 are going to do with you. I will tell you what we will 
 do with you. It is my desire to treat you as near like 
 Washington and Jefferson and Madison did as I ran. 
 
 lie said upon another occasion that there should be 
 no blood spilt during his administration if he could 
 help it. 
 
 Again, to the division in the democratic ranks, and 
 a; a consequence, running two democratic canidates 
 instead of one, is mainly attributable the cause of Mr. 
 Lincoln's election. -Had the}' have remained united 
 the Republican party in all probability could not have 
 come into power for many years to come, even if it 
 ever had. It then appears bad that the Democratic 
 party must split up and make a breach through which 
 the Republican party came into powcr,and then, mere- 
 ly because they came in after the way was opened for 
 them, they must disrupt every tie and go immediately 
 out of the union. 
 
 Had the Republican party been largely in the major- 
 ity so as to be able to carry through any design they 
 wished and had also have threatened speedily to 
 have taken our rights from us wc could not have done 
 any more than we did. We could not have taken a 
 more decided stand against them than wc did, even if 
 they had threatened to have taken our liberties from us 
 anii to deprive us of every thing else that was near 
 and dear to us. But instead of being in the majority 
 we find them largely in the minority as has already 
 been shown. So had we have brought our powers 
 rightly to bear on them as we might have done, we 
 might have kept the ascendancy in spite of them, the 
 
58 
 
 people of the Northern States were also to a great ex- 
 tent conservative as I will show before I get through. 
 Under these circumstances I think we should not have 
 acted with so much' haste, and particularly as Lincoln's 
 election was owing mainly to the breach in the Demo- 
 cratic party. 
 
 The Democratic party split up and made this breach 
 through which the Republican party came into power, 
 but whether or not they did this designedly I am not 
 able to say. 
 
 Secretary Floyd had I believe during the Summer of 
 1860 sent 135.000 stand of small arms, besides large a- 
 mounts of munitions of war, to the southern forts and 
 arsenals. There was then no talk nor thought itself 
 among the people of these coming difficulties. "When 
 these states seceded they seized upon these arms, which 
 made them able to offer a much greater resistance in 
 the struggle when it did come. 
 
 , Did these states secede because they thought the 
 President would do them an injury ? He was evidently 
 powerless to do this even had he been desirious of so 
 doing. In the first place he had rendered himself 
 harmless by his own words. He would first have had 
 to have eaten them before he could have offered or done 
 any harm to the Southern people. 
 
 And more than than this, there was a majority in 
 both branches ot Congress against him. In the House 
 of Representatives there was a majority of thirty against 
 him, and in the Senate there was a majority of from 
 four to eight against him. With this majority against 
 him the Senate could have appointed him a cabinet of 
 the opposite party, had they have chosen to exercise 
 their power, and he would have been compelled to 
 have acted with a cabinet opposed to his views as did 
 
50 
 
 George the III (a tory) king of England. who waa com- 
 pelled to act with a whig cabinet, who had to ask the 
 whigs to appoint his ministers and who had to receive 
 a cabinet utterly opposed to his views. 
 
 Again, there was not only a large majority of the pop- 
 ular vote against Lincoln as President, but upon top of 
 this there was a large gain against his party at the next 
 state elections. In the present Congress (at the time of 
 Lincoln's election,) the States oi'Rhode Island and Con - 
 neticut had six Republican members in Congress. In 
 the next they have four Democrats and but two Repub- 
 licans. The State of New York had in the present 
 Congress twelve Republican members, In the next she 
 has but four. There was likewise large gains in most 
 if not all of the other Xorthen States. Even Spring- 
 field Illenois the place of Mr. Lincoln's residence, and 
 whieh gave him a handsome majority at the Presiden- 
 tial election, had turned over to be democratic. There 
 had also gone up a petition to Congres, from the City of 
 iS'ew York, I believe, with 37,7.54 assignors, praying 
 the settlement of the question by adopting the Critten- 
 don plan. The list was 1,108 feet long. There was 
 also the Xow York Stale Convention that wished the 
 question settled by adopting the Crittendon plan, which 
 would have averted civil war and restored peace to the 
 country. They wanted this left to the people — a fair- 
 way of settling. If this could only have been done, I 
 think we would soon have had peace. All these things 
 taken together, I think goes to prove conclusively that 
 the people at the north to a great extent were conser- 
 vative and also willing to yield. If the politicians 
 could have been got out of the way, I don't think the 
 people would have had any difficulty in settling the 
 troubles and restoring quietude to the country, if it 
 
60 
 
 had been submitted to them at the ballot box after the 
 following plan. Let the people of the slave states first 
 have voted, all the states voting together, whether or 
 not they were willing to have a law passed for the bet- 
 ter treatment of servants, something like what has al- 
 ready been mentioned, I think this would have passed 
 by a large majority, for could any christian humane 
 man have done any thing else than have gone for it. 
 We will say then this passed. The northern people 
 would then have had no excuse for keeping op those 
 personal liberty bills. 
 
 Then let the people of the Northern States have voted 
 whether or not they were willing to repeal those per- 
 sonal liberty bills, all the Northern States voting. If 
 a majority of the people had been in favor of repealing 
 them, let them have been repealed in all the states 
 where they then existed, but if there had been a major- 
 ity in favor of these bills, I think they should have 
 been placed on the Statute Books of all the Northern 
 States — let them have gone the whole hog or none. If 
 they had thus voted, in favor of these personal liberty 
 bills, after we had carried ours as aforesaid, I think 
 there would have been but one thing left for us to do — ■ 
 that would have been to secede. But if it had thus 
 been necessary for us to secede, I think we should have 
 done so according to Ex-President Filmore's plan. 
 "Let the states have called a general convention, and 
 let them have seceded peaceably." There was no need 
 of having fighting about :'t. But I think if the North- 
 ern States had voted in favor of these personal liberty 
 bills, that a Convention of the Southern States would 
 have been all that was necessary. Then if they had 
 passed the ordinance of secession, I think it should 
 have been submitted to the popular vote of the South- 
 
61 
 
 em States for ratification or rejection. If a majority of 
 the people had fhus wanted to have gone out of the 
 Union, I don't think there is any Prince upon earth 
 that should have had power to coerce or keep them in 
 the Union, and vice versa. 
 
 But if those personal liberty hills had been submitted 
 to a popular vote of the people at the north, I fully be- 
 lieve that nineteen out of twenty would have voted for 
 their repeal. ' 
 
 I will here remark that the people of the Southern 
 States should first have voted, because if the mistreat- 
 ment of servants be an offense, it is of longer standing 
 than those personal liberty bills, and should therefore 
 have been removed first. 
 
 A law passed for the better treatment of servants and 
 one for the repeal of those personal liberty bills, would, 
 I think have been two very important steps towards 
 bringingabout a reconciliation between the two sections. 
 In fact these two things done, I don't see anything in the 
 way at all to have kept from a speedy and peaceable 
 adjustment. 
 
 .These troubles might in my opinion have been settled 
 by our Congress, both the National and Peace, had we 
 have had the right men in these places, but in my opii - 
 ion we. did not have them there. There were too many 
 of them, in my opinion, Ex-Governors, Ex-Presidents 
 and other large officials — men who were too stout in 
 their natures and dispositions to yield any thing. The 
 longer a man remains in public life, the more, I think 
 loes he become settled in his opinions, and the leas :i| t 
 ic is to yield any thing to the opinions of others. You 
 (Hll please pardon me for saying here, that I do not 
 :hiuk any man should hold an office of promt and hon- 
 jr longer than four years. The people, I think should 
 
62 
 
 be the masters and the officers their servants. Bat the 
 longer these officers stay in power, the more, I think 
 do they come to the conclusion that they are the mas- 
 ters and the people their servants, and get to be like 
 Hammons, who in the Nashville Convention exclaimed, 
 " the people are to do whatever we command them." 
 I think the reverse of this should be all the time — let the 
 people be the masters and the officers their servants. 
 
 Ifc is said that the bark of young trees is better for 
 medical purposes than that of old, and so I think of 
 government officers, I don't though wish to be under- 
 stood as arguing that young men, before they reach the 
 proper age of experience, make better officers than 
 those older and more experienced — quite the reverse. 
 But I am not for keeping them in office until they grow 
 old in it as it were, and get tobelieve that the office and 
 people too belong to. them, It is true a\ e will find some 
 exceptions to this rule — a few who would make good 
 lifetime officers, but where we find one such a case, I 
 think we will find ninety and nine liable to be led off 
 in the way described. 
 
 Another reason for such a course is, that in many of 
 these offices there is not only good pay but good school- 
 ing also. As a member of the Legislature or a mem- 
 ber of Congress a man can probablj* gather practical 
 knowledge as fast if not faster than he can in almost 
 any other way. Therefore in a republican government, 
 I think the thing should be divided as much as possible. 
 In order that I may not be misunderstood, I will here 
 remark that the plan mentioned does not propose that 
 a person shall hold public office only four years during 
 his life. It is only meant that he should not hold any 
 one office but four years. Having digressed from the 
 subject, I will now return to it again. 
 
63 
 
 I will here mention again that Lincoln was evident- 
 ly powerless to do ns any harm, even had lie been de- 
 sirous, for the following reasons. In the first place he 
 had rendered himself powerless by his own words. lie 
 would first have had to have eaten them before he could 
 have offered us any harm as before stated. 
 
 In the seeond place, there was a. majority against him 
 in both branches of Congress ; so he could not have 
 done us any harm, even had he been desirous of so do- 
 ing. 
 
 And in the third place, the party that elected him 
 to power was fast deserting him and joining the Demo- 
 cratic party. So there was no probability of one of his 
 party being elected to the Presidency soon again, if 
 ever. 
 
 Why then so hasty to secede ? Why not have waited 
 and tried the man until he had at least done some un- 
 constitutional act? Then would have been time enough 
 to have acted. 
 
 The truth of it is, we enjoyed a surfeit of Liberty and 
 did not know its priceless value until we had experi- 
 enced some reverses. 
 
 A man in health is not apt to appreciate it fully un- 
 til he comes to a bed of affliction. He can then look 
 back and see what a great blessing health is. So our 
 people do not or have not in my opinion fully appre- 
 ciated a good government until they had torn it up and 
 experienced some, of the reverses of a civil war. 
 
 The Southern States being so hasty to secede and 
 particularly South Carolina puts me in mind of a story 
 that I have frequently heard an old gentleman relate 
 which he says took place in his young days. For the 
 benefit of my readers, I will give this story entire, and 
 hi his own language as near'as I can. So here <rocs: 
 
64 
 
 Once upon a time, says ho, there came a young man 
 from 'the adjoining neighborhood and put up for the 
 night. It was Saturday night I believe. This young 
 man was about seventeen or eighteen years old-— an age 
 at which inexperienced youths generally think they 
 know more than any one else. There were several 
 young men in the family, some older and some younger 
 than this young man : I having now forgotten his name 
 will denominate it Charley Foolhardy. That night 
 'the conversation turned on swimming. Charley ex- 
 pressed great fondness for the exercise, and he could 
 just beat any body out. He talked of it incessantly, 
 and when he went to bed he was still talking about it. 
 Before laying down there was an agreement made be- 
 tween the boys to go a swmming next morning. Next 
 morning good and soon Charley was up and wanted to 
 be off to the river to take the delightful swimming 
 which had been so much on his mind. Persuading to 
 remain until after breakfast, had no effect. So at last 
 nothing else doing he in company with the balance of 
 the young men put off for the river, which was about 
 a quarter of a mile distant. Charley was so anxious to 
 to get into the water that he could not wait until he 
 got to the river to divest himself .of his clothing, but 
 commenced pulling off as he went. He pulled off his 
 coat and laid it d.own here ; a little farther he laid 
 down his vest ; a little farther still his pants and so on. 
 Before he had got to the river he was stripped off ready, 
 and so taking a running start he pitched into the water 
 as far as he could — over his head the first pass. Instead 
 of being an expert swimmer it was soon discovered that 
 he could not swim anyat all, and being in the act of 
 drowning, his comrades — scarcely having time to pull off 
 their shoes, had to jump in with their clothes all on to 
 
$5 
 
 rescue Charley from a watery grave. Though pretty 
 badly strangled, he was soon restored as good as ever, 
 and had also learned a practical lesson that he could 
 not probably have learned so well in any other way — 
 that he could not swim as easily as he imagined. And 
 so I presume he came to the conclusion that henceforth 
 he would not venture again into deep and unknown 
 waters until he had first learnt how, and knew that he 
 could swim, but would remain on his natural element, 
 land, where he could travel with safety. 
 
 I wish to apply the above to the state or states that 
 first seceded. In fact it may now be applied to all the 
 states that have seceded first and last, but most parti- 
 cularly to South Carolina. She appeared to think that 
 secession was all that was lacking and not only refused 
 to wait and act in concert with the ballance of the 
 Southern States, but actually rejected the counsel and 
 advice of some of her older and more experienced sis- 
 ters, and pitched right into secession whether or not. 
 I think those that were so anxious for secession, after 
 trying it over twelve months, have doubtless come to 
 the conclusion that they can't do much more with it 
 than Charley could at swimming, and, that they need 
 help to extricate themselves from their present difficul- 
 ties as badly as did Charley. It /s evident that had 
 not other states have pitched in, that South Carolina 
 would have been drowned ere this, and particularly if 
 this element had have raged with the same fury that it 
 has since done. But by the '"balance pitching in they 
 have been enabled with much 'a do, to keep their heads 
 above water. "Whether they will eventually drown or 
 arise and come forth from this new element remains 
 yet to be told. I will have occasion to refer again to 
 this similitude before I get through the book, but will 
 prop it for the present, 
 
66 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OUR GOVERNMENT AS COMPARED WITH 
 OTHERS. 
 
 Our government, though defective was probably the 
 best on the face of the globe. Our people seemed to 
 have been unconscious of this. The truth of it is we 
 enjoyed a surfeit of Liberty, and did not know its 
 priceless value until we had torn up our government 
 and experienced some of the reverses of a civil war, as 
 before stated. 
 
 A man in health is not apt to appreciate it fully, but 
 let him come to a bed of affliction, he can then look 
 back and see what a great blessing health is. So our 
 people do not or have not in my opinion, fully appre- 
 ciated a good government until they had torn it up and 
 brought an untold amount of trouble upon themselves. 
 
 A good government may be compared to the atmos- 
 phere around us, which we breathe. Its benefits are 
 so silent and unseen, that they are seldom thought of 
 or appreciated. We seldom think of the single ele- 
 ment of oxwgen in the air we breathe, and yet let this 
 simple and unfelt agent be withdrawn, this life giving 
 element be taken afway from this all pervading fluid, 
 and what instant and appalling effects would instantly 
 take place throughout all organic creation. 
 
 As before remarked, one in health is not apt fully to 
 appreciate it. And a very singular thing is, that one 
 is not apt to do anything to destroy health or body on- 
 ly when in health. I presume you never knew nor 
 heard of any one committing suicide only when in per- 
 fect health. It wquld seem that one under heavy afflic- 
 tions, such as a painful cancer, would be more apt to 
 commit suicide — but it is to the reverse. 
 
67 
 
 u So much so that in latter stages; 
 
 "When pains grow sharp and sicklies rages, 
 
 The greatest love of life appears." 
 
 Even so with onr country. Had. we have been en- 
 gaged in a Avar with some foreign power, or have been 
 in some other difficulty, so as to have had onr energies 
 
 taxed to the utmost to have kept along, the causes that 
 led to secession, and from that to this war, I don't sup- 
 pose would have been noticed, or thought of itself as 
 being anything serious. 
 
 The spelling book, I think somewhere says to the 
 effect, "thai the mind unimployed seeks for diversions." 
 We must then, it seems, have kicked up a big dust out 
 of quite a trivial matter, merely for lack of other, and 
 I may say better employment. I therefore look upon 
 it that our government in the midst of her onward march 
 to national honor, prosperity ' and greatness has com- 
 mitted a national suicide. It is true the old gentleman, 
 Uncle Sam. is not yet quite dca.d, but he is terribly cut 
 up, and will bear the sears of his wounds for many a 
 day, even shoul 1 he be so fortunate as to get over it. 
 "Whether or not the old gentleman will recover, we 
 now can't tell. The disease though is a fearful one. 
 Several great and distinguished personages (Greece, 
 Ivonu 1 . &c.) have before died of the same disease, and 
 strange to say the very same remedies that killed off those 
 distinguished personages are now being busily applied to 
 the old gentleman with the expectation of healing him, 
 and in the face of all this he is growing a little worse 
 every day, Let us hopo that his ease will soon be care- 
 fully studied, and the proper antiphlogistic remedies (op- 
 I to preternatural heat,) be applied before it b^ 
 everlastingly too late, 
 
68 
 
 The causes for which we seceded were I think mostly 
 imaginary. Our government like new cider was fast 
 working off its impurities as has already been shown. 
 Things in all probability would soon have wound up 
 peacably had the Southern states remained in the Union 
 a little while until the storm had blown over. 
 
 In 1850, South Carolina was desirous of seceding 
 and going immediately out of the Union as hasalready 
 been stated. Since that time the united States have 
 grown in wealth and power without a paralell I pre- 
 sume in history, even from the creation of the world 
 down to the present time. The material wealth of many 
 of the states have been nearly or quite doubled in that 
 time. 
 
 The United States with a mild climate, fertile soil and 
 an abundance of territory were destined it seemed but for 
 these sectional troubles, soon to have taken the front 
 rank among the nations of the globe. Already we were 
 the second in a naval point of view. England was first 
 having I believe over 29,000 vessels. We were next 
 and I believe had over 21,000. 
 
 Is there any evidence that had all the Southern states 
 have seceded at that time (1850) that we should thus 
 have grown in wealth, power and greatness ? We might 
 and we might not. Itis atthe least problematical. Let us 
 not throw away a certainty for an uncertainty. A bird 
 in the hand is worth two in the bush. This rapid growth 
 in wealth, power and greatness was doubtless owing 
 to our institutions and system offree government under 
 which we lived, and when we break them up we don't 
 know where the thing will end. We may get it better 
 or we may get it worse, we can't tell. 
 
 Some may perhaps argue that we are all that we are, 
 or were rather at the beginning of these sectional trou- 
 
69 
 
 blcs, in spite of the general government. But I think 
 it far more probable, considering our short existence 
 as a nation, that we would never have attained to that 
 unrivalccd degree of National honor, prosperity and 
 greatnss, and from which we are now so fast waning, bnt 
 for our civil moral and religious institutions. 
 
 It is true, there is perhaps no equal part of the earth 
 with natural recources superior to ours. But how many 
 ages and centuries passed Before these capacities were 
 developed to reach this advanced stage of civilization. 
 These same hills rich in ore, same rivers glittering 
 with golden sands, these same valleys and plains, that 
 for fertility and beauty, would have compared favorably 
 with the most beautiful of oriental splendor, were as 
 they had been ever since they came from the hand of 
 the Creator. Uneducated and uncivilized man had 
 roamed over them for how long no history informs us. 
 It was only under our institutions that they could be 
 developed. Their development is the result of the 
 enterprise and indomitable energy of our people, under 
 the operation of the government and institutions under 
 which we have lived. Our people without these, in my 
 opinion, could never have done it. The organization 
 or institutions of a peoplejiave much to do with the 
 development of the natural resources of any land 
 or any Country. The institutions of a country political, 
 moral and religious, are the matrix in which the germ 
 of their organic stricture quickens into life, takes root 
 and develops in form, nature and character. Our in- 
 stitutions constitute the basis, the matrix from which 
 have sprung all our characteristics of development and 
 greatness. 
 
 But destroy our institutions and we thus take the first 
 step towards degredation and ruin. Yea we would 
 fall probably never to rise again. 
 
70 
 
 To show the comparative growth of the United States, 
 I will select here for a parallel the Spanish American 
 Hep ub lies. 
 
 Population of the United. States in 1809 was 6,000,000 
 
 " " " 1859, 30,000,000 
 
 Spanish American Republics, in 1809, 16,000,000 
 
 " " " 1859, 19,000,000 
 
 Value of exports from the U. S. 1809, $52,000,000 
 
 « " " 1859, $300,000,000 
 
 Spanish American republics 1859, $85,000,000 
 
 To prove the condition of these countries and to find 
 out what has always kept them at this low ebb, let us 
 cite an impartial witness. 
 
 A writer in the North British Review, speaking of 
 Uruguay, says: 
 
 The pastoral resources are very great, but civil war 
 and misrule have seriously retarded their development. 
 
 Of Chili, he says : its prosperity would go on advan- 
 cing were all the obstacles to emigration removed, and 
 the internal peace of the country thoroughly established. 
 
 And of the Argentine Confederation, he says : 
 
 It is painful to see how so magnificent a countiy has 
 been misgoverned. Either embroiled with neighbor- 
 ing Republics, or disturbed by intestine feuds, this vast 
 country has scarcely begun to develop her resources. 
 By the foregoing wo see that much of the prosperity of 
 a country depends on its government and its institu- 
 tutions. The natural resources of these countries are 
 probably as great if not greater than ours, but owing to 
 bad government and misrule, the vast resources of these 
 countries have never been developed and probably 
 never will be, unless there be a change in government. 
 
 We can probably learn a lesson from some of the 
 countries of Europe. Let us see. 
 
71 
 
 We will first look at Grcce. There is the same fertile 
 soil, the same blue sky, the same inlets and harbors, 
 the same ^Egean, the same Olympus ; there is the same 
 land where Homer sung, where Pericles spoke ; it is in 
 nature the same old Greece, but it is living Greece no 
 more. Descendants of the same people inhabit the land, 
 yet what is the reason of this mighty difference. In the 
 midst of present degradation we see the glorious frag- 
 ments of ancient works of art. Temples with ornam- 
 ments and inscriptions that excite wonder and admira- 
 tion, the remains of a once high order of civilization that 
 lias outlived the language they spoke. Upon them all 
 lchabod is writen. Theirglory has departed. This is but 
 the fruits of their forms of government. Why is this 
 so? I answer their institutions have been destroyed. 
 They were the matrix from which their grand develop- 
 ment sprung, and subsequently nourished them into 
 opulence and power. But when they were destroyed, 
 see how soon their once happy country fell into irrevo- 
 cable misery and ruin. And if our institutions here be 
 destroyed, there is in all probability no Herculean pow- 
 erthat can bring back the life givingspark to kindle them 
 into existence again any more than in that ancient land 
 of eloquence, poetry and song. 
 
 The same may he said of Italy. 
 
 Where is lionio, once the mistress of the world? 
 There arc the same seven hills now, the same soil, the 
 same natural resources, but what a ruin of human 
 greatness meets the eye of the traveller throughout the 
 length and breadth of that most down trodden land. 
 Why have not the people of that heaven-favored clime 
 the spirit that animated their fathers? "Why this sad 
 change'.'' lanswer, it is the destruction of her institutions 
 that has caused it. 
 
And now my countrymen, we are about pulling 
 down and destroying those institutions under which we 
 have grown so great, and which the patriotic band of 
 of our fathers labored so long and so hard to build up, 
 and which have done so much for us and for the world. 
 
 And should this war and sectional troubles continue 
 any length of time, and a complete overthrow of our 
 institutions take place, who is it that can venture the 
 prediction 1hat similar results will not follow here that 
 there did in those deluded ill fated countries. I hope 
 the spirit is yet among our people that will enable us 
 to avert such a direful calamity. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 FURTHER COMPARISON 
 
 Our great prosperity in a national point of view was 
 doubtless owing to our institutions and system of free- 
 government. And as we were making those rapid 
 strides, destined soon it seems, but for these sectional 
 troubles, to have taken the front rank among the na- 
 tions of the globe, how much faster did we want to go? 
 
 It is true our government though good, bad some 
 defects in it. It was with these defects probably the 
 best government on the globe. Nothing of human 
 origin is perfect. But should we not have stuck the 
 closer to our country in her trials, and have labored to 
 have remedied these defects, and not because a man, 
 whom some of us did not like, was elected to the Pre- 
 sidency, have deserted the government and left all in 
 the hands of the Northern people ? I think we should. 
 We have as good a right, I think to the government as 
 the North has, and I think instead of abandoning it and 
 
leaving- all in their hands that it was the time for us to 
 have stuck the closer to the government. Lincoln had 
 Bwornto preserve. protect and defend the constitution and 
 if he had have failed to "have done so, it was, I think, our 
 duty to have exercised our constitutional power over 
 him and have compelled him to have done so. 
 
 The United States before secession were esteemed 
 and respected abroad, and a vessel or an individual had 
 but to hail from the United States to have the hio-hest 
 
 O 
 
 respect and honor shown them. But how is it now ? 
 We arc doubtless looked upon by the Europeou Nations 
 with shame and disgust for this disgraceful war that 
 we are now in. Brother against Brother, Father 
 against Son, and Son against Father I may say. Such 
 a war would be a disgrace to a savage nation, let alone 
 to a people claiming in the highest degree to be enligh- 
 tened. 
 
 Our march was ouward and upward and, but for 
 these sectional troubles, we bid fair soon to have taken 
 the front rank among the nations of the globe, as before 
 stated. We had an abundance ofterritory of unsurpassed 
 fertility, a mild, salubrious climaie and every facility for 
 making us a great, happy and prosperous nation. 
 The whole area of the United States 
 
 embraced 2,936,166 sq. m'ls. 
 
 Of this tfeere were in the free states 612,957 * c 
 " " " " " " slave " 851,508 " 
 
 " " " " " " territories, 1,172,001 " 
 This immense tract of country is more than twenty - 
 iive times as large as England, Wales, Scotland and 
 Ireland all put together. The single state of Texas 
 contains territory enough to make two such countries 
 as would be composed jointly of these four, and there 
 would then be enough kit to make a State as large as 
 4 
 
74 
 
 Virginia, another as large as New Jersey and there would 
 yet be some left. 
 
 The joint population of these four countries is 26, 
 123,400 which is a fraction over 225 to the square mile. 
 "Were the whole United States settled that thickly in- 
 stead of a population of 30,000,000 we should have one 
 of over 662,000,000. Or were they settled as thickly as 
 Belgium, which I believe is the most densely populated 
 country on the globe, 326 to the square mile, instead of 
 having a population of 30,000,000 we would have 
 one of over 957,000,000. By these figures we may see 
 that the United States had only made a beginning to- 
 wards developing her vast resources. 
 
 The area of the Territories is considerably over twelve 
 times as large as those four countries taken together, 
 and yet upon all this immense track of country there 
 is only 92,298 inhabitants if we except the Indians, or 
 which is about one inhabitant for every sixteen square 
 miles. There is much of this land very fertile, some of 
 which, I have understood, will produce as much as forty 
 bushels of wheat per acre, and yet it remains there idle 
 and uncultivated, we having more than we can occupy. 
 These lands for a few years past have been settling 
 up very fast. Before this war commenced about 500,- 
 000 emigrants came annually from Europe, a large por- 
 tion of which settled in these Territories. 
 
 Some years ago Congress passed an act giving large 
 amounts of these lands as bounties to the soldiers of 
 the war of 1812 and Mexican Avar. About the time 
 these lands were being taken up by these soldiers, I 
 made a calculation to see how long it would take at that 
 rate to take them all up, and I found that it would take 
 a little over two hundred years. So under ordinary 
 circumstances it will, I presume, take considerably over 
 
two hundred years to take them all up, and even then 
 they would be but thinly settled. From this you can 
 draw some Idea of the vast extent of the old United 
 State.:. 
 
 The means of transportation were generally lacking 
 for developing this immense section of the west, and 
 so in January 1861, Congress, I believe, passed a bill 
 for two railroads to the Pacific Ocean, as follows: 
 ■ Northern Route, Northern prongto startfrom the 
 Iowa bolder. Southern prQ ng to start from a pointon 
 the Mi isouri border, they were to come together in 
 running ab, mi two hundred miles, arid were to run 
 thence for Sanfrarici 
 
 Southern Route.— Northern prong to start from fort, 
 Smith in Arkansas; Southern prong from a point oa 
 the western border of Louisiauna, They too, I believe 
 were to unite in running about two hundred miles, and 
 were to run thence l\u- Sanfran'ciseo. The roads were 
 to be linished in fifteen years. These loads finished 
 would have tended much towards developing this im- 
 mense section, and bringing these lands into market. 
 The CJnited States had but to speak a thing, as itwere, 
 and it tvas done. Can we east our eye into the future 
 and see what the United States were destined to have 
 been two or three hundred years hence, all things work- 
 ing together well. 
 
 But if the Iwo sections succeed in getting apart, is 
 there any certainty of these Paeitie railroads ever being 
 built. Or should they succeed in getting apart is there 
 any certainty that we will have but two Confederacies. 
 The two sections are now held together by this war, so 
 that there is now no time for subdividing, &c, but let 
 p sace be made and mind you if there do not other ques- 
 tions arise that will result in divisions. Some will 
 
70 
 
 want free trade, others a high tariff; sonic will be for 
 importing wild Africans, otners will oppose it, and 
 some will he for this thing, and some for that. And 
 there are the Territories too that will probably be a 
 fruitful source for dissensions. Lcfus therefore if pos- 
 sible avoid these divisions by sticking together and 
 laboring to remedy the defects in our government. 
 
 To prove that it is dangerous thus to split up and 
 divide, I refer the reader to Germany. After a thou- 
 sand years of destructive civil wars, did she come out 
 with only two or three Confederacies? I^o. She count- 
 ed upwards of three hundred distinct and independent 
 principalities, each one liable to be conquered by the 
 nearest despotic government that saw proper to do so. 
 And if this war should continue for any length of time 
 have we any assurance that these United States will not 
 eventually be split up into as many separate divisions 
 as was Germany. For we have a Territory a good ma- 
 ny times as large as Germany, and can therefore better 
 afford such a split. I will here remark that I examined 
 my map in order to tell how many times larger the 
 United States are than Germany. But I found the 
 country split up into so many small divisions, the sizes 
 of many of which were not given, so that I was not 
 able to make the calculation. We must therefore con- 
 tent ourselves by saying that the United States are a 
 great many times as large as Germany. But should 
 the United States be eventually divided into that many 
 separate divisions who is it that does not say in that 
 event, the country would be ruined. There would then 
 in all probabilit}- be no more rail roads built. Those 
 Pacific rail roads would probably never be built and 
 therefore much of our western territory lie unoccupied 
 and undeveloped for ages to come. Each military 
 
77 
 
 chieftain would probably start and head a taction. In- 
 ternal strifes would be common, and probably the peo- 
 pje here among us, at no distant day, get to cutting oft' 
 eac'b others heads. The cultivation of the soil would 
 be neglected ; because the people would know that if 
 they made .any thing, bands of robbers would -probably 
 take it away from them. Bands of such men would 
 probably be roving 'hrough the country for plunder. 
 No regard wh ate ver w o it 1 d be had for h u man 1 i fe . An d 
 under these circumstances, desolation and ruin would 
 soon over spread the? Jand. It seems impossible that 
 such should befall oar once happy country, but time, 
 the sword and internal dissensions will certainly accom- 
 plish the thing if the three hang together long enough* 
 Destroy our civil institutions and let all slip into the 
 hands of the military and we will soon sec where it 
 will end. We have the examples of Greece, Rome, the 
 Spanish American Republics, Mexico and others to 
 slook at, and when we are following exactly in the same 
 footsteps; wL.at better can we ]iope for if we thus keep 
 on ? They were by nature as wise and intelligent pro- 
 bably as we are. But they destroyed their civil and 
 moral institutions, and as a consequence fell into a state 
 of anarchy and ruin, from which it seems they can 
 never take a rise. Let us then change our course ere 
 we fall into the same deplorable condition, and the 
 canker worm, dissension, sap our institutions to the very 
 foundation. 
 
78 
 
 CHAPTER XIII, 
 PLAN OF ADJUSTMENT 
 
 I will now end this important subject after first giv- 
 ing ray opinion as to what I think we had best do un- 
 der these trying times. I am under the solemn convic- 
 tion my countrymen, for the reasons already given, and 
 for reasons that I will hereafter give, that the best thing 
 we can do under the circumstances — the best for our- 
 selves, for our country, and for the rising generation, 
 is to go back into the Union, under the old stars and 
 stripes, and there labor for a reconstruction of the gov- 
 ernment upon a basis such as shall be as endurable as 
 time itself. Let us not in a rash and evil hour throw 
 away that that cost our forefathers so much, and for 
 which they labored so long and so hard to build up. 
 Let us therefore cast aside the acts of the past, and if 
 possible join together, the Worth and the South, as er- 
 ring brothers in reconstructing this great and powerful 
 country, I think it will be to our interest so to do, both 
 for ourselves and for posterity, for time and for eter- 
 nity. Le us try the thing once more together, and 
 should time prove that we can't live well together, let 
 us then call a convention and separate peaceably, there 
 is no need of having fighting about it. 
 
 If we, the people of the North and South, separate by 
 force of arms, we may expect frequently to have con- 
 tentions that will probably result in wars. If they took 
 our servants when at peace, what will they do when the 
 sections become hostile, or rather have a lasting hostil- 
 ity towards each other? Take still more and give up 
 none will be about the way of it. The extieme South- 
 ern States would lose but very few if any by it, but the 
 
79 
 
 border Slave States all. The border States would thus 
 be acting as a shield and buckler to the more Southern. 
 
 This reminds me of a circumstance that took place with 
 
 Captain John Smith in the early settlement of Virginia. 
 Whilst out. hunting upon a certain occasion Smith 
 Was assailed by a party oi' two hundred Indians, who 
 poured upon him a. continual flight of arrows. He 
 seizing one of the assailants, tied Kim with his garter to 
 his arm and thus used him as a shield to arrest the darts 
 of the enemy. In tliis way the border slave States have 
 acted and will probably continue to act as a shield to 
 the more Southern, and it was thus being situated I 
 presume that caused them to be so fearless of the result 
 of secession. deuce their great desire to embark into it. 
 They knew that they had some one between them and 
 the lire as it were. It seems that they embarked into 
 "this secession move and from that to the war without 
 counting the cost. People commencing such a work 
 as this should, I think always count the cost to see 
 whether or not it will pay, and if they have sufficient 
 means to finish. As the Scriptures somewhere say. 
 
 "For which of you intendinding to build a tower siteth 
 not down first ami counteth the cost whether he have 
 sufficient to finish, lest happily after he hath laid the 
 foundation and is not able to finish, all that behold 
 it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build 
 and was not able to finsh." So of secession. Those 
 states that were so desirous of seceding before doimj so 
 should I think, first have had the best mathemati- 
 cians of the day engaged for weeks calculating to sec 
 whether or not such a course would pay. 
 
 All I think will now doubtless admit, that thus far we 
 have lost a great deal more by secession and the war 
 than we have gained by them, and there is aprobabiiity 
 
so 
 
 if this war continue any length of time of still losing a 
 great deaf more, both in property and lives, making 
 our condition a great deal worse than what it now is 
 or ever has been — irrevocably bad. 
 
 I wish here to introduce our young friend Charley and 
 finish the comparison that I was making between him 
 and the seceded states when we last dismissed him. 
 
 We saw that he was in water in which he could not 
 swim; that he was using great exertions and thereby 
 exhausting himself; thathe wasalso in the act of drown- 
 ing and but for timely aid, and a restoration to his natu- 
 ral element, land, that he soon would have drowned. 
 
 So with these states that have seceded. It is evident 
 that their conditions is growing worse every day. But 
 still they hang on to this watery clement, that I may term 
 it into which they have plunged. So why hang on in 
 this way when it is evident that we will drown as a na- 
 tion in another twelve month, unless we learn this 
 great art — swimming — and thus cross over this difficult 
 stream, unto which we have committed ourselves. And 
 how can we learn when there are persons continually 
 discharging missiles at us whilst thus in the water? 
 They are willing to help us out, but because we won't 
 consent to come out they are throwing every obsticable 
 that they possibly can in our way to make our swimming 
 still more difficult, and thus force us to come out. Now I 
 think we have tried it in this new element long enough 
 to find out that we can't swim whilst this other party is 
 so busily engaged discharging missiles at us and using 
 their utmost exertions to frustrate our designs, and are 
 determined it seems, if possible, either to destroy us, or 
 Qompell us to forsake this new element. I therefore 
 think we had best consent to go out on ouii natural 
 element, land, and try it there again once more, for we 
 
have, like Charley, exerted ourselves to such a degree 
 in this watery clement, that P now have ho idea, that we 
 could walk as well upon laud as wo did be lore, even 
 Were we now upon it. A half loaf though is better 
 than no bread andbettcr in ray opinion go-maimed than 
 not go at all. We have already expended much treas- 
 ure in this new element as well as lost many valuable 
 lives. And though wo can't now walk so well upon 
 1 md as we could before embarking in this now clement 
 the probability is, that by some rest and rubl dug down 
 and anointing, that the remainder of us would soon get 
 so as to he able to walk pretty tolerably well. Let us 
 therefore go out and stay out at least long enough to 
 maker an agreement with this other party that should j 
 we conclude to try this new element again, that they < 
 will not discharge any missiles at us whilst in the water, o 
 but let us depart in peace. o 
 
 Under all these, considerations, I think it will be best ^ 
 to go back into the UnioWand try it there onee more. ^ 
 If we could use any means to get those large armies g 
 disbanded and return home, it would then I presume,' p 
 be hard to get them in the field again, both the North a 
 
 era 
 
 and the South. c 
 
 This generation now knows something of war, and g 
 if they ever get out of the one that they are now in, £ 
 they will I presume take more pains in the future to « 
 avoid a Avar. - c 
 
 Notwithstanding history was open to us and described 
 the many hardships, privations and sufferings that our 
 forefathers endured to achieve our liberties, how they 
 even marched over frozen ground barefooted, and left 
 their footprints behind, stained with blood that ran 
 from their bleeding feet, yet it would not alldo for this 
 generation. They had to learn a lesson by practical 
 
82 
 
 experience: Wars, I think are frequently looked on 
 too much as a frolic. Many persons, I think, and par- 
 ticularly inexperienced youths, frequently draw vivid 
 hopes of earthly honor and glory to be won on a battle 
 field, which are never realized, and instead thereof they 
 frequently experience hardships, suffering and some- 
 times death. The glory that one can win on a battle 
 field, I think, rightly considered, is of but short duration. 
 We should not be too ready to go to war. See 40. 
 
 Do you suppose our forefathers, had they have been 
 here^ would have disrupted the Union for the causes 
 that existed at the beginning of our sectional troubles? 
 No never, never. A voice from our dead that had fall- 
 en in the achievement pf our liberties, and who now lay 
 mouldering in a common gravo,would have come up be- 
 fore them saying, down with your seisms and divisions. 
 It is not for this that we fought, bled and died. Keep 
 united and you will be a great, prosperous and happy 
 people. 
 
 Therefore, I think we had best go back into the old 
 
 Union and try it there under the stars and stripes once 
 
 more. It may be bad if we go back, we don't doubt 
 
 that at all. In all probability it will be a great deal 
 
 worse with us for many years to come, whether we go 
 
 back in the Union or not, than it would have been had 
 
 we not seceded ; but we now can't help this. The two 
 
 evils are now upon us. Some people it seems could 
 
 not be satisfied until the}- brought them upon us, and 
 
 we must now get out of them the best way we can. 
 
 Though it be bad for us to go back into the Union, it 
 
 may still be a great deal worse for us not to go back ; 
 
 so of the two evils, let us choose the Jess. " How lonsr 
 
 -I 
 
 halt ye between two opinions." 
 
 Some may argue that it will not do to go back in the 
 
bo 
 
 Union ; that the North Will make us pay all the ex- 
 penses. I will here remark that I consider (me human 
 life alone worth more than all the property in the 
 Northern and Southern States; our first objeet should 
 therefore be to save human life as much as possible. I 
 therefore think it a. bad plan to estimate the value of 
 human life by dollars and cents. But do we know that 
 the North would thus be foroiir paying all the expense 
 By settling the difficulty by a compromise the business 
 may probably be arranged in quite a different Way — 
 perhaps by each party paying their own cost, or else In- 
 casting both debts together and making one immense 
 national debt of the two, but if we have to be driven 
 back, I then don't know how it may be. I therefore 
 think the sooner "a, compromise is struck for the better. 
 
 We have, I presume public lands. enough in the Uni- 
 ted States if sold at a lair value to nearly or quite pay 
 the public debt. But just think of it, should our lands 
 even pay this debt, that we will then have expended in 
 this war a. sum as large, as a. fertile country more than 
 twelve times as large as Engfand, "Wales, Scotland and 
 Ireland all put together, will sell tor. 
 
 AVu have public lands enough in the territories at the 
 low price of two dollars per acre to amount to the as- 
 tounding sum ol $1,884,238,080. That with what we 
 have in the State of Florida, together with that in other 
 new States would, I presume swell the amouni to quite 
 !O0 y 000,G 
 
 There is much of these lands worth instead of two 
 dollars, more than twenty dollars per acre; some oi 
 which I have understood will produce forty bushels of 
 wheat, per acre. 
 
 How then will we e any of these lands or the 
 
 proceeds itsclfunlcis wc go back into the Union ? The 
 
84 
 
 North being vastly superior as to numbers we would 
 stand but a bad chance to undertake to fight them out 
 of them. 
 
 Although the people at the North have said and done 
 a great deal to keep slavery out of the Territories, they 
 had not as yet I believe, done any thing to keep us from 
 receiving our distributive share of the proceeds arising 
 from the sale of these lands. We will say that w t c were 
 likely not to get our rights in the Territories, that is, 
 not permitted to carry our servants there and settle, we 
 got our distributive share of the money arising from the 
 sale of these lands, and as for territory we already had 
 enough of that to do ourselves and servants too for 
 many generations to come ; yes we will say for thou- 
 sands of years to come. Then why be so ready to cre- 
 ate a disturbance about that that we can never enjoy. 
 But I am not for thus easily surrendering our rights to 
 these lands. I think a -fair way to divide these lands 
 would be to do so according to the ratio of population 
 between the North and the South and according to the 
 area of laud now embraced in each section. In order 
 that I may be understood I will endeavor to make this 
 some plainer. We will put down the population ol'the 
 Nort at 20,000,000 ; that of the South at 10,000,000. 
 The area of the Northern States embrace 612,597 square 
 miles, or 392,062,080 acres. This divided by 20,000,- 
 000, will give nearly twenty acres to each inhabitant at 
 the North] 
 
 The area of the Southern States embrace 851,508 
 square miles, or 511,965,120 acres. This divided by 
 10,000,000 will give a little over fifty-four acres to each 
 inhabitant at the South. So before dividing the Terri- 
 tories the North should, I think be made up, or have 
 thirty-four acres thrown in to each inhabitant, so as to 
 

 make her count fifty-foiir acres of land to each inhabi- 
 Yitit. Then divide the l)alance according to popula- 
 tion, which would be to give the !N T orth two acres and 
 the South one. Let us see how this calculation will 
 figure. 20,000,000 people to have each thirty- four acres 
 of land, to make them equal to the South, will amount 
 to 686,000,00.0 acres, or 1,002,500 square miles, this 
 amount taken from 1,492,061 square miles— what is 
 embraced in the Territories, will leave 409,561 square 
 miles to be divided between the Xorth and the South. 
 One third of this is 136,520 square miles— the portion 
 of the South— nearly three times as large as Xorth Car- 
 olina. If we could get a country of that size out of the 
 Territories to carry our servants to and settle, or in 
 other word,', if we could add three States of about the 
 size of Xorth Carolina to the slave States, and then get 
 our distributive share of the proceeds arising from the 
 sale of the balance of these lands, I think we could then 
 afford to settle the territorial question. 
 
 But it may bo argued that this division should he 
 made according to the ratio of population soon after the 
 revolution, that these Territories were then common 
 property, and that we should not wait this long until 
 the Northern States have beensettled up largely by for- 
 eigners, and has thus given them a great advantage 
 over us if we now divide according to the ratio of pop- 
 ulation. I will admit that there is some feasibility in 
 such an argument. But at the same time wc do not 
 need all the Territory that would thus acrue to us, to 
 carry our servants to. And I do not see any use in 
 acting the dog in the manger. We can't occupy and 
 settle these lands ourselves and I see no use in placing 
 an impediment in the way to keep others from settling 
 them. This Coutineiit may have been intended by the 
 
86 
 
 All wise Creator for the purpose for which it now seems 
 to be so well adapted— an asylum for the crowded and 
 miserably poor of the Eastern Continent, and I therefore 
 think we should not 'throw any obstacles in the way of 
 its settlement. Our forefathers sought an asylum here 
 where they might rest at ease, and I now think we 
 should extend the same hand of fellowship to our fel- 
 low man. 
 
 As the Northern States, owing to the tide of emigra- 
 tion have increased in numbers mnch faster than we 
 have, there is a probability of their eventually wanting 
 more Territory upon which to settle, or wanting it at 
 least in proportion to their present numbers. 
 
 But it may be argued that these lands should be di- 
 vided according to the Federal population soon after 
 the close of the revolution, and had we have chosen to 
 • make free States of a portion of them we could do so, 
 but let the proceeds thereof come exclusively to the 
 Southern States. This would have been fair had Ihc 
 division been made soon after that time, but flic way 
 it now is, I don't know if it would not be as fair, taking 
 every thi'nginto consideration, to divide them according 
 to Federal population after the plan mentioned, and the 
 proceeds thereof in the same way, or apply them to the 
 expenses of general govornment, the way they have 
 a-enerallv been applied. 
 
 " If we thus had enough of these Territories laid off to 
 make three such States as Forth Carolina, the portion 
 of these Territories that would then fall to the Forth, 
 though nearly ten times as large as ours, would in all 
 probability be settled up first. I don't think it any ad- 
 vantage either to the slaves, or slave holders to scatte* 
 them over so much country— but rather the reverse. 
 Therefore, I thiuk if we could get enough of these Ter- 
 
8^ 
 
 ritories to make three States about the size of North 
 Carolina, or more exactly 136,520 square miles, ami 
 then get our distributive share of the proceeds of the 
 balance that this part of the question would bo settled 
 fairly and equitably, I can't see how it is any worse 
 for a servant to cultivate an aero of laud in those Ter- 
 ritories than it is in any other part of the Southern or 
 United States, and while such a course does not propose 
 to increase the number of servants, I can't tell how; it 
 can increase the evil. As this territorial question is one 
 fraught with so many troubles and dangers to our well 
 being, I think it should be settled and settled forever; 
 either by running a line east and vest, and giv« the 
 South the Southern portion, or should the North object 
 to thus dividiwgit, and giving to the south all the South- 
 ern portion, run the line north and sooth so as to give to 
 each section a variety of climate. Establish this line 
 either east and west, or north and south, as the case may 
 be, and let it be done permanently. Have no more 
 voting upon it. 
 
 At these elections when a State is to be admitted in- 
 to the Union with or without slavery, as the people 
 may <i;iy, there is always too much excitement at thorn, 
 too apt to be blood spilt. But have the territories di- 
 vided so that if any one is desirous of removing to them 
 with his servants, he knows where to go — and if he is 
 desirous ofgoing to a free State he also knows where to 
 go ? Fixed in this way, the North would then have some 
 the advantage, because one can come from the free 
 States and settle and live in a slave State just as well 
 as ii ho had come from a slave State, and if be is after- 
 wards desirous of doing so, he can buy servants and 
 live there with the same privileges as though he had 
 been a Southern man out and out. But if a Southern 
 
88 
 
 man goes to a free State, he has to leave his servants, 
 if he has any, behind. In this the Xorth lias some the 
 advantage, but let us not. fall out about that. There is 
 no needot falling out about it, for both sections would 
 then have territory enough to do them for thousands 
 and thousands of years to come. In order to show our 
 greedy disposition, I will use the following illustra- 
 tions : You may offer a child an apple, he will take it 
 in his hand; offer him another, he will take that in the 
 other hand ; offer him a third and having no place for 
 it, he will commence crying about it. So with us 
 about our public lands. We already have about as 
 much as we can occupy, and there still being a large 
 amount unoccupied, we must have a great contention 
 about that, when the probability is that they will not 
 be occupied for many generations to come. I don't, 
 though advise being prodigal with these lands because 
 we have a super-abundance of them, hut I think the 
 fact that there is such a vast amount of them, should 
 induce each party to yield so as to settle the ter- 
 ritorial question fairly and peaceably, and without 
 any disturbance. Each party would then, I think, 
 have as much land as they would ever know what to do 
 with. This I think would be a fair plan to settle upon, 
 fair and just to both parties, I may say. Because at 
 the formation of the Constitution of the United States, 
 there were but thirteen States, twelve of which were 
 slave holding. In time the people of the ISTorthern 
 States sold their servants to the people of the Southern 
 States. Even Connecticut tolerated slavery as late as 
 the year 1840. The territories were then joint stock, 
 and I can't see why the people of the Southern States 
 should forfeit their right to settle in these territories 
 merely because they bought the servants of the north- 
 ern people. 
 
89 
 
 The institution of slavery has now got a foothold with 
 ns and I now don't know what better we can do with 
 them than to keep them and treat them well, and if it 
 be wrong let it between us and our God. If it be wrong 
 I presume the people fit the north will have a portion 
 of the sin to answer for, because they sold theirs into 
 bondage. I Will here remark before quitting this sub. 
 ject that I am very desirous of seeing laws passed for 
 the general good treatment of servants in order that 
 neither the north, nor any one else, can have ought to 
 say against us concerning that matter. I have reasons 
 for speaking as I have respecting the treatment of ser- 
 vants, which I will make known at the proper place. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 PLAN OF ADJUSTMENT CONTINUED. 
 
 THE RIGHTEOUS SHOULD HULE. 
 
 Should it eventually turn out that the Southern Con- 
 federacy will stand, or that the seceded States will have 
 to go back into the Union, I think in either case, it 
 should be put into the Constitution that, none but reli- 
 gious, pious persons should be eligible to office from 
 that of Clerk and Sheriff up to the President of the 
 United States. There is no irreligious man that will 
 make a good ofiicer who would not make a better one 
 were he a professor of religion. The Bible, I think 
 says, " When the wicked rule the people mourn, but 
 when the righteous rule the people rejoice." The Bible 
 I think gives conclusive evidence that righteous persons 
 make the best rulers. God, that made the world can, 
 I think, best govern it, and that a righteous person 
 
90 
 
 comes nearer being a vicegerent of God than a wicked 
 persofc is evident. 
 
 A wicked man is scarcely lit to govern a family, let 
 alone a nation of people. He lacks that calmness and 
 serenity of temper which bears him up in the hour of 
 trial and trouble. 
 
 Religion to a man is what the regulator is to a steam 
 engine, it causes him to take an even and a regular 
 course, through life — like a ship at sea in time of a storm. . 
 She does not mount upon every waveas a frail lightbark 
 would do, but plows through them and thus keeps on 
 an even and direct course. The ship having ballast 
 enables her to do thus. Religion then to a man is what 
 ballast is to a ship, it causes him to lake an even course 
 through life's uneven way. Religious persons will evi- 
 dently make the best officers, but how often do we see 
 the wicked thrust into power as it were, when the 
 more modest, less assuming and more religious are left 
 out. 
 
 Some may object to thus mixing state and clergy; 
 but suppose all the people throughout the land were 
 righteous. That we had no wicked persons from which 
 to select our politicians, and as a consequence none but 
 religious persons were elected to office, don't you think 
 we would soon have very different times from what we 
 havehad? If we had had such mentofill our offices for the 
 last fifty years, we would not now, I presume have this 
 horrible civil war upon us. If all persons were religious 
 we should not now, I presume have any use for those 
 large guns and other munitions of war now being made 
 and used with which to destroy the lives of our tellow 
 man. We have plenty of room for them all for many 
 generations to come. ISTo need of killing up any. When 
 we consider the large number Of human beings slain in 
 
91 
 
 wars and that otherwise die, we may truly say that wars 
 arc deplorable evils. Oar yatfng numfboth sections) 
 hkd better in my opinion prepare to iill some useful 
 station in life, to administer aid and comfort to their 
 afflicted follow man, and wait God's own appointed time 
 to die, than thus needlessly to throw away their lives in 
 wicked wars. Are our soldiers that fall in battle pre- 
 pared for this great change ? They should remember 
 that in the next world they have an eternity to live 
 Being slain in battle alone is not going to save them, 
 though they be upon the right side. They must lirst, 
 have been born again, and have faith in Jesus Christ, 
 before they may expect to reap the joys of another 
 world. 
 
 As has been already remarked :i truly pious ruler ap- 
 proaches nearer a vicegerent of Cod, than any other 
 person we can possibly select, and that government in 
 the hands of such men approaches nearest a Theocracy, 
 such as was before king Saul commenced (o reign, is 
 also evident, Then let ns approximate a Theocracy as 
 near as possible by making our officers and rulers ex- 
 clusively of pious men. 
 
 There is probably no position in our country that 
 calls for good pious men more, or that needs their ser- 
 vices worse, than does the various offices of our countrv, 
 from that of Clerk, Sheriff, &c., up to the Presidency of 
 the Unite 1 States. And whether we succeed in build- 
 ing up this Southern Confederacy, or whether we go 
 back to the old Union, let us do this thing — put onlv 
 good pious m e n a t the head of government affairs, and 
 put it in the Constitution '-that none others bnt such 
 shall be put there." I will here remark that it should 
 not be men of superficial piety only that should hold 
 the offices of our country, but the genuine professors— 
 
92 
 
 men who have hud then hearts changed. Our 7 govern 
 ment placed in the hands of such men, I think, would 
 stand the shock of ages, and until this be done, I don't 
 think we can ever have a remanent governtment. I 
 think it is already clearly cuough demonstrated that 
 the wicked are incapable of self government without 
 ever trying that experiment again. 
 
 But the good effect, that elevating exclusively to the 
 offices of our country, pious men is not the only good 
 effect that such a course, I think, would have. Religion 
 would be encouraged, and by this means the good ti- 
 dings of great joy would probably soon be proclaimed 
 with a more saving effect throughout the length and 
 breadth of our entire land, and the gladsome news, that 
 the dead is alivs, the lost is found, be thus sent home 
 to the heart of many a poor sinner. A great part of 
 our sinful population might thusprobabysoonbe brought 
 " their Redeemer to know. ' ' Joy would then spring up 
 in every corner of the land, and peace and contentment 
 reign throughout the entire length and breadth thereof. 
 You will please pardon me for saying here, that I 
 believe such a course as the above would have a great 
 effect on religion; that it would probably cause many 
 persons to become professors who never do, because I 
 don't think religion would then be viewed in the per- 
 secuted light in which it is now generally viewed; there 
 w T ould be niore inducements to seek after it, (pardon me' 
 here) and we have the promise that those that seek 
 shall find, and after finding their great regret is that 
 they had not sought and obtained sooner. Having 
 somewhat digressed from the subject, I will now return 
 to it again. 
 
 I will now soon end this important subject, afterfirst 
 summing up what I conceive to be a fair basis for the 
 
&3 
 
 North and South to settle upon, I herewith submit it. 
 1 Let the South pass laws forth© bettor treatment jof 
 
 servants according to the plan already given. 
 
 - Let the North repeal those personal libeity hills. 
 
 3 Establish the Missouri (Compromise line, or some 
 other line as already mentioned and thus give the South 
 equal rights in the Territories'; 
 
 4 Respect the fugitive slave law. 
 
 5 Let the South pass laws such as would protect her 
 manufacturing interest according to plan already given. 
 
 Insert in the Constitution that none hut pious, re- 
 ligion* persons should be eligible to Office. 
 
 7 Let all go back into the Union and bo good clever 
 fellows, and let the experience of the past be a lesson 
 for the future. 
 
 8 Permit all to come back to the Union with the 
 rights and privileges of citizens as though there had 
 been no war. Let there be no farther sacrifice of life 
 or property on either side. 
 
 !• As regards the expenses of the war, let each side 
 pay its own expense, or else cast both debts together 
 and make a joint National debt. 
 
 Before gutting this important subject, I must urge 
 once more upon my Southern brethren the importance 
 of putting a stop to this cruel war by going hack into 
 the Union. I do 80 through love-and veneration for 
 them, believing it, under the circumstances, the best 
 thing that we can now do, and I think 1 have a right 
 to know some of tie-.' things, which I will relate at 
 the proper place. I desire to see no farther sacrifice of 
 human life, neither on the part of tie 1 North nor the 
 South. If this wa* should continue any length of time, 
 there is a probability of the mortality caused by it, 
 e pialing. if not exceeding, that of the French revolu- 
 
94 
 
 tion. During that terrible civil war, there were over 
 1,000,000 human beings slain, over 1,800 of which were 
 beheaded with the guillotine, (a machine for the pur- 
 pose, that cuts oft' a head at a single stroke.) 
 
 I will here remark, that the population of France 
 and that of the United States is about equal, both be- 
 ing about 30,000,000. Should we lose a million of men 
 in this terrible struggle, mostly the youth of our coun- 
 try, what a dreadful calamity it would be ! And as re- 
 gards futurity, we may, perhaps, say thousands of mil- 
 lions. Of all wars, civil wars are the most disastrous and 
 destructive, both to property and human life; because 
 each side is apt to put forth its entire strength. At the 
 rates that our men (North and South) are now falling, 
 it will not take long, I presume, for its victims to reach 
 even a million. Let us, therefore, hope that our diffi- 
 culties will soon be settled and the evils of war be re- 
 moved from this once happy country. 
 
 There may be an objection raised to going back into 
 the Union, for the reason that the North will probably 
 be for making us pay the expenses of this war, and 
 will also persecute our citizens. I though don't believe 
 there is any foundation for either of these suppositions. 
 The Democratic party is now largely in the majority at 
 the North and the prospect of things appears to be very 
 unfavorable for such a supposition as the above, for 
 within the last ten months the Democratic party to the 
 North has held State Conventions and nomiinated full 
 democratic tickets in every free State in the Union. 
 
 To prove that this great party is also conservative, 
 and advocates the war on the part of the Federal gov- 
 ernment, rcerely for restoring all to the Union again, 
 with equal rights and privileges, I refer the reader to 
 the following extract of an* address issued by fourteen 
 
95 
 
 prominent. Democratic members of the Federal Con* 
 gress, and which yon may find in the North Carolina 
 Standard of June Htti; 1862. 
 
 11 We scorn to reply to the charge that the Democratic 
 party is opposed to granting aid and support to the 
 federal Government in maintaining its safety, integrity 
 tyaud Constitutional supremacy, and in favor of dis- 
 banding our armies and suocorabing to the South. The 
 charge is libelous and false. No man has advocated a-ny 
 such proposition. Democrats recognise it as their duty 
 as patriots to support the government in all its constitu- 
 tional, necessary and proper efforts to maintain its safe- 
 ty, integrity and constitutional authority; but at the 
 same time they are inflexibly opposed to waging a war 
 against any o{' the states or people of this Union in any 
 spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or 
 subjugatioiij or of overthrowing or interfering with the 
 rights or established institutions of any state. Above 
 all, the democratic party will not support the adminis- 
 tration in any thing which looks or tends to theloss of 
 our political or personal rights and liberties, or a change 
 o#our present demOcratical form of government." 
 
 I have another reason for advocating that the seceded 
 states had best go back into the Union and that, is that 
 1 don't believe this Southern Confederacy can stand, 
 and that therefore the sooner we go back the better it 
 will be for us, and the less the loss both in lives and 
 property. I have two reasons for thus believing, one 
 of which I will give here, or they may I suppose, 1 e 
 sumed up pretty much in one, the main body of them 
 I will give hero, but the why and wherefore, I will re- 
 tain for another plaee. 
 
 '. T think been shown that any of tl 
 holders at the couth may at any time with impunity 
 
§6 
 
 and some of tliera have acted what should have been 
 unconstitutional in the treatment of their servants. 
 The offense of mistreatment of servants being of longer 
 standing or of more ancient date than those personal 
 liberty bills detracts, I think, from the offensiveness of 
 the latter; these offences then in my opinion about bal- 
 ance. So the south, I think should not have kicked 
 up such a dust at these personal liberty bills, until they 
 themselves had passed some better laws for the treat- 
 ment of servants, and as this great reform for their bet- 
 ter treatment has not yet been made by law, and as this 
 great fuss and disturbance arose principally about them, 
 and taking also into consideration the many unjust 
 means that were resorted to, to bring on general seces- 
 sion — such as lying telegrams, &c. I am inclined to 
 think that this Southern Confederacy can't long stand 
 upon its present foundation. 
 
 I was about to close my remarks without citing to 
 Henry Clay on secession, a true patriot and lover of 
 his country, and a man whose worth was not fully ap- 
 preciated until after he was gone ; and though we may 
 not have dealt with him justly in every respect -whilst 
 he w T as with us, it is now too late — he is gone. This 
 circumstance reminds me of a story of a little boy that 
 I once read, who, one night after he had gone to bed, 
 commenced crying. His father asked him what was 
 the matter. Why says he, I recollect upon a certain 
 occasion that my little brother Jimmy wanted my top 
 to play with and I would not let him have it, now he is 
 dead and I can't, and the thought of it filled the little 
 fellow's soul with anguish. So of-our sage and hero 
 whether or not we dealt justly with him whilst among 
 us, it is now too late to amend as to that — he is gone. 
 But he has left us his advice upon this all important 
 ubject. Let us see what it is. See 41. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SUDDEN CALL OF GOD AND PROFESSION OF 
 RELIGION. 
 
 My main reasons for believing that this Southern 
 Confederacy can't lcnig stand upon its present founda- 
 tion, are founded in a profession of religion, or in things 
 that were made known to me above fourteen years ago, 
 and it is what I then experienced that has caused me 
 to attempt to write the present work. And though. 
 there be many things that happened to me at that time 
 that will appear strange to the reader, they are never- 
 theless true to a pins point, as nigh as I am able to re- 
 late them, and I don't think I can be mistaken in any 
 thing, because there was too much power attending 
 their visitation. The visions, revelations, &c, that then 
 appeared unto me, I look upon as the plainest of all 
 things that have taken place during my lite, and though, 
 above fourteen years ago, I recollect them with the 
 greatest accuracy, and don't think I have forgotten 
 scarcely a jot since. 
 
 In order that I may be understood, I will begin back 
 at the beginning and mention probably some of the 
 producing causes. With these introductory remarks, 
 I herewith submit the principal part of these visions 
 and revelations. 
 
 In the spring of 1848, I was going to school at Car- 
 thage, X. C. I have been both the diligent the neg- 
 lectful student. During my first schooling I was toler 
 ably apt until I learned Grammar, Geography and 
 Arithmetic. I was then put to Latin, Greek and Ge- 
 ometry. Not having much relish for these studies, 
 particularly the two former, I was dragging in my class 
 5i 
 
m 
 
 for a year or so. At length a circumstance occurred 
 that in no small degree tended to .spur me up in nay 
 studies. It was this. Our excellent tutor, Rev. A. C. 
 McJSTeill, talked of quitting the school at Carthage after 
 the close of the then present session, and going to South 
 Carolina to teach there. I then began seriously to re- 
 flect on the thing, thinking that after the close of the 
 present session, my opportunities *for learning might 
 probably be wound up. The consequence was, I ap- 
 plied myself diligently to my studies. Difficulties be- 
 gan to vanish, and I was. soon making line progress, in 
 my studies. Such a spirit seemed generally to have 
 pervaded the school; all the schollars appeared to learn 
 faster. I had passed from a state of gloomy despon- 
 dency to one of constant delight. I attended closely to 
 my studies, and when I went to recite I generally un- 
 derstood my lessons well, so much so that our excellent* 
 assistant tutor, Mr. Archibald Ray, wished to increase 
 my Latin lesson. I was then getting a page of a night, 
 and could, read it almost as fluently as English ; but I- 
 was conscious that he was not aware of the immense 
 study that it took to get it in that fix, and so objected 
 to it. 
 
 I kept two slates, one at my room, the other at 
 the school room, and was practicing writing to a con- 
 siderable extent, with which to learn these studies, and 
 I thought, with marked benefit too. I had studied to 
 such a degree and pleased with the progress that I was 
 making, that I got so that I could not sleep well of a 
 night, or at least not well in the forepart of the nightj 
 I would thus lay awake probably an hour or so think- 
 - ing on some difficulty in my studies. My mind was 
 . continually goii g. All was pleasure and contentment, 
 or at least, it was rather a pleasure than a burden tome 
 
99 
 
 to skidy. Many times I would thus hi}- down at night 
 and when I would arise in the morning I would know 
 more about my studies than when I lay down. Upon 
 one occasion feeling somewhat wearied, I went dp in* 
 my room alter dinner and. lay down, thinking I would 
 rest a little while, I soon dropped off to sleep and when 
 1 awoke the school boys were returning from school. 
 About this time I became ardently attached to a young 
 lady. Each day seemed like n y attachment was 
 stronger. AltHo«^h 1 had never broached the subject 
 to her, I had resolved to do so at an early day. Cir- 
 cumstances though turned up so as to decree things 
 othei wise. \i v attachment though for her was so strong 
 that J loved her for years alter she was married. I am 
 therefore an advocate of early marriages, although I 
 have not practiced it myself. 
 
 Well, feeling somewhat burdened .with m}' studies, 
 I resolved going up home and spending a i'cw days 
 fishhig with a hook and line, an exercise of which I^was 
 very fond ; I accordingly went up on "Wednesday or 
 Thursday, intending to return to my school again on 
 Sunday. 1 then lacked one day of being eighteen 
 years old. I remarked to a friend at Carthage, before 
 leaving, that w ' to-day I can't muster, but to-morrow I 
 can," meaning that I would then be eighteen years old. 
 Little did I think what would take place before that 
 time should arrive. 
 
 I will here remark that the Friday after I left was 
 Composition day, it being a custom of the school to 
 write and hand in one every two weeks. 1 had ac- 
 cordingly written mine and sent it in the day J left by 
 one of the students. Whether or not it could be con- 
 sidered a good one, it was one upon which I had be- 
 stowed a good deal of labor. 1 closed it with the first 
 
100 
 
 three or four verses of the xiv. chap, of St. John. "Well, - 
 that evening I went on home and got there about dusk. 
 During the evening I had a good deal of conversation 
 with ray father and step-mother. 
 
 After a while bed time came on and I went up stairs 
 to bed by myself. My two brothers and step-brother 
 had gone a fishing — striking with a torch and gig. 
 "Well, soon after laying down I commenced studying 
 on another composition that I intended writing out by 
 our next composition day. I was going to describe a 
 battle between Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, 
 and the God of heaven. I had before given this subject 
 much study, and was now studying on it with great in- 
 tensity of mind. I had it about ready for the pen, so 
 that when I went to write it I would have had but little 
 to do more than write it off as fast as I could write. It 
 was to be an serial battle, or one fought in the air, and 
 in substance pretty much as follows : 
 
 All the powers of hell were, to be mustered against 
 those of heaven. It was to be a decisive battle. If 
 Pluto and his army whipped there would be no more 
 heaven, and if God and his army whipped there would 
 be no more hell. God and his army were to be moun- 
 ted on white steeds, clad in white apparel, with scarlet 
 caps and a bright star in front. Pluto and his army 
 were to be mounted on black steeds, clad in black ap- 
 parel, and to have the appearance of death. Both ar- 
 mies being ready at a given signal they strike a 
 lope to join battle. They soon join. The battle now 
 rages fierce and heavy, and nothing can be heard but 
 the loud clanking and jarring of warlike instruments 
 and the fruitless cries on the side of Pluto and his men 
 for mercy. The battle rages still fiercer and heavier, 
 and there is a prospect of Pluto and his men soon being 
 
101 
 
 utterly discomfited and 'his power forever overthrown.' 
 At this moment God in person attacks Pluto and suc- 
 ceeds in unhorsing him. lie then dismounts to uso 
 him up with his sword. 
 
 As I was about this point, my mind intensely enga- 
 ged with the closing scenes of the imaginary battle, all 
 at once a light flashed across the top of the room just 
 like lightning. The streams appeared to be about two 
 or three inches across and two or three in number. In' 
 a second or so after the first flash, it flashed a second 
 time. It was, according to my recollection, perfectly 
 fair, or at least I have no idea that this lightning came 
 from a cloud. In a second or so after the second flash 
 I saw an Image stand before me, the brightest thing 
 that I had ever seen in all my life. I saw it when it was 
 about two feet high and it keptgettinghigher and high- 
 er until it got to be about the size of a man. I had 
 never seen anything that would begin to compare with it 
 for brightness. I not expecting to see any such a thing 
 was frightened, and thinking of Moses, veiled my face 
 unable to behold the glory thereof. In a few seconds 
 there was an influence that moved over me, Such as 
 dispeled this fear. I then uncovered my face and 
 would have been glad to have seen this bright Image, 
 or rather perhaps person of God, again, but it was gone. 
 From the first though, I felt as if it was no common 
 work that was upon me. I now heard an alarm watch, 
 such as I had frequently heard belonging to Capt. Daniel 
 Mclvcthan ; this was the only watch that I ever re- 
 collect seeing that would give an alarm at a desired 
 hour ; it made a noise more like the sin^insr of a rattle- 
 snake than anything I can compare it to. The noise 
 that I now heard seemed to be exactly like that, so 
 much so that it appeared the two could not have been 
 
102 
 
 told apart. It was made known to me what it was for 
 — to alarm me that time was n:ar, or precious, and I 
 should be a doing;. 
 
 I next heard a popping and a burning as of a great fire. 
 I could distinctly hear the singing of twigs or thistles 
 as plainly as I ever heard them in a new ground when 
 on fire— such as sing out of brush heaps. There were 
 next some things made known to me not necessary to 
 mention here, I therefore omit them. 
 
 I felt a weight on my breast as if there had been a 
 fifty pound weight there ; this I suppose was sin, audi 
 believe began by degrees to be removed. 
 
 God now began to make known to me my duty or 
 things that he wished me to accomplish. 
 
 It was revealed to me that the object of my call was 
 that the plan of salvation might be enlarged. It was 
 revealed to me that the plan already fixed was thought 
 to be sufficient to save the whole human family, but still 
 numbers and numbers kept passing on down to hell. 
 The plan as amended was to embrace the whole human 
 family — all were to be saved. 
 
 It wag also represented to me that owing to oaths 
 .which the Lord had taken and which had to be respec- 
 ted, that it was a hard and difficult thing to do that 
 lie had been looking for a suitable person to call to this 
 work, and had at length chosen me for that purpose. 
 It was also told me why I was chosen, and why at the 
 age of eighteen. The reason that I was chosen, at 
 eighteen was because it was the age at which the Jews 
 married; why this shouldh ave any thing to do with it 
 I am now unable to tell. There was also one other 
 reason given why I was called to this work, but which 
 I will not give in this narrative. 
 
 Another reason was, my lfaving been of a sad morose 
 
103 
 
 disposition had indued mc to trouble, and it, had to be 
 a person that had experienced trouble. My mind hav- 
 ing broken the fetters of sadness through the exhilarat- 
 ing effects of books and passionate love, seemed to fit 
 ne fiyr the arduous undertaking. There was another 
 thing that had a great effect on mv mind in producing 
 lively hopes and expectations, and which I should have 
 mentioned sooner. When at Bchool at Carthage, by 
 winging a watch chain, I was led to an idea by which 
 I believed I had discovered perpetual motion. I had 
 esolved to tost it by experiment in the coming vacation 
 >l'tho school, hut 1 have never yet tested it, and so can't 
 tell whether or not it will work. The thought though 
 Df having discovered it had a very exhilarating effect 
 >n nij mind. Having somewhat digressed from the 
 Hibject, T will now return to it again. 
 
 It will be impossible to convey a just idea of the many 
 towerfttl truths tjmt wore made known to me during 
 his eventful night. About this time my two brothers 
 nd stop brother, who had been fishing, came in. They 
 iot having been in my company much for some time, 
 I to knock up a chat with me, and Aaron, my 
 ldcst brother, asked me if I did not want to clerk it 
 r Colonel Hancock at Carthago. I told him no, not 
 >r forty dollars per month. He appeared a good deal 
 irpriscd at this, and wanted to know the reason; I 
 tld him 1 would toll him the meaning of all this at 
 sine future period. The boys seeing I did not want 
 talk with them, soon dropped oft to sleep. Tl 
 -lions and vis'o is still kept on with mo. 
 
 luring the night 1 had a vision of hell as 
 lain a thing as I ever saw. I could see it perfectly 
 lain over to my loft of a green or bluish oolor. I was 
 ion laying on my left side. It was ro\ ealed to me that 
 
104 
 
 if I would lay a little longer I could hear the shrieks 
 and wails of human beings therein ; but I wis so shock- 
 ed at what I had already seen that I turned over to 
 keep from seeing any more. These things kept on with 
 me all night. If I slept any it was but little. I pro- 
 bably slept a little from about day light to sun up or 
 there about. I can't though say positively that I slept, 
 or that I did not sleep. Any how when I got up and 
 went down stairs every thing looked new and changed. 
 I though as well as I recollect, did not tell the family of 
 any of these things that had taken place the night be- 
 fore. I don't think I had any thing to say to any of 
 them. Notwithstanding I had been awake the most if 
 not all of the night previous, I did not feel sleepy in the 
 least. I felt easy and contented and across my peace- 
 ful breast not a wave of trouble rolled. The change 
 that I felt had taken place I believe I should have taken 
 for religion, had I experienced no greater change. I 
 was though still under Divine influence ; still being led 
 on as it were. After awhile breakfast came on and I 
 was asked in. I set down at the table but I did not 
 feel hungry. They had fish for breakfast. I told them 
 I would eat Some fish in remembrance, but I do not 
 think I told them in remembranee of what, but I meant 
 Christ performing miracles with the loaves and fishes. 
 I ate but a few tnouthfuls when I got up and went out 
 and \aj down on a bench in the piazza, Seemed like 
 as I went the sun shown with uncommon brilliancy, or 
 with a soft silvery light, such as I had never before 
 witnessed. Although I was laying in the sunshine, it 
 appeared to be the best and most comfortable place that 
 I ever had been in, in all my life. The first one that 
 came out to me was my youngest brother, Benjamin, a 
 child some two years old I presume, or just beginning 
 
' 105 - 
 
 o paddle about. He came and rubed his hands over 
 ny vest buttons; it caused me to love that child better 
 baa I can tell, and this circumstance causes me still to 
 ook*upon him with tender regard. My father and step 
 bother soon came out and desired me to go in and lay 
 flown on a bed, as I was laying in the sunshine ; but I 
 Hiought it was the best place that I ever had been in 
 [md so refused to go. About this time my two little 
 listers were engaged with a wheel in the farther end of 
 the piazza, spinning, twisting thread or something of 
 the sort, and whilst thus engaged they sang a song, 
 tailed the Millennium. 
 
 I know I thought it was the prettiest song I ever had 
 
 heard in all my life, and seemed like it was sung on 
 
 purpose for me. My father and the balance of the 
 
 family kept insisting on my going in out of the sun. I 
 
 had no notion of going and therefore their talking to 
 
 ne only tended to confuse me. Whilst there, there 
 
 ame a little sparrow near me on the floor. My step 
 
 mother remarked that there was a little bird with a sore 
 
 bot. I cast my eye down and saw that one ot its feet 
 
 was drawn up as though it had been burnt. 
 
 This was now the 29th day of March, and about nine 
 or ten o'clock in the day. The cocks crowed a good 
 deal, and it seemed to be impressed on me that a new 
 dav was about to dawn. Some would crow and not 
 finish their notes, stopping about half way. It was 
 afterwards told me what this was for, which I will 
 probably relate at the proper place, should I take my 
 narrative that far. The reason that I suppose it to be 
 about nine or ten o'clock in the day is. that I have since 
 ed at that time of the year and at that time oi day 
 thc coeks are apt to take a spell at crowing. Well my 
 people finding that I was not going in of my own accord 
 
« 
 
 luo 
 
 laid hands on me to bear me in. Seemed like as s 
 as the}' touched me for this purpose my breath stJ 
 and I became stiff and cold as a dead person . g 
 like I was dead and felt so except about my heart 
 joyful wheels of life still went on. It seems to m 
 did not draw my breath the first time whilst they w 
 thus bearing me. But I was soon to be restored, 
 they laid me down on a bed I awoke as it were ou 
 beds of Paradise, and never felt so joyful and happy 
 all my life. I felt that my sins, which were ml 
 were all forgiven, and I shouted and praised God w 
 all the power that I was master of, and then could if 
 praise him half enough. The joy that one feels 
 having his sins all forgiven is such as no one can dn 
 any idea of, except it be by those that have oxperienc 
 it, and is such as none can tell. I looked with woncl 
 and astonishment how I had staid away from so go< 
 a Being so long. I was' eighteen years old that ve 1 
 day, and saw, I think, more real pleasure and satisfn 
 tion in that one day, than I had seen in the balance 
 my life. I had a universal love for the whole hurrfj 
 family, and for my relatives at home I felt particular 
 concerned. I told my father and step mother^that 
 would have them or knock down hell's door, meanir. 
 that I would follow them to that awful place before 
 would give them up. I think though that it was 
 some subsequent time when I had been greatly wrougl 
 upon, that I told them this. 
 
 It would now seem that after I had professed roligio 
 my travel niight be over, but not so. Many deep aq 
 mysterious truths were now made known to me. Man 
 things were now revealed to nie-by lessons as it wen 
 After one of these lessons had been revealed to me, 
 would have an irresistible desire to arise and proclain 
 
107 
 
 > the family. I spake as I had never before spoken, 
 eemed like the words were put in my mouth as fost 
 s I could utter them.. During the course of these re- 
 lations I was led through deep and mysterious things, 
 nd when I looked back and saw the great difficulties 
 iat I had been led through, it appeared to me, that 
 ad I have known at the start the many difficulties that 
 had to go through, that I could never have held out. 
 iut by their being presented to me one at a time, I 
 is at length led through. There was nothing com- 
 ulsory as regard;; my duty that I know oi': but it all 
 \y to my choice which to pursue — the part of Godli- 
 <ss or not. I invariably choose the part by which I 
 ought I might keep in favor Of God, and by which 
 c object for which 1 was called might be best ac- 
 limplished. 
 At length after some days, the work appeared to 1 e 
 [tied, and it seemed that I would do for this important 
 irk. How long this was from the time of my first 
 1 I am not now able*" to tell, but I am inclined to 
 nk that it was not longer than three or four days, 
 the time though longer or shorter it at length ap- 
 ired to be all through, and that I would answer for 
 reat purpose. But it seemed necessary in order 
 ;it thifi work might be fulfilled that [should go to 
 bfivcn in order that my mission might be completed, 
 ras revealed to me one day in the day time that 
 id would send down his angels that night for the pur- 
 ee of .carrying me to heaven. 1 was willing to go. 
 ere were two doors to the room in which I lay; one 
 s a hack door opening out into the yard ; the other 
 ning in! > a hall. J wanted the angels to come in 
 e hall door. 1 had my fear- about the back door; 
 med like it was .•. door of death or devils or 
 ig po ; and in order that they might not come in at 
 
108 
 
 that door, 1 had a servant boy of the name of Spencer 
 to make him down a pallet across the door and lay 
 there. I will remark here that I lay by myself after the 
 first night of my call. "Well I was laying awake and I 
 think about ten o'clock, I heard several raps at this 
 back door, as though some one had raped with their 
 knuckles. I without hesitation said no entrance to 
 devils there; they then raped a second time, I said the^ 
 same words, and I heard no more of them that night. 
 There was nothing more of interest that I recollect of 
 that transpired during the night. 
 
 I believe it was the next night that I had another 
 chance of going to heaven. The room appeared to be 
 filled with soft light, and had I been willing, it appear- 
 ed that I would have gone upward. I was willing to 
 go but first wanted the 4th seal which was the one 
 directly over card playing. I had, when a neglectful 
 student at Carthage, lost much of my time card -play- 
 ino-when I should have been at my studies, and so I 
 first wanted that seal. But in consequence of my not 
 going in the way that it seemed pleasing to God that I 
 should go, this fell through. I will hear remark that 
 there were eight seals, but, the uses of all I dont think, 
 had been fully made known tome. The fourth from 
 this circumstance was impressed on my mind, and is 
 slill retained. 
 
 I believe it was the next night I was tried again. I I 
 was laying on the bed by myself, and the first thing I ; 
 knew, I saw a bright Image alight suddenly on a bureau 
 that was standing near a window. After remaining 
 there a few moments it suddenly went out through the 
 window. As it went, my head was raised up off of the 
 bed and drawn after it so as to make a bow, or my 
 obeisance, to it as it wen t. Presently it came back and sat j 
 
lof» 
 
 about the same place. In a few seconds it went out 
 again. In the meantime it hart been told me .what it 1T 
 ■was for, to see if I would bow to it of my own accord as aK 
 I had been shown ; I accordingly bowed as I had*been 71 ^ 
 shown as near as I could. In a few seconds it came in 
 again, and came and sat -apparently on the head board in 
 a foot or two above my head, and shown down on me on 
 seem like with the brightness .of the sun. It was made 3 ' 
 known to me that by laying as I was and letting it ia 
 shine on me, the necessary power would be given me. 
 It seems I had refused two opportunities of g'oing to 
 heaven, and now the necessary means were brought 
 directly to me. 1 reflected that I was young ; that 
 older and perhaps more- deserving persons had never 
 had such an opportunity offered the'm ; Franklin for one 
 I know crossed my mind. So out of affected modesty, 
 little thinking of the consequences, I refused this also, 
 and covered my head to keep it from shining on me. 
 
 I will here remark that this Image, person of God, or 
 whatever it was, did not appear to be larger than a man 
 from his shoulders up, and scarcely so broad across the 
 base. It appeared to be of the same brightness of the Im- 
 age, or rather perhaps person of God, that I had seen at 
 the beginning of those memorable scenes. I will also 
 state that one reason that I refused to let this Image, cr 
 person of God, shine on me was that I thought it would 
 make me partake of its brightness, and I should thus be 
 rendered different from other people, and I did not want 
 thus to be ; and I probably thought that it would be 
 m >re pleasing to God for me to choose an humbler posi- 
 tion, and so out of affected modesty refused it. 
 
 I kept my heart covered the most if not all of the 
 night, and passed a night of most horrible trouble. This 
 was now the first trouble that I had experienced since my 
 
110 
 
 11 or prpfession. It is true I thought I had cxpcricn- 
 
 d trouble in those deep and mysterious revelations 
 
 rough which I had been led. I was aware of their 
 
 fficulty, but had Divine aid to help me through ; so 
 
 twithstanding I hod experienced some trouble. I had 
 
 »t felt that anguish of soul that I experienced during 
 
 e present night. It wa? truly a horrible wretched 
 
 ght that I passed. Deep trouble may now be said to 
 
 t in. I had, without knowing the direful consequences 
 
 at it would bring on, disobeyed in three very impor- 
 
 nt particulars. Had it have been impressed on me by 
 
 od to have obeyed in either of these three last par- 
 
 mlars, I think I should without doubt, have done 
 
 L It though appeared to be loft to my own choice, 
 
 ; it had been throughout, which side to choose ; 
 
 id I here, as it happened, choose the wrong thing 
 
 ich time. But had there been more difficulty attending 
 
 lese last three things mentioned, I think I would 
 
 Lvebeen more apt to' have obeyed, or choose the right 
 
 de ; for their performance I have no doubt would 
 
 ave been comparatively easy to things I had been 
 
 3d through. ' It was in those deep and difficult 
 
 relations and travels, that required all the energies 
 
 f my soul; together with Divine aid, that I kept 
 
 losest to the text. So when the plan for the univer- 
 
 il redemption of man was, as I believe, nearly com. 
 
 leted it was spoilt (at least for the present) by my 
 
 isobeying in these three things mentioned. Whether 
 
 r not there remained much more to be done after accopt- 
 
 ig what was offered at either of these three times, I am 
 
 ow unable to say ; but I am inclined to think that had I 
 
 ave accepted, or done according to God's will in either 
 
 f the three, that the business would soon have been 
 
 nished, and the plan for the universal redemption of 
 
 X 
 
Ill 
 
 man established ; but all appeared to be lost by n 
 wanting something in my own way. We should tak 
 things that a-e offered to us of God after His own wil 
 and not after < urs. 
 
 I expect the reader ^has been struck with wonder an 
 astonishment at the recitaPof the foregoing, and won 
 ders wliat ir could all mean. I will say that I believe i 
 was the Millennium that was about to diwn, and tha 
 if it had succeded that the Gospel would soon have beet 
 proclaimed with a saving effect to the uttermost bound- 
 of the earth, and the last .man and woman have beei 
 brought their Saviour to know. I believe it was tht 
 Millennium about to da vrn frolm the fact that I believe 
 those little children already mentioned, were moved to 
 sing that song on purpose for me, from the fact that it 
 took such an effect on me ; and for other reasons which 
 have already been mentioned. 
 
 I now wish to go back and relate what I experienced 
 that I think has a refference or will have a bearing up- 
 on the present sectional troubles. At the close of one 
 of these lessons of revelation as I have called them, I 
 was greatly operated upon and arose and proclaim- 
 ed to the family. I spake with great freedom, ami 
 seemed like the words were put in my mouth as fast as 
 I could utter them. 1 proclaimed to them that myriads 
 and myriads of souls would be saved from endless per- 
 dition. At the time of which I now speak, I was mov- 
 ed with peculiar regard towards the African race. 
 Spencer, the boy that had lain abrossthe door, was stand- 
 ing immediately to my left. I embraced him, p fitting 
 my left arm I believe, around his neck. 
 
 eined like I was to do something to greatly relieve 
 the condition of this race of people, but what it would 
 have been I am now unable to say, inasmuch as my 
 
112 
 
 mission was not finished, but from what I experienced 
 I am inclined to think that God is not satisfied with 
 slavery as it now exists, and this cirumstance had been 
 the foundation for my remarks on slavery. From what 
 •was afterwards made known to .me, I am inclined to 
 think that this related mostly to corporal punishments* 
 and I have accordingly treated of it mostly in that 
 light. This circumstance has certainly bad the effect 
 to cause me to look upon that race of people with 
 peculiar regard ever since. This boy Spencer was a 
 professor of religion, has since died, and I have no 
 doubt is now at rest. 
 
 I will now return to the subject where I left off. It 
 was now made known to me that the work could not be 
 finished at this place, owing to the interruptions of the 
 family, I mean their bothering me, their sin fullness, or 
 something of the kind ; but if I would go to my grand- 
 father's, about six or seven miles distant, this work would 
 there be renewed. Unfortunately I was prevented from 
 doing this. My father no doubt thought that he could 
 do the best by me and so refused to let me go. Divine 
 influence appears mostly to have left me, and I was 
 left to stem the torrent-in trouble and despair, so very 
 grievous that I can't begim to describe it. As it is 
 written," no one hath power of himself to retain the 
 Spirit." I. had erred and He had taken His flight from 
 me so far as these works were concerned, and 1 had no 
 way to call- Hi m back. My parents saw something 
 was the matter, and various were the conjectures as to 
 what it was. Some said that I had studied too hard ; 
 others that I was in love with some young lady ; and 
 some this thing, and some that. Unfortunately, the 
 means taken for my recovery were entirely wrong, I wa s 
 excluded from books, and, to a great extend, from so- 
 
US 
 
 eiefy. This tended to throw me into deeper trouble. So 
 great did my troubles eventually get to be, that I do not 
 believe I slept a wink for many successive nights. — ■ 
 Throughout this trying time, I had as good health, I 
 think, as I ever had in my life. I do not recollect being 
 the least unwell, at any time. Nothing but Divine aid 
 could thus ha^e sustained me. 
 
 The intense trouble and distress that I suffered during 
 these times can never be told. 
 
 About this time or probably sooner, I went down to the 
 creek accompanied by one of my brothers and step broth- 
 er. I had an irresistible desire to go in the water that 
 the ordinanoo of baptism might be administered, but I 
 ■was prevented much against my will. I made an attempt 
 to go in the water atono other time but was prevented. 
 My people kept such a close watch over me that I was 
 not able to do in this matter as I wished. I was though 
 still desirous that the ordinance of baptism should be ad- 
 ministered, and thought if I could only get in the water 
 that it was all I wanted — that I could then administer the 
 ordinance mysolf. It was afterwards impressed on ine 
 that, under circumstances like mine, any mode that one 
 lias faith in will answer, be it sprinkling, pouring or what 
 not. Notwithstanding, I believe Baptism to bean ordin- 
 anoo or a positive law ; that there can therefore be but 
 one mode, and that under ordinary circumstances we can* 
 not obey or fulfill this ordinance only b}' doing just what 
 is commanded. We saw that Moses could not obey at 
 Kadesh in the desert of Zin, only by doing just what was 
 commanded. Numerous other instances might bo men- 
 tioned — such as Saul when ho was sent to smite the AmeJU 
 ekites ; institution of the Passover, &c, besides many 
 others. I presume though enough has been mentioned 
 to prove this point, 
 
114 
 
 As it is written : "If ye love God ye will keep his 
 commandments." I therefore believe that all true chris- 
 tians will have a desire to do respecting the mode of bap- 
 tism just what they believe to be commanded of God. 
 How carefully then we should study the Scriptures, cast- 
 ing aside all our prejudices and prepossessed opinions, in 
 order that we may find oat and follow the true mode ! 
 
 I was desirous above all things of going to my grand- 
 father's, in order that this work might be renewed, but 
 was not permitted. My parents thought it was studying 
 that ailed me, and so kept all books away from me. I 
 was not even permitted to read the Bible itself. I had an 
 insatiable desire for that book, and wished much to read 
 it. Upon one occasion I, by some means, got hold of a 
 testament and applied it to my bosom. Seemed like I was 
 being possessed of its truths; there was a pleasant sensa- 
 tion springing up in my bosom, and I thought by holding 
 the book thus that I would soon get a thorough knowledge 
 of it without the trouble of studying, and likewise much 
 sooner and more perfectly than I could otherwise have 
 done. 
 
 There was a pleasant sensation springing up in my 
 bosom, and I thought a knowledge of the Book would 
 thus soon be imparted to me. At this juncture I was 
 • discovered bj r one of my . brothers, and the Book for- 
 cibly torn away from me. Oh how badly it hurt me! 
 Losing a fortune of millions would not have hurt me 
 half so much. I was surely doing no one any harm 
 there with the Book ; and, had I eventually have found 
 that I was not getting a knowledge of the Book in that 
 way, I should have been certain to have taken it the 
 slow but sure way — by reading. I have always regret- 
 ted that I was not permitted to study the Scriptures 
 
 ■ 
 
115 
 
 jbout this timo, because my appetite for (;heni was so 
 ,crj keen, that I think I could have learned them much 
 jitter than I fear I shall ever bo able to do again. 
 
 Talking of worldly things was complete physic to 
 jne. My solo desire was to get back under the balmy 
 jjjoence of the Holy Ghost, and to a renewal of the 
 fork to which I had been called. 
 
 Because I could not see, do and bclicre as others did, 
 fyas considered deranged ; and the report, I suppose, 
 tfou became general, that I was deranged from study- 
 g books or some other cause. That I did get into a 
 ecies of mania I will admit, but. it was only such aa 
 juld result from taking up any sane, sound man and 
 ufining him. You may counno a well man, and it 
 aill assuredly make a madman of him. I will illus- 
 trate this a little. There was once a maniac, or at least 
 i person who was pronounced a fit subject for tho lu- 
 natic asylum. Accordingly arrangements were mado 
 for his reception, and one of his friends started with him 
 ir that place. They soon reached the city aud took 
 lodging at a hotel. The next morning the supposed 
 lunatic got up very early and took the paper of com- 
 mitment out of his friend's pocket, and took a walk 
 over to the asylum. Getting there ho told the man- 
 agers that after a little he would bring them a sub- 
 ject, and, says he, he will be certain to tell you that I 
 am the one ; but you must not mind that, but take him 
 and take care of him, for that is only a way he has of 
 doing. Our frieud waking up and finding the lunatic 
 gone, did not know what to think of it; but, he coming 
 io soon afterwards, all was right again. After break- 
 fast, he asked the lunatic if he would take a walk with 
 him : he told him he would. They accordingly took 
 a walk over to the asylum. As soon as they got there 
 
116 
 
 1 
 
 the lunatic said to the managers that he had bro Qg fc t 
 them that man, and running his hand in his pocW, 
 pulled out and handed them the paj>er of commitment. 
 They forthwith harnessed on to him, placed the straight 
 jacket on him, and ushered him into a cell, he all th e 
 time hallooing as lustily as he could, that he was not the 
 man ; that the other man was the one. And had it not 
 been that the relatives of the parties at home made known 
 the true state of things, wo do not know where the if. 
 fair would have^nded. My case was something sir/fl. 
 lar to the above. After erring in those three important 
 particulars I got into deeptrouWe. This though I think 
 would have worn off after a little, had I been let alone, 
 I think about this time I ate but little, or perhaps notiV 
 ing for about a week ; but notwithstanding this I did 
 not feel the least inconvenience from it. , My lather 
 talked of giving me medicine, thinkingthe conditionof 
 my system demanded it, but Oh how badly it sounded 
 to me ! I knew I was in the hands of one who doeth 
 all things well. During this time I had not the least 
 pain nor sickness that I know of, which, I doubt not, 
 could not have been had I not been under Divine care. 
 *At length one day I got to playing with myfingurcsand 
 hands on the head board of the bed where I \va9 laying. 
 It was on the same head board upon which that bright 
 Image appeared to have sat. It appeared to make a 
 pleasing or delightful sound to me, as it had been the 
 ^Eolian harp. I was doing no one any harm that I know 
 of, neither myself. I was doing this merely I suppose 
 for pastime, and probably would soon have quit it of my- 
 self; but my father being solictious for my welfare had 
 my hands tied down, as he afterwards told me, for feai 
 that I would hurt them. This I believe was the first check 
 fhat was put on my. liberties. It soon exasperated nae, 
 

\ 
 
 117 
 
 jnd caused me perhaps to say grievous things agaiust 
 the family. I had requested peaceably to go to my 
 grand fathers where I had the promise of having these 
 works renewed, but was not permitted to do so, as has 
 already been stated, but instead thereof I was kept.* 
 closely shut up in a room, and society to a great ex-* 
 tent excluded. Even my little sisters that had sung tho 
 ^ng " Millennium " so sweetly, and which I loved so 
 well, (for I now loved them better than I ever had 
 done before) and which I desired so much to be- with 
 me, were not permitted to come about me, as it was 
 gaid by some of the family that they were afraid I would 
 jjurt them. 
 
 I was also desirous of going fortli to spread the CJos- 
 pel. My desire for this at one time in particular, was 
 wry great. I thought I could have conquered, or be*en 
 the m^ansor converting to Christianity, the whole earth 
 j n two full years. Thero were also other things of im- 
 portance on my mind which I wished to get out to see 
 about. With all these momentous things on my mind 
 D ow could it be expected that I should do aud act as I 
 always had done ? If it will make a man a maniac or 
 5 madman to confine him when he can see no cause for 
 it, what was it calculated to do in my case ? It hurt mo 
 gcems like a hundred times worse if possible, to be pent 
 op at that timo than it would at any other time, and be- 
 cause I could not be calm and composed under these 
 circumstances, and probably talked of thiugs that the 
 family know nothing about I was considered beside 
 myself. This may be compared to Festus' judgment of 
 Paul upon a certain occasion when he prouounccd him 
 to be mad or beside himself. 
 
 I think there is no man, under the circumstances, af- 
 ter disobeying in these three important particulars, that 
 
118 
 
 could have come out any better than I did, and I fLj J 
 the chances were 99 to 1 for any one similarly eit Ua » i 
 to have lost his life also. I don't think the troubled 
 Job suffered, although very grievous, would be-.; 
 compare with mine. e ^ 
 
 The circumstance of my brother taking the teatan, 
 away from me, toother with other things, at |„ *J 
 < auacd me to believe that the family one and Jt || 3 
 against me, and were for destroying the work. H J? 
 was pleasi Dg to CJod to eall me to. A belief of thiskfcJ 
 was sufficient to have broken the bonds betwc, ,, 
 and the dearest friend upon earth. * 
 
 After I got to believe that the family was fl-,i, ls t ' 
 and were for destroying these works I becanm it £j 
 alienated from them, and the very persons that I , J*' 
 time before had loved so we.., that I would Z 8t £* 
 died for, I now considered my enemies, and even J T 
 grievous words against them. This caused me t t 
 kept m closer confinement, as muchlpresume fort* 
 personal safety as any thing else. '*" 
 
 Bat if I was an insane or mad man then I am Mo » 
 for the things that I then believed t yet beln, . ' \ 
 
 Bbancontmuetodosoaslongasbreithanin^;^ 
 bod> The things that then took place as alJ 
 Uescnbed are the plainest of any that h L f 
 place dunng my life, and I never expeet to for*,t 
 so long as I live, After being pent up sonm t, f ^ 
 I was turned ont as healed. In this time my en , ^ 
 asm tor religion and nearlyoverv thing else had 7] 
 
 i" other, ,f those three Important p.rtlcutari u l,va,|, 
 
119 
 
 mentioned, I have no doubt but the designs of God 
 
 u0 aW DftVC ^ ecn carr »cd out, and would thus baa* been 
 
 gaving of much trouble to myself, as well as to my 
 
 irents and others, and would at thotftuno time I trust, 
 
 live been of. some benefit to the human family. Or 
 
 b*H have been permitted to have gone to my grand 
 
 others all I think, would still have been well. My 
 
 ylhcr seeing there was something the matter with me, 
 
 .,1 doubt thought lie could do a better part by me than 
 
 lU )d be done there, and without knowing the evil 
 
 4 he would thus inilict, refused to let me go. This 
 
 ft4 natural. I blame them though tor guessing at the 
 
 • iiiaeot my troubles, aud treating me accordingly, 
 
 then they were entirely mistaken. During all this 
 
 time of intense trouble and mental suffering, I had the 
 
 .^atest love for the people of God. If ifty parents 
 
 ll( j rot some christian person, one iuAvhom I ha*-' t(,1)- 
 
 c Jencc as a christian, to have convened with niC » "> a 
 
 -at of my disease could soon have been Aacovered; 
 
 ,t dSifl was not done. 
 
 )f« reasons for writing thus much upon this latter part 
 mv Bubjecl is, that as I was considered deranged, I 
 jh my friends and others geno rally to know how it 
 JjjL and have thus been particular in relating it ; but it 
 ..vet very imperfect, 1 not having reUted near all that 
 | B igfat bare done. My narrative trom my call down 
 ., in y profoaaion of religion is tolerably perfect, or at 
 ^laboot as near so as I can --elate it, with aome four 
 rfive exceptions, three of «'bich arc very important; 
 but I did not think proper to insert them in a work of 
 this kind, and have therefore omitted them. My nar- 
 from that time down to the close is Still more im- 
 «rfect,I not having related all that 1 might have doue 
 ,v » great deal. All takeu together would fill a large 
 
 .--. 
 
 *! 
 

120 
 
 book, but I have endeavored to mention enough of the 
 principal things so us to bo understood. It is my in- 
 tention some time or other, tho Lord willing, to write 
 out the vn hole. I will though for the present let the 
 itrtain fall over thin part of my narrative. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FURTHER ACCOUNT. 
 
 I no*' propose going back and mentioning a fow 
 things that I omitted. 
 
 I, nt some time early in the work, or soon after my 
 call, saw in a vision great camion guns. 1 could see did. 
 tinetly the wheels that they were mounted upou. 
 Viecmcd like there was to be a great war, or great tight- 
 iugsomei-ay. I though have never been able to tell 
 exactly what this alluded to, or what it should mean. I 
 presume I should have known all about it had myrais- 
 sion have been completed. If asked if I saw this by an 
 eye of faith or with my natural oye, I would say by an 
 eye of faith, though I saw them as plainly as if I had 
 seen them with my natural eve. 
 
 The lightning anQ the two* inages of God, or God in 
 person, if I may so speak, I Saw with my natural eye us 
 plainly as I ever saw the sun at noon-dny. 
 
 j AM TROUBLED lit A VISION. 
 
 II presume it was the third night after these works 
 Iftd commenced on me, I saw a vision that troubled me 
 paeh . 
 
 There was a man to be hung at Troy, Montgomery 
 |owuitT, of the name of Naah, I believe. I seemed to 
 
121 
 
 have been impressed on that I should go there to keep 
 him from being hung, or at all events that he ought not 
 to be hung. The night after he was hanged I saw this 
 vision. Seemed like over to my right was wrapped in 
 darkness, or at least it appeared of a shady or dark color. 
 All of God's lights appeared to be put out except one 
 small place which lay in the direction of the foot of the 
 bed, but a little obliquely to the right. I could see 
 devils on the wall to my right, dancing with infernal 
 
 joy- 
 
 It appeared that all of God's lights were put out ex- 
 cept that one small place which was represented by a 
 golden color, and these devils appeared to be dancing 
 over it for joy. I was in a great deal of trouble at sec- 
 iug this you may be sure. I felt as if I was almost dead, 
 and these devils were dancing for joy, probably at see- 
 ing God's lights so nearly put out and over my prostrate 
 condition together. I was deeply involved in trouble 
 but lay there and saw it all. How long it lasted or how 
 it went away I now cant tell. 
 
 When I heard from the hanging which I believe was 
 the next day, or at all events in a day or two, I heaid 
 that this young man protested his innocence to the last ; 
 and also that the first time they swung him oft* the rope 
 broke. They then tied him up again and the next time 
 succeded in hanging him. I was not surprised to hear 
 of the rope breaking, but I was sorry to hear that they 
 tied him up again and at last succeeded in hanging 
 him. I thought as the rope had broken the first time 
 that he ought then to have been let off. Though I be- 
 lieve he was generally believed to have been guilty of 
 the crime for which he was hanged, I yet believe there 
 is something wrong about it. 
 Cb 
 
122 
 
 ANOTHER VISION. 
 
 The oue that I am now a going to give an acconnt of 
 I dont know that I can hardly call it a vision, because I 
 saw it in the day time and with my natural eye as plain- 
 ly as I ever saw any thing. But without being part., 
 cular as to the name I will relate what I saw. I was 
 laving on a bed in the room one evening probably about - 
 the middle of the afternoon or perhaps later, and I saw 
 immediately on the wall in front of me a picture as of 
 a good stout boy. The personage was that ot a fat baby 
 without clothing and in the attitude of running north 
 -the direction of the wall. The color was a v.vid red 
 though a deeper red than red hot iron; on his head 
 there wa. something like a breadtray; upon the top of 
 ftat there was a wild goose ; and on the top of that there 
 was a bull's head having bonis; all appeared to be of 
 Te same vivid red color. Immediately to the right of 
 this was a ball about the size of a half dollar, or per- 
 haps near that of a dollar, with a streak running up- 
 ward for two or three feet, of about the size of a pipe 
 stem This was likewise of that same vivid red coloi . 
 I 6 aw all this with perfect composure not *™K«g« 
 „or troubled in the least that I recollect of. After re- 
 Sfe* there for sometime, probably a ha t hour per- 
 hap longer, it began to fade away. The image of the 
 tie ho'faded away first, then the tray or what ever 
 it was and so on. The last thing that disappeared was 
 theTui?s head and horns. Whether this ball and streak 
 tward faded away at the same time I do not now re- 
 collect hut I presume they did. What this that I have 
 described, could mean I can't fully tell, for the object 
 ofatl was not made known to me. The bread ray 
 wnuVooseaiid-bull'shead were for emblems which I 
 
128 
 
 deem unnecessary to mention here, The balance I dont 
 know what they were for unless they were to add force 
 and character to these three as emblems. It was re- 
 presented to mc that, had this streak from the ball have 
 extended downward instead of upward, that instant 
 combustion would have taken place. I will state here 
 that there was a sign of this streak on the wall for 
 years afterwards. It left a whitish staiu and was there 
 a year or two ago. 
 
 A REVELATION. 
 
 I will give the reader an account of a revelation, or 
 what I experienced in one of those lessons as I have 
 been calling them. I was laying in the room on a bed 
 (the same room where I had seen all those visions, &c, 
 with the exception of those of the first night,) and there 
 came over a gentleman to see me. He sat and talked 
 with my father in a passage near where I was laying. 
 Whilst Faying; here* I commenced reflecting on a cir- 
 cumsiance that had occurred between this gentleman 1 
 and myself. He had once told a falsehood and proved 
 himself right by another person, which did not help the 
 mat er much. I was loser by this to a small amount. 
 After awhile my father came in the room where I was, 
 and said that such a gentleman, naming him, had come 
 and wished to see me. I told him that I did not wish 
 to see him at that time, and requested that he should 
 not come in the room where I was, and also I believe 
 requested that no one else should come in to disturb 
 me. In the meantime, God I believe had commenced 
 making known to mc some things concerning this 
 matter between this gentleman and myself, and that 
 was the reason that I did not wish to be disturbed. 
 And in order that I might not be disturbed by this 
 
124 
 
 gentleman nor my father coming in the room, I got up 
 and proped the door after him. As I lay on the bed I 
 fell into a trance and God began to make known to me 
 some things relative to this matter. I thought this 
 gentleman was to sutler death for thus telling a lie, and 
 I thought I heard a knife being made in the shop as 
 plainly as I ever heard any thing in my life, with which 
 to cut his throat. Notwithstanding I had requested 
 my father not to come in the room, he came and pushed 
 open the door and came in, remarking that he could 
 open the door. If it had been this other gentleman, 
 that had come in after I had requested that he 
 should stay out, I was to have gotten up and moved 
 my right hand down obliquely across him at which he 
 was to have fallen down dead as did Ananias. But I 
 did not want him to come in the room, and so alter my 
 father went out I got up and shut the door, and proped 
 it again. It was,- seem like with the utmost difficulty 
 that I could shake off this spell enough to get up, but 
 I made out to do so and proped the door good this time, 
 and then went and lay down again. Soon after laying 
 down the chair with which the door was proped commenc- 
 ed cracking, like it was strained. It was made known to 
 me that God could open the door though it was proped, 
 and it appeared that if I had not believed this, that the 
 chair would instantly have been broken in pieces and 
 the door opened, but I believed and the cracking 
 ceased. I believe I told you about hearing the hammer 
 going to make the knife with which to kill this gentle- 
 man. I could hear the hammer in the distance as 
 plainly as I ever heard it in a shop in my life, and it 
 appeared that this gentleman's throat was to be 
 cut and he pitched into outer darkness. Although it 
 was represented to me that he should have been put to 
 
death, it was now by a deep and mysterious revelation 
 made appear to me that he should not be put to death, 
 and so the matter ended. 
 
 I am not able fully to tell the meaning of the forego- 
 ing revelation, and I do not know that it is necessary 
 for me to know. I presume it had the desired effect 
 on me, let it have been what it may. 
 
 This gentleman was a professor of religion, and was 
 also in the church ; and it was probably from that cir- 
 cumstance that his crime was represented to me as be- 
 ing so wicked as to be worthy of death. 
 
 This revelation being upon a separate subject I have 
 been able to give it entire, or at least as much so as I 
 am able. I though can't begin to express it in words 
 just as it was, or as it appeared to me. The balance of 
 the revelations that I experienced were mostly upon 
 one subject, or one continuous subject as it were, and 
 are therefore mixed and blended together in such a 
 way that I am not able to give any of them eutire and 
 separate. The foregoing is the only one that I can 
 give a separate account of. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GENERAL REVIEW. 
 
 Well my friends you have heard my story all through. 
 
 Now to prove that the foregoing is no fabrication of 
 my own, I will mention the following incidents. 
 
 In the first place I will here remark that I have re- 
 lated these things in the main as herein set forth, to pro. 
 bably an hundred persons from the date of their occur- 
 rence down to the present time. To some I have re- 
 lated one part, and to others, another, but at the same 
 
lis 
 
 time I d; n't suppose that anv thing that I have thus 
 related to my friepda will conflict with any thing that 
 !s herein set forth. 
 
 And to prove farther that the effect of what I then 
 experienced has been on me for some time, and that I 
 have been trying to get a part at least, of these things 
 accomplished, I refer to the following. 
 
 Some four years ago, Dr. John Shaw and Col. "VVra. 
 B. Richardson were candidates for the General As- 
 sembly. The subject of slavery or treatment of serv- 
 ants, having been on my mind for a great while, and 
 as yet nothing done towards providing for their better 
 treatment, and which I thought should be done, I set 
 down and wrote each of these gentlemen a letter stat- 
 ing some certain laws that I was desirous of seeing 
 passed, and among them was that relative to slavery 
 which in the main, I believe, was put down as herein 
 B2t forth. I desired an answer from each, intending to 
 vote for the one that cams nearest my views/ As it 
 was but a short time before the election, it so turned 
 out that I did not get an answer from either of the gen- 
 tlemen, and so I did not vote for either. 
 
 And further, at the next sitting of the last Legislature, 
 when Messrs W. D. Dowd and Alex. Kelly were mem- 
 bers from Moore, I wrote to them concerning the same 
 subject, and among other laws that I was desirous of 
 seeing passed was that for the better treatment of ser- 
 vants, in the main as herein set forth. 
 
 These gentlemen, though concurring in at least a por- 
 tion of my views, said there was such a press of other bu- 
 siness, and my letter too coming somewhat late in the 
 session, that they could not attend to it. So with these 
 remarks I hope the reader will at least conclude that I 
 have been conscientious in saying what I have upon 
 the subject of elavery, 
 
Bat it may bs argued that as I had got into such ft 
 troubled state of mind, as has already been described, 
 that I may b9 conscientious in relating what I have and 
 at the same time be mistaken. In answer to this I wil 
 here state that the most of the things that I experienced 
 and have herein set forth, took place before I got into 
 that distressed state of mind and I therefore think there 
 is no just ground, for that belief. It is true I experi- 
 enced some deep trouble whilst being led in those deep 
 and mysterious waters, and being submitted to trial as 
 it were, to prove whether or not I was suitable for the 
 arduous undertaking. But at length I was lead to a 
 clear sunshine a 3 it were, where there appeared to be 
 no difficulties, and I there erred in the discharge of du- 
 ties the performance of which, I have no doubt, would 
 have been comparatively easy to some that I had been 
 brought through, as has been before stated. It was 
 then that deep and unutterable trouble set in. The 
 trouble that I experienced previous to that time, though 
 at some few times, very great, yet was uot so distressing, 
 from the fact that Divine aid was with me and I was 
 soon helped over them.. Although the latter part was 
 truly a distressing time to me, yet, God has blessed me 
 with a perfect retention of memory, and I recollect all 
 the important things that took place throughout, as 
 well as many or most, of the smaller. 
 
 Again my professing religion in about twelve hours 
 after my call may, I think, be considered some evidence 
 that I was called in a miraculous manner and intended 
 for a special purpose. My profession was attended 
 with power, such that I have not been able to doubt for 
 a moment since, of its perfect genuineness; though I 
 >have sined and done many things not right since. 
 
 That I must have been called and for a special pur- 
 pose, I think is evident from the following : 
 
1£S 
 
 Unless I had been called of Grod for a special purpose 
 I think it appears singular that I should have been 
 called apparently in favor with God within a few mo- 
 ments or minutes after my call, and also that I should, 
 thus have been called, and have had the wonderful 
 works of God placed on me while I was yet in my sins 
 as it were. Though as I have elsewhere remarked, I 
 felt the burden and weight of sin which I believe began 
 gradually to be removed, and from that time until I 
 professed I felt easy and contented as to a future state. 
 But I had not as yet experienced that outpouring of 
 the spirit, and felt that inexpressible joy such as the 
 convert feels ; but still I had experienced a very great 
 change, such probably as I should have taken for reli- 
 gion had T experienced no greater change, as has been 
 elsewhere stated. 
 
 And further, when I came from Carthage there was 
 nothing of the kind that I know of upon me. I acted 
 pretty much as I always had done, only I may perhaps 
 have been more cheerful than usual, owing to causes 
 already mentioned. I will here remark that I talked 
 of going that night with the boys a fishing, .but my 
 father wished me to remain with him, and I did so. * 
 will also remark that I had never been a serious seek- 
 er of religion. I had never so much as been in an 
 altar to be prayed for, though I had been impressed on 
 that it was my duty to go, but I had never, that I know 
 of, been very seriously impressed upon the subject of 
 religion. It is true I sometimes had had some impres- 
 sions, but they had generally worn off without leaving 
 any very serious effect. I will mention one of these. 
 Probably some three or four years previous to the time 
 of which I am now speaking, I was at a neighbor's at 
 a corn shucking. "We had finished the corn and had 
 
123 
 
 gone down to the house, and I think had also eaten 
 supper. At all events the most of the company were 
 standing in the hall part of the house. It was about 
 the time that Miller, the supposed prophet, had predic- 
 ted that the world was to he at an end, the conversa- 
 tiun turned upon this subject. At length the gentle- 
 man of the house started to get one of Miller's pam- 
 ■ phlets, describing this prediction. About this time I 
 began seriously to reflect on my case, knowing that I 
 would certainly be lost were this thing to come as pre- 
 dicted, and find me in my present condition! The con- 
 sequence was I soon began to feel sick, and the first 
 thing I knew I was down on the floor, and several per- 
 sons around shaking me ; I had fainted. This though, 
 I believe soon wore off without leaving any very lasting 
 impression. 
 
 I was what the world might call a moralist, and 
 though a great sinner, there were some sins, such as 
 cursing, swearing, &c, that I was a stranger to. 
 
 It is also, I think, evident that the works that I ex- 
 perienced were not necessary for the salvation of one 
 soul alone ; and it is also evidentthat what I experienced 
 was out of the line of common experience, or such as 
 people commonly experience in the profession of reli- 
 gion. Hence I think it is fair to conclude that as I had 
 experienced more than common that tl.e e was al- 
 so something more than common intended by it. 
 
 It was told me why it was that I had experienced 
 more than was common — such as seeing the lightning, 
 image or person of God, hearing those sounds, deep 
 revelations, &c. It was to endue me with strong faith, 
 it being represented to me that I had a difficult road to 
 pass through, and that it was necessary that my faith 
 should thus be strong in order that I might hold out to 
 
180 
 
 the end of the journey.- Asl have elsewhere said, there 
 was nothing of a compulsory nature used towards me 
 in this work, but all appeared to be left to my own 
 choice ; therefore unless my faith had been strong, I 
 should have been more apt to have deviated from the 
 path of duty. And though my faith was as strong seem 
 like as it could well be, it appeared to be with the great- 
 est difficulty that the work could be accomplished. My 
 faith or regard for these works at that time was so great 
 that I believe I would have died before I would have 
 surrendered them. I will here remark that the difficul- 
 ty, &c., of the road was kept concealed, and I only 
 knew that it was difficult by passing over it, or after I 
 had passed over it, it was then that the object of my 
 having been so greatly wrought upon was made known 
 to me, and not before I commenced the journey. 
 
 It was also at some time during the work made known 
 to me that no one, since the days of Christ and the 
 Apostles, had experienced such works as I had, and 
 unless they have in a little over fourteen years, I don't 
 suppose they yet have. 
 
 • I will state here that I attribute my professing reli- 
 gion so early as the twelve hours from the beginng of 
 my call, to the family disturbing me, and bearimg me 
 to bed, as has been before described. Whether or not 
 I should otherwise have professed so soon, I am un- 
 able to say. I was at that time under Divine influence 
 and had a pleasant sensation upon me, such as I can't 
 describe. 
 
 As I have elsewl*ere remarked that, that calmness 
 and serenity of disposition that I experienced, I should 
 probably have taken for religion had I experienced no 
 greater change, for sin had not appeared to be in my 
 way from the time that I felt its burden, as a weight 
 
131 
 
 on my breast removed. This burden remained but a 
 short time and did not trouble me much from the fact 
 that I was soon helped over it. 
 
 Strange as it may seem I slied not a tear nor made 
 a moan for my sins that I know of from the time of my 
 call to profession of religion. And when I had a vision 
 of that horrible place, hell, I had not fhe bast fears i or 
 apprehensions so far as my own personal safety was 
 concerned. 
 
 And again to prove that this could not possibly have 
 been a mental delusion I refer to my profession of re- 
 ligion, and in so short a space; of time from the time of 
 beginning; for who ever heard of a single instance of 
 any one under mental delusion professing veligion, and 
 in the short space of time too of twelve hours from the 
 time of commencement thereof. Is not this circum- 
 stance enough to prove that my case was an extra- 
 ordinary one, and that I was operated upon with 
 unusual power. 
 
 And farther if I was under mental'delusion how is it 
 that I have a perfect retention of memory throughout. 
 Many of these things that I recollect and have herein 
 set forth arc also recollected by the members of the 
 family ; we do not difler as to our belief concerning 
 these things, but recollected them in the main precisely 
 alike. As we recollect these things alike, why will 
 not my judgment do to depend on concerning tilings 
 that they have forget ten, or such as they never knew? 
 And farther, to prove that this was a work of God that 
 was upon me I will mention some important truths 
 that were made known to me at some time during my 
 travel. 
 
 It was made known to me that the reason that we 
 can use oar right hand better th-iu our left is, tint Gju 
 
132 
 
 will save his elect on his right hand, we having this 
 visble sign in our bodies to teach us that such will cer- 
 tainly be the case. As the rainbow is a sign that the 
 earth will not again be destroyed by water, so is this a 
 sign that God will save his elect on his right hand. 
 The circumstance of the rainbow was not made known 
 in connection therewith, but is merely a comparison 
 of my own. Another : 
 
 I was greatly operated upon respecting the Roman 
 Catholic church, and from what I experienced I have 
 indubitable reasons for believing that that church, as it 
 now exists, is not acceptible to God. Another : 
 
 I at some time during my travel, but now can't tell 
 the exact time, became impressed with the idea that I 
 could impart the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands; 
 and al o that by standing in front of a person and put- 
 ting the inside tips of my thumbs and fingures to the 
 corresponding ones of, the other person, that I could 
 have imparted other important gifts. I will here re- 
 mark that at that time I don't think I was well enough 
 to read in the scriptures to recollect that the Apostles 
 had, by laying on of hands, imparted the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I will mention one other. 
 
 Lbecame impressed, perhaps by revelation, that eve- 
 ry man, woman and child is possessed with the inate 
 principle of God and devil, so as to answer in the same 
 place of a personal God and devil. For instance, if you 
 pray to God the spirit ot God that is in you hears and an- 
 swers this prayer the same as if God in person were 
 to attend to it, and that you can thus seek and obtain 
 religion the same as if God were personally to attend to 
 you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Be 
 ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in 
 heaven is perfect. You can thus, I think, practice the 
 
ids 
 
 wcn-ks of God and grow in grace until this wicked spirit 
 will become almost, or quite, extinct. 
 
 But on the other hand, if you cultivate the evil spirit, 
 and neglect the good Spirit, you will grow in wicked- 
 ness, and it will eventually choke or destroy the good 
 Spirit. Then will be fulfilled that which is written 
 "My spirit shall not always strive with man." The 
 Spirit of God will take its everlasting flight, and that 
 man or that woman be given up to a state of eternal 
 reprobation. To make my position plainer I will state 
 that I believe there to be as many Gods and devils as 
 there are human beings, each man and each woman 
 possessing this mate principle of God and devil as 
 aforesaid. 
 
 And I further believe that a personal God or a person- 
 al devil has but very little to do with the salvation of 
 man in the one case, or his destruction in the other. I 
 will illustrate this a little. We will say that a man makes 
 a machine for the performance of any work whatever. 
 It is made after his own model and fashions the work 
 according to his own will. So I compare the plan of sal- 
 vation upon man, or for man to a machine that is con- 
 tinually going, and will shape Godliness if the person for 
 ■whom it is operating is willing or desirous that such 
 should be the case, and will come within prescribed 
 limits. But at the same time if they do not obey the 
 promptings of the Spirit, and will not come within pre- 
 scribed limits, it will shape their destruction or ruin ; it 
 chapes Godliness or ruin, heaven or hell so to speak, ac- 
 cording to the will of the person for whom it is operating. 
 
 God is desirous that it should shape Godliness or 
 Salvation for all, and impresses on them all to that effect; 
 but at the same time it Avill shape ruin should the per- 
 son for whom it is operating desire such, or even neglect 
 
134 
 
 to do his part. I will remind all that I believe this ma- 
 chine as is now running is shaping for every man and 
 woman in the land salvation or destruction — heaven or 
 hell as it were. How important it is then that we at- 
 tend to it and have it to shape for us, the thing we so 
 much need. This plan of Salvation, or machine as I 
 compare it to, is always and eternally going the same; 
 so that one can get religion at any time and any place as 
 well as another. Wherever you go this Spirit of God 
 is still with you, and oftentimes striving to win you over. 
 Although God is represented as being omnipotent and 
 omniscient, I think it would be quite a task for him to 
 attend personally to all the little things of this world. 
 I will remark here that according to the plan mention- 
 ed, I" believe it is worked according to his will as though 
 He were personally to attend to all these things; it is 
 only a way He has to work his will so to speak. A 
 machine that does work according to the will of the 
 owner, does not always require his presence in order to 
 do the work : so I think with the plan of salvation. I 
 will here remark that I do not believe that the two 
 Spirits, good and evil, can exist in union in man ; and 
 that they are therefore constantly battling for the as- 
 cendancy, and that eventually one or the other will 
 predominate to the utter exclusion of the other. 
 
 I think I have reasons for the believing as I do upon 
 this subject, and unless I had believed it, I should not 
 have put it forth. 
 
 Before closing this part of my subject I wish to make 
 a few remarks upon a subject that I have not treated 
 upon as fully as I wished. 
 
 The reader has doubtless noticed, at different times 
 and places through the book, where it is mentioned, 
 " things were revealed to me," "things were made 
 
135 
 
 known to mo, " &c. These terms are very nearly allied 
 to each other. Perhaps you may wish to know how 
 they were revealed or made known to me, as the caso 
 may be. When things of importance, and where they 
 required much length of time, were being revealed to 
 me, I was in a kind of a trance as has been elsewhere 
 stated; and I presume pretty much insensible to all 
 objects except the one in which I was immediately con- 
 cerned. At such times I don't suppose I moved a hand 
 or a foot in the time, but lay perfectly still. When 
 things were revealed to me or my mind enlightened on 
 any particular, there was no audible voice used. It 
 appeared to flow into my breast creating a perceptible 
 but not an unpleasant sensation. Though there was 
 no voice used I thought it was the plainest talking that 
 I had ever experienced. I don't recollect hearing any 
 sounds of a supernatural kind after the first night of 
 my call, except the cracking of the chair, hammer in 
 the distance, rapping at the door, and some others that 
 I heard upon one other occasion, but which I will not 
 mention here, inasmuch as I have not mentioned the 
 incident connected therewith. These lessons or revela- 
 tions as I have called them, would last probably half an 
 hour, or probably as long as an hour, whether longer or 
 shorter I can't tell. I only know that they were some- 
 times of pretty smart duration. But I think I have 
 many times been enlightened upon subjects when I wa3 
 not in trance as it were. These, though I think, were 
 always of short duration. I mean they were not long 
 in being made known to me. 
 
 With these remarks I leave this part of the subject 
 with the reader. 
 
130 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We now come to take our last view of the matter, 
 and in doing so I wish once more to urge upon you, my 
 countrymen, the great dangers by which we are now 
 surrounded as a nation and people, and the great im- 
 portance of putting a stop to this war in someway — by 
 going back into the Union if it can't be done in any 
 other way. I know this will sound badly to a great 
 many persons, but the two evils, going back into the 
 Union, or risking the chance of lighting through, are 
 now upon us, and one or the other of these two things 
 will eventually have to be done before these difficulties 
 can be settled. It is now too late to take steps to avoid 
 these difficulties. If our public men could now be back 
 at the starting point of these difficulties, with the expe- 
 rience that they now have, they would, I think take 
 more pains to avoid this war, but it is now too late. 
 The war is upon us, and certain it is that we can't long 
 exist as a nation, neither the North nor the South, in a 
 war carried on upon such a gigantic scale as the present 
 one is. 
 
 With the terrible blow that has already been stricken, 
 and with the prospect of future difficulties ahead, I think 
 it a deplorable case whether we succeed in building up 
 this Southern Confederacy, or whether we eventually 
 have to go back into the old Union: in either case both 
 sections of the country will be clad in mourning for ma- 
 ny days to come. I think of the two evils, we should 
 choose the less, and try and put an end to this terrible 
 civil war — this great and bloody struggle. 
 
 For the war threatens soon to rage with more fury 
 
1ST 
 
 than ever, and our young men of both sections Nvill 
 probably soon be cut down and scattered to and fro like 
 leaves driven by the Autumn wind. 
 
 We have a terrible foe of more than two to one to 
 contend against, besides a large floating population — I 
 mean emigrants coming from Europe and other coun- 
 tries; we have none. They also have a large and pow- 
 erful navy; we as good as none. They also have in 
 their possession and cut off from us together some of 
 our most fertile lands. And if under these circum- 
 stances we conquer, the God of battles, I think, must 
 certainly be with us. 
 
 As I said before it will be a bad case should we even- 
 tually have to go back in the old union, and it is I think 
 also a bad chance to risk the chance of fighting through 
 with this great odds against us. I think under the cir- 
 cumstances it becometh us as a philanthropic people, 
 to choose of the two evils the one that we consider best 
 for the present and rising generations, for time and for 
 eternit}'. I think under th* circumstances, we had best 
 put a stop to this war for the present by going back 
 into the Union ; and should, time demonstrate that we 
 can't live well together, let us separate by compromise ; 
 there is no need of having fighting about it. We have 
 territory enough for two great and powerful countries, 
 if our people would divide and settle it up, instead of 
 killing up each other in cruel wars. I will take occa» 
 sion to remark here that if our tariff and system of trade 
 to the North and to Europe had continued the same, 
 that I believe much would have been gained to the South 
 by peaceable secession. But at the same time, I be- 
 lieve by passing laws, some such as has already been 
 mentioned, and to a certain extent adopting a non in- 
 tercourse with the North, and doing our trade direct 
 
m 
 
 to Europ«, that ^11 the advantages of secession might 
 have heen secured to us, and we yet have remained in 
 the Union, and at the same time have created no un- 
 friendly feeling towards the Northern people, ©r at all 
 events no unfriendly feeling of a serious, nature. As 
 I have said elsewhere, I was for passing these laws not 
 as a retaliatory step towards the Northern people for 
 what they have done, but I think it was actually neces- 
 sary for our well being as a people. The North had 
 been getting too much of our substance, and I think 
 there should have been some way devised to put a stop 
 to it. 
 
 I will here remark again, that under the circum- 
 stances, I think it best to put a stop to this war by go- 
 ing back into the Union as aforesaid, for the following 
 reasons. In the first place, you will please permit me 
 to say again, that I do not believe the causes were jus- 
 tifiable of secession. In the second place, I do not think 
 secession was properly conducted ; if we chose to secede, 
 I think we should have done so by the popular vote. 
 In the third place, I do not think the institution of 
 slavery as it now exists, will do. to risk a revolution 
 upon. I say this notwithstanding I am the owner of 
 servants myself. And in the fourth and last place, I do 
 not believe we can accomplish what we have under- 
 taken to do. I therefore think we had best go back 
 into the Union, and go soon, for I see no use in holding 
 out, and having a great many of our young men kill- 
 ed up, and then eventually have to go back. I have 
 •been candid and sincere in speaking upon this subject 
 as I have, and if I have said any thing not agreeable to 
 the reader, I will inform him that it is the solemn dic- 
 tates of my bosom, founded upon things already mention- 
 ed, together with a desire of soon seeing the evils of war re- 
 
\to 
 
 ttVoved from our once happy country, that has prompted 
 me thus to spoak. So my friends let us try the North 
 once more. Let us see if this great party, the deir ocrat* 
 ic party at the Nor Eh, will do what they say they will 
 do. And should we eventually wish to get off, I have 
 not a doubt hut we can do so better at some future time* 
 and at i less sacrific* , both of life and property, than we 
 can at present. 
 
 It will be discovered that I have advised goin jr bacfc. 
 into the Union as the surest and Is est mode of putting a 
 stop to this wicked war. M} T arguments for this have al- 
 ready been mainly set forth, tt is evident that we can . 
 long exist as a nation, neither the North nor the South 
 if we thus keep on. I presume you have heard the story 
 oHhe Kilkenny cats, but in order to make sure of it, I 
 will relate it. It is said that a gentleman once caught 
 a couple of these cats, and after tying their tails togeth- 
 er, threw them across a pole. They commenced light- 
 ing and fought on until it is said there was only one 
 and a half inches of their tails left. So why must we, 
 the people of the North and the So^th verify this story 
 upon ourselves ? "Why must we wear each other out 
 before striking for a peace. These same difficulties will 
 at last be to settle. I presume we all would like to see 
 how this matter will terminate, but the way things are 
 now going on, I presume many of us will first have 
 gone to that home from whence no traveler returns. — 
 It seems evident that we can never achieve our liber- 
 ties, and get back our territory now in p >ase$sion of the 
 enemy, by force of arms. onls r by an aw'ul sacrifice 
 of life and property, oven if we do then ; and disas- 
 trous indeed will be the result should we persist in ma- 
 king this mighty effort and then eventually be crushed 
 in it. By going back in the Union both sections will 
 
140 
 
 lay down their arms, and the territory that has been 
 conquered from us, t and now in possession of the enemy, 
 will no doubt be restored to us. Then in a few yeawj 
 if things do not work together well, we can try this thing 
 again and come out in a body and likewise bring with 
 us the balance of our territory now in possession oi 
 the enemy. Should time demonstrate that the tw< 
 sections can't live together in union so as to be of mu 
 tual advantage to each other, I think it would be bad 
 policy in either section to desire a further union. But 
 let each side now lay down their arms, quit pushing 
 against each other, ^nd in my opinion the war will ceast 
 almost instantly. One side is pushing because the other 
 is pushing, and neither side I presume can hardly tell 
 what they are pushing about. 
 
 Again the .North now has much of the fairest portior 
 of our country in their possession — that portion tha 1 
 could be most depended on to support a war. These 
 fair portions are not only cut off from us, but the sol- 
 diers from these portions, and likewise many refugees 
 from the same section, are now among us, and have tc 
 be sustained by the thinner and less grain-growing 
 sections. In case of short crops and from other causes, 
 our people have in times of peace depended much on 
 the eastern part of the State for grain and other useful 
 commodities. How will we do now when this section 
 instead of being an advantage to us, is actually a dis- 
 advantage so far as provisions are concerned. Anc 
 upon top of this the major part of our working class is 
 now in the army ; so there are but comparatively fen 
 left behind to raise the necessaries of life. And farther, 
 it takes a great deal more to do soldiers in an army 
 than it would the same people at home. So if things 
 thus keep on, have we not a prospect ahead of a fam- 
 
141 
 
 ine — a very grievous famine, such as has not yet been in 
 all the land, and that before a great while ? Shall we 
 wait until these tilings come quite to our door before 
 making any arrangements to meet them ? Shall we, 
 like Mexico, (in the war with the United States) wait for 
 the enemy to fight quite through and conquer the whole 
 of our country before striking for a peace, or endeavor- 
 ing to bring about a reconciliation between the two sec- 
 tions ? So under these circumstances I think we had best 
 back clown and go back in the Union again, humiliating 
 as it may appear. And should we find it necessary to try 
 secession again, I think we should first go to work and 
 make necessary preparations, such as erecting the neces- 
 sary manufacturies among us, importing largely of the 
 necessaries of life, such as we can't raise, so that we might 
 live free and independent of other nations in a coming 
 strife, should we have one. 
 
 The effects of this war will be felt bad enough to wind 
 it up now without carrying it any farther. One having 
 a leg or an arm broken, for instance, suffers more with it 
 three or four days after it is done than right at the time 
 of the accident. So of this war. I think we will feel the 
 effects of it more a year or two hence than we do now. 
 
 From what I experienced above fourteen years ago I 
 have no more doubt but what God was dissatisfied with 
 slavery as it then existe 1 than I have of my own existence. 
 Whether or not he intends its final overthrow remains 
 yet to bo told. I was though principally impressed to- 
 wards them as regards to better treatment. And inas- 
 much as my mission was not completed I am unable to 
 say positively what disposition was intended to be made 
 of them. Taking every thing into consideration, and for 
 reasons already given, I am inclined to think that we had 
 
142 
 
 best keep them as they are, or at least until we get more 
 light upon the subject. I am though well aware that this 
 is no time to agitate the slavery question ; so I think we 
 had best attend to the condition of our country first and 
 try and stop this cruel war and bring about a peace bet- 
 ween the two sections and then attend to the servants 
 afterwards. 
 
 Taking all these things in consideration, together witli 
 the great haste with which the South acted, that resulted 
 first in secession, and from that to the war, I am inclined 
 to think that the Southern Confederacy cant long stand 
 upon its present foundation. My heart is filled with sad- 
 ness when I reflect upon the condition of our once happy 
 country. These things that I have stated are my solemn 
 convictions and while it is no pleasure for me to speak as 
 I have at many places done, I do so, truly hoping that the 
 worst may yet be averted from our once happy country. 
 I will state here that I have been looking fur something 
 of the kind ever since those important truths were made 
 known to me. It may be asked me if I were in posses- 
 sion of such knowledge as this why I did not makei'; 
 known sooner, or try and do something to avert the com- 
 ing difficulties. 
 
 One reason that I have not before given my experi- 
 ence to the world is that I have been constantly look- 
 ing forward, hoping that God would call rne to this great 
 work again. And as regards doing something to try 
 and avert the coming troubles I will state that I wrote 
 some pieces which I hoped at least would have had 
 some effect in avoiding a civil war, but I could not 
 get them published, from the fact I presume, that they 
 savored too strongly of Union sentiments. I did 
 what I could to avert a civil war notwithstanding 
 I somewhat thought there was a Divine object to be 
 
148 
 
 accomplished by it ; and if so, that I would be wrong 
 in saying or doinj; anything that would stop it, even if 
 I could, though half the nation were to get killed in it. 
 Notwithstanding this my philanthropic desires for my 
 ft l'owraan were such that I was for using my influence 
 if I had any for stopping this dreadful calamity. And I 
 would have use! still greater exertions had there been 
 any prospect ( f doing any good theieby; but seeing tha t 
 I could not eftect anything, I with sorrow shrank back, 
 feeling almost certain that there was immense trouble 
 ahead. 
 
 It seems that one might about as well have com- 
 manded the Maelstrom to stand still, or have attempt- 
 ed to dam up the waters of the mightly Mississippi as 
 to have tried to stop the secessionists in their mad career* 
 They rushed on from union to secession, from that to 
 war, and from that to ultimate ruin I may say, if thi s 
 war be not speedily closed, with a heedlessness that knew 
 no bounds. Now that they have learned a \esson by prac- 
 tical experience, they will probably be more cautious ill 
 the future. 
 
 Before closing this chapter 1 wish if possible to hn. 
 press on ihe reader that I am sincere and candid in 
 writing what I have ; that I have nq desire to deviate 
 from truth, neither to the right nor the left if I know it, 
 and that I . wish to speak nothing but what is really 
 true. 
 
 To prove that I had some idea of this war (either a 
 correct or an incorrect oik) I refer th% reader to the 
 following incident. 
 
 About the time the first volunteers were getting up> 
 and volunteering was popular, one of my friends and 
 relative! of Carthage was urging on me to volunteer. I 
 merely remarked to him that if every body knew what 
 
Hi 
 
 t did, there would not be a volunteer in the State, (thi s 
 1 am able to prove.) I promised him at some time or 
 other, I would give him my reasons for so speaking ; 
 I have not yet done so, but if I had, they would ha^e 
 been in the main, pretty much the same as is herein set 
 forth. • - 
 
 And further, to prove that these works (not relative 
 to the war) has been on me a good while, I refer to the 
 following. 
 
 I was in Norfolk, Virginia, in the summer of 1855, 
 during that dreadful scourge of yellow fever. I yet be- 
 lieving that God had some purpose in letting me live, 
 was not afraid in the least of taking the fever, and so 
 visited the sick and went about the streets whitherso. 
 ever my business called me, not feeling scared in the 
 least. 
 
 About this time as I was returning one evening to 
 my boarding house, I met one of the boarders coming 
 out of the house, who said to me that "Warren was very 
 sick, and of yellow fever as he supposed. Says he we 
 are leaving and I advise you to do the same. I was 
 though determined that the young man should not lay 
 there and die neglected in that way though it might be 
 yellow fever lie had, and so I went up into his room 
 and conversed with him and soon became satisfied that 
 it was not the yellow fever he had. I went down and 
 told the lady of the house that such a one of the boar- 
 ders was sick, what I thought was the matter with him 
 and what I thought would reli eve him if she would 
 have it done. She thinking it must be yellow fever and 
 8 ent off immediaty for a doctor; he soon came, went 
 up and examined the young man and pronounced it colic. 
 lie not having the necessary medcine with him, asked 
 me if I would go down to the drugstore and get it for 
 
145 
 
 him; I told him I would, I went and got the medi- 
 cine, he gave it to him and the young man was soon 
 well. Warren told me afterwards that, had it not been 
 for me he thought, he should have died as he could not 
 have stood it long in that condition. 
 
 There was another one of my acquaintances in town 
 very sick. I went in to sec him. As soon as I went 
 in he held out his hand to me, hut he was speechless. 
 I took him by the hand and remained with him a short 
 time. lie died soon after 1 left the room. 
 
 I came very near remaining and being of all the 
 service that I could to the sick. At that time as the 
 number of new cases was fast decreasing it was thought 
 that the Fever would soon die out. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, I, being on expenses, and out of employ- 
 ment, concluded to leave the city. I went about 
 eighty miles into the country and there took up for 
 the time. Soon after leaving, the fever broke out 
 with increased violence; how my heart yearned for 
 these people ! It was the works that I had experienced 
 in the spring of 1848 that caused me thus to be fearless 
 in the midst of the yellow Fever. Therefore I had 
 no fears of being taken with sicklies unto death, and 
 never had better health than during my sojourn among 
 the Fever. So if I risk my life I wish it to be in do- 
 ing good to my fellow man, like Howard the good, and 
 not in cruel and wicked wars. 
 
 Before closing, perhaps the reader may wish to know 
 a little of my own case. I will state that I have never 
 yet joined any church-; and what is a great deal worse 
 I have backsliden and sined in the sight of heaven and 
 against Divine light. I think it is owing to some of these 
 sins, together with againgt remisness of duty, that the 
 work has never been renewed. I will here remark 
 7 
 
146 
 
 that there is a very important thing* connected with 
 this 'work that I have totally neglected. It has not 
 been treated on in this work from the fact that I first. 
 want more light upon it before making it public. 
 It is one of those four or five things omitted, that was 
 made known to me during the first night of raj call. 
 It is of such a nature that I shall first probably have 
 to go to Europe or Asia and then perhaps learn a lan- 
 guage before it can be accomplished. This work is of 
 an inseperable nature as it were, and is such that it 
 seems that the balance that I experienced cant avail 
 much without it and though it was fourteen years the 
 28th of last March since my call I have done nothing 
 with it yet, and so far as I know this business remains 
 as it was the first night of my call. 
 
 I have resolved though as soon as circumstances will 
 permit to take some preparatory steps towards accom- 
 plishing this thing, but then, if the spirit of God be not 
 placed on me it will all avail nothing. 
 
 To prove that I have been under the influence of 
 God, and that it is that influence that has caused me to 
 Wfite the present work, I will mention one other inci- 
 dent. 
 
 Some six or eight months, or perhaps longer, I can't 
 tell the exact time, after my call, I wrote oil" a history 
 of my experience, &c, pretty much as is herein set forth ? 
 and have it now in manuscript, but in writing the pres- 
 ent, I wished to be a little more particular in giving the 
 details, and so in writing this I never so much as once 
 looked at my old manuscript. 
 
 These things are now abont as plain in my mind as 
 the day they happened. Nothing else I think but the 
 power of God could have impressed' them so indelibly 
 up< n me. 
 
147 
 
 I will state ftere that at the time of my call and pre- 
 vious thereto, I eiijoyetl universal cheerfulness a;id saw, 
 I presume, as much pleasure as a most any young man 
 a going. But since that time my Jteart lias been sad, 
 ami 1. have suffered mucli remorse of conscience in con- 
 sequence of the famireof this work, and many a. bit- 
 ter moment liave # I s'penj concerning it both by day and 
 by night. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, bf England, when on her death bed 
 
 id to have exclaimed "millions and mil-l.i ^._ _ ^ 
 
 foi r one inch pf.time." So would I give fnilli Jp^» r 
 
 mi llii ins if I had them, if I could onlV be back S£e D <^T a 
 
 5 ? o o 
 places where I erred. Ah! worlds itself o ^ = §* 3 
 
 in comparison, and I would freely giv S £ o 
 
 o 
 
 I had them, were 1 b one of (hose place! K.*-*B -• 3 
 
 erred, that 1 miarht shape my course of anew. «. ' s? » 
 
 I will now soon conclude, and before doi c ^^ ° 
 
 to say one more word to you, my country ^ o 5-J^w 
 
 endeavored to set forth in an impartial \ xT © S- ^ 
 
 cause of our sectional troubles, audi haveal I 
 
 ored to show that it' we are in an error, we n 
 
 expect heaven to crown our efforts. 
 
 I have also given it as my opinion, thai un 
 
 
 ■s it would be best cor us to {])■■•<> ^ j§ ^ £ 
 our arms and go immediately back into the fi p-S'f"© 
 have air- 'en my arguments concerning t ** o» j* 
 
 now my friends, I submit it to youi fs 5'g 
 judgment fory m to decide as you may think b § ~ % a 
 I ma}- have said many things in the foregoii ®~ n | 
 not pleasing to my reader.., but they will .» 5 » c 
 pardon me 1 ing, when I inform them tlj ** 
 
 I have said upon this en with a desire of 
 
 discharging* duty that I think I owe to my God and 
 fellow man,, and that I have desired to speak nothing 
 what 1 rictly true. 
 
148 
 
 Seems like I can't well end this important subject 
 without onee more repeating that I desire soon to see 
 peace and contentment reign throughout the entire 
 length and breadth of our land, and that it may soon 
 blossom and teem with happiness and the blessing of 
 God, as the rose. Yea, that our sectional troubles may 
 soon be settled peaceably, honorably and fairly, that 
 peace and good will may soon reign throughout our 
 entire land, and that the shadow of the most high God 
 may rest upon us as a nation and people, and upon the 
 whole world, is the sincere desire of oiie who wishes 
 you well. 
 
 THE END. 
 
■*--?:• 
 
 APPENEIX. 
 
 (1.) It is said that only 10,000 votes were cast for 
 members to the State Convention that passed South 
 Carolina out of the Union ; 10,000 out of 60,000. It 
 is easy to see why the secessionists were unwilling to 
 ratify or reject the ordinance at the polls. — Semi- Weekly 
 Observer, January 28th, 1861. 
 
 Note. — The date at the bottom of the following refer- 
 ences shows the date of the Fayetteville Semi- Weekly 
 Observer, in which these references may be found, unless 
 otherwise mentioned. The date may also be under- 
 stood to be 1861, unless otherwise mentioned. 
 
 (2.) An Act passed by the General Assembly con- 
 cerning the Convention that was voted for on the 28th 
 of February, 1861— 
 
 Section 10. Be it further enacted, That no ordinance 
 of this Convention shall have any force or validity un- 
 til it shall have been ratified by a majority of the qual- 
 ified voters for members of the General Assembly, to 
 whom it shall be submitted according to the mode pre- 
 scribed for elections of members to the House of Com- 
 mons, the assent or dissent of the people hereto being 
 expressed, as in preceding sections of this act. — Feb. 4. 
 
150 
 
 (&) Washington, April 8tb. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN COMMISSIONERS NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE 
 SECRETARY OE STATE. 
 
 The state department replied to-day to the note of 
 the commissioners from the Confederate States, declin- 
 ing to receive them in an official capacity, but express- 
 ing deference for them as gentlemen. — Obr.file. 
 
 (4.) If the correspondent of the xTew York Herald is 
 to he believed, there is doubtless a force off Charleston 
 ere this, and the change of policy which, leads to this is 
 the refusal of General Beauregard to allow of an evac- 
 uation of Fort Sumter, and a demand of the humilia- 
 tion of a regular surrender, as of an army in an actual 
 state of war. 
 
 If this this be so, it is. plain that the Confederate 
 States will not allow of peace. And the world will 
 hold them responsible for the horrible civil war which 
 will result. All that they ought to expect of a great 
 and proud people is the simple evacuation of the fort. 
 This is all that their necessities or their national honor 
 requires. And in demanding humiliation and dishonor 
 they go a step beyond the most extreme feeling of con- 
 ciliation. — April 11th. 
 
 (5.) We hear that it is stated on all hands, even in 
 Charleston, that the only thing in the way of the evacua- 
 tion of Fort Sumter, was the requirement that its garri- 
 son should surrender as prisoners of war — a monstrous 
 demandfromthosewhoprofesstoseek peace, as a condi- 
 tion precedent to the departure of the troops of a gov- 
 ernment at peace with them, from a fort belonging to 
 that government. — April 15th. 
 
151 
 
 (6.) General Beauregard refused to receive the fort 
 
 as a surrender to South Carolina, but that it must be 
 
 given up to the Southern Confederacy and the officers 
 
 ' surrender themselves as prisoners of war, otherwise he 
 
 will take the fort, — April Slh. 
 
 (7.) "When the government, determined to order !M 
 Anderson out of the fort, it was on the condition that 
 
 the property in it should not he molested hut allowed 
 to remain as it was. The authorities of the Confeder- 
 ate States would not agree to this, hut manifested a dis- 
 position to get | ion of the fort and the property 
 therein. The government would not submit to such 
 humiliation, was immediately determined to keep 
 Maj. Anderson in the fort. — Obscrccr file. Dale not re- 
 cbllecti d. 
 
 (8.) Tt is believed that Maj. Anderson was ordered to 
 leave with the remainder of his command in the usual 
 way of detailing officers and men to differentposte, but 
 Cen. Beauregard was not willing to have a government 
 steamer come into Charleston harbor and takeaway his 
 enemy. 1 le wauteda surrender of the fort. — April lo/A, 
 
 (0.) The ball opened last night. Lieut, (now Capt.) 
 Talbot Onitcd States Army, accompanied by .Mr. \i. 
 S. GheWj arrived in Charleston and took quarters at the 
 Charleston hotel. 
 
 lie gave the authorities an official notification from 
 the Lincoln government that Fort Sumter would bo 
 visioneo bly if practicable — forcibly if neces- 
 
 sary; He d|d not visit Fori Sumter, (beingl think de- 
 nied thai privili returned to "Washington by the 
 
 late train. So the war is at last declared.- (/< 
 ury.*—( A r ril 11th, 
 
152 
 
 (10.) April, 11th. I am informed "by a member of 
 the Cabinet that the steamers to Charleston carried no 
 arms and no men, but only a supply of provisions for 
 the government at Fort Sumter. I am also informed 
 that Gov. Pickens was notified that such was the object 
 of the steamer sent.— Special to Petersburg Express. — Ob- 
 server, April 15th. 
 
 Note. — I think the above must be an error. These 
 Steamers to Charleston, I think evidently went armed, 
 with the intention of first trying to provision the fort 
 peaceably and if that were resisted, they were then pre- 
 pared to use force, but if I am not wrongly informed, 
 the Lincoln government had informed the authorities 
 at Charleston that no provisions nor any thing of the 
 kind would be sent to Fort Sumter without first notify- 
 ing the authorities at Charleston of the fact. This seems 
 to have been done by Capt. Talbot and Mr. Chew. 
 
 (11.) Secession was spoken of in South Carolina, be- 
 fore it was known that Lincoln was elected, and when 
 it was known in Charleston that he was elected, there 
 was rejoicing over it. So they appeared to be seeking 
 a cause for secession, rather than secession for a cause. — 
 March 14//;, 
 
 (12.) SPOILING FOR A FIGHT. - 
 
 The Washington correspondent of the Charleston 
 Mercury (himself at the safe distance of five hundred 
 miles,) writes as follows to that paper. 
 
 Had a timely collision been had at Fort Sumter, Vir- 
 ginia and the rest might now havebeen with vou. In- 
 activity is not always masterly. — February 25th. 
 
153 
 
 (lo.) ' COERCION. 
 
 A Keutuekian writes from Memphis to the Louisville'' 
 
 Journal of the state of tilings there, and says, union 
 men claim a majority. He closes his letter with the 
 following significant incident : 
 
 It was but .yesterday that I was questioned on the 
 street in presence of several gentlemen as to the posi- 
 tion that Kentucky would occupy, ley two ofthe mem- 
 bers of the late seceding convention of Mississippi, re- 
 turning by this poinj to their homes on the Mississippi 
 river. I answered that I thought Kentucky would ad- 
 here to the tJnioti. The reply was, then we will drag 
 her out, and Maryland and Virginia and JSTorth Carolina 
 and Tcunessc.) all, if it be necessary. 
 
 How will you do so, was 1hc demand ? 
 
 Why all of these States have declared that coercion 
 should not be used towards the seceding States. We 
 will make a demonstration against Fort Sumter and 
 Fort Pickens. At the first shot wc will cry coercion 
 and at the first cry of coercion we shall have all these 
 Katies.— February 21st: 
 
 (14.) Gov. Gist has sent his lasi'mcssage to the Leg- 
 islature, at its close he says: 
 
 The delay of the Convention for a single week to pass 
 the ordinance of secession v ill have a blighting and 
 chilling influence upon the action of the other Southern 
 States, and the opponents of the movement will be en- 
 couraged to make another effort to rally their now dis- 
 organized and scattered forces to defeat our action and 
 to stay our onward man!]. 
 
 Fabius conquered by delay, and there are those of 
 his school, though with a more unworthy purpose, who, 
 shrinking from an open and maid}- attack, use this vail 
 
154 
 
 to hide their deformities and from a masked battery 
 discharge their missiles. But I trust they will strike., 
 the armor of truth and fall harmless at our feet, and 
 that before the 25th of December no flag but the Pal- 
 metto will float over any part of South Carolina. — 
 Weekly Observer, December 11th, 18G0. 
 
 (15.) Do not distrust Virginia. As sure as to-mor- 
 rows sun will rise upon us, just so sure will old Vir- 
 ginia be a member of this Southern Con f .-de racy. And 
 I will tell 3'ou gentlemen, what will put her in the 
 Southern Confederation id less than an hour by Shrews-? 
 bury clock. Strike a blow. The very moment that 
 blood is shed old Virginia will make common cause with 
 lief 'sisters' 'of the. South. — Boner A. iPri/or, April 15//i. 
 
 (1G.) Judge John Robertson was sent as a commis- 
 sioner to South Carolina. 
 
 After-hearing Judge Robertson, the'Lcgi Mature adop- 
 ted among others the following resolutions: 
 
 Unsolved unanimously, That the candor which is duo 
 to the long continued simpathy and respect which has 
 subsisted between Virginia and South Carolina, induces 
 tins General Assembly to declare with frankness that 
 they do not deem it advisable to initiate negociations 
 when they have no desire or intention to promote the 
 ultimate object in view, that object is declared in the 
 resolutions of the legislature to be the procurement 
 of new guarantees to the Constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 Resolved unanimously, That iho, separation of the State 
 of South Carolina from the Federal Union is final, and 
 she has no farther interest in the Constitution of the 
 United States, and that the only appropriate negoeia- 
 
I oo 
 
 tions between her and the federal government are : 
 mutual relation as foreign States. — F ilh. 
 
 Nate. — It will be recollected that Judge Rober 
 was sent as,a commissioner by the State of Virginia to 
 South Carolina for ihe purpose, it seems, of bringing 
 about a reconciliation betweetr the two sectioBSi by hav* 
 ing new guarantees inserted in the Constitution — giving 
 tl 10 Soulh their rights, or in other words that, she should 
 not change lier status or standing towards the general 
 government, but wait and <;ive tune as it were, lor ob- 
 taining these guaranties, when the above was the re- 
 sult. 
 
 (17.) ' THE WAR TOLICY. 
 
 It is not the general governmant that has pro], 
 or desired coercion as is falsely pretended but the dis- 
 unionists themselves. The administration has acted on 
 the defensive. All the nets of war have proceeded 
 from the capture of the forts, arsenals and navy yards 
 in Xorlh and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 
 sissippi, Louisiana ami Florida,, from those who li red on 
 the stars and stripes in Charleston harbor, and those 
 are now investing forts Sumter end Pickens. They 
 want war in the hope that all the South may thus be 
 ed into disunion. In this spirit the Charleston 
 ary publishes the following extract from a letter 
 from Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 The only thing thai can save us and unite the whole 
 
 h is the capture of Fort Sumter before the end of 
 
 till is month. This will bring all Virginia to arms and 
 
 the border States will follow her. Tl . as much 
 
 as I d&plorc bl 1 1 must advise prompt action. — 
 
ou 
 
 (18) CHARLESTON MERCURY ON JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 
 
 Mr. Crittenden is full of lamentations on the fall of 
 the Union. In Congress and out of Congress— on the 
 hustings and in the Senate — the Union is the theme of 
 his laudation, and its destruction the burden of his woes, . 
 yet there is not a man alive — not Seward, nor Lincoln 
 nor Greely — who has done more to dissolve the union 
 than the lion. John J. Crittenden. 
 
 lie has never respected the people of the South, and 
 therefore, has always counseled their submission to- 
 ^Northern insolence and aggression. He has all these , 
 lively hopes which spring from contempt. He has ever* 
 been,, however unintentionally, one of the deadliest en- 
 emies of the South.— February Hh. 
 
 (19.) I have been engaged in this movement ever 
 since I entered public life. We have carried the army 
 of this union to its last resting place, and now we will 
 drop the flag over its grave.— Kcitt f South Carolina. — • 
 January 28th. • 
 
 (20.) The Washington correspondent of the Rich- 
 mond Dispatch uses the following language. Lincoln 
 threatens war because he knows his hands are tied. 
 War is not the thing we ought to fear. Peace is our 
 destruction ; war our salvation. — March 2J.st. 
 
 (21.) Columbia, November loth. 
 
 Mr. Kcitt was serenaded last night at midnight, and 
 made an exciting speech, urging prompt action : 
 
 He said, President Buchanan was pledged to seces-. 
 sion, and would be held to it. -South Carolina would' 
 shatter the accursed union. If she could accomplish 
 its destruction in no other way she would throw her 
 
157 
 
 arms around the pillars of the Constitution and involve 
 the States in a common ruin. — November 15th, 1860. 
 
 (22.) The secessiou of South Carolina is not an event 
 of a day. It is not an}' thing produced by Lincolns 
 election, or hy the non Intervention of the iugitive slave 
 law. It has been a -matter which has been gathering 
 heapl for the last thirty years. — lihctte of South Carolina, 
 January 28//;. 
 
 (23.) There was,J[ think, another gentleman, a 
 member of the South Carolina Convention, who said 
 that he had been working for a dissolution of the Un- 
 ion for the last forty years. It not bcim* convenient to 
 refer to the paper giving an account of this, I think 
 proper to with hold His name, but if you will examine 
 the Observer tile for the last of I860 and first of 18G1, 
 you wjjl be apt to bring him. 
 
 24.) It appears as soon as it was known that Lieut. 
 James Jewet was about to leave Pensaeola the State 
 authorities of Florida ordered him to be arrested, and 
 would not permit him to depart unless upon his parole 
 of honor that he would never take up arms against 'the 
 State of Florida. The document was truly drawn and 
 presented to the Lieutenant, who accepted it as the on- 
 ly means oJ' escape from prison. "Without this docu- 
 ment he could not have passed through the State. — 
 February 1th. 
 
 By this it seems they anticipated war. But I think 
 it would have been time enough to parole after hostili- 
 ties had commenced. 
 
lob 
 
 [~o.) The Richmond Enquirer advises the seizure of 
 Washington City, with all the government buildings, 
 with Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort, and that the 
 President should give up all the forts before MarcB;— 
 December 2Uli. 
 
 (26.) Governor Curtin announced to day to the Leg- 
 islature that President Lincoln had written to him that 
 he was informed of a design to attack Washington City. 
 April llth. 
 
 (27.) Monigpmery] Ala.— President Davis and Secre- 
 tary of War, Walker were serenaded at the Exchange 
 hotel. The latter was called out and said that the 
 Confederate flag would soon be waving over fort Sum- 
 ter and from the Federal Copitol at Washington City, 
 if the Independence of the Confederate States is not 
 recognized, and hostilities continue. — April 15th. 
 
 m 
 
 (28.) It is seriously believed at Washington and the 
 Northern cities that the Southern Confederacy is col- 
 lecting an army of about 25,000 for a descent upon 
 Washington City and the North Generally. It is said 
 that Ben McCulloch has been making enlistments in 
 Virginia for the same purpose. — Observer file. 
 
 (20.) WARLIKE THREATS AT MONTGOMERY 
 
 On Friday night after the news of the commencement 
 of the bombardment had been received President Davis 
 and Secretary Walker were serenaded. General Davis 
 was too unwell to appear, and a speech was made by 
 Secretary Walker, He said, no man could tell where 
 the war this day commenced would end, but he would 
 prophjsy that the flag which now ffaunts to the breeze 
 
159 
 
 here would float he dom&ofjhe old Qnmtol at Wash- 
 
 ington befoi-i of May. Let them try Southern 
 
 chivalry and test tbe.extei lithern resources, and 
 
 it might float -eventually in Boston o Hall 
 
 itself. — Brother Jonathan. — iVi . • York, April -0/A. 
 
 (30.) Six-President Filraorewas for a convention to 
 separate peaceably if the difficulties could not be adjus- 
 ted. — Obserc\ r file. 
 
 (31;) There was a vq thai tried ro gel hold 
 
 oil Wendell Phillip's., I abolitionist, in 
 
 i 'mis! nil.- -Di 
 
 (8k£) NEW YOB I :mx. 
 
 They oppose coercion, favor Crittenden's compro- 
 mise, exhort all men to unite witli them in submitting 
 that compromise to a vote o[' the people of the States; 
 exhort all seceui;, to^relYain from acts of ag- 
 
 gression or any course calculated to plunge the nation 
 into civil war, and urge upon the non slave holding 
 States to use their influence with their brethren South 
 to that end. — Albany, February, 1st, 18G1. — Ob, 
 
 '.) The fugitive slave law has times more than once 
 caused free ns of color of the North to be sent into 
 
 slavery. — JS es. — Observer, January lOl 
 
 (34.) And if a man ye of his Bervant or 
 
 i'his maid that it peri ',. ; he shall let him go 
 free tbf hi - ; e 1 
 
 And if he smite out bis man servants tooth or his 
 maid servants tooth ; he hall let him go free for his 
 tooth's sake. Ex. :,:: : . 26, 27. 
 
100 
 
 Then if a servant should have his liberty given him 
 for the loss of an eye, <*r so* small a member as a tooth, 
 how much more should he have his liberty given him 
 when lie has been whipeel for sooth almost to death. 
 There has been almost every degree of punishment in- 
 flicted in these Southern States. Some have been whiped 
 until it has caused their death ; others so as to be on the 
 verge of death; and others so as to be bed-ridden for 
 several weeks. These cases though, as elsewhere men- 
 tioned, are exceeding rare ; and I do not wish to create 
 the impression that they are, so far as my knowledge 
 goes, any thing else but very rare, being scarcely 
 witnessed in a life time .in this section. 
 
 The suffering caused by the loss of an eye, or so 
 small a member as a tooth, must be small in comparison 
 to what is sffered in one of those brutish whippings; 
 Whilst I consider such treatment as unnecessary to 
 enforce obedience, I look upon it as savage and inhuman, 
 unbecoming a civilized nation. I there forest h ink there 
 should be laws passed such as would insure their 
 general good treatment. 
 
 It may be argued that laws have already been passed 
 inmost if not all of the slave States respecting the 
 treatment of servants; so there have been. But is there 
 much more attention paid to these laws than if they 
 had not been passed? Is it not very rarely, almost 
 never I might say, that we hear of any one being re- 
 ported for mistreatment of his servants, whereas inst- 
 ances of mistreatment do some times take place. But 
 until a law is passed to fine heavily our Sheriffs, 
 Magistrates and even private citizens, if they even know 
 of such an instance of mistreatment and fail to report 
 it, we need not expect to see the requisitions of such a 
 law carried out. Notwithstanding such may.be on the 
 several statute books of all the slave States, there will 
 be but little more attention paid to them than if they 
 were not there, without gome such a provision as has 
 been mentioned. But by having a law that the owner 
 should forfeit the freedom of his servant mistreated, 
 and then fined about $1,000 into the bargain, one half 
 to the informer, the other half to the State, I think the 
 evil could be effectually broken up. 
 
161 
 
 These laws passed, we might then I flunk, expeet 
 soon to see these few exceptions to good treatment 
 effectually done away with. 
 
 (35.) And if thy brother that dwell eth by thee he 
 waxen po'flr and be sold unto thee, thou shall not com- 
 pel him to serve as a bond servant. 
 
 But as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall 
 be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of 
 jubilee: 
 
 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his 
 children with him, and shall return unto his own family, 
 and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 
 
 For they arc my servants which I brought forth but 
 of tlic land of Egypt; tlicy shall not be sold as bend- 
 men. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but 
 shalt fear thy God. 
 
 Both thy bondmen, and tlry bondmaids, which 
 thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round 
 about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bond- 
 maids. 
 
 Moreover of the children of strangers that do sojourn 
 among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families 
 that af^ with you, which tlicy begat in your land; and 
 they shall he your possession. 
 
 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your 
 
 children after you, to inherit them for a possession; 
 
 they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your 
 
 brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one 
 
 c another with^rigor. Lev. xxv. 39 — 46, 
 
 (•> '>.) Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the 
 servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. 
 ;. xxiii. 1"». 
 
 .) Among other laws that Lycurgus introduced 
 
162 
 
 into Sparta was one, that a man's daughters should in- 
 herit no part of their father's estate, but that it should 
 be divided equally among his sons. Being called upon 
 to explain the object of this curious law, he said: 
 ''The young men in making matches would not Then 
 be choosing for property, but would go for worth and 
 merit." It would also seem to tend to prevent the 
 sexes from leading lives of the unnatural state of 
 celibacy, for they frequently keep picking aiid choosing 
 for property, until they pick through and get nobody. 
 
 (38.) Theprogrcss ofthencgro race in theSlave States 
 is remarkable and unexampeled. At 'the year of our in- 
 dependence, there were in all of the thirteen origional 
 States, composing the then Federal Union, but litrjo 
 more than 600,000 slaves — twelve of these being slave 
 States. . Of those, seven became afterward free States, 
 leaving out of the' thirteen, to the South, but five. Yet 
 there is at the South to-day a slave population of between 
 four-and-a-half and five millions of slaves; happier and 
 better cared for in physicial and spiritual relation, 
 than any other equal numbers of industrial classes upon 
 the face of the globe. iSTay, but the slaves are generally 
 in every element of utility, respectability, and*refme- 
 ment, far in advance of the free negroes of the slave 
 States even. " As to a free negro hiring himself out for 
 plantation labor," writes Mr. Lewis, seventeen years 
 before the act ofBritish emancipation, "no instance of 
 such a thing was ever known in Jamaica; and probably 
 no price,however great, would be considered by them as 
 a sufficient temptation." And the same is true of the 
 free negro everywhere. In 1839, one year after the 
 act of emancipation, the exportation of sugar from the 
 . sland of Jamaica had fallen off 8,460 hogsheads, while 
 
103 
 
 the exportation of coffee, in the ir,had deceased 
 
 38,554 hundreds weight — almost one-third of the wliole 
 amount of the preceding year. Between 184.6 and 
 1853, there were one hundred and, sixty^eight s 
 
 ■ wholly abandoned, and sixty- three partially — 
 valued thee years after the emancipation at nearly eight 
 and a half millions of dollars. Of Coffee plantations, 
 there were twenty ] . and two hundred and 
 
 twenty-three completely, deserted; — valued in the i 
 year at $2,500,000; while of grazing farms, there were 
 one hundred and thirty two totally or partially i 
 ken valued at about a million and a half of dollars— ma- 
 king a grand total, in seven years, of over six hundred es- 
 tates, relinquished to barbarism and decay, and valued 
 forty years ago at nearly #13,000,000. iYcw,aecording to 
 John Bigelow, one of the editors of the New York 
 
 'rig Post, •'.' the finest land in the world may be 
 had at any price and almost for the asking. Labor 
 
 . esno compensation ; and the product of labor 
 
 not seem to know how to find the way to market." 
 .Inch once were, worth $2,000 per annum, do 
 not now yield the value ofthe cultivation. The busy< 
 lnjmofthe^millsandiQaaclHneryofcapitalisI a Ll -need 
 in .Jamaica. The free negroos,iu sloth and idlenessfbasfc 
 in the sunshine, upon what were formely the planta- 
 tions of their masters. "While the intrepid Englishman 
 
 ing his life beneath a burning sun, the n 
 lives by stealing, or carrying away as a matter of course 
 the yamswhichgrowspontanoous'ly upon theplaut 
 of the tbrmer. Where were formerly the racecourse 
 audi !'c — whereth indhappy 
 
 larket-pl ace — there are to-day ruin 
 and devolution ; rats and negroes dii puting their r< 
 tive claims to r sovereignty, and nettles and ivy 
 
 ornamenting the site of public buildi 
 
164 
 
 Even British Guiana— once the garden of gardens- 
 has become a wild forest again— swamps andwildbeasts 
 have taken the place of cultivation and civilized man. 
 All along the bank of the Demarara river, before 
 emancipation blossoming like the rose and covered with 
 plaintains and coffee, there are now misery, desolation, 
 broken bridges, and impassible roads. Essequibo, and 
 its once famous Arabian coast, formerly the boast of 
 British colonists, is now almost a desert waste. And 
 the fate of Berbice is no better.' Of its 18,000 black 
 inhabitants,twelve thousand have degenerated to a con- 
 dition of pure savagism, and withdrawn from all indus- 
 trial pursuits in ignorence and idleness. In 1829, the 
 district on the west bank of the Berbice river, gave em- 
 ployment to nearly four thousand slaves ; whereas there 
 are hardly five hundred persons employed there now. 
 The whole is rapidly becoming one vast swamp; and, to 
 use the .language of the historian, Alision : " the negroes, 
 who in a state of slavery were comfortable and prospe- 
 rous beyond any peasantry in the world, and rapidly 
 approaching the condition of the most opulent serfs in 
 Earoye, have been by the act of emancipation irretrievably 
 consigned tobarbarism." 
 
 The same may be said of Hayti,once the pride of the 
 ocean nowapolitieal curse and social ulcer, with the 
 monstrous tragedy of which the reader cannot be unao- 
 quainted. Robespierre,Danton,Brissot,and other blood- 
 hounds and incarnate devils,of the French Revolution, 
 calling themselves Amis des Mis, and anticipating the 
 Beeehers, Sewards, Garrisons, Ptiillipses, and Parkers, 
 of the North, stimulated the negroes of this unfortunate 
 Island into a servile and barbarous insurrection. The a- 
 trocities which ensued are without a parallel in the most 
 diabolical annals of crime. " The victorious slaves," 
 
165 
 
 says Alison in his " History of Europe," — " marched 
 with spiked infants on their spears instead of colors, 
 and sawed assunder the male prisoners. And when 
 this demonical work of unutterable brutality. in the dra- 
 ma of Hay ti en "liberty "• was completed — what follow- 
 ed? The sugar exported from this Island in thSyear 1789 
 amounted to 672,000,000 pounds. In 180G, seventeen 
 years after, the exportation had fallen to 47,616,531 
 pounds. Nineteen years later, in 1825, the exporta- 
 tion of sugar from ITayti was 2,020 pounds', aud .in 
 seven years more it had entirely erased ! Thus by giv- 
 ing freedom to Hayticn negroes, in the short space of 
 forty-three years, humanity and civilization, were de- 
 prived, in the aggregate, of 28,896,000,000 pounds of 
 sugar ond the Queen-Island of the seas relinquished to 
 barbarism, desolation, brutal licentiousness, and crime 
 in every hideous form. In a condition of slavery, the 
 the negro may prove himself to be a most useful inter- 
 esting, and affectionate animal ; but he will not work 
 without a master. The experiment of Joshua R. Gid- 
 dings — the most generous and sincere of all American 
 abolitionists— exemplifies this. He had a large tract 
 of land settled by negroes, upon each of whom he be- 
 stowed a portion of it, with all of the implements nec- 
 essary to the farmer. In a few years the village was 
 deserted, the land remained waste and uncultivated, 
 • and Mr. Giddiugs was constrained to confess that his 
 black Eutopia was but a fond and idle dream. — Cause 
 and Contrast, pp. 87-91. 
 
 Note To prove farther that the Blacks that arc in 
 servitude are in a happier and better condition than 
 their free brethren North or South are in I refer to the 
 following. 
 
 In 1800 there were in the United Slates 1,087,359, 
 
166 
 
 free blades arc only $93,041 slaves. In 1851, the slave 
 population of the Southern States was 3,204,287, and 
 the free black population of the whole .United States 
 was only 4-34,495 and or' these there resided over half 
 in the Slave States. The eras while the slave 
 
 population has been increasing without scarcely a par- 
 eill in history, the free black "lias been decreasing as 
 fast for it. This does not argue well in. favor of e- 
 maneipation. 
 
 (39.) The husbandman that Jabor'eth must first be 
 partaker of the fruits, ii Tim. ih 6. 
 
 Although it does not mention servants in the above 
 text I think it is cvedint thatdf the Husbandman that la- 
 boreth should receive of the first fruits, the servant that 
 hiboreth should be allowed to partake of at least the 
 common stock. 
 
 (40.) People being so ready to engage in wars and 
 battles reminds me of a piece that I was once reading 
 which I will here relate. 
 
 There were once two soldiers that "had a falling out. 
 One sent the other a challenge to fight a duel. The 
 one challenged declined accepting. The other one 
 taunted him with the name coward. The soldies also 
 soon took a part in it and thinking that the man that 
 shows fight under any and eveiy occasion is the man 
 they too taunted this other gentleman with the name, 
 coward. So he soon -came to be look upon and poin- 
 ted at by all as a coward. At last this epithet became 
 rather familiar to our friedd. So one eveningwhilst he 
 was in a room with a good many of his fellow soldiers 
 upon some of them taunting him again with his rather 
 familiar name hesays to them : Gentlemen I will see who 
 of you will dare true bravery. So saying ho pulled 
 out a hand grenade and held the fuse to a candle until 
 it had lighted; he then threw it on the floor. There 
 
was immediately a general stampede for the door, and 
 ^^ei^huiMytogetont'agOodinattjw^reprecipatedand 
 knocked down ; so there was for awhile at the door a 
 complete mass ofcrawlie. bout WOi The 
 
 door though was after awhile cleared and they all out 
 Stnd -one. Our friend sriij stood over the grenade with 
 Hie arm a folded. Atlaethcarmg the ex] i heyranin 
 
 0xpedting to rind him torn in pieces ; but they found 
 lnm there with Jiis arms still folded sale am! ' sound. 
 He remarked that if he risked his llfe,he wished it to be 
 where- there was a. prospect pfits doing some good, 
 as in defense of his country wheirwron . or in 
 
 •personal defense. Sutas-forfightiug duels he did not de- 
 sire thus needlessly- to kill nor to be killed. After thia 
 they did not taunt him any more .'is being a coward. 
 
 There is a moral in the above to which I wish to call 
 attention of the reader. You have doubtless 
 noticed that il is not always the man t! 
 Jiil(l ma! - ay with words that ia 
 
 ahva > requently 
 
 do much harm by a display of their malignant di 
 Bitions, . which are more quarj 
 
 frequently pul oiiea to fighl 
 
 But were I going to pick Ot a truly brave man, one 
 that combines bravery with prudence, I would 
 oneth but little of his plans and purposes until 
 
 it comes time When i1 
 
 forhim to act,he does so with his wl land en 
 
 : why peopleshou d i 
 
 much a.s p.,- ev are apt to -row 
 
 fond of it and thus become schooled and nurtured in 
 
 ll as it were. Wars I think in this way tend to 
 
 •ralizc man. and t • make hi n in . and 
 
 - in he otherwise would be. Thi .- De 
 
 likened unto a sur« eon do< tor ii At 
 
 timidity and foai in , p- 
 
 x. 
 
168 
 
 erations, but by practice he soon gets so that he can 
 amputate a limb without feeling any of this timidi'ty 
 whatever; so of wars. A man by being frequenly in 
 battles gets use to seeing the dead, and sometimes, I 
 presume, even a fondness is formed tor the novelties o" 
 the battle field. From the fact that man thus becomes 
 hardened and demoralized is, I think, of itself, sufii-,- 
 cient to teach us that wars should be avoided as much 
 as possible. 
 
 I will endeavor to make my position -a little plainer 
 by the following comparison ; though somewhat novel 
 it will probably answer for an illustration. The Rattle 
 snake is probably the most deadly and fatal of any of 
 the reptile tribe, with which man has to contend, yet 
 he is not the first to resort to violence. He will first 
 give you warning with one twitch of his rattle ; if you 
 still intrude you may then expect a deadly wound. 
 Some of the smaller reptiles would have you bitten two 
 or three times before the rattle snake strikes once, but 
 when he does strike, he makes up for all. He appears 
 to be slow to anger. Even here, among the reptiles, 
 man is taught a lesson— be slow to anger. We should 
 wait until justice fully demands that we should strike 
 a blow ; we may then expect it to be more eflective. 
 
 (41) HENRY CLAY ON SECESSION. 
 
 He said, I have been asked when I would consent to 
 give up this Union. I answer never, never, never! and 
 I warn you now my countrymen if as things seem to tend, 
 this country shall be divided into a union and disunion 
 party, I here now, no matter who compose that party, 
 declare myself a member of the Union party. Whether 
 it be a Whig or a Democrat that belongs to the party 
 of the union, there I subscribe my name, there I unite 
 my heart and hand with that party. 
 
 Extract of a speech delivered in Bowling Green in 
 1S50. * 
 
 I will only ask the question if the old patriot was 
 with us to-day which side do you think he would be on?* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 I. 
 
 The Sectional Troubles. - - - 5 
 
 II. 
 Secession of South Carolina. - - 12 
 
 III. 
 Taking of Fort Sumter. - - - 17 
 
 IV. 
 Further Particulars. 25 
 
 V. 
 President Lincoln issues his Proclamation call- 
 ing for 75,000 troops. - - 29 
 VI. 
 Letters of Marque issued. - - - 34 
 
 VII. 
 Personal Liberty Bills. - - - 35 
 
 vm. 
 
 Treatment of Servants. - - -40 
 
 IX. 
 Treatment of Servants — Continued. - - 47 
 
 X. 
 Blockade Established. 49 
 
 XI. 
 Our Government as Compared with others. - 66 
 
Further Comparison. 
 
 170 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Plan of Adjustment. - 
 
 XIV. 
 • Plan of Adjustment — Continued. With an argu- 
 ment that the righteous should rule. - 89 
 
 xv: 
 
 Sudden call of God and Profession of Religion. 97 
 
 XVI. 
 Further Account. - - - - 120 
 
 XVII. 
 General Review. - - - - 125 
 
 XVIII. 
 Conclusion. - •- - - - 136 
 
ERKATA. 
 
 Numerous typographical errors have douhtle-ssMieen noticed in the 
 foregoing and particularly in the first four forms, or first ninety-six 
 pages of the book. The great haste with which wchavo frequently 
 gone to press, together with my own inexperience, being my first 
 attempt at correcting a proof sheet, will, I hope, be considered a 
 sufficient apology for these errors; some of the principal of which 
 I will here notice: 
 
 For It, 
 
 " allawance, 
 
 " meecy, 
 
 " case, 
 
 " elector ial, 
 
 " peaceable, 
 
 " r ought, 
 
 ** then, 
 
 '" except, 
 
 " somebohy, 
 
 ,: off, 
 
 " prbp, 
 
 *> unimployed, 
 
 " unrivaleed, 
 
 " presperity, 
 
 " recources, 
 
 M stricture, 
 
 " conditions, 
 
 " obsticable, 
 
 " quiting, 
 
 " natnre, 
 
 " had, 
 
 " againgt, 
 
 page 10 line 15 
 
 read I. 
 
 "' 8 
 
 a 
 
 14 
 
 " 
 
 allowance. 
 
 " 8 
 
 a 
 
 29 
 
 " 
 
 mercy. 
 
 •■ 12 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 
 •• 1! 
 
 " 
 
 4 
 
 a 
 
 electoral. 
 
 " 18 
 " 42 
 
 (1 
 
 26 
 12 
 
 
 peaceably, 
 rough. 
 
 " 48 
 
 (I 
 
 14 
 
 a 
 
 there. 
 
 " !S 
 
 a 
 
 30 
 
 a 
 
 expect. 
 
 " 52 
 " 55 
 
 tt 
 
 34 
 29 
 
 tt 
 
 somebody. 
 of. 
 
 " 65 
 
 " 67 
 
 ft 
 
 a 
 
 35 
 
 12 
 
 tt 
 
 drop. 
 
 unemployed. 
 
 " 69 
 
 (( 
 
 4 
 
 a 
 
 unrivaled. 
 
 " 69 
 " 69 
 
 it 
 a 
 
 4 
 8 
 
 tt 
 
 prosperity. 
 resources. 
 
 <• 69 
 
 (< 
 
 28 
 
 n 
 
 structure. 
 
 " 
 
 II 
 
 14 
 
 n 
 
 condition. 
 
 " 80 
 
 «< 
 
 24 
 
 a 
 
 obsticle. 
 
 '• 93 
 
 '• 71 
 
 (1 
 
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 23 
 5 
 
 a 
 
 quitting. 
 
 nature. 
 
 " 112 
 
 li 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 has. 
 
 " 145 
 
 tt 
 
 33 
 
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 on 
 
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