06126 4405

46GJ

YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE NATIONALITY OF A PBOPLK, ITS VITAL BLBIMENT.

AN

ORATION,

DELIVERED IN THE

NET\r CITY h:a.ll.

BEFORE THE

CITY GOYERNMENT, AND CITIZENS,
OF PORTLAND, JULY 4, 1861.
BY WILLIAM T. DWiaHT, D. D.,
Pastor of the Third Congregational Church.

PORTLAND:
N. A. FOSTER, CITY PRINTER.
1861.

CITY OF PORTLAND.

In City Council, July 8th, 1861.
Obdeeed :
That the thanks of the City Council be, and hereby are, tendered to the
Rev. W. T. Dwight, D. D., for the eloquent and appropriate Oration de
livered by him on the occasion of the celebration of our National Indepen
dence, July 4th, 1861, and they request him to fumish the City Government
with a copy of the same for publication.
Read and passed by concurrent vote.
Attest: J. M. Heath, Citi/ Clerk.
W. W. THOMAS, Mayor.

ct\s

¦y

A>J.^'

ORATION.

Eighty-five years since on this day occurred an
Event, which has rendered the Fourth of July for
ever memorable, — the Declaration of American
Independence by the Continental Congress. Of
this event, the second President of the United
States, in a letter to a friend on the next day thus
afiirms : "It ought to be commemorated as the day
of dehverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp
and parade, with shouts, games, sports, guns, bells,
bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this
continent to the other, from this time forward, for-
evermore." These words, uttered with an almost
prophetic foresight, have their emphasis doubled
when we notice them in connection with other
words of the same eminent man, relating to the
same subject. As he lay on his dying bed fifty
years subsequent, on the Fourth of July, 1826, he
was roused from partial unconsciousness by the ring
ing of bells and firing of cannon, sufl&ciently to be
able to inquire, What was the occasion ; and being
informed that our Nation's birthday had returned,

the fire of his patriotism gleamed forth as he ex
claimed in reply, — "Independence forever."
Somewhat more than eleven years later, occur
red another event scarcely less memorable, — the
unanimous adoption of the Constitution of the
United States by the Convention of the then thir
teen States ; and this was followed by the ratifica
tion of each of these States at successive periods,
until by the assent" of the last of the thirteen in
May, 1790, the Constitution became the supreme
law of the land. From that day commenced one
national government over one people.
On the public commemorations of this day, the
speaker's frequent references to the past, in its his
torical and other kindred relations to the present,
have been deemed allowable. Taking this liberty,
it is my intention to notice briefly the condition of
our country during the three distinct periods
which are formed by the successive adoptions of
these two great instruments, the Declaration of In
dependence, and the Constitution of the United
States. Such a notice wiU usefully illustrate the
subject, which is then prominently to invite your
attention. The first of these periods includes the colonial
existence of our country. It commences with the
foundation of each of the thirteen States, as a fee
ble colony of Great Britain ; and terminates with
the Declaration of Independence, when their col
onial existence ceased universally. It extends from

1607, when the first colony was established in Vir
ginia, to 1732, when the last of the thirteen colon
ies was established in Georgia ; and then continues
till July 4, 1776. Each of the thirteen until this
last date, was a dependency of Great Britain, ac
knowledging its subjection to her laws ; and all of
them until within fifteen years of the beginning of
the Eevolutionary War, required the aid of the
British armies to protect them"* from the power of
France. They were at the same time wholly inde
pendent of each other, and disconnected, except so
far as the common subjection to the mother coun
try and a community of interests often varying,
served to promote a partial fellowship. They were
scattered along a belt of sea-coast of twelve hun
dred miles in length, and runmng hundreds of
miles into the interior where trackless forests ar
rested the traveUer. Their population gradually
increased, until at the end of their colonial existr
ence, by the adoption of the Declaration of Inde
pendence, they had become about two millions and
a half of whites, with an additional half million of
slaves. The numerical strength, the wealth, the
enterprise, of this scattered population at that date,
preponderated greatly at the North.
We now contemplate this same body of people
during the second period, from the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence, to the adoption of
the Constitution of the United States. They are
colonies no longer, for a succession of tyrannical

acts by the King and Parliament of Great Britain,
has constrained them to renounce their allegiance,
and to proclaim themselves independent States.
They wage a war of seven years' duration against
the fleets and armies of Great Britain, with vary
ing success and defeat. They resolutely fight and
fight on, till early in the second year, Boston is
evacuated, and no EngUsh army subsequently
enters on the main-land of New England — unless
as prisoners or marauders. They fight on, till New
York is lost, till their main army under Washington
is reduced to almost a handful, till PhUadelphia is
lost, till their paper currency is so depreciated that
each doUar is worth but a penny. They fight on,
till the capture of Burgoyne and his army secures
for them the alliance of France. They fight on,
till the South becomes the battle-field, where Tory
treason, in anticipation of modern Secession, plots
with the foe, and betrays the friends of freedom,
and sets law at defiance for two long years, untU
a New England general, aided by loyal partizan
leaders, drives out the foe and puts treason down.
They fight on, tUl Cornwallis and his army are
taken ; tiU Great Britain withdraws from the Ions:
contest, and peace is made between the two great
parties on the footing of entire equality.
The fury of the tempest has now ceased, but the
deadly calm of the pestUence has succeeded. An
immense war debt hangs on the entire community,
for the payment of which no adequate provision

can be made ; in some of the thirteen States, the
treaties already made with foreign nations, are dis
regarded ; public and private credit are alike totr
tering ; insurrections are breaking out in different
portions of the country; even civil war and an
archy seem not far distant. What, then, has caused
this fearful disappointment ? These thirteen States
we answer, although forming treaties with foreign
powers, do not constitute a iTation. They have
been through the war, and they continue stiU,
nothing more than a league, a mere confederacy,
of States, which could act only, when assembled in
Congress, by ordinances which were but simple re
commendations addressed to each State separately,
that it might enforce them. They are but a feeble
confederacy, and not a nation of one people, on
each man of whose many miUions the government
directly acts ; and whose laws, if violated, that gov
ernment can authoritatively vindicate and enforce.
The whole country perceives the magnitude of the
evU, and Virginia — then loyal and true — is the
first to propose a convention of all these States for
the formation of a constitution of government.
The convention meets, our admirable Constitution
is formed, it is ratified by all the thirteen ; and we
now see for the first time the American Nation,
one govemment over a united people.
Let us contemplate for a moment the working
of our new national government, that we may be
prepared for the wondrous change. It possesses

power to raise whatever revenue is needed, through
the imposition of duties on imports and domestic
taxes ; and lo ! at once commerce ploughs the seas,
the bustle of trade is speedily heard in each city
and village, the payment of the public debt is
provided for, and confidence and credit are every
where restored. It can also regulate our inter
course with other nations; and treaties are formed,
the natives from every land begin to hasten hither,
and our citizens in return, visit other lands. It can
naturalize foreigners; and the oppressed exile, with
the multitudes that toil for scanty sustenance abroad
come hither, and become our fellow citizens. It
establishes the Postrofiice, and speeds the mail from
the District of Maine to Georgia, and a system of
universal intercommunication is thus speedily es
tablished. Its Courts are established in every State,
in which the citizens of different States may im
plead each other ; while the privileges and immu
nities of each State respectively, have been already
made common to aU. It can declare war and make
peace ; it can raise armies and navies ; it can sup
press insurrection as weU as repel invasion ; and it
has thus become the protector of aU its people, at
home and abroad. It is indeed a Government ;
there is now a powerful Union ; Liberty and Law
begin to move inseparably together.
We now contemplate the Nation during the third
period, from its existence as commencing with that
of our Constitution of Government. More than

seventy years have elapsed, and what do we be
hold ? Change, indeed, we necessarily look for ; but
change is not, of course, advancement — it is occa
sionally decUne. During large portions of the
seventy years, the change with France, with Spain,
with Italy, with Hungary, has been that of decUne ;
and with China and other nations of the East, it
has been almost decline only. But could one of the
leaders of that long war, or of th'e statesmen of that
great Convention, have looked at a glance through
our nation's progress during this period, from the
commencement of our national government untU
the Fourth of July, 1860, would he not have
deemed it a vision of glory? Has history ever
pictured, has man ever known, such national ad
vancement since the formation of our race ? All
that ancient Egypt, or Assyria, or Persia, all that
Greece, or Eome, or modern Europe, can present
in contrast or comparison, is but the achievements
of children. The belt of inhabited region along
the Atlantic has been expanding westward, until
the front ranks of our immense population have
crossed the Mississippi at every point from its
mouth to its source, and have reached the eastern
limit of vegetation in the vast western valley; and
they are now opening California's treasures to the
day and ploughing the waters of the Columbia, for
a thousand miles of the broad margin of the Pa
cific. Instead of thirteen States, there are thirty-
three. Several of the States are now sufficiently

10
populous to constitute nations in Europe, and two of
our great cities outnumber in population any Euro
pean capitals — except those of England, France
and Turkey. Our tonnage, which had long since
been the second in amount — outnumbering that
of every country but England, now exceeds her
own, having reached five millions of tons. Our
population has grown from three miUions to thirty-
one miUions. Our imports have become almost
fabulous in value, extending to near three hundred
and forty miUions of doUars; land these are exceed
ed by our exports. The area of our national terri
tory is double that of aU Europe — excluding
that of Eussia. Our flag floats in every sea, and
bay, and river, and in every port where commerce
can enter ; the symbol of the nation's power, and
the pledge of safety to all who seek protection be
neath its folds. "The Great Eepublic" is the name
by which the sovereigns and nations of Europe are
beginning to designate us, — a name, already signifi
cant like that of ancient Eome ; — ominous like the
gathering thunder-cloud to every form of despot
ism and oppression, but genial as the succeeding
sunshine to the exile and the oppressed of every
land. Such would have been the just description of
our country a year since, on this very day. What
is the just description now ? I am heartsick, when
I attempt it : You, my friends and fellow citizens,
are heart-sick before you hear it; and to every

11

true American in other continents, the tidings —
should they reach him with no previous warning,
wiU all but send a death-chill to his heart and
palsy to his brain. It has been reserved for men
in this Great Eepublic, the freest, the happiest, of
all the governments and the nations on which the
sun has ever shone, to introduce a new crime, and
that the foulest — the blackest, against human
freedom : they are not only parricides against the
United States as the mother country of us all, but
they are enemies to the peace and liberty of the
world. They have taken up an almost disused and
unknown word, harmless in its previous import, as
the expression of their new attitude toward our
Constitution and Union ; and that word — Seces
sion — has already, so far as words can be made
such, become infamous, and it will soon, like those
who have introduced it, be tabod'd through the civ
Uized world. They have first in one State, South
Carolina, and then in another, and another, until
there are now eleven States banded together, se
ceded ; or, in other words, in conventions called in
some instances for other objects, voted themselves
out of our National Union. These conventions
have, in various cases, represented but a small mi
nority of the white population, they have done
their treasonable work in secret session, in one or
more instances they have not suffered the people
at large to vote subsequently on the measure ; and
where there has been such voting, it has been done

12

under a reign of terror, as absolute as that of the
French Eevolution. They have voted themselves
out of our Union, out of our Nation, out of all
connections or relations with us; and they have
proceeded to form a Confederacy, to seize our forts,
our ships, and our miUtary stores, to capture de
tached bodies of our troops, and at length to de
clare war against our Government and the Nation.
We are now, as a people, engaged in a war which
has been forced on us by these seceded States : it
is a civil war, the worst of all wars in its nature
and usmally in its evils, and at the present moment
none can foresee its termination. It is my inten
tion in a later portion of this address, to show the
utter unconstitutionality and wickedness of this
pretended right of Secession ; but after present
ing this fearful contrast to the sun-bright picture
which we had previously contemplated, I shall now
proceed immediately to notice the subject selected
for a brief consideration. It has been suggested,
as will be anticipated, by the present conjuncture,
and it is this :
THE NATIONALITY OF A PEOPLE, ITS VITAL ELEMENT.
Suffer me then to say, for it is at times neces
sary — if we would prevent misconstruction, to at
tach our own signification to particular words and
terms, that by the Nationality of a people is here in
tended that condition, or state, of a People in which
it not only is, but is seen by the world to be, a dis-

tinct nation ; one great body, under one govern
ment. This body consists, it may be, of many
millions of individuals, but they are a unit in their
public relations to the world around them ; for
they are all citizens or subjects of one government
which acts on each of them personally, and which
represents them authoritatively to all similar bodies,
or other nations. Now it is not by any means a
matter of course that a People, which, in its sep
arate divisions, has a common origin, which has
similar customs and laws, and also, a common re
ligion, should have the same Nationality. Holland
and Belgium were essentially one People, at the
time when they both revolted from that execrable
tyrant, PhUip II. of Spain ; but the Nationahty of
each has been now absolutely distinct, except for a
brief season, for near three hundred years. Our
Thirteen Colonies were one People, at the begin
ning of the Eevolutionary War: but had the north
ern and middle colonies achieved their indepen
dence, while the southern had continued subject to
Great Britain, there might have been two nation
aUties here till the present hour.
Our principle, then, is this, that the Nationality
of a People is its vital element ; it is the source of
i^ power, its renown, its universal prosperity. We
perceive the virtual announcement of its truth in
the earliest history of our race. Both inspired and
uninspired narratives inform us that, from the ear
liest ages, men's tendencies were not directed toward

14

a Ufe of solitary individuality, but toward enlarged
family gatherings. These in time grew into the
tribe ; and the tribe either by natural growth or
by the absorption of other tribes, ultimately be
came a distinct people, a State, a Nation. This, we
may affirm, was God's design, for his course in
providence is but the fulfilment of his design ; this
is the teaching of history, ancient and modern, and
undeniably of the liistory of Europe for the last
six hundred years. The civilized world, for we
make no account here of savages and semi-barbar
ous races, has been composed of distinct and com
pact nations. All the earlier elements have tend
ed directly and irresistibly toward Nationahty:
the nation, and not the family nor the tribe, ex
cept during the transition period of growth, has
been the only state of culmination. The nation
distinct, compact, one and indivisible, except where
traitors within or enemies without have destroyed
its unity, — such has been the actual and the neces
sary condition of each people of modern Europe
for many centuries. Europe is a continent of na
tions, each having long ages ago absorbed the
primitive tribes, and the subsequent petty states
in which these tribes were merged. Germany,
indeed, contains here and there scattered over
its broad territory, an anomalous succession of Ut
tle duchies and principalities, which have existed
merely by sufferance, and whose insignificance has
been their chief protection. Italy has been, also.

15

through the long jealousy of the great powers of
Europe, little else than a mere congeries of sep
arate kingdoms and duchies ; but she is now fast
advancing toward the great aim of her patriots
and statesmen, — the absorption of them all in one
national kingdom.
It should be also said, before we notice directly
the relations of the subject to our own country,
that the Voice of God in his word, speaks but one
language here. Who that is famUiar with the Old
Testament, has not, when reading the inspired
record which is occupied with the history of the
chosen people, been vividly impressed with one
great idea, viz: That their whole system of laws —
that treasure house from which modern nations
have so largely derived their jurisprudence, their
national and social' customs, their religion, with its
divinely appointed ritual, and their political organ
ization, all directly tended and were divinely in
tended to perpetuate their Nationality ! This
was the declared, the oft repeated, intent and
aim of the Most High from the beginning :
their entire history, with its occasional miraculous
interpositions, and its prophetic admonitions and
denudations, teaches this great lesson. The cho
sen people were to continue through all coming
time, not simply an aggregation of friendly or con
tentious tribes, but a distinct and powerful na
tion; preserving indeed — for this was wise no less
than unavoidable — their tribal organization among

16

themselves, but presenting only one front to every
other people, — that of an indivisible body. Let
every reflecting man who has discovered the many
analogies existing between the inspired account of
that extraordinary nation and our own, but trace
out fully in the Scriptures what I have here pre
sented in the barest outline, and his conviction of
its justness wiU be decisive. I wiU but add to this
particular topic, tSat this ancient people main
tained their Nationality more than six hundred
years, and that then, in connection with a wide
spread idolatry. Secession did its work : ten of the
original tribes withdrew from the national govern
ment, from the holy city — Jerusalem, from its
temple — its worship — and its religion. As the
result, their history is but the record of wars, of
the reigns of successful usurpers whose families
were sooner or later murdered by later usurpers,
of growing idolatry and corruption, ending in their
final overthrow. The seceding tribes have been
blotted out from the nations of the earth for near
twenty-six centuries ; while the Jews, that portion
of the people which adhered to its Nationality,
are now in existence at this very hour, and to
them the divine promises of both the Old and the
New Testament in all the glorious future exclu
sively belong.
But we would now say, with a direct reference
to the present crisis of our own country, that it is
the Nationality of a People which creates Ances-

17

tral and Historical Eenown. Such a renown, when
once acquired, is absolutely priceless, it becomes a
part of the very life-blood of each successive gen
eration. The great deeds of individuals, whether
in the field of science, or in the arts or in arms ;
in victoriously battling for the right, or in uphold
ing it at last, when necessary, by a serene martyr
dom ; render not only the actors, but the nation
which produced them, immortaiT As no people —
whUe retaining its nationality — ever dies, although
ten generations may successively pass away ; so^
every such great deed becomes from the beginning:
an inseparable possession of the whole body, accom
panying it through all changes down the stream, of
time. A nation's territory may be lessened by a
full moiety, its hoarded wealth may be wrenched
by foreign foes from its grasp, nay, banded kings
and their armies may have almost accomplished its
subjugation ; but while the nation still exists, its
renown, descending and brightening from other
ages, shines steadily over it as a constellation which
knows no setting nor obscuration. The single tra
dition of WilUam Tell and the apple which he shot
from off the head of his son, has been a safeguard
to Switzeriand stronger than that of a standing
army of ten thousand men. The voyage of the
Mayflower, and the landing on Plymouth Eock,
have become the inalienable inheritance of all the
future sons and daughters of New England. The
battle at Bunker's HUl will be thus as magical a
3

18

watchword to nerve the arm and fire the heart of
the true American in lUinois and California ages
hence, as was the fight at the straits of Thermopy-
Ige to the ancient Greek. No heart which is not
deadened by animal sensuality, or frozen stiff by
icy selfishness, ever becomes insensible to the pow
er of this inherited renown. It causes the eye of
the child to sparkle and his cheek to burn, it thrUls
through the breast of gentle and timid woman, it
quickens the step and the pulse of white-haired
age. Nay, the pages of inspiration reveal the per
petuity of this power. The Psalms of David and
the prophetic visions of Isaiah abound with refer
ence to these historical exploits, as constituting —
under the divine guidance — a source of strength
in the nations' depression, a light in its darkest
conjunctures. But should a People once lose its Nationahty,
should Secession in its blackest treason here finally
triumph, will a secessionist in South Carolina or
Tennessee feel the power of this historical renown ?
All that has given any renown to South Carolina,
consists in her history as one of the league of thir
teen States during the Eevolutionary War, when
her gallant partisan leaders put down tory refugees
and traitors ; and in her subsequent annals, when
she was loyal to the Constitution. From these,
her secessionists have severed themselves utterly.
What have they now to do with the bright past,
with the Continental Congress, with the fame of

19

Eutaw Springs, with the exploits of Marion and
Sumter, with the names of Laurens, and Eutledge,
and Lowndes? One name, indeed, they may claim;
but it is only that of "archangel ruined." Their
chief priest and apostle of secession, — No, we will
not name him here, on our nation's birthday.
It is a kindred thought, but one which merges
not in that just noticed, when we proceed to say
that the Nationality of a People is the foundation
of its Patriotism. The ancestral and historical re
nown of any nation is but one of the elements,
and that not the strongest, of its love of country.
What feeUng, nay, what passion, is more wide
spread or more potent in its sway, what more en
nobles man, — save supreme love to his Creator,
than the love of one's country ? nor is there any
more absolutely vital to its prosperity, or even to
its existence. The family affections are prover
bially styled, natural affections; but the love of
country is as natural to man as is parental love or
filial love ; nor is the destitution of the latter any
surer evidence of utter baseness than that of the
former. It may be asked in the general sense —
Who is incapable of feeling this ennobling passion?
for man civiUzed and man savage has displayed it
in all ages, where he has had a country to love.
The Briton who was carried sixteen centuries ago
as a captive barbarian to Eome, pined after his
native shores, just as does now the Englishman who
has been for twenty years an exile on the Pampas

20

of Paraguay. The notion of country may indefi
nitely vary, just as the circumstances of birth and
training, just as latitude and longitude may vary :
so that for the born and bred savage the wigwams
of his tribe, the forests which he traverses for
game, and the plains from which he gathers his
autumnal crop of maize, constitute the full idea ;
while for the native of Paris or MarseUles, every
mountain and river, every city and vUlage, every
jood of la helle France are comprehended in his
idea. Why then has man been formed for the in
dulgence of Patriotism, and why is it in fact a rul
ing passion over the earth, but for its indispensable-
ness to the prosperity of every country ? Weaken
its power in any land, and a blight is fast settUng
.on that people : extinguish it, if such be practica
ble, and its sun goes down at noon.
Love of country, whatever its elements or its
source, feeds the life-blood of that country's wel
fare ; and the more enlightened the people, the
more efficacious is its sway. The poor savage can
give a reason which satisfies himself and satisfies
us, why he prefers his wigwam and his hunting
ground to all other places on earth. What reasons,
then, cannot the native of the United States as
sign, such as neither the ancient Greek nor Eoman,
:such as neither the now liviug Prussian nor French
man nor EngUshman, can ever render? Not only
does it contain his birthplace and the home of his
.childhood, ngt only is it haUowed by the sepul-

21

chres of his parents and their ancestors, not only
do climate, soU, natural scenery, industry, enter
prise, the habits and customs of its people, with
their general intelligence and morality, render his
country the home of his soul ; but here also Free
dom has brought all her institutions, and the Ee-
ligion of Christ has erected its purest altars. Here
only would he live, and here only would he die,
mingling his ashes with kindred dust, ever blessing
God that his birth-place had been this fairest of all
lands. But it is the Nationality of our country which
gives birth to all this patriotism. Conceive of our
Uiuon as having been rent by treason, into three
separate hostUe fragments within the first ten
years after the ratification of our national Consti
tution ; or imagine that no Constitution had been
ever adopted. American patriotism would have
then become a dream of the past, or an absurd
idea, beguiling, indeed, the recollections of some
dying patriarch, but scouted by all besides. Yes,
may each true-hearted American exclaim, — "At
home, whether on the Pacific or the Atlantic, free
dom triumphs, our government is supreme ; and
wherever winds and waves can waft me, that flag
of freedom and of power shields me within its
folds. It is all my country : I will live for it, and
I am ready to die for it."
But can Secession consist with the love of coun
try; can a secessionist, by any possibility, be a

22

patriot ? What was our beloved land, our Eepub
lic, one year since, to every secessionist in the re
volted States? A mere aggregation, a simple
league, of thirty-three independent sovereignties,
from which any one of the number might with
draw itself at pleasure. What constitutes accord
ingly, necessarily constitutes, the entire idea of
country to those where Secession was first origna-
ted and proclaimed ? The rice swamps, the cotton
fields, and the sand hills of South Carolina. Our
flag, which the civilized world has so long honored
as the august symbol of our national supremacy
and power, the secessionist of Charleston has tom
in sunder and trampled in the dust under his feet ;
and he has substituted the bunting of Palmetto-
dom, with its rattle-snake hissing and ready to
sting. Each of the rebel States is the sole coun
try for its revolted population. Our nation's eagle
with the stripes and the stars, represents the great
heart of American patriotism : the rattle-snake for
South Carolina, the turkey-buzzard or some kin
dred emblem for Virginia, represent the shrivelled
and malignant spirit of secession.
Is it less evident that the Nationality of a Peo
ple forms its whole Strength and Power ? A nation,
however great its number, acts but as a unit, in all
its public relations, whether at home or abroad.
The voices of thirty miUions are heard in the single
voice of its Congress : the might of thirty miUions
is wielded by the one arm of its Executive. Our

23

thirteen, and then our twenty, and our twenty-five,
and our thirty-three States, have successively con
stituted but one body, ordinarily moving as easily
and acting as efficiently as if one literal heart beat
every where, like the ocean's ebb and flow, as if
one literal arm were stretched forth from the At
lantic to the Pacific. The nation one and indivisi
ble, is but another term for the Union of the intel
ligence, the wealth, the patriotism, the power, of
the miUions that compose it. What arrests the
midnight burglar when about to steal into our
then unguarded dwellings, what palsies the assas
sin's arm, haU' raised to plunge the dagger into
another's heart, but the assurance that the whole
power of Portland, and then of the State, and
then of the Nation — if necessary, wUl be armed
against him. What preserved the State of New
York, when the Whiskey Insurrection agitated
Western Pennsylvania, and what made the citizens
of Conecticut and New Hampshire tremble when
Shays and his insurgent bands traversed Western
Massachusetts, but the conviction in the one case,
that the power of the nation was pledged, and in
the other that it was not pledged, to aid the State
in putting these insurgents down ? The Nation
One and indivisible, whether it be the people of
England or France, or the United States : — and then,
wherever treason plots, or crime stalks forth in the
city at midnight, or the peace of the lowliest ham
let is disturbed by violence, there also the nation

24

in its strength is present to protect the defenceless;
or should protection be at times impracticable, to
seize and punish the criminal.
As our Nationality alone preserves us from trea
son and anarchy at home, it forms our sole defence
against invasion from abroad. Until the word.
Secession, was adopted as a cover for the foulest
treason, our whole people — whatever their party
divisions — ^were reSldy to meet a foreign foe at any
point along our sea and land borders. Had Great
Britain or France sent the flower of their armies
to our shores during any year since the battle of
Waterloo, for the purpose of either our subjugation
or intimidation, the strength of our country would
as one man have met the invaders on their land
ing : the nation in its strength, and not a few scat
tered bands, would have driven back in utter rout
to their ships all who had not been slain or cap
tured on the land. " It is this Nationality, this
union of a people under its own government for
self-defence against all enemies, which shields them
from aggression and hostility universally.
But were Secession to be permitted to triumph,
were our glorious Union to be thus broken and
rent into half a dozen Confederacies, instead of our
present contest, brief as we trust it is to prove, in
defence of our Nationahty, what would ensue but
a long succession of ruinous wars — the weaker
parties appeaUng at length for aid to France or
England ; and these nations becoming in concert

25

or in mutual jealousy, parties in the strife, — with
but one sure issue, the final overthrow of freedom on
this continent. New England might then have the
wretched comfort which was promised to Ulysses, in
the cave of Polyphemus : — that of being the last
who should be devoured.
We affirm the same principle under a somewhat
different aspect, when we say, that it is the Nation-
ality of a people only which gives them Character
throughout the world. Nations have intercourse
with nations only, and not with the separate prov
inces or States which compose those nations. Our
country knows nothing of the city of Paris, or of
any department of France, in its treaties or its
other public relations ; and France knows nothing
of Maine, or of Virginia. The United States and
France are the two great parties and powers, and
the only powers, that recognize each other ; all
inferior bodies are as unnoticed and unknown as if
they had no existence. As a citizen of the United
States, every civilized nation on earth acknowl
edges my claim to protection while I obey its laws :
the naturalized Koszta even, may demand that pro
tection against his own government, and he wUl re
ceive it. My country in its Nationality, commands
the respect of friends and foes alike. Her renown,
the symbols of the patriotism and the union of her
sons, and the knowledge of her strength, accompany
her embassadors, they precede her ships, in every
sea, they guard the traveller at the foot of the Pyr-
4

26

amids and on the summits of the Andes. The de
claration, " I am an American," was fast becoming
as sure a title to personal safety and consideration,
as was in ancient times the plea, — "I am a Eoman
citizen." Character among other nations, and this is also
essential to prosperity, belongs to a People only
through its Nationality. Were a citizen of loyal
Massachusetts or of revolted South Carolina to seek
admission at any European court, or at any foreign
port whatever, the one — as a native of the coun
try of Massachusetts, or the other — as a member of
the empire of South Carolina ; a native of the Pe
nobscot Indians would be recognized as soon as
either. Let then such a country as our own lose
through Secession or in any other manner, its Na
tionality, and its separate States would be despised
even by an Algerine corsair ; for that mighty four
fold chain of historical renown, of patriotism, of
strength and power, and of character throughout
the world, would be sundered forever.
The principle of Secession is this : — That any
State may rightfully withdraw from our national
Union, at any time, at its own pleasure. Let our
country be at war with any European power, or
let a heavy public debt have been incurred for
the common welfare, let free trade at one time, or
a tariff at another time prevail, or a favorite can
didate for the presidency have been defeated, — in
each of these; cases, or in any other, a State may

27

vote itself out of the Nation and become at once
an independent people. Need I say that, if this
principle is admitted, the foundations of our Na
tionality are instantly destroyed? If one State
may secede, so may another, and another, where-
ever interest or caprice dictates ; till but one-half
of our Union, or ten States, or even three States,
only remain. The Union which our fathers ce
mented with the blood of tne Eevolution, and
which has made our country the wonder of the
world, is thus shrivelled down into a contemptible
partnership, which may be dissolved, now or next
year, by any one of the thirty-four States, or part
ners, withdrawing when it will. Eleven States, in
the name of their Confederacy, have declared war
against our Union, in maintaining the rightfulness
of their own secession.
The answer which has been given to this demand
that we admit the rightfulness of Secession, has
been the rising up of twenty millions as one man,
to put Secession down — forever down. The con
test which we are waging, lamentable as it is, is the
very noblest, the very holiest, in which a nation
ever engaged. The war between the Parliament
of England and Charles I., nay, our own War of
the Eevolution, was a common, and unimportant
struggle in comparison. Could a grand indictment
against the authors and the abettors of Secession in
the eleven States, be presented before the One great
Tribunal, they would be arraigned, for treason

28

against the United States; they would be ar
raigned, as the enemies of civU Liberty through
the world; they would be arraigned, as rebels
against the supremacy of God. We afl&rm them
to be traitors against the UnUed States. "I owe no
aUegiance to the United States," exclaimed a Sena
tor of Virginia, who had himself previously taken
an oath to support the National Constitution ; and
that Constitution % its very terms, is "the su
preme law of the land," whatever any State may
enact to the contrary. The Constitution itself thus
solemnly and majestically opens: "We, the Peo
ple of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, estabUsh justice, ensure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain
and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America."' It is the Constitution of our one
.and indivisible Nation, and not of the separate
.States, nor of the People in each State : "We, the
People of the United States, ordain." They ordain
it, "in order to form a more perfect Union;" in
stead of the inefficient provisions of the old Con
federacy. They ordain it also, with the intent
that it shall be perpetual : " to secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Let it
be also understood, that the Constitution expressly
forbids each State to exercise the rights of sover
eignty : these .are reserved to the Nation, acting by

29

Congress alone. Who, then, fellow citizens, are
traitors, what is treason doubled dyed, if these sece-
ders are not the one, if Secession is not the other ?
With deliberate and full purpose they have applied
the torch to our vast National temple; — that our
Government, our Union, our entire Nationality,
should perish in the ruins.
We also affirm them to be the enemies of civil
Liberty, through the world. A republic has been
the ideal form of government for the patriots and
statesmen of old* Greece and Eome, of Holland, of
Puritan England, of modern France and Italy.
The divinely appointed government of ancient
Israel was republican : their degeneracy alone made
them in time resign it for a monarchy. In our
national republic this ideal, toiled for, fought for,
and died for, during long ages, has become actual.
Hither have Garibaldi and Gavazzi, hither has Kos
suth, hither have freedom's thousand exiles, fled
from the continent of Europe, as their refuge and
their home. "The Great Eepublic" beyond the At
lantic and the destined champion for universal
Uberty, has been the strengthening watchword,
over that continent, while despots and their minions
have looked askance and trembling at us, across the
waters. An oligarchy of slaveholders, supported by
the necks of never to be emancipated bondmen,
(for this is the distinct avowal) is now attempting,
not as a repentant Samson, but as a drunken giant,
to tear down the pillars of our Union. Do not,

30

then, the parricides know what they are doing ? Is
it not their purpose, when striking at the Nation's
heart, to destroy the last hope and refuge of the
oppressed ? For whither, alas ! shaU Freedom flee,
if her temple and her altars here are to be thrown
down ? Beyond what unknown seas, on what new
Ararat, can she find a shelter and erect a throne ?
We affirm them to be rebels against the suprem
acy of God, as thelbunder of CivU Government.
The great charter of Civil Government, in the New
Testament, begins thus : " Let every soul be sub
ject to the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God ; the powers that be are ordained of
God. Whosoever, therefore, resiste th the power,
resisteth the ordinance of God." The establish
ment of our national government in all its history
is as distinctly marked by the Divine guidance, as
was the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Never in
the annals of our race did a people more deUber
ately, more willingly, adopt their own form of gov
ernment. Never has the Nationality of a people
been more authoritatively sanctioned by Almighty
God. And now after seventy years of wondrous
prosperity, comes the demon, Secession, to subvert
and destroy. When then, we ask, is God's ordi
nance resisted, when is God Himself — as the source
of all civil authority opposed, if not by these authors
and their abettors ?
Such, fellow citizens, in our necessarily brief sur
vey, is our American Nationality, in its founda-

31

tions and in the matchless prosperity which it has
wrought ; such is Secession, its deadly enemy.
Two hundred thousand men, volunteering from
every city and village, from every plain and hill
top and valley, where the flag of Freedom still
waves, are now in arms to uphold the one and put
down the other. They are not armed, and they
have not been summoned by the President, for the
subjugation of the Southern States : they have
been summoned and they have been armed, only
to put down Secession, now and finally. All honor,
all sympathy, all aid, should be rendered to the
loyal inhabitants of Virginia, of Tennessee, of Ala
bama and of every other seceded State ! May
they soon be enabled to rise in their might, and
overthrow their oppressors! Neither is a stern
retribution, but much forbearance, where practica
ble, to be dispensed toward the multitudes enrolled
against us, whom the foulest fraud and falsehood
systematically practised to deceive them, have
made our enemies. But for Secession, no recogni
tion ; none forever ! With its authors and their
traitorous followers, no compromise — no sheathing
of the sword, till they surrender at discretion, or
are hewn down in Ijattle, or flee into hopeless ex
ile ! In thus speaking, I but repeat the sentiments
of the statesman of Chicago, who, in his last ad
dress there delivered, filled as it is with the noblest
utterances of patriotism, thus warns us : " We can
not recognize secession. Eecognize- it once, and

32

you have not only dissolved government, but you
have destroyed social order, upturned the founda
tions of society. You have inaugurated anarchy
in its worst form, and will shortly experience all
the horrors of the French Eevolution." And if
there are — Let it not be so ! but if there are any,
in this our community of constitutional liberty and
law, who are one in heart with Southern secession
ists, or who look selfishly indifferent at the issues
of this great strife, can we class them but as the
same eminent man has done in that address, where
he says : " There are only two sides to the ques
tion. Every man must be for the United States, or
against it. There can be no neutrals in this war :
only patriots — or traitors,"
Fellow citizens, as has been already said, this is a
holy contest. It may yet demand far greater sac
rifices, it may call for the life-blood of thousands of
our patriot soldiers ; but Freedom, Union, Nation
ality, now encircling the ashes of our fathers, and
the altars of our God, are worth every sacrifice.
Could the patriots of past ages be permitted to ad
dress us, they would unitedly exclaim — "Strike;
Strike ; and give not over, tiU your matchless insti
tutions are made safe!" Could departed saints,
who laid the foundations of these institutions in
their toils and tears, their prayers and blood, be
suffered audibly to supplicate in our behalf, a
mighty voice of intercession would be heard each
hour, — the a^urance that He, from whom all help
cometh, will give us the Victory !