CHAPTER XVI.

Speculative Views as to the self-defensive Powers of all Governments, and of the Government of the United States in particular.-View of the Circumstances existing, so far as the State of Tennessee is concerned, in the Outset of the War, and Vindication of the Conduct of that State.-View of the Condition of Things existing in Washington in particular, and of the non-action Policy of Mr. Buchanan.-Notice of this Gentleman's late Defense of himself.-View of Mr. Lincoln's moderate and patriotic Conduct after his Election, and Notice of Speeches made by him at Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia.— Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Specch, and commendatory Remarks thereupon.-Admirably patriotic Speech of Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, demonstrating the gross Impolicy of Secession.-Some Allusions to the early Movements of the War, and a short Discussion of the Monroe Doctrine.-Enforcement of that Doctrine the true Means of restoring the national Unity and Concord.

It would seem almost impossible to state a proposition more axiomatic in its character than the following one: Every government, being framed with a view to perpetuity, must needs possess the power of defending its own existence and all its essential rights, as well against dangers from without as from perils which disclose themselves in the bosom of the body politic. And this selfevident proposition would seem to include, by necessary implication, another, viz.: That self-preservation, being the general law of Nature, and applicable alike to all conventional associations as to all living creatures in their original character, whenever it shall happen, amid the complex and critical emergencies which it is in the pow

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er of a long-continuing war to engender, to have become plainly necessary to resort to the use of expedients the need of which the most long-sighted and clear-visioned lawgiver could scarcely be supposed to have specially anticipated, all such expedients must be regarded as rightfully subject to be employed. The quality which chiefly distinguished the Constitution framed by our fathers in 1788 from the Articles of Confederation which it superseded, is, that whereas the power of the latter could only operate on states, as integral members of the confederative association, that of the former was intended, on the contrary, to act on individual citizens of those states. These states, after the essential change in their character and attributes which had been then wrought, were no longer entitled to recognize themselves as the sovereign members of a league, but as existing, though still retaining their corporate capacity, in a condition in which they were bound to do fealty and exercise true homage, in many interesting respects, to that which, by solemn conventional arrangement, had been entitled to claim respect and obedience as a government of supereminent authority.

The power to constrain individual citizens, whether few or many, who, enjoying the protection of the government, are bound to exercise toward this grand representative of the whole nation such a loyal and effective obedience as the organic law itself contemplates, is by no means inconsistent with the continued existence of the reserved rights of the states and people thereof, the due preservation and maintenance of which is, indeed, one of the most sacred duties of the government established by all, for the safety and liberty of all. Those who persist in

recognizing the old confederative compact as continuing to survive, and who hold on, in spite of all the lights of history and all the force of argument, to the monstrous doctrine of secession, may well feel justified in denying to the government at present in operation authority to enforce the duty of obedience within the confines of the individual states, in opposition to acts of the local governments adopted for the express purpose of nullifying the ties of allegiance existing at the time of the framing of such acts between those very citizens and the government whose various forms of legislative action have been alone declared, by the solemn organic instrument to which all owe the most profound respect, to constitute "the supreme law of the land." Since Mr. Webster's celebrated replies to Mr. Hayne and Mr. Calhoun, more than thirty years ago, and the emanation of General Jackson's world-famous proclamation, few, if any, except the open supporters of the absurd and untenable theory of absolute state sovereignty, have undertaken to dispute the right of the Federal government to compel all within the scope of its authority to bow in unresisting submission to its lawful behests.

It does not, by any means, follow necessarily, from this view of the subject, that it was the duty of Mr. Buchanan, and of the Congress to whom his last annual message was addressed, to wage war upon the seceding states so soon as any one or more of them had proclaimed their connection with the Federal government at an end. Happily for the comfort and happiness of the inhabitants of earth, the illimitable power of the Deity is not always inclined to reveal itself, for the punishment of the err

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ing, untempered with the gentler attributes which belong to his beneficent nature; and, at the period in American history which we are now reviewing, there were most weighty considerations which, in my judgment, most fully justified those then in power in the exercise of a moderation and forbearance which President Lincoln and his newly-appointed cabinet were, in the spring of 1861, extremely desirous of effectively employing.

The personage now occupying the high position of President of the United States, and whose commendable efforts to restore harmony and kindly feeling among the thirty millions who constitute this great nation, have secured for him already the gratitude of all who love freedom and abhor oppression, did, in my opinion, declare the true doctrine in regard to the relative powers belonging to the associated departments of our system of government on the memorable occasion when he exerted himself so nobly to check, in its early developments, the ambitious and lawless project of breaking up forever this sublime consociation of prosperous and happy commonwealths. I shall here take the liberty of suggesting that those who attach serious blame to the conduct of the good people of Tennessee at this period, where the doctrine of secession was in fact never ratified, and where all that was done, in the first instance, was simply to put the state in an attitude of defense against dangers supposed at the time to be imminent, would do well to take into consideration the theoretical notions at that time expounded by President Buchanan himself, and, still more elaborately, by his attorney general, Mr. Black. Nor should it be forgotten by those in whose hearts the dis

position to practice justice is faithfully cherished, that the people of this august commonwealth had voted down by an overwhelming vote, in the month of February, 1861, the proposition to call into existence a State Convention for the simple purpose of peaceably considering existing dangers and grievances; and that, while the proposition to hold such a Convention at all was most decidedly negatived, it is an ascertained fact that, had the proposed Convention been even allowed to assemble, a very large. majority of its members would have utterly repudiated all hostile movements against the Federal government. It is but justice, too, to an intelligent, gallant, and truly patriotic people, to bear in remembrance the fact that Tennessee resisted all attempts to draw her into a disloy al and rebellious attitude until the various attempts at compromise in Washington City had all signally failed; until the exciting passage of arms at Fort Sumter had taken place; until President Lincoln's proclamation calling out seventy-five thousand troops had emanated; until the suggestive and encouraging declarations of certain Northern newspapers, and the still more encouraging and persuasive declarations of certain influential public men of the free states, had gained general circulation; and until the time-honored and conservative States of Virginia and North Carolina had both resolved upon uniting their destiny with that of the original seceding states; and that, at last, no formal act of secession was committed, but a simple military and civil league entered

into.

For myself, while I willingly do homage to the superior firmness and constancy of others, and though I am