pendous usurpation and wrong V Do you not
know, and did you not know when the wrong
was committed, that by an exj^licit provision of
the Constitution no State shall be divided, tier
any new State erected out of its territory witli-
out its consent ? I wish to speak with all the
moderation that becomes me, but I shall be false
to my convictions, I do not charge this usurpa-
tion as if a wicked and- deliberate violation of
a fundamental provision of the Constitution.
And how, let me ask, is Virginia, the mother of
States, to be restored to the. Union with her
original dignity and rights, while her territoi y
is dismembered and her unity destroyed ?
Suppose, to-day, you ask her rebellious people
to lay down their arms and bring back their
State to the embraces of the Union, under the
Constitution. They must answer, you have
dismembered our State in violation of the Con-
stitution, and thrown up an insuperable barrier
to the Union y^u profess to desire. Such is
the Repubhcan mode of maintaining the Con-
stitution and restoring the States to their
places in the LTnion.

Passing now to other usurpations, if possible,
still more revolutionary and alarming. I sup-
pose the humblest mind can comprehend the
constitutional status and legal consequences of
rebellion. Rebellion is simply treason against
the government of the LTnion. Treason is an
offence defined by the Constitution, and like
all other offences against the government, can
be punished only by indictm.ent and trial in the
civil courts, and belbre a jury of the State or
district in r'\iich the crime is committed. Such



IS the letter of the Constitution. Treason can-
not be the offence of a State or political society.
You cannot indict a State. You cannot im-
prison, banish, or hang it, or subject it to any-
conceivable punishment or forfeiture. I appeal
to the bar of this country, I appeal to Republi-
can lawyers and jurists, to say if I am not
riglit.

Take, for illustration, even the consolidat-
ed government of a single State. If a large
number, a majority, or even all, of the inhab-
itants of a county should rebel against the
State government, each individual would be
guilty of treason, and subject to trial by jury
for his crime, nor could be punished in any
other manner. The traitors may be dispersed,
â– wounded, or slain in battle, if they offer armed
and organized resistance. But this is not the
constitutional idea of punishment. No one can
fail to see that the county itself remains an in-
tegral portion of the State, and cannot be pun-
ished, forfeited, or lost ; certainly not if fixed
and established as a political division by the
State constitution or organic law.

The illustration is feeble, because the States
are not an emanation from the federal govern-
ment. On the contrary, the States created,
and, in their union, now compose that govern-
ment. The only doctrine, however, which can
be opposed to the right of secession, is that the
States are unchangeably fixed in the Union by
the constitutional compact, as the planets are
fixed in their orbits around the sun by an irre-
versible law of nature, and can no more depart
from the Union than a planet can fly into the
boundless regions of space. If this is not true,
then by secession the States are effectually, to
all intents whatever, out of the Union, and
none of their citizens can be guilty of treason.
Then Jefferson Davis is not a traitor to the
government of the United States. Then the
Constitution is simply a treaty which may be
annulled at pleasure. Tell me again. Republi-
can judges and lawyers, if this is not so ?

Now the States, in a constitutional sense,
being perpetually members of the Union, and
the national government having jurisdiction
and sovereignty over all their inhabitants for
the special purposes limited and defined in the
Oonstiiuiion, t!ie results are inevitable. First,
the contest of this government is not with it-
self, is not witli its own component parts, is not
Avith the Spates, or their reserved political sov-
ereignty and rights, but is with the treasonable
persons who, in great numbers, resist the lim-
ited and defined sovereignty of the federal
government, and oppose the execution of its
laws. Second, v/hen tliat opposition ceases the
work is done, the mission of government is ac-
complished, unless the judicial power proceeds,
by in.iictment and trial according to constitu-
tional forms, to arraign and punish the ofFentl-
iag individuals who have been engaged in the
i isurrection. I say the work is done. The
Union does not need, nor can it possibly have,
any other salvation. The States do not need,
iior can they possibly h-xve, any other restora-



tion. The Union remains, and the States re-
main. The noble structure of our government
is always constitutionally perfect and complete.
It is complete not only in theory, but in prac-
tice also, over all the confederacy, the very in-
stant that resistance ceases to its just and con-
stitutional laws. Every other doctrine beside
this imputes imperfection to our government,
and inevitably terminates either in revolution
or in the lawful and peaceful secession of
States.

If these principles are true, — and I appeal
to you again, Republican lawyers, to teU me if
they are not, they pronounce the utter and ev-
erlasting condemnation of Mr. Linc;oln and his
advisers, and of the party which owns him as
its chief and its candidate. I arraign them all
because in direct and palpable violation of
those principles which underlie the entire fab-
ric of liberty and law in this country, they
have enacted bills of » attainder, confiscation of
property, and punishment without the process
or trial which the Coristitution requires. The.-
entire population of the Southern States are
already sentenced without trial by sweQping
statutes of Congress, inflicting universal con-
fiscati«»n and deprivation of the right of citi-
zenship. I cannot pause to enumerate them
all. One of them, not more atrocious than
others, disqualifies the entire- male population
of the South forever from holding office under
the government unless by test oath unknown
to the Constitution, and in direct violation of
it, they can show that they have never had
any connection with the existing rebellion.
Now who does not know that this is an utter
disfranchisement of the people of eleven States
of this Union ? And who is so ignorant as not
to understand that this is one of the forms of
punishment for crime which can only be in-
flicted by the tribunals of justice and the ver-
dict of a jury ? Who does not know that the
united power of the President and Congress
can not lawfully touch, in this manner, the
rights of a single citizen of this country ! How
vast, how astonishing, then, is the usurpation
which sweeps to destruction the property and
rights of millions of citizens by presidential
and legislative edicts having no foundation in
constitutional law, but yet to be enforced by^
the soldiers and bayonets entrusted by a con-
fiding people to the chief magistrate of this
nation !

And this is Republican doctrine for restor-
ing the Union ! Did madness and folly ever
reach such astonishing heights ? Is a Union
of the States possible or conceivable unless
you have in them a population clothed with
the common rights of citizenship ? Can Vir-
ginia or Georgia be a member of the Union if
inhabited by an alien population, without
rights as citizens of the United States ? Re-
publicans ! I ask you to pause and reflect.
Can you, by such a policy, restore the States
or their people to their allegiance '? Let mo
tell 5'ou that battles and sieo;es and bloekadrs
may be persuasive arguments to bring back



/v '



an insurgent people to the mild and just
authority of the Constitution and the laws ;
but battles and sieges and blockades will nev-
er bring them to you in the dust of humilia-
tion ; will never subject to your authority, as
abject servants or slaves, a brave and power-
fid people.

I know that among the horrid delusions
propagated by Republican orators and papers,
is the astounding fallacy that the people of
the South having withdrawn from the Union,
are not entitled to the protection of the Con-
stitution. But if we are Union men, we
necessarily affirm that they cannot withdraw
from the Union nor emancipate themselves
fi'om the unchangeable law of the Constitu-
tion. Whoever says more or less than this
rejects the Union and rejects the Constitution.
If we accept the secession postulate that the
Union is dissolved and the Constitution abro-
gated, then we have no cause of war, no mo-
tive for its continuance. Then our arnjies
ought to be instantly withdrawal and the tide
of human slaughter arrested. If not for the
sake of our Constitution, and our whole Con-
stitution, why are we engaged in this desolat-
ing strife ? Why do we wrap a continent in
the devastating flames of war ? Why do we
enact scenes at which humanity and civiliza-
tion are compelled to shudder ? Republicans !
do you not say that rebels ought everywhere
to submit themselves to the Constitution?
But do you mean less than the whole Constitu-
tion^ with all its authority and all its protec-
tion ? Will you divide it in two portions, and
maintain the one while you destroy the other ?
Will you demand the submission required,
and yet withdraw the protection afforded by
the same great instrument ? Do joi\ say that
rebellion shall yield to the supreme law, and
deny to the rebel the citizenship and the
rights to which the same law entitles him ?
I pray you look your doctrine in the face,
and let us away with such monstrous, such
destructive fallacies.

These vast assumptions of power take their
origin in a fanaticism, folly, and hatred to the
incomprehensible, or else they flow from delib-
erate and wicked desire and intention- to
drive away forever a disfranchised people
from the embraces of the Union and tlie Con-
stitution. But the usurpation by Mr. Lincoln
and his administration, of unlimited authority
over States, their institutions, constitutions,
and laws, are yet more fatal and revolution-
ary. To these I briefly Invite your attention.

I have shown that if the Union is a perpet-
ual government, if secession is not a constitu-
tional right, the States are unalterably fixed
as members of the Union, and the mission of
our national government Is not to subjugate
itself, or the States of which it is composed,
hj simply anl solely to quell resistance and
execute everywhere Its constitutional laws.
Now, if there Is one principle more than any
other which lies at the very foundation of our
Union, which is the very corner stone of our



noble political structure, which determined
the rights of the citizen, and even the charac-
ter of civilization and society in this country,
it is the constitutional partition of power be-
tween the Federal and the State govern-
ments. It is known to and admitted by all
persons having the most moderate degree of
political knowledge, that the States, being 'in
the possession of separate sovereignty and
rights before the formation of our federal gov-
ernment, entered by compact into a national
Union, and transferred to that Union certain
specified powers for national purposes, but
reserved all other sovereignty and rights to
themselves. That compact was the Constitu-
tion of the United States, separately agreed
to by each of the States, and if to-day this
Constitution is not the national government,
then we have no such government, for no
other national government has ever been
established in this covmtry.

These principles, too trite and familiar to be
disputed, — these principles being admitted,
it is nothing else than revolution and anarchy
to attempt to overthrow the partition of sov-
ereignty, or obliterate the line which divides
the functions and powers of the States from
the functions and powers of the federal gov-
ernment. If the people of the States attempt
to resume the powers granted to the Union, it
is revolution. If the Union oversteps the line
and invades the rights and powers of the
States, It is also revolution ; and I say to you,
fellow-citizens, this is the very revolution
which is now shaking the pillars of govern-
ment and society in this country.

If secession Is not a constitutional right, then
we arraign Jefferson Davis and his Confeder-
ate States for a revolutionary attempt to over-
throw the powers granted by those States
to the government of the Union. If the
Union is perfect and all the States which com-
pose it are equal, as necessarily they are in
dignity and rights, we arraign Abraham Lin-
coln for the kindred treason of overleaping
the sacred line traced by the Constitution it-
self, which divides the powers of government
and sovereignty, and invading the domain of
State sovereignty and rights, with the revo-
lutionary purpose of reorganizing society and
overthrowing the constitutions and laws of
eleven States of this Union. Jefferson Davis
is the revolutionist of the South, but Jefferson
Davis Is not within the reach of my voice or
my vote. Abraham Lincoln Is the revolution-
ist and anarchist of the North, and lie de-
mands your suffrages and mine. Both of them
must be removed from power before the Union
can be restored and the blessings of peace
once more descend upon this unhappy country.

In proof of the revolutionary design of ]\lr.
Lincoln, I refer to the most authentic and im-
posing records of his administration. The
first great act which signalized his betrayal of
the Constitution and'of the principles and
pledges under which the country had united
in his support, was the Proclamation of Eman-



-.^ P i



cipation, in wWeli, by a shigle stroke of liis
peri, suddenly enfranchised four millions- of
helplijss human beings and overthrew the con-
stituiions and laws of the States under which
they were held in servitude ; and this imperial
edict was attended by a pledge of the army
and navy under his commmd to rajintain it
forever. It is not material what name we
give to this proceeding. It may be called a
militery order, a political decree, or an impe-
rial release. Its name does not alter its char-
acter. jSTor will its character be changed by
any of the pretences for its justification. In
any and all aspects its exact letter and mean-
ing were, and its undoubted effect is, provid-
ed it be a constitutional exercise of power,
to emancipate every slave in the States to
which it applied, and to abrogate forever
the laws of those States. But you say it was
an unconstitutional act, and therefore void
and of no eifect. And preciselj^ this is what
I affirm, and this is the very ground of my
impaauhment. It was a vast revolutionary
step for which the President had no shadow
of authority in the Constitution. It was a
step which the revolutionists and radicals who
hold him in their keeping will never permit
hira to revoke, and which in his latest message
to Congress he has declared he never will re-
voke. For the enforcement of that decree
the usurper is now wielding half a million of
bayonets under the false pretence of a war
for the Union of the States. It is a Avar
against the Union of the States, because there
is no lawful Unibn except under the Consti-
tution, and based on the equal dignity and
rights of each one of them.

That I do not misinterpret the design of Mr.
Lincoln or the meaning of this extraordinary
decree, is proved with absolute demonstration
by his so-called " amnesty," or plan of recon-
structing the seceding States, and restoring
them to the Union. Now this '' plan " is not a
mere theory without practical consequence or
result. Under it, two spurious States have
sprung into being, whose votes are expected to
b^ given to the author of their existence.
Other spurious States are to arise in the track
of our armies, and take the place on the now
existing States of the Union.

This grotesque and crude conception of Mr.
Lincoln is, therefore, a terrible reality, and not
merely a hideous conceit of his brain. He
adheres to it with such tenacity, that he refused
to sanction a plan of Congress, equally unconsti-
tutional, but less absurd than his own. It is a
plan which proceeds on the monstrous doctrine
that the States are in some sense out of the
Union, that thei constitutions and laws are for-
feited, their State sovereignty gone, and that
he, the imperial sovereign at Washington, may
force upon them new constitutions and laws.
It assumes that all the citizens of the rebellious
States are already, without trial or conviction,
in the situation of convicts and outlaws, to
whom a pardon is necessary in order to be
restored to the rights of citizenship. This par-



don the considerate and merciful dictator
extends to so many of them as will take an
oath to support his proclamation of emancipa-
tion, and ail proclamations which he may Issue.
All other persons are outlawed, althougii they
may b^ willing to lay down their arms, and
return t£» tke true allegiance which they owe to
the Union. So soon as one-tenth part of the
voting population have taken the oath, a new
State may be organized, with a free constitu- .
tion, to be received by the President Into the
Union. The ex§stin<i; constitutions of the
States are necessarily abrogated, and nme-
tenths of the people who will not obey the im-
perial behest, and take the degrading oath,
are not left In the enjoyment of a single right
of citizenship, not even the sacred right of suf-
frage.

Time does notpei'mit to me a further discus-
sion of the mighty issues now to be detennined.
We have a noble mission before us — the res-
toration of peace, and the salvation of the
country. There is revolution, there Is war, in-
terminable, cruel, and exhausting war, in the
policy against which we protest. There are
bright pledges of peace and a Union saved and
restored in the candidates we present and the
principles we profess. Let good men, then,
rally to our standard.

We know the enlightened sentiment of the
people Is wlh us, and we believe Its unrestrain-
ed expression will result in the triumph of our
cause. But we must be equal to all the duties
that may be cast upon us. We know also that the
usurper has his armed heel upon the freeman's ""
right of suffrage. Let him be warned in time.
If our candidate Is fairly chosen, and yet the
nation shall be defrauded of Its will by the
presence and exercise of military power. In
whatever place, then, so surely as the throne of
justice Is established In the heavens, the people
wi!l take George B. McClellan in their arms,
and will bear him over and tlirough all opposi-
tion to the Capitol In Washington, and there
inaugurate him as the constitutional President
of this republic.

If any one shtvU say that I have overstated
this extraordinary, this revolutionary scheme,
I say to him, go to the record and there you
will find It. You will find it in the resulting
bogus States of Louisiana and Arkansas. You
will find it on the blood-stained fields of Flor-
ida, where an army was sacrificed to put it la
force. So far as we can know, the President
adheres to it with a fixed tenacity of purpose,
and he has told us that he does not propose to
abandon it. Four years moiv he now asks to
carry forward this revolution of States upon
which he has entered. For this his mandate
Issues for five hundred thousand more men.
For this the nation Is tottering on the verge
of bankruptcy and ruin.

And when are we to have peace and re-
pose ? The country was struck with needless
astonishment at Mr. Lincoln's recent mani-
festo, " To all whom It may concern," declar-
ing not merely the Union, but also " the aban-



8



donment of slavery," as one of the conditions
of peace. What else could he say without
revoking his proclamation, which he has told
us he nevei' will revoke ? What else could he
say, without recalling his " amnesty " and an-
nulling the baseless political organizations
which he has already called into existence,
and which he tells us he cannot abandon?

What less could he say without rejecting
the platform of the political convention which
has nominated him for re-election, and which
he says he " corrUalbi accept!^" a platform which
explicitly declares the abolition of slavery as
one of the objects of this desolating and ex-
terminating war ?

And now over and against this manifesto of
I.irlcoln, ominous of eternal war, let me place
the noble words of McClellan, which may well
b3 written on the, sky, "The Ustion is the

0!^E CONDITION^OF PEACE; WE ASK NO

MORE." And, fellow-citizens, we have no
right to ask more. If the States are in the
Union under the Constitution, or if we de-
mand their return to the Union under the
Constitution, then the great instrument we
seek to uphold forbids us to ask .more. If they
are out of the Union, according to the wild
and fantastic theories of some of the most
eminent Republican leaders, then the rebel-
lious States are to us a foreign nation, and by



the public law of the world, as well as the
eternal rules of justice, their independence
ought to be respected ; and whether inside or
outside of the Constitution, we have no more
right to invade their soil, to change their cus-
toms and laws than we have to invade Brazil
â– to abolish slavery, or the empire of Turkey to
abolish polygamy.

It is time to awaken the slumbering con-
science of the nation to the moral aspects and
duties of the crisis. Are there no moral tests '
which ought to determine the conduct of a
Christian "people? Have the eternal stand-
ards of right and wrong perished in the roar
of arms and the whirlwind of revolution ?
Tell me you ministers of a peaceful religion
— tell me, you disciples of Him whose mission
on earth was peace ' and go«d-wiU to men,
where is your commission to make war, ex-
cept for the Constitution and laws as they
are ? Where is yonr authority to invade
other communities and States with desolation
and fire in the track of your armies, not to en-
force the laws, but to make new laws for them ?
Such a war, let me say to you, neyer ought to
succeed, and it never can succeed, while a sin-
gle arm can be raised to defend . firesides and
homes, or repel an invasion which has no sanc-
tion, human or divine.



WATCHWORDS FOR PATRIOTS
Mottoes for tlie Campaign, selected from General McOlellan's Writings.

The true issue for which we are fighting is the preservation of the Union and upholding the
laws of the general government. — Instructions to General Burtiside, January 7, 1862. _

We are fio-htln^v solely for the integrity of the Union, to uphold the power of our national gov-
ernment, and to restore to the nation the blessings of peace and good order. — Instructions to
General Halleck, November 11,1861. , xi, ^ •

You will please constantly to bear in mind the precise issue for which we are h^hting; that is-
sue is the preservation of the Union and the restoration of the full authority of the general gov-
ernment over all portions of bur WArltovv. — Instructions to General Buell, November 7, 1861.

We shall most readily suppress this rebellion and restore the authority of tf^ government by
reli<^iously respecting the constitutional rights of all ^ Instructiojis to General hueU,Nov. 7, 16hl.

Be carefiil so to treat the unarmed inhabitants as to contract, not widen, the breach existing
between us and the rebels, -j: Instructions to General Buell, November 1 2, 1861.

I have always found that it Is the tendency of subordinates to make vexatious arrests on mere
suspicion. — Instructions to General Buell, November 12, 1861. , „ -j r

Say as little as possible about politics or the negro. — Instructions to General Burns.ide, Jan-

"^The' unity' of this nation, the preservation of our institutions, are so dear to me that I have
willingly sacrificed my private happiness with the single object of doing my duty to my country.
— Letter to Secretary Cameron, October, 1861. -r •„ -i .i v \t -fT, fi,,.

Whatever the determination of the government may be, I will do the best I can with the
Army of the Potomac, and will share its fate, whatever may be the task imposed upon me. — i.eJ-
ier to Secretarif Cameron, October, 186V. , -^ • i „',;.,oj;-^,-, «f

Neither confiscation of propertv, pohtleal executions of persons, territorial organization ol
States, nor forcible abolition of slavery Should be contemplated for a moment. —Letter to ±^ies-
ident Lincoln, July 7, 1862.