They appealed to the Constitution,
they appealed to justice, they appealed to fraternity, until the
Constitution, justice, and fraternity were no longer listened to in the
legislative halls of their country, and then, sir, they prepared for the
arbitrament of the sword; and now you see the glittering bayonet, and
you hear the tramp of armed men from your Capitol to the Rio Grande. It
is a sight that gladdens the eyes and cheers the heart of other millions
ready to second them.
Inasmuch, sir, as I have labored earnestly, honestly, sincerely, with
these men to avert this necessity so long as I deemed it possible, and
inasmuch as I heartily approve their present conduct of resistance, I
deem it my duty to state their case to the Senate, to the country, and
to the civilized world.
Senators, my countrymen have demanded no new government; they have
demanded no new constitution. Look to their records at home and here
from the beginning of this national strife until its consummation in
the disruption of the empire, and they have not demanded a single thing
except that you shall abide by the Constitution of the United States;
that constitutional rights shall be respected, and that justice shall be
done. Sirs, they have stood by your Constitution; they have stood by
all its requirements; they have performed all its duties unselfishly,
uncalculatingly, disinterestedly, until a party sprang up in this
country which endangered their social system--a party which they
arraign, and which they charge before the American people and all
mankind, with having made proclamation of outlawry against four thousand
millions of their property in the Territories of the United States; with
having put them under the ban of the empire in all the States in which
their institutions exist, outside the protection of Federal laws; with
having aided and abetted insurrection from within and invasion from
without, with the view of subverting those institutions, and desolating
their homes and their firesides.
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