and more suddenly perhaps than we imagine,
that this awful cloud of war may lift, and
peace with her white wings may descend upon
the soil that is now soaked in the blood of
our fellow-citizens. That is my hope, and
that is the principle upon which I shall vote.
Have not we carried out the policy of con-
solidation with a vengeance? Have not we
given the coercive theory a full trial? Not
satisfied with the States' rights theory that
prevailed at the beginning of this war, hare
not we given the other a full and fair trial in
these three years? Has not the Government
been as consolidated as any friend of con-
solidation could wish? Has it not exacted
an allegiance such as you could not imagine
to be due to any power? Has it not exercised
every right, every privilege, every coercive
power that any friend of the coercive theory
could imagine? And what is the result?
At home, I have alluded to it. Abroad we
are the contempt of foreign powers. At this
day on our heads, among thinkers in Eng-
land, there rests a degree of contemptuous
regard such as no people ever before found
upon the face of the earth; for these men
look at this system as well as the results; at
the logic of our position as well as the adven-
titious circumstances connected with it. We
have to day, more fully than any people ever
possessed, the actual contempt of foreign
powers. To the amazement of mankind we
are ruining the country, destroying each
other, abandoning our self-respect, surren-
dering the powers of the States to the federal
system; and the result of the whole sacrifice
is that we are laughed at by foreign nations.
If I could have had my way, this thing
should have been checked at the very begin-
ning of it. This war should never have been
begun. There was nothing to justify it, no
necessity for it. At the time when it all be-
gan, the pursuit of the single line of policy
which the terms of the Constitution indicated
would have paved the country. The Govern-
ment did, indeed, do one act, which in my
judgment is one of those luminous spots
which history, after the passions and the
prejudices of the times shall have worn away,
will record upon her pages. Mr. Buchanan,
in his last message, so heavily criticised, said
he stood in this position: As President of the
United States, he did not recognize in the
Constitution that the State of South Carolina,
or other States, had the individual right of
secession. Still he could not persuade him-
self that the Federal Government had any
coercive power. That was the true logic,
and represented precisely the naked difficulty.
The Federal Government stood in the posi-
tion that it could not recognize the correct-
ness of the political action of the seceding
States; and yet had no power to coerce
them. If they had pursued that policy, as a
wise statesman would, there would have been
no war, and no dissolution of the Union. |
I hold this to-day, and I believe it, that the
true theory and policy of federal statesman-
ship would have been to withdraw these
garrisons; and for the Federal Government
to assume the attitude of treating these peo-
ple like spoiled children, and staying. "We
will not take tins issue with you; we will
not fight; we will not have civil war; we
will withdraw from the forts" If we had
said this, what would have been the result?
The Federal Government would have main-
tained its dignity, a dignity that the uni-
versal world would have respected. South
Carolina, Alabama, and perhaps Mississippi,
would have seceded. But what would Vir-
ginia have done? No power on the face of
the earth, under these circumstances, could
have taken Virginia out. Virginia has been
the backbone of the war. No person could
have weakened the devotion of Tennessee,
Kentucky. Missouri, Maryland, or any other
''. State. If your Government had occupied
that attitude, these States I have named would
have seceded and staid out until by the com-
mon sentiment of the whole country, the
middle States and the North together, they
would have been ashamed of their position ;
and even if they had not returned to the
Union by this time, as I hold they would
have done, I say here and am responsible for
it as my deliberate judgment, I would rather
have lost South Carolina, and Georgia, and
Mississippi, and as many more States, than
to have had this war, so help me God.
Neither this government, nor any govern-
ment, nor this cause, nor any cause that
arms were ever invoked to support, are worth
the price this country has paid. Perish the
government; perish the whole cause; perish
everything, rather than lose liberty; rather
than lose what we are now daily losing;
rather than have toppled from under us the
very foundations on which formerly rested
the pillars of that power in the States .which
is the foundation of the domestic circle, and
of all the rights we hold dear to us as men.
Mr. PUGH. We are here to day considering
the question of the theory of our Government.
The falsehood of the theory attempted to be
established by those who are opposing the
amendment before the House, is written all
around us. It is in the very air we breathe.
As we ask ourselves to-day the question
whether the States' rights theory is the proper
theory of this government or not, down yon-
der in the neighborhood of Richmond, thousands
upon thousands of our fellow citizens
are dying to prove to us that there never was
a worse heresy existing upon the face of the
earth, and that those who espouse it are responsible
before God and man for the highest
crimes ever committed upon the face of this
green earth.
We are here to-day, talking among our-
selves, listening to authorities, land argument
upon argument, urged with ability I admit, |
