lows. The principles of the administration
will be the same as now; the measures the
same; the mode of applying the principles
and executing the measures will be slightly
altered—no more. It is plain that another
such administration would ruin the coun-
try for men like those of Middlesex county,
Massachusetts. I don't think the people will
see themselves conquered by 350,000 slave-
holders, headed by an old bachelor I If
Buchanan is elected, I don't believe the
Union holds' out three years. I shall go for
dissolution."
And then in another letter addressed to
Prof. Desor, during the same year, 1856,
he says:
"But if Fremont is not elected, then I look
forward to what is worse than civil war in
the other form, viz: a long series of usurpa-
tions on the part of the slave power, and of
concessions by the North, until we are forced
to take the initiative of revolution at the
North. That will be the worst form of the
case, for then the worst fighting will be
among the Northern men—between the
friends of freedom and the hunkers. I ex-
pect civil war, and make my calculations ac-
cordingly."
That was three years before the John
Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, Again, in a
letter to John P. Hale, dated October 21,
1856, he says:
"If Buchanan is President, I think the
Union does not hold out his four years, it
must end in civil war, which I have been
preparing for these six months past. I buy
no books, except for pressing need. Last
year I bought $1,500 worth, this year I shall
not order $200 worth. I may want the money
for cannons.
" Have you any plan, in case we are de-
feated? Of course the principles and measures
of the administration will remain unchanged
and the mode of execution will be more in
tense and rapid,"
Then he wrote in his diary, on the day on
which James Buchanan was elected Presi-
dent:
"This day is not less critical in our history
for the future than the 4th July, '76, was for
the past. At sunrise there were three alter-
natives :
" 1. Freedom may put down slavery peacefully
by due course of law.
'' 2. Slavery may put down freedom in the
same way.
"3. The friends of freedom and its foes
may draw swords and fight.
" At sunset the people had repudiated the
first alternative. Now America may choose
between Nos, 2 and 3. Of course we shall
fight. I have expected civil war for months
now I buy no books for the present. Nay,
I think affairs may come to such a pass that
my own property may be confiscated; fur
who knows that we shall beat at the begin- |
ning—and I hung as a traitor? So I invest
property accordingly. Wife's will be safe.
I don't pay the mortgage till 1862."
He has an eye to the main chance, even in
such a contingency.
Now one more quotation from Mr. Parker,
from a letter written to Miss Hunt, in Eu-
rope :
" At New York and elsewhere, Banks said
the election of Fremont would settle the
slavery question, and stop agitation for thirty
years.
" I opened my eyes when I went outwest,
and saw that the hands of the republicans
are not yet quite clear enough to be trusted
with power. There has a deal of bad stuff
came over the republican party. I am more
than ever of the opinion that we must settle
this question in the old Anglo-Saxon way—
with the sword.
" There are two Constitutions for America—
one writ on parchment, and laid up at Wash-
ington."
That is the Constitution our fathers made.
What is the other ?
" The other also on parchment, but on the
head of a drum. It is to this we must ap-
peal, and before long, I make all my pecu-
cuniary arrangments with the expectation
of civil war."
Now, who prepared for civil war? who
made preparations for civil war? who were
ready to begin civil war? who sent John
Brown to inaugurate civil war and insurrec-
tion at Harper's Ferry, when Virginia and
the South were in profound peace, resting as
they supposed under the aegis of the Consti-
tution, and under the protection of the laws,
and the plighted faith of the North? Sir,
there are two sides to this question, if gentle-
men will but examine it. And when they
talk of the ambitious men of the South who
deaired separation for self-aggrandizement
and the reopening of the African slave-trade—
although, unfortunate for that theory, one of
their first acts was to put a provision in their
constitution prohibiting the African slave-
trade forever— when they put themselves upon
trial before the jury of the world as to the
causes for their separation, whatever may be
said of them, they are in the midst of that
trial now. But I beg gentlemen to took at
those who not only afforded the pretext, but
were themselves hurrying on the engines of
destruction, and who said if they were not
successful at the ballot-box, they were pre-
pared for civil war, even to be hung as trai-
tors, If this picture commends abolition to
the contemplation of the people of Maryland,
and to this Convention, all I have to Bay is
that the days of mad fanaticism have not yet
passed over, as we have seen here in our
midst, unfortunately for us, under circum-
stances that bring sadness to my heart when
I look at them.
Thirty-one years ago and upwards, when |
