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Page 67
Before we enter upon a career of force, let us exhaust every effort
at peace. Let us seek to excite love in others by the signs of love in
ourselves. Let there be no needless provocation and strife. Let every
reasonable attempt at compromise be considered. Otherwise we have a
terrible alternative. War, in this age and in this country, sir, should
be the _ultima ratio_. Indeed, it may well be questioned whether there
is any reason in it for war. What a war! Endless in its hate, without
truce and without mercy. If it ended ever, it would only be after a
fearful struggle; and then with a heritage of hate which would forever
forbid harmony. * * *
Small States and great States; new States and old States; slave States
and free States; Atlantic States and Pacific States; gold and silver
States; iron and copper States; grain States and lumber States; river
States and lake States;--all having varied interests and advantages,
would seek superiority in armed strength. Pride, animosity, and glory
would inspire every movement. God shield our country from such a
fulfilment of the prophecy of the revered founders of the Union! Our
struggle would be no short, sharp struggle. Law, and even religion
herself, would become false to their divine purpose. Their voice would
no longer be the voice of God, but of his enemy. Poverty, ignorance,
oppression, and its hand-maid, cowardice, breaking out into merciless
cruelty; slaves false; freemen slaves, and society itself poisoned
at the cradle and dishonored at the grave;--its life, now so full
of blessings, would be gone with the life of a fraternal and united
Statehood. What sacrifice is too great to prevent such a calamity? Is
such a picture overdrawn? Already its outlines appear. What means the
inaugural of Governor Pickens, when he says: "From the position we may
occupy toward the Northern States, as well as from our own internal
structure of society, the government may, from necessity, become
strongly military in its organization"? What mean the minute-men
of Governor Wise? What the Southern boast that they have a rifle or
shot-gun to each family?
What means the Pittsburgh mob? What this alacrity to save Forts Moultrie
and Pinckney? What means the boast of the Southern men of being the
best-armed people in the world, not counting the two hundred thousand
stand of United States arms stored in Southern arsenals? Already Georgia
has her arsenals, with eighty thousand muskets. What mean these lavish
grants of money by Southern Legislatures to buy more arms? What mean
these rumors of arms and force on the Mississippi? These few facts have
already verified the prophecy of Madison as to a disunited Republic.
Mr. Speaker, he alone is just to his country, he alone has a mind
unwarped by section, and a memory unparalyzed by fear, who warns against
precipitancy. He who could hurry this nation to the rash wager of
battle is not fit to hold the seat of legislation. What can justify the
breaking up of our institutions into belligerent fractions? Better this
marble Capitol were levelled to the dust; better were this Congress
struck dead in its deliberations; better an immolation of every ambition
and passion which here have met to shake the foundations of society
than the hazard of these consequences! * * * I appeal to Southern men,who
contemplate a step so fraught with hazard and strife, to pause. Clouds
are about us! There is lightning in their frown! Cannot we direct it
harmlessly to the earth? The morning and evening prayer of the people I
speak for in such weakness rises in strength to that Supreme Ruler
who, in noticing the fall of a sparrow, cannot disregard the fall of a
nation, that our States may continue to be as they have been--one; one
in the unreserve of a mingled national being; one as the thought of God
is one!
JEFFERSON DAVIS,
OF MISSISSIPPI. (BORN 1808, DIED 1889.)
ON WITHDRAWAL FROM THE UNION; SECESSIONIST OPINION;
UNITED STATES SENATE, JANUARY 21, 1861.
I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that
I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn
ordinance of her people in convention assembled, has declared her
separation from the United States. Under these circumstances, of course
my functions are terminated here. It has seemed to me proper, however,
that I should appear in the Senate to announce that fact to my
associates, and I will say but very little more. The occasion does
not invite me to go into argument, and my physical condition would not
permit me to do so if it were otherwise; and yet it seems to become
me to say something on the part of the State I here represent, on an
occasion so solemn as this.
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