Josiah Gilbert Holland

“ His duty is to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. ”

“ Lincoln's call for troops--on the day of the bloody passage of the Massachusetts Sixth through Baltimore--he issued a proclamation declaring a blockade of the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. This call for troops and the establishment of a blockade were the preliminaries of one of the most remarkable wars that have occurred in the history of the human race--a war which, for the number of men involved, the amount of spaces traversed, of coast line blockaded, of material consumed and results achieved, surpasses all the wars of history. ”

“ One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended, and this is the only substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. ”

“ If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent, which, in turn, will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. ”

“ By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years. ”

“ To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes? Would it not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from? ”

“ This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I can not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. ”

“ Lincoln's policy so to conduct affairs as to strengthen the Union feeling in the border states, and to give utterance to no sentiment and to do no deed which should drive these states toward the confederacy. He saw that if he could hold these states, there could not be a very serious war; for the first condition of success to the rebel cause was its general adoption by the border slave states. To hold these states by every means that did not bring absolute disgrace upon the government was his object. He must do nothing that would weaken the hands of Union men. ”

“ Lincoln he was on his way home, and at Bellair, Ohio, he was called out to make a speech. All parties received him with the greatest enthusiasm, and every word he uttered had the genuine ring of patriotism. Subsequently he addressed the legislature of Illinois, at Springfield, and his own fellow-citizens at Chicago. The old party talk and the old party policy were all forgotten, and only the sturdy, enthusiastic patriot spoke. In one of the last letters he ever wrote he said: "We should never forget that a man cannot be a true democrat unless he is a loyal patriot." ”

“ Lincoln found not only the departments corrupt and unreliable, but he found the public mind abroad thoroughly poisoned against him, and fully in sympathy with the secessionists. Perhaps a majority of the representatives of the government in Europe were in the secrets of the seceders, and, in company with many who had gone from the southern states to shape public opinion to the interests of treason, were doing everything in their power to injure the government which had honored them. The places thus disgraced and made instruments in the hands of treason were to be filled by loyal men ”

“ Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. While strict legal right may exist of the government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it best to forego for the time the uses of such offices. ”

“ At the same time the candid citizen must confess that, if the policy of the government upon the vital question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. ”

“ On one side was rampant treason and a policy of aggressive war; on the other, patient forbearance, and the most considerate care not to take any step not absolutely necessary to the maintenance of the indisputable rights of the government. No man in the United States who pretended to be loyal could find fault with Mr. Lincoln for claiming too much, or being harsh with those "erring sisters" who, it was believed by many, might be gently led back to their allegiance.
On the seventeenth of April, Virginia went out of the Union by a convention vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five ”

“ Men forgot their counting--rooms and ware-houses, and gave themselves up to the emotions excited by so prompt and gallant an exhibition of patriotism. But the tramp of the Sixth awoke the young men everywhere to deeds of emulation. ”

“ But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state authorities? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. ”

“ Fellow-Citizens of the United States:--In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. ”

“ Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. ”

“ All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. ”

“ They had been instructing officers for years, and drilling troops for months. They knew that there were not arms enough in the North to furnish an army competent to overcome them. When, therefore, Mr. Lincoln called for his seventy-five thousand men, they met the proclamation with a howl of derision.
Massachusetts was the first state to respond to the call for troops. Governor Andrew, a devoted friend of the administration, acted as promptly then in the support of the government as he afterwards labored with efficient persistence in the destruction of the rebellion ”

“ The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. ”

“ All these labors he was performing with the consciousness that his nominal friends were doubtful, that seven states were in open revolt, and that a majority throughout the Union had not the slightest sympathy with him.
There was distraction, also, in his counsels. Loyal men, burning with patriotic indignation, were demanding that Fort Sumter should be reinforced and provisioned, while the veteran Lieutenant General was advising its abandonment as a military necessity. The wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's waiting became evident at a day not too long delayed. ”

“ All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this.
"Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers. a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly-written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution ”

“ The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the states. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. ”

“ Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties.
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government ”

“ The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one section; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.
"Physically speaking we can not separate; we can not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They can not but remain face to face ”

“ The confederacy found that it must make progress or die. The rebel Congress passed a measure for the organization of an army, on the ninth of March, and on the twelfth two confederate commissioners--Mr. Forsyth of Alabama and Mr. Crawford of Georgia--presented themselves at the State Department at Washington for the purpose of making a treaty with the United States. They knew, of course, that they could not be received officially, and that they ought to be arrested for treason. ”

“ Douglas was unalterably opposed to the administration on all its political issues, he was prepared to sustain the President in the exercise of all his constitutional functions to preserve the Union, and maintain the government and defend the federal capital. A firm policy and prompt action were necessary. The capital of our country was in danger and must be defended at all hazards, and at any expense of men or money. ”

“ I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. ”

“ Women thronged around the cars, bringing to them their Bibles and other gifts, and giving them their tearful blessing. New York city was much impressed by their sturdy march through the great metropolis. ”