Newspaper Page Text
SAVANNAH DAILY HEEALD.
VOL. I—NO. 78.
The Savannah Daily Herald
(MORNING AND EVENING)
18 PUBLISHED BT
a W. MASON «fc CO.,
At 111 Bay Street, Savannah, Georgia
TERMS:
Per Copy Five Cent*.
per Hundred $3 60.
Per Year $lO 00,
advertising:
Two Dollars per Square of Ten Lines for first in
sertion ; One Dollar for each subsequent one. Ad
vertisements inserted in the morning, will, if desired,
appear in the evening without extra charge.
JOB PRINTING
every style, neatly and promptly done.
The Grand Sumter Celebration at Charleston
The steamer “Blackstone,” which con
veyed the party from this city to “ assist” at
the Sumter celebration on Friday last, re
turned to the wharf this morning at eleven
o’clock, bringing home the greater part of
the passengers who went away in her.
To the kindness of Mr. Philip Calanan,
the Steward of the “Blackstone,” we are
indebted for copies of the Charleston Courier,
containing a full report of the great celebra
tion at Snmter, and also for New York pa
pers of the 10tb.‘
The “ Blackstone’s” party reached Fort
Sumter on the morning of Thursday. The
afternoon of this day, a party of the Savan
nah visitors, accompanied by a band of mu
sic, visited all the forts in and about the
harbor, and the evening was passed by all iD
making acquaintances and in having a good
time generally.
On Friday morning, at ten o’clock, the
various steamers, to the number of ten, with
bauds playing and flags flying, steamed to
wards Fort Sumter. On their arrival at the
fort, detachments of sailors and marines,
with the 36th Massachusetts Yols. and 127th
New York Yols., were found drawn up in
line to receive the guests.
A platform surrounded with evergreens
was erected in the centre of -the Parade
Ground, with an arched canopy overhead
covered with national banners, made by the
Union ladies of Charleston, and intermingled
with the beautiful wreath's of evergreen and
flowers.
In front of the platform were the seats, ca
pable of accommodating between three and
four thousand visitors. On the stage beside
speaker’s stand was a golden eagle holding
a handsome wreath of flowers and evergreen.
The flag staff had been erected immediately
in the centre of the parade ground, and the
halyards adjusted by three of the crew of
the “Juniata,” who took part in the assault
on Fort Sumter, ordered by Admiral Dahl
green, September 9th, 1863.
The arragements made under the superin
tendence of Major Weiss, were excellent,
and were a complete success.
The number of persons in attendance is
variously estimated at about three thousand,
including between lour and live hundred cit
izens. Among the latter we observed
Charleston’s Union preservative, Dr. A. G.
Mackey, and his family.
About eleven o’clock Rear Admiral Dahl
green arrived and was enthusiastically cheer
ed. He was followed by Fleet Captain Brad
ford and from two to three hundred naval
officers of the Squadron and visitors.
Previous to the arrival of Major General
Anderson, a song entitled “Yictory at Last,”-
composed by W- B. Bradbury, was sung by
the composer, AJie audience joining in the
chorus. - m
ARRIVAL OF MAJOR*GENERAL ROBERT ANDERSON. I
At half past eleven, the sound of music j
followed by the continued cheering ot the
crowd on the parapets was the signal of the
arrivel of Major General Robert Anuerson
and the distingufshed personages accompa- ;
uying him.
Major General Gill more entered the parade
ground with Major General Andersen on the
right, and Miss Anderson on the left. Their
entrance was hailed with enthusiastic shouts
of delight.
The ceremonies proceeded in the following i
order:
1. The recitation ot the Te lieuvi.
2. Prayer by the Rev. Matthew Harris, U.
S. Army chaplain.
This was followed by the reading by the
Rev. R S. Storrs, Jr., D. D., and the audi
ence alternately, of Psalms 126,47,98 and 99.
Major Anderson’s despatch to the Govern
ment, dated steamßbip Baltic, off Sandy
Hook, April 18th, 1861, the fall
of Fort Sumter, was read by Brevet Brigadier
General E. D. Townsend, Adjutant-General
United States Army.
. RAISING THE FLAG.
Anderson and Sergeant
Hart then stepped forward on the platform
and unfurled the glorious old banner amid
the deafening cheers of the assemblage.
•General Anderson and Sergeant Hart then
jaised the flag, with an evergreen’wreath at
tached, the occupants on the stage all joining
in taking hold of the halyards. The scene
of rejoicing that, followed as the flag reached
the top of the staff was indescribable. The
enthusiasm was unbounded. There was a
simultaneous rising, cheering and waving of
hats and handkerchiefs for fully fifteen min
utes. J
Ad the starry emblem floated out grace
fully to the strong breeze, the joyful demon
strations were repeated, which were respond
ed to by music from the bands and the thun
dering salutes from the fort 9 and the fleet. A
salute of two hundred guns was fired by
Battery M, Captain Barker, and Company
a ,9fP tain Caldwell, of the 3d Rhode Island
Artillery, stationed at the fort.
SPEECH OF GENERAL ANDERSON.
When the cheering had subsided,’ General
Anderson, on being introduced by Joseph
noxie.Esq., addressed the assemblage:
Q _rL v friends, and fellow-citizens,and brother
soldiers—By the considerate appointment of
the Honorable Secretary of War, I atn here
to fhlfil the cherished wish of my heart thro’
four long, long years of bloody war; to re
store to its proper place the dear flag which
floated here during peaee, before the first act
of this cruel rebellion. ' •
I thank God that I have lived to see this
day (great applause), and to be here to per
form the duty to my country. My heart is
filled with gratitude to that God who has so
signally blessed us; who has given us bless
ings beyond measure.
May all the world proclaim “Glory to God
in the Highest, and, on earth,peace and good
will towards men." (Yoices: Amen, and
amen.)
ADDRF.SS BY THE P.ltv. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
The Rev. Mr. Beecher was introduced by
Mr. Hoxie. We have the great gratification
of being able this morning to lay this mas
terly production before our readers. Mr.
Beecher said:
On this solemn and joyful day, we again
lift to the breeze our fathers’ flag, uowjagain,
the banner of the United States, with the
fervent prayer that God would crown it with
honor, protect it from treason, and 'Send it
down to our children, with ail the blessings
of civilization, liberty and religion. Terrible
in battle, may it bq beneficent in peace. Hap
pily, no beast or bird of prey has been in
scribed upon it- The stars that redeem the
night from darkness, and the beams of red
light that beautify the morning, have been
united upon its folds. As long as the sun
endures, or the stars, may it wave over a na
tion neither enslaved nor enslaving. (Great
applause.,; Once, and but once, has treason
dishonored it. In that insane hour when the
guiltiest and bloodiest rebellion of time
hurled their fires upon this fort, you, sir,
(turning to General Anderson,) and a small
heroic band, stood within those now crum
bled walls, and did gallant and just battle for
the honor and defence of the nation’s ban
ner. (Applause.)
In that cope of fire this glorious flag still
peacefully waved to the breeze above your
head, unconscious of harm as the stars and
skies above it. Once it was shot down. A
gallant hand, in whose care this day it has
been, plucked it from the ground, and reared
it again—“cast down, but not destroyed."
After, a vain resistance, with trembling hand
and sad heart, you withdrew it from its
height, closed its wings, and bore it far away,
sternly to sleep amid the tumults of rebellkm
and the thunder of battle. The first act of
war had begun. *The long night of four
years had set in. While the giddy traitors
whirled iu a maze of exhillaration, dim hor
rors were already advancing, that were ere
long to fill the land with blood.
To-day you are returned again. We de
voutly join with you iu thanksgiving to Al
mighty God, that He has spared your hon
ored life and vouchsafed you the honors of
this day. The heavens over you are the
same; the same shores; morning comes,aud
evening, as they did. All else, how changed!
What grim batteries crowd the burdened
shores! What sceues have filled this air and
disturbed these waters! These shattered
heaps of shapeless stone are all that is left
of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods ih yon
der sad city—solemn retribution hath avenged
our dishonored banner! You have come
back with honor, who departed hence, four
years ago, leaving the air sultry with fanati
cism. The. surging crowds that rolled up
their frenzied shouts, as the flag came down,
are dead, or scattered, or silent; and their
habitations are desolate. Ruin sits in the
cradle of treason. Rebellion has perished.
But, there flies the same flag that was in
sulted. (Great and prolonged applause.)
With starry eyes it looks all over this bay for
that banner that supplanted it, and sees it
not. (Applause.) You that then, for the
day, were humbled, are here again, to tri
umph once and forever. (Applause.) Iu
the storm of that assault this glorious ensign
was often struck; hut, memorable fact, not
one of its stars was torn out,by shot or shell.
(Applause.) It was a prophecy.
said : “Not one State shall be struck from
this nation by treason!” (Applause.) The
fulfillment is at hand. Lifted to the air, to
day, it proclaims, after four years of war,
“Not a State is blotted out!” [Applause.]
Hail, to the flag of our fathers, and our
flag! Glory to the banner that has gone
through four years black with tempests of
war, to pilot the nation back to peace with
out dismemberment! Aud glory be to God,
who, above all hosts and banners, hath or
dained victory, and shall ordain peace ! (Ap
plause.)
Wherefore have -we come hither, pilgrims
from distant places ? Are we come to exult
that Northern hands are stronger than South
ern ! No ; but to rejoice that the hands of
those who defend a just and beneficent gov
ernment are mightier than the hands that as
saulted it ? (Applause) Do we exult over
fallen cities ? We exult that a Nation has not
fallen. [Applause.] We sorrow with the sor
rowful. We sympathise with the desolate.
We look upon this shattered fort, and yonder
dilapidated city, with sad eyes, grieved that
men should have committed such treason,
and glad that God hath set such a mark upon
treason that all ages shall dread and abhor it
[Applause.]
We exult, not for a passion gratified, but
for a sentiment victorious; not for temper,
but for conscience ; not as wc devoutly be
lieve that our will is done, but that God’s will
is done, God's will hath been done.
We should be unworthy of that liberty en
trusted to our care, if, on such a day as this,
we BU lhed our hearts by feelings of aimless
vengeance ; and equally unworthy, if we did
not devoutly thank Him who hath said, Ven
wh 1 Wlli , r( W> sait k the Lord,
that he hath Stet a mark upon arrogant Re
bellion, ineffaceable while time last!
Since this flag went down on that dark day,
who shall tell the mighty woes that have
made tins land a spectacle to angels and men?
The soil has drank blood, and is glutted
Millions mourn for millions slaiu, or, envying
the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and vil
lages have been razed. Fruitful fields have
turned back to wilderness. It came to pass,
as the prophet said : The sun was turned to
darkness and the moon to blood. The Course
of law w'as ended. The sword sat chief ma
gistrate in half the nation : industry was par
alyzed ; morals corrupted-; the public weal
invaded by rapine and anarchy; whole States
ravaged by avenging armies. The world
SAVANNAH, GA., MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1865.
was amazed. The earth reeled. When the
flag sunk here, it was as if political night had
come, and all beasts of prey had come forth
to devour.
That long night is ended. And for this re
turning day we have come from afar to re
joice and give thanks. No more war ! No
more accursed secession ! No more slavery,
that spawned them both ! (Great applause.)
Let no man misread the meaning of this
unfolding flag ! It says “Government hath
returned hitherto.” It proclaims in the
name of vindicated government, peace and
protection to loyalty; humiliation and
pains to traitors. This is the flag of sover
eignty. The nation, not the States, is sov
ereign. Restored to authority, this flag com
mands, not supplicates.
There may be pardon, but no concession.
(Great applause.) There may be amuesty
and oblivion, but no honied compromises.
(Applause.) The nation to-day has peace
for the peaceful, and war for the turbulent.
(Applause.) The only condition of submis
sion, is, to submit! (Laughter and ap
plause.) There the Constitution, there are
the laws, there is the Government. They
rise up like mountnins of strength that shall
not be moved. They are the conditions of
peace.
One nation, under one government, with
out slavery, lias been ordained, and shall
stand. There can be peace on no other ba
sis. On this basis reconstruction is easy,
and needs neither arcliitect pr engineer..—
Without this basis no engineer or architect
shall ever reconstruct these rebellious
States.
We do not want your cities nor your fields.
We do not envy you your prolific soil, nor
heavens full of perpetual summer. Let ag
riculture revel here ; let manufactures make
every stream twice musical; build fleets iu
every port; inspire the art3 of peace with
genius second only to that of Athens ; and
we shall be glad in your gladness, and rich
in your wealth. *
All that we ask is unswerving loyalty, and
universal liberty. (Applause.) And that, in
the name of this high sovereignty of the
United States of America, we demand, and
that with the blessing of Almighty God, we
will have ! (Great applause.)
We raise our Father’s banner that it may
bring back better blessings than those of old;
that it may restore lawful government, and
a prosperity purer and more enduring than
that which it pretended before ; that it may
wiu parted friends from their alienation; that
it may inspire hope, inaugurate univer
sal liberty; that may say to the sword, “Re
turn to thy sheath,” and to the plow and
sickle, “Goforth;" that it may heal all jeal
ousies, unite ail policies, inspire anew na
tional life, compact our strength, purify our
principles, ennoble our national ambitions
and make this people great and strong, not
for aggression and quarrelsomeness, but for
the peace of the world, giving to us the glo
rious prerogative of leading all nations to
juster laws, to more humane policies, to sin
cere friendship, to national, instituted civil
liberty, and to universal Christian broth
erhood.
Reverently, piously, in hopeful patriotism,
we spread this banner on the sky, as of old
the bow was planted on the cloud, and with
solemn fervor, beseech God to look upon it,
and make it a memorial of au everlasting
covenant aud decree, that never again on
this fair land shall it deluge of blood~prevail, 1
(Applause.)
Why need any eye turn from this spectacle?
Are there not associations which, overleap
ing the recent past, carry us back to times
when, over North and South, this flag was
honored alike by all? In all our colonial days
we were one; in the long Revolutionary
struggle ; and in the scores of prosperous
years succeeding. When the passage of the
Stamp Act in 1765 aroused the colonies, it
was Gadsden of South Carolina that cried
jvith prescient enthusiasm : “We stand on
the broad common ground of those natural
rights that we all feel and know as men.—
There ought to be no New England man, no
New Yorker, this continent, but
all of us, ” said he, That was
the voice of South Carolina. That shall be
the voice of South Carolina. Faint is the
echo ; but it is coming. We now hear it sigh
ing sadly through the pines; but it shall yet
break the shore. No North, no West, no
South, but one United States of America.
(Applause.)
There is scarcely a man born in the South
who has lifted his hand against this banner,
but had a father who would have died tor it.
Is memory dead ? Is there no historic pride?
Has a fatal fury struck blindness or bate into
eyes that used to look kindly towards each
other ; that read the same Bible ; that hung
over the historic pages of our national glory;
that studied the same Constitution ?
Let this uplifting bring back all of the past
that was good, but leave in darkness all that
was Jiad.
It was never before so wholly unspotted ;
so clear of all wrong ; so purely and simply
the sign of Jnstice and Liberty. Did I say
that we brought back the same bantiei that
you bore away, noble and heroic sir ? It is
not the same. It is more aud better than it
was. The land is free from slavery, since
that banner fell.
When God would prepare Moses for Eman
cipation, he overthrew his first steps, and
drove him for forty years to brood in the wil
derness. When our flag came down four years
ago it lay brooding in darkness. It cried to
the Lord, “Wheretbre am I deposed.” Then
arose before it a .vision of its sin. It had
strengthened the strong, and forgotten the
weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod upon
slaves.
In that secession it dedicated itself to liber
ty. Behold, to-day, it fulfills its vows ?
When it went down, lour million people had
no flag. To-day it rises, and four million
people cry out, “Behold our flag !” Hark !
they murmur. It is the Gospel that they re
cite in sacred words: “It is a Gospel to the
poor, it heals our broken hearts, it preaches
deliverance to capitives, it gives sight to the
blind, its sets at liberty them that are bruis
ed.” Rise up then, glorious Gospel Banner,
and roll out these messages of God. Tell the
air that not a spot now' sullies tby whiteness..
Thy red is not the blu9h of shame, but the
flush of joy. Tell the dews that wash thee
that thou art pure as they. Say to the night,
that thy stars lead toward the morning pand
to the morning, that a brighter day arises
with healing in its wings. And then oh
glowing flag, bid the sun pour light on all
thy folds with double brightness, whilst thou
art bearing round and round the world the
solemn joy—a race set free ! a nation re
deemed !
The mighty hand of Government, made
strong in war, by the favor of the God of
Battles, has spread wide to-day the banner of
liberty that went down in darkness, that
arose in light; and there it streams, like the
sun above it, neither parceled out nor mono
polized, but flooding the air with light for all
mankind. Ye scattered and broken, ye
wounded and dying, bitten by the fiery ser
pents of oppression, everywhere, in all the
world, look upon this sign, lifted up and
live. And ye homeless aucl houseless slaves,
look, and ye are free. At length you, too,
have part and lot in this glorious ensign, that
broods with impartial love over small and
great, the poor and the strong, the bond and
the free.
In this solemn hour let us pray for the
quick coming of reconciliation and happi
ness, under this common flag.
But we must build again, from the founda
tions, in all those now free Southern States.
No cheap exhortation “to forgetfulness of
the past, to restore all things as they were”
will do. God does not stretch out hi 9 hand,
a9 he has for four dreadful years, that men
may easily forget the might of his terrible
acts. Restore things as they were ? What,
the alienations and jealousies: the discords
and contentions, and the causes of them ?
No. In that solemn sacrifice an which a na
tion has offered up for its sins so many pre
cious victims, loved and lamented, let our
sins and mistakes be consumed utterly and
forever.
No, never again shall things be restored as
before the war. It is written in God’s decree
of events fulfilled “Old things are passed
away ” That new earth, iu wuich dwelleth
righteousness, draws near.
Things as they were ? Who has an om
nipotent hand to restore a million dead, slain
in battl<y>r wasted by sickness, or dying of
grief, bWken hearted? Who has omnis
cience, to search for the scattered ones ?
Who shall restore the lost to broken families?
Who shall bring back the squandered treas
ure, the years of industry wasted, and con
vince you that four years of guilty rebellion
and cruel war are no more than dirt upon
the . hand, which a moment’s washing re
moves and leaves the hand clean as before ?
Such a war reaches down to the veiy vitals
of society. •
Emerging from such a prolonged rebellion,
he is blind who tells you that the State, by a
mere amnesty aud benevolence of govern
ment, can be put again, by a mere decree, iu
its old place. It would not be bouest, it
would not be kind or fraternal for me to
pretend that Southern revolution against the
Union has not reacted and wrought a revo
lution in the Southern States themselves, and
inaugurated anew dispensation.
Society is like a broken loom, and the
piece which rebellion put in, and was weav
ing, has been cut, ana every thread broken.
You must put iu new warp and new woof—
aud, weaving anew, a9 the fabric slowly un
winds. we shall see in it no gorgon figures,
no hideous grotesque of the old barbarism,
but the figures of lioerty, vines and golden
grains, framing in the heads of Justice, Love
Knd Liberty!
■ The august Convention of 1787 framed the
Constitution, with this memorable preamble:
“ We, the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect Union, estab
lish justice,insure domestic tranquillity, pro
vide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or
dain this Constitution for the United States
of America.”
Again, in the awful Convention of war, the
people .of the United States, for the very
ends just recited, have debated, settled and
ordained, certain fundamental truths, which
must henceforth be accepted and obeyed.—
Nor is any State, or any individual, wise,
who shall disregard them. They are to civil
affairs what the natural laws are*to health—
indispensable conditions of peace and hap
piness.
What are the ordinances give* by the peo
ple, speaking out of fire and darkness of
war, with authority inspired by that same
God who gave the law from Sinai amid thun
ders and trumpet voices ?
1. That these United States shall be one
and indissoluble.
2 ; The States are not absolute sovereigns,
and’ have no right to dismember the republic.
3. That universal liberty is indispensable
to Republican Government, and that slavery
shall be utterly and forever abolished!
Such are the results ot war! These are
the best fruits of the war. They are worth
all they have cost. They are foundations of
peace. They will secure benefits to all na
tions as well as to us.
Our highest wisdom and duty is to accept
the facts as the decrees of God. We are
exhorted to forget all that has happened.
Yes, the wrath, the conflict, the cruelty, but
not those overruling decrees of God which
this war has pronounced. As solemnly as
on Mount Sinai, God says, “Remember 1 re
member !” Hear it to-day. Under this
sun, under that bright child of the sun, our
banner, with the eyes of this nation and of
the world upon us, w r e repeat the syllable of
God’s Providence, and recite the solemn de
crees ' -
No more Disunion !
No more Secession !
No more Slavery ! (Applause.)
Why did this civil war begin ?
We do not wonder that European states
men failed to comprehend this conflict, and
foreign philanthropists were shocked at a
murderous war that seemed to have had no
moral origin, but, like the brutal fights of
beasts of prey, to have spnmg from ferocious
animalism. This great nation filling all
profitable latitudes, cradled between two
oceans, with inexhaustible resources, with
riches increasing in an unparalleled ratio by
1 agriculture, by manufactures, by commerce,
with schools and churches, with books and
newspapers thick as leaves in our own for
ests, with institutions sprung from the peo
ple, and peculiarly adapted to their genius ;
a nation not sluggish, but active, used to ex
citement, practised in political wisdom, and
PRICE. 5 CENTS
accustomed to self-government, and all its
vast outlying parts held together by a federal
government, mild in temper, gentle in ad
ministration, and beneficent in results,
we do not wonder that is is not understood
abroad.
All at once, in this hemisphere of happi
ness and hope, there came trooping clouds
with fiery bolts, full of death and desolation.
At a cannon-shot upon this fort, all the na
tion, as if hpen a trained army, ly
ing on their arms, awaiting a signal, rose up
and began a war which lor awfulne93 rises
into the first rank of bad eminence. The
front of battle, going with the sun, was
twelve hundred miles long; and the depth,
measured -along a meridian, was a thousand
miles. In this vast army, more than two
million men, first and last, for four years,
have, in skirmish, fight and battle, met in
more than a thousand conflicts; while a coast
and river line, not less than four thousand
miles in length, has swarmed with fleets,
freighted with artillery. The very industry
of the country seemed to have been touched
by some infernal wand, and, with one wheel,
changed its front from peace to war. The
anvils of the land beat like drums. As out
of the ooze emerge monsters, so from our
mines and founderies uprose new and strange
machines of war, iron-clad.
And so, in a nation of peaceful habits,
without external provocation, there arose
such a storm of war as blackened the whole
horizon and hemisphere. What wonder
that foreign observers stood amazed at this
fanatical fury, that seemed without divine
guidance, but inspired wholly with infernal
frenzy ?
The explosion was sudden, but the train
had long been laid. We must consider the
condition of Southern society, if we would
understand the mystery of this iniquity. So
ciety in the South resolves itself into three
divisions, more sharply distinguished than
in any other part ot the nation. At the base
is the laboring class, made up of slaves.—
Next is the middle class, made up of traders,
small farmers and poor men. The lower
edge of this class touched the slave, and the
upper edge reached up to the third and ruling
class. This class was a small minority in
numbers, but in practiced ability they had
centered in their hands the whole govern
ment of the South, and had mainly governed
the country.
Upon this polished, cultured, exceedingly
capable aud wholly unprincipled class, rests
the whole burden of this war. Forced upward
by the bottom heat of slavery, the ruling
class in all the disloyal States, arrogated to
themselves a superiority not compatible with
republican equality, nor with just morals.
They claimed a right of preminence. An
evil prophet arose who trained these wild
and luxuriant shoots of ambition to
the shapely form of a political phi
losophy.
By its re-agents they precipitated drudgery
to the bottom of society, and let rise to the top
what they thought to be a clarified fluid. In
their political economy, labor was to be owned
by capital. In their of government
a few were to rule the many. They boldly
avowed, not the fact alone, that under au
forms of government, the few rule the many,
but their right and duty to do so. Set free
from the necessity of labor, they conceived
a contempt for those who left its wholesome
regimen. Believing themselves ordained to
supremacy, they regarded the popular vote,
when it failed to register their wishes, as an
intrusion and a nuisance. They were born in
a garden, and popular liberty, like freshets,
overswelling their banks, but covered their
dainty walks and flowers with slime
and mud—of Democratic, votes (Ap»
plause.)
When, with shrewd observation, they saw
the growth of the popular element in the
Northern States, they instinctively took in
the inevitable events. They must be con
trolled, or cut off from a nation governed by
gentlemen ! Controlled less _ and less, could
it be, in every decade, and they prepared se
cretly, earnestly, and with wide conference
and mutual connivance.
We are to distinguish between the pretence
and means, and cause of this war.
To inflame and unite the great' middle
class of the South, who bad no interest in
separation and no business with war,
they allege grievance that never existed, and
employed arguments which they, better
than ail other men, - knew to be specions and
false. Slavery itself was cared for only as an
instrument of power, or of excitement.—
They had unalterably fixed their eye upon
empire, and all - was good which would se
cure that, and bad which hindered it.
Thus, the ruling class of the South—an
aristocracy as intense, proud and inflexible
as ever existed—not limited either by cus
toms or institutions, not recognized and ad
justed in the regular order of society, playiDg
a reciprocal part in its machinery, but secret,
disowning its own existence, baptised with
ostentatious names of democracy, obsequious
to the people for the sake of governing them;
this nameless, lurking aristocracy, that ran
in the* blood of society like a rash, not yet
come to the skin; this political tapeworm,
that produced nothing, but lay coiled in the
body, feeding on its nutriment, and holding
the whole structure but a servant set up to
nourish it-»this aristocracy of the plantation,
with firm and deliberate resolve, brought on
the war, that they might cut the land in two,
and, clearing themselves from incorrigible
free society, set up a sterner, statelier em
pire, where slaves worked that gentlemen
might live at ease. Nor can ‘there be any
doubt that though, at first, they meant to
erect the form of republican government,
this was but a device; a step necessary to
the securing of that power by which they
should be able to change the whole economy
of society.
That they never di earned of such a war,
we may well believe. That they would have
accepted it, though twice as bloody, if only
thus they could rule, none can doubt that
know the temper of these worst men of
modern society. (Applause.) But they mis
calculated They understand the people of
the South; but they were totally incapable
of understanding the character of the great
working classes of the loyal States. That
industry which is the foundation of indepen
dence, and so of equity, they, stigmatized as
stupid drudgery, or as mewF avarice. That,
general intelligence and Independence of