thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as
sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition--and for what? we ask again. Is
it for the overthrow of the American government, established by our common
ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on
the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity? And, as such, I must
declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by
the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands,
that it is the best and freest government--the most equal in its rights,
the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the
most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun
of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a
government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters
of a century--in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a
nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us,
with peace and tranquility accompanied with unbounded prosperity and
rights unassailed--is the height of _madness_, _folly_, and _wickedness_,
to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote.

* * * * *


THE CONFEDERATE AND THE SCOTTISH CLERGY ON SLAVERY.


Some three months ago, we published an "Address to Christians throughout
the world," by "the clergy of the Confederate States of America;" and
yesterday we published a reply to that address, signed by nearly a
thousand ministers of the various Churches in Scotland. The Confederate
address begins with a solemn declaration that its scope is not political
but purely religious--that it is sent forth "in the name of our Holy