and desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the
Confederacy, must see that what is meant by the outcry against
coërcion is in the interest, of secession, and that what is meant
is, in effect, that the Federal Government must be terrified or
seduced into complete coöperation with the revolution which it was
its most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to
prevent.'

Jefferson Davis, in his late message, says: 'Let us alone, let us go,
and the sword drops from our hands.' But what does this involve? The
admission of the right of secession, which, as has been proved, is fatal
to all national unity and preservation. Even if this arrogant demand was
complied with, would peace be thus possible? Would not the breaking up
of the Union involve the people in calamities that no patience, or
wisdom upon the part of the North could avert? Remember a long border in
an open country, stretching from the Atlantic, possibly even to the
Pacific, is to be defended. Will the bordering people sink down from
war, and all its exasperations, and become as peaceful as lambs?
Constituted as human nature now is, will the dissolution of the Union
create with the great North and South the experience of millennium
prediction, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall
lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them'? Here is a line crossed by
great rivers; we are to shut up the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, on Ohio
and Western Virginia; we are to ask the Western States to give up the
mouth of the Mississippi to a foreign power. Is it reasonable to suppose
that no provocation will occur on this long frontier? Will no slaves run
away? What is to be gained by a dissolution of the Union? Not peace; for
if, when united, there exists such cause of dissension, the evil will be
tenfold greater when separated. Not national aggrandizement, for