 |
| A Baptism of Blood |
"Having submitted my own opinions on this great crisis, it remains only to say that I shall cheerfully lend to the government my best support in whatever prudent yet energetic efforts it shall make to preserve the Union, advising, only, that it practice as far as possible, the utmost moderation, forbearance and conciliation.
I know that we are in the midst of alarms, and somewhat exposed to accidents unavoidable in seasons of tempestuous passions. We already have disorder, and violence has begun. I know not to what extent it may go. Still my faith in the Constitution and in the Union abides, because my faith in the wisdom and virtue of the American people remains unshaken. Coolness, calmness, and resolution, are elements of their character. They have been temporarily displaced; but they are reappearing.
Soon enough, I trust, for safety, it will be seen that sedition and violence are only local and temporary, and that loyalty and affection to the Union are the natural sentiments of the whole country. Whatever dangers there shall be, there will be the determination to meet them; whatever sacrifices, private or public, shall be needful for the Union, they will be made. I feel sure that the hour has not come for this great nation to fall. This people, which has been studying to become wiser and better as it has grown older, is not perverse or wicked enough to deserve so dreadul and severe a punishment as dissolution.
This Union has not yet accomplished what good for mankind was manifestly designed by Him who appoints the seasons and prescribes the duties of States and empires. No, sir: if it were cast down by factions today, it would rise again and reappear in all its majestic proportions tomorrow. It is the only government that can stand here. Woe! Woe! to the man that madly lifts his hand against it. This nation shall continue and endure; and men, in after time, shall declare that this generation, which saved the Union from such sudden and unlooked for dangers, surpassed in magnanimity even that one which laid its foundations in the eternal principles of liberty, justice and humanity." (Speech of Senator William Seward, January 12, 1861, The Richmond Daily Dispatch)
"If, without damage to the sacred cause
Of Freedom and the safeguard of its laws----
If, without yielding that for which alone
We prize the Union, thou canst save it now
From a baptism of blood, upon thy brow
A wreath whose flowers no earthly soil have known,
Woven of the beatitutdes, shall rest,
And the peacemaker be forever blest!"
No comments:
Post a Comment