Anna Dickinson SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE "National Crisis""The National Crisis." The head of the people of of the 19 century [demands] requires a reason for war! The heart of the people of the 19th century, questions for the cause of civil war. The people of the U.S., with their constitution --safe guard of liberty--torn & soiled-- with their tattered flag, from whose firmament --star after star--has gone out in black eclipse--with the mighty engines of war blockading the pathway of civilization--with the red glare of battle lighting up their blasted lands & ruined homesteads,--standing still looking out over the desolation hear--above the din & turmoil, & noise of the conflict, the sharp cry or shivering moan, wrung from the pale lips of strong men in agony. -- or see through the lurid glow of battle the pale--still--faces of their bravest & best beloved--dead!-- They demand answer! And what answer shall be given unto them?--Slavery? Slavery.--Proven, we think, so [have been so] be so, beyond cavil, or doubt or question, by the compromises--compromises itself cannot stand--I believe this government cannot endure permanently-- half slave--& half free-- That crisis has been reached--Freedom has been proclaimed from its topmost height Abraham Lincoln has proven himself equal to the work--the man is worthy of the hour-- For the 1st time &c.--6th March 1862. 4 July 1776 The world moves forward Truth presses onward--God's truth stays not--Liberty shall yet reign triumphant-- We strike for the union & man's birthright Freedom.No sunshine of victory can gild our banners &c.Government - which should "Establish justice & secure the blessings of liberty!" - South Carolina & Georgia (which with Alabama & Mississippi carved from their original territory, form the centre of the rebellion to day.) demanded three express stipulations - "The immunity for 20 years of the African Slave Trade" - "The provision for the return of Fugitive Slaves - The enaction fatal to the principles of Popular Government, of a representation for slaves, for articles of merchandize And these were granted to the South with nothing given in return to the North, in the establishment of a government, for a land, which had been bought by mutual treasure & blood - nay with the knowledge before them of the disloyalty of S Carolina, of the clear fact that the South had been almost wholly subjugated, by the British Armies, while they never held a square mile of Territory in the North save that of which they were in actual possession - & with the figures to prove that, brave, old, freedom loving Masse[chusetts]- had sent from 8 or 9 thousand more troops into the field than the Southern States combined. of slavery in the new Territory purchased from Mexico-& finally in 1854 the iniquity was consummated by the repeal of the compromise which 34 years before had been made on Southern demand. The Last Peace Congress & c. 8th. and when a year ago the Union stood with the mighty surges of Treason and Disunion, rolling northward, breaking around & over her, submerging & almost sweeping away the last landmark of Freedom - & the Peace congress met within closed doors, proposed measures & debated them, & the National Congress sat listening to & weighing the resolution of the venerable Senator from Kentucky - no measure was proposed, no resolution debated - save those of fresh concessions to the slave power! - And so while the representatives stood chaffering over the nation's honor & the people waited with suspended breath, lest the great [of] voice of truth within them, should speak out & make itself heard - the awful roll of artillery, broke the yet-more awful- because dead silence - & compromise was forever swept-away at the cannon's mouth.The Real Reason Nor can it be said that the North was untrue to her promises; for more than 70 years the people of the North have faithfully executed all the compromises of the constitution -- as construed by the South, -- & consented no new ones; -- nor was it, - as some even here & now say - [?] Mr. Lincoln, with his known antecedents, was elected -- to be held in check by Congress, in both houses of which the South held a majority, with the entire of the Supreme Court, -- [?] was no new thing! -- "I have had this matter under consideration, ever since I entered political life, - It is not anything produced by the election of Mr Lincoln, it is a matter which has been gathering head for years!" Say Mr [?] & they will serve as Southern mouthpieces, -- It was because the South having every demand granted -- having trampled under foot, one after another of the safe guards of Freedom -- having torn off line after line of the charter of liberty -- Feeling her power in the north, as expressed by the "[?] Day Book" "There is not a single Democrat in the North who is opposed to the extension of Southern Society, - or the so-called extension of Slavery"-- or as uttered by [?] Senator Bright"--"we rejoice in our candidates as national, in our principals [sic] as national - the same everywhere." -- The South feeling & believing this stood up in the Charleston Convention, & demanded not merely Congressional Protection for Slavery in the Territories, -- but open transit with their property through the North -- the re-opening of the African Slave-Trade -- & were refused -- refused by Northern men, who tho they sat in a southern city, - in a slaverholders convention & listened to the bold utterances of Treason & Secession - yet could not quite forget that they were Northern men - because of this - Ala - Miss - S Carolina Fla - Texas - Ark - Ga & La - in order - retired from the convention -- And in the after convention which met at Baltimore, when the same question came up under a different form, & was again voted down - Va - N.C - Tenn - Del - & a portion of Md & Ky - followedfull well that it could not & would be so, in the rough, mountainous regions of the great North - [?] By this act they simply recognized a mighty truth tho', they knew it not -- That slavery could not live up in the granduer & freedom of the mountains, that the shame & cure of human bondage could not exist so near God's Heaven -- Subsequently a portion of land lying west of the boundary line of Mo - free soil by the terms of the compact - covered by Indian reservations, - exceedingly fertile & desirable, & large enough to form seven counties, was in the congressional session of 1835-36 added to the limits of the state, - This had since become one of the most wealthy & populous sections, is cultivated wholly by slave- labor - has the honor of being the home of the "Border Ruffians, formed in Kansas history, - & in which Secession is rampant to-day. Texas Annexation [?]th After years of emigration & continued effort in every way, Texas was finally annexed to the Union in the summer of 1845. - This with the open acknowledge- ment of the South, that it was for slaveholding purposes - as expressed in a resolution passed by the Florida. Lousiana. 3rd So we count the years to 1803 - when $15,000, 000 of public money, drawn from the north as well as the south, was paid to France, for Territory that should serve as a foundation for new concessions so [slavery] the Slave Power, & while this was not yet settled - Turning down the pages of the history, we read how we the U.S. went to war with the Seminole Indians, & having wrested Florida from Spain, - waited whilst the trail of the serpent, stretched surely over the fair land of flowers - then - gave her welcome entrance. The Missouri Struggle. 4th - In 1820 - The north & the South - Freedom & Slavery, stood on the floor of Congress, in open, - acknowledged context - The result was the Missouri Compromise - admitting in 1821 - Missouri, as a slave state, - over the protest of an almost united North; - & prohibiting slavery in all that territory, lying north of 36 deg 30 north lat. -- Surely, - say you, that was a compromise, - there was mutual concession - I deny it! - The South ran its line just so far north as it deemed slave labor profitable, - paused there knowing Missouri the names of Fredericktown & Springfield, & on the very eve of a triumphal battle - with the whole camp alive with the din & noise of preparation - without reason assigned - without cause given - was removed. - I give you the two pictures - comment if needed. But now when the battle which was to have been fought that day is three months after fought and won, - when the plan for a campaign, sneered at and thrown aside is taken up - considered - executed & the result is Forts Henry and Donaldson when the mail clad gun boats and mortar boats, - which were laughed at as the means for a visionary end - to which constituted one of the strongest evidenced of the incompetence - mismanagement - & - extravagance against their planner - capture forts & strike dismay & terror to the very heart of the Tennessee Capital - When after months of illness - the plans of which he lays - "Many acts which have been endured - were I think for the public good I know they were with that intention" are proven rebellion stalked unmolested--with an army of 50,000 traitors marching across her Southern borders--with a 3 month Union Army breaking up - & returning home dissatisfied & disgusted having accomplished nothing - destitute - not having been paid - give[?] no command an army of raw recruits, undrilled - the calvary without horses or sabres - the artillery without guns - the infantry without arms - ammunition or equipment, - this man brought order out of chaos, - formed this rough mass into a compact thoroughly drilled - well ordered army - connected railroads & had them in full operation all over the country - established posts & fortified them formed a thorough telegraph connection between them all--had comparative tranquility restored & the war brought within legitimate rules - After reversed - the causes of which were established before he had taken command & which he strove vainly yet well to avert - wrote in characters of everlasting light & glory on the broad map ofothers seem to forget, - this - For three months the armies of the republic were being gathered at Washington - every man therein well clothed - thoroughly equipped - finely armed - that the best military & scientific skill, - without questioning cost - was brought to bear on its perfection - that the whole mighty power of the Administration - with every facility which the Government could offer - were given for its support - that the greatest Generals the country had produced were called to the command - that at the end of three months this army was led out to battle - The result - was - Bull Run. - The other. - A General without a special object marked for him - without written charges of any kind given unto him - unfurnished with any plan of a campaign - away from the centre of power - unsupported -nay in many ways, - even thwarted by the Government - was sent into a State - over whose length & breadth, - [secession] armed privilages, all wholsome & necessary measures of prudent restraint, - Granting the Rebellion Suppressed & the Union restored - who is to bear the expenses of this war? - Is the North to take of her money to repair the damage - cover the ruin - build up the waste places - pay the debts of the South? Or is the South to feel in very deed the effects of her unprovoked & malignant treason? If she will not willingly assume her share of the burden - she should be compelled to do it by confiscation! So Shall justice be done for the present - & fear for the future removed. They Will Hold Power at any Cost. Let us be watchful lest - while we question, - doubt - hesitate - The South take not this matter out of our hands. - The men who represent, the. monarchial element in our midst - the men who have steadily & surely trampled under foot, one after another of the bulwarks of civil liberty & constitutional right - the men who have scouted democracy, & sneered at the mighty strata of society, - the laboring classes - as whitewhich meant an unreserved giving, on the one side, - and an absolute taking, without equivalent, on the other! - Compromises each and all of which have had for their basis - their foundation - nay their absolute structure - Slavery! The Compromises! 1st When in 1776 the states gathered themselves together, to set their seal to the words, which made crowned heads [*tremble*] pale - & thrones totter, - & despotisms shake to their centre! - South Carolina hesitated - cast her vote against it - demanded that the article censuring the mother country for the establishment of Slavery in their midst, should be stricken out - & finally recorded her vote, only for the sake of seeming unanimity - Lo stands the first compromise - a yielding of good to evil, of truth to falsehood - of right to wrong - of Freedom to Slavery. 2nd - Then after the years of toil & suffering & danger were fairly passed - & the people whose watch word had been - "Freedom" - whose battle shout 'Liberty!" were met in Convention to frame a points in the far South, & hope soon to hold others, where it is almost impossible for a white man to live from June to November, - [if we] are are brave young soldiers to die there by the climate & pestilence, when a few regiments of well armed, thoroughly drilled black men, placed under experienced officers accustomed to the climate, could at least hold the points which our troops have won? - Question for a humanitarian! What Will We Gain If you will not emancipate what will you gain by the war? - Nothing can be more weak & foolish than to talk of establishing the Government on its old basis. - It would be the height of inequity & absurdity for a country forced by cruel - wicked & unprovoked aggressions, to sacrifice thousands of lives, & hundreds of millions of Treasure, - to confer at once & without probation, upon subdued traitors, - all the political & personal liberties immunities & privileges of brave loyal & untainted citizens, - thus capacitating them either to renew their treason & hostilities - or thwart - by sharing & abusing those liberties &Nothing could be so bad as failure & any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest Jeff Dan Inagural Feb 22nd 1862 Mississippi Legislature - "We are fully pursuaded that protection to the best interests of the South will be afforded by the Annexation of Texas; an equipoise of influence in the halls of Congress will be secured, which will furnish us a permanent guaranty of protection - & with the equally open & overwhelming opposition of the North. War With Mexico. 6th" The War with Mexico followed as the sure result of this outrage, and Northern men went down to death on Mexican battle plains, & public money to the amount of millions was spent, that with blood & treasure the nation might set its seal to this new offering to Slavery. 7th" Compromise of 1850. - 1854, In 1850, when California having declared in favor of freedom, standing at the door of the Union demanded entrance, Southern members objected protesting that all that portion of the proposed State lying South of 36 deg 30', should be cut away, & it was [it] admitted at last, - only by the North consenting to make her territory one vast Slave-hunting ground, & by setting aside, to a certain extent, the restrictionhis forts, or even as he now does, carry arms in the ranks. To go further-Do you say we should not take that cotton? No! That we should not confiscate that food & clothing? No! That we should not seize arms & munitions of war, army stores & money? No! If his house serve him as a barrier or shield would we hesitate so lay it in ashes? No! Do we question the right to claim his property on the high seas, destroy his commerce, blockade his ports? No! If his slaves were arrayed on the battle field, in battallions, unarmed even, between you & him, would you hesitate to fire, fearing that you might injure or even destroy some of his valuable human property. No! And if you would seize his food & cotton, his munitions of war & money, confiscate & destroy his property, blockade his ports, kill him & his slave together, Why should you hesitate to liberate his slave, hesitate to perform a simple act of justice when the performance thereof would crush & utterly ruin your enemy, prove your own salvation to be so by the seal of victory stamped upon them. It is time to speak. Time to recognize in the only real leader the people have had in this contest, the only man who feared not to write "Freedom" on his banner & use "Liberty" as his watchword, his battle shout. The only man able to grasp God's Truth & this World Expediency & hurl them as a thunderbolt against the foe. The man worthy of his name - Fremont - Free mountain, with the mighty love of Freedom the mountain grandeur & strength of character It is is time we recognize in this man the real victor & crowned him with everlasting crownings & honor. Said Abraham Lincoln, June 17th 1808, We are now far into the 8th year since a policy was instituted, with the avowed object & confident promise of putting an end to Slavery. Agitation, under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached & passed. A house divided againstin the footsteps of the Cotton States. "There is no hope for the South other than the Democratic Party", said Senator Toombs & when their hope failed them & the part stood dismembered & shattered on the rock of their own raising and when a few months later 1,850,000 freemen stood as a constitutional barrier, a living wall between them & their unlawful desires, they loosed the hands of Union & went adrift as they had intended for years, when their claims should for the first time be denied. Andrew Jackson in a letter dated, May 1st 1833 writes "The Tariff was only the pretext & a disunion & a Southern Confederacy the real object, the next pretext will be the negro or Slavery Question". The Charleston Mercury, the recognized organ of South Carolina Democracy, 20 years after verified that prediction, when it says, "Upon the policy of dissolving the Union of Separating the South from her northern enemies & establishing a Southern Confederacy, parties presses, politicians & people are a unit." And one of her distinguished statesmen answers to the sentiment, "So is just to tear the Constitution of the U.S. to trample it under foot, to form a Southern Confederacy, every state of which will be a slave holding state." If then Slavery is the Cause, the Originator, the Upholder of the Rebellion, sweep aside the cause, strike down the originator, crush the upholder, Kill Slavery! Slavery uphold the Confederacy. And do it because it upholds the so called Southern Confederacy. Said Mr. Vice-President Stephens, "The corner stone of our new government rests upon the truth, that slavery is the natural condition of the negro." Remove the corner stone. Said Mr. Iverson, a cotton statesmen, "The cotton state cannot live without slavery, we are obliged to have slavery to cultivate our rice & cotton fields. African slavery is essential to our existence as a people." Dash out their existence then, by removing that without which "they cannot live." It is a war on the free Ind of the North. Do it not merely for this reason, but because thisand the everlasting good & gain of more than four million of wronged & oppressed people. Unconstitutional! Strange argument, indeed for a people to use, who in their desire & effort to sustain the Government- have willingly-- for themselves-- levelled(sic) every barrier of civil rights-- annihilated every mark of Constitutional liberty--put the press under a ban-- silenced freedom of speech -- & quietly laid aside the grand old charter of liberty-- the Habeas Corpus. Union men not to suffer. X Granted, so far as the argument extends to traitors, but it would be unjust & cruel to cause the loyal Union mean of the South to suffer! There is no reason why they should suffer-- if they are true! -- proven to be so beyond doubt or question-- compensate them fairly!--- And for the rest which do you suppose a loyal man would prefer--that his slaves should be liberated by his country for the good of his country-- or that they should be seized, as they now are, by the rebels, & used for insurrectionary purposes?we must not push the war too far we must remember that the South has Constitutional rights must not humiliate them &c. The war will abolish Slavery, it will do no such thing. Sometime in the future not troubling themselves about today. Con of Manassas Gen. McClellan has express - Yorktown, Appeal. The charity which plenty spared to poverty is human & earthly but it becomes divine & heavenly when poverty gives to want. If Southern men are not ready to give their slaves as Northern men their property. If Southern men hold their own private interests dearer than their country's good. If Southern men are not willing as Northern men to suffer in their country's cause, they are not worthy their country's protection. Let them stand where they belong, we are stronger to fight the battles of the Union without them than with them. Southern Union men not to suffer! Strange words to fall from northern lips, with northern millionaires willing bankrupts today & northern credit accepting gladly, a debt, under which that of any other government would stagger down to ruin. Slaves not [?] &C Inhumanity! You plead the inhumanity of liberating & arming the slaves against their masters, this with the plain fact looking you clearly in the face, that whole regiments of these very slaves, are arrayed in battle by the side of their masters, over against your armies. If we are fighting to kill our own peopleBull Run, Maj. Ballou 8 or 10 of Richmon Prisoner Col. Todd 42 of our men poisoned by eating food left in their way in Arkansas Des of Gen. Halleck Battle of Pea Ridge Winchester instead of the rebels, why then let them marshal their black legions, & as you see your fathers, sons, & brothers, falling dead in the conflict thank God for your humanity! If these people are our enemies they should be fought with as any other enemies, if not the sooner we know it & stop fighting the better. But you overlook a fact, Jefferson himself a slaveholder said, "Nothing is more clearly written in the book of Fate than that these people are to be free." We have at present 4 1/2 millions of slaves, these increasing in the ratio of 32 per ct every ten years. In 10 years we shall have 6 million in 20 years, 8 or 9 million in 30 years, 12 to 15 million of slaves. How will you hold this mighty slave population in check? How will you guide & control it? You cannot do it. Then will come bloody insurrections, & midnight raids, & fierce contests. They will be free either by rightful revolution, or through insurrection. In what consists the humanity in treasuring up this wrath against the day of wrath. Furthermore we are at present in possession of different& if in this self-protection, slavery stands in the path of the mighty chariot wheels of war, rolling Southward, & is crushed thereunder - who is answerable? No we! We did not seek nor commence the war! We cannot be charged with its consequences. Unconstitutionality You grant thus much but standing with the rent & tattered constitution in your hands - you cry out unconstitutional, unconstitutional! I deny it! I hold that Emancipation is Constitutional because it rests upon the broad basis of the Dec of Ind, which declares, "All men to be equal." I hold Emancipation to be constitutional because [it rests] the Constitution was formed to - "Establish Justice & secure the blessings of liberty."- I hold that the Constitution recognized the slaves as "men" as "persons." The clause so often quoted in regard to fugitives stands - "No person held to service or labor &c" [The Constitution then recognized them as persons] Art 5th of the Amendments states clearly that "no persons shall be deprived of liberty without dueprocess of law. The Constitution declared them to be persons, the Government can see them in no other light - they cannot be deprived of liberty by the laws of the U.S. - then wherever the power of the U.S. is established, its standard planted, & & slaves flock unto it - they can be received by the government & treated only as loyal citizens - & thank God - the Senate not many days since by a vote of 25 to 14 [so decided -] recognized thus much" - "The world moves. But again Congress has the right, the Constitutional right, by the Laws of war by the Law of nations - John Q. Adams - declared it to be a war, however, & in a clear, terse argument proves it so beyond doubt - challenging any one to refute the argument - a challenge which was wisely never accepted. If you decide the slave to be property then he must be treated as any other property - & by Marten's Law of Nations (PP287-8) "The Conquerer has the right to seize on all the property of the enemy, that comes within his power, it matters not whether it be movable or immovable" - & again - "By the laws of war he mayseize appropriate to the uses of war, carry off, confiscate, distribute or destroy every species of property of the enemy." And Congress has recognized this right in all its length & breadth by the various bills which it has made into law save only in holding inviolate property in man. Confiscation. If the slaves are property, they should be confiscated as any other property. The Army Order, given by Secretary Seward to Gen. McClellan Dec 4, 1861 reads "Fugitive Slaves escaping from the ranks of the Secession Army - come under the head of 'Property Used for Insurrectionary Purposes are not merely to be free themselves, but if any one attempts to arrest them he shall himself be arrested by military power." And yet is the slave who toils in the rice swamp, the cane brake, the cotton field, the plantation to raise crops to feed the soldier, material to clothe him & means wherewithal to clothe him, used the less for "Insurrectionary Purposes" than if he were to cut his roads, dig his trenches, buildNorthern soldiers represent so much of the actual wealth of the country. slaves," "mud sills' & the like, & yet who, [have] for 70 years, held undisputed sway in this free government; - & finally when their power was broken - tore in shreds the constitution - trampled right & order under foot - laughed law to scorn - & sat government at defiance - -these men will hesitate at no barrier - which stands in their onward march to empire. - When we read in the London papers of the man who declared on the floor of Congress - "That free society has failed & that which is not free must be substituted, - the man who proclaimed to the world that, men & women, - fighting - striving - panting - struggling for freedom,- were game to hunt & shoot, - because they were black - & to whose speaking the nation said -amen! - When we read of this man - in the ministers gallery of the British Parliament - quietly seated by a member of the Haytien Embassy - a negro of blackest hue - & when we read of the proposals, which this same man - has made unto the British Governments we may consider the facts significant - we may takewarning thereby. Not To Sneer At The South. And they day had gone by for us to sneer either at the strength - the determination - or the courage of the South. —They have 850,000 sq miles of territory, peculiarly rich & fertile by nature - with an ocean coast - a gulf line - & the Mississippi - an area equal in extent to Great - Britain - France - Austria - Prussia - & Spain. Its population is now 60 per ct greater than that of the whole U.S. when we entered on our 2nd war of independence - with a muster roll of a million of men. - That they are clothed & fed we know for they have 4,000 000, of laborers to work for them - that they have arms & ammunition, the effects thereof can testify. - For more than 10 months these people have [held] kept us at bay - have held 6,000,000 of people in subjection - have controlled 4,000,000 of slaves - have coined finances from nothing - & held the European Powers in balance. - We have yet to strike a decided blow in the East - & until the best drill-master in the world -McClellan has proven his title to General we will withold our praises. That these people are not cowards we know for they are Americans, that they can fight is proven by our dead rolls, they have desperation to urge them on, defeat but embitters them, they will give no concessions & wish none, they ask no mercy, & expect none. They desire no peace save with victory & independence. At the end of the present fiscal year we shall have a debt of $600,000,000, a dead roll of thousands of names, led by Winthrop, Greble, Ellsworth, Lyon, Baker, a record of Battles, Great Bethel, Bull Run, Springfield, Ball's, Bluff, The Blockade of the Potomac, no offset, Beaufort, Tybee Island, Port Royal, Freemont. You have forgotten Forts Henry & Donaldson & Nashville! no I have not! I rember with them what the nation seems willing to ignore. The fact that it was the plan laid down by that champion of liberty three months ago, which was carried out in these battles & won these victories. I remember a contrast whichis a war on the Free Institutions of the north- How speak those silent tongues of thought- their newspapers- "Slavery is the natural & normal condition of the laboring man, white or black"- Says the Charleston Mercury.- "The principle of Slavery is in itself right & does not depend on difference of complexion"- Says the Richmond Enquirer "We have got to hating everything with the prefix- Free free farms-free labor-free Society- free will- free thinking- free children- free schools- all belong to the same brood of damnable isms"- says the Richmond Examiner.- How stand the utterances of her Statesmen.-Slavery is the corner-stone of our Republican edifice,- it supercedes the necessity for an order of nobility-" Speaks Gov McDuffie.- "Free Society has failed & that which is not free must be substituted." So said Mr. Mason in the Senate Chamber of the US. Self Preservation. We should do it then as a matter of Self-preservation- In the expressive words of Mr. Cameron "Every means which God has placed in our power, it is our duty to use for the purpose of protecting ourselves."