Speech of Hon. William D. Northend, of Salem, in the Senate of Massachusetts, March 26th, 1862, upon a proposed amendment to the House resolves in approval of the recent message to the President of the United States

SPEECH

HON, WILLIAM D. NORTHEND,

OF S .A. L E

SENATE OF MASSACHUSETTS,

March 26th, 1862,

UPON A PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE HOUSE RESOLVES

IN APPROVAL OP THE RECENT MESSAGE OF THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

B OSTON:

WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE.

1862.

SPEECH.

Mr. President: — It is impossible for any of us to mag:
importance of the great struggle in which this Governin
involved, — important to the entire future of this great peoph
not less so to the cause of free institutions throughout the woe

This Government was inaugurated, not without doubt, by our
fathers. By a large majority of the people of the old world it
was regarded an experiment, unsupported by the great facts of
history. Its failure was predicted. But it was everywhere con-
ceded that, if the system could be successful, — if this Government,
emanating from and depending upon the people, could sustain
itself through those great trials and crises which had been inci-
dent to the history of every Government, and in which so many
with immense central powers had suffered shipwreck, then that it
would mark an era, and would be the signal for an immense and
universal advancement in the great cause of liberty and popular
institutions throughout the civilized world.

This Government has survived the exigencies and trials of
nearly three-quarters of a century, and many of them of such a
character as to lead us, and its friends in the old world, to a
belief that its permanency and success were substantially demon-
strated.

But in the hour of our greatest prosperity, when the people
of the country had come to regard the invincibility of the Gov-
ernment as an established fact, and looked forward to a future of
uninterrupted peace and prosperity, we are suddenly called to meet
a crisis of such magnitude and proportions as no one could have
anticipated. The only great and untested trial to our Government,
under most inauspicious combinations and circumstances, is now
upon us, and in our day and generation the great problem of popu-
lar institutions is to be settled for at least a century to come. The

principles our fathers fought for, the Government they estab-
lished, the prestige of its unexampled success for so long a time,
all stand trembling in the balance j and the responsibility for a
right issue, with the interposition of a wise Providence, is upon
us — upon the individuals of the country, upon the citizens in
the army, upon the citizens in the legislative halls, and the citi-
zens in their homes. No one is exempt from responsibility, and
upon individual patriotism, and individual efforts, will history
declare the great results of this time.

For months we have waited with the deepest anxiety for
tidings of success by our army against the stupendous rebellion.
We 'have recent cause for gratitude that our fellow-citizens in the
army are doing their entire duty, and are exhibiting a patriotism

I heroism which will, sooner or later, put to an ignominious
flight all those arrayed in arms against the Government. But is
this all that is to be accomplished ? Is the great work of the times
finished with the " crushing out " of armed rebellion ? Although
indispensable, it is but the commencement of the performance of
our duties. That finished, we have a country to restore, the
Government to be obeyed by a willing people. This result will
not depend upon the army, but upon us, — upon the legislators
and the people. This is not a war of subjugation. It is a war
for and under the Constitution, to protect loyal men oppressed
by armed rebellion, and to induce a return to loyalty, and a love
and reverence for the Constitution, by showing, as we shall have
an opportunity, that cannot and will not be mistaken, that the
incendiary statements of the authors of the rebellion were not
founded in fact — that they were only plausible pretexts.

This once fully shown, we have a more united and loyal people
than we have had for thirty years, and we continue on our great
and glorious mission with a power and authority which will more
than compensate for all our losses and trials. But if it shall be
otherwise, — if the people of this Confederacy, to whom has
been entrusted the preservation of the Government in this great
crisis, shall determine to forget the instructions of the fathers, —
if they shall be governed by their passions, — if demagogues and
the tyranny of party shall usurp the seat of patriotism and true
loyalty, — if an unbridled and licentious spirit of recklessness
shall madden and impel our people to disregard the guaranties

of the Constitution, without which our Government would have
never been established, then, sir, I see nothing but ruin and
disaster in the future.

Let it, sir, be once distinctly understood, that this Government
intends to take advantage of the power which this unprecedented
state of affairs has entrusted it with, to the subversion of consti-
tutional rights, and a disregard of constitutional obligations, and
the victory of our arms will have been in vain. Loyal meu of
to-day at the South, will see that their rights are violated, and
they will strike the heaviest blows for their protection agai
usurpation. The authors of the rebellion will be able to
umphantly show to their followers, that the specious prete
which they had used so successfully, if not based upon fact, h
resulted in reality, and the last ray of hope for a restoration
the Government will have disappeared.

The President of the United States, from the day of his inau-
guration to the present time, has proclaimed that the purpose of
this war is the restoration of the Union under the Consti-
tution; and under this proclamation, and for the purposes of it,
one half million of our fellow citizens have volunteered for the
war. Every act of the Administration has been consistent and
only consistent with this proclamation, and we are now called
upon to express our opinions upon this policy of the Administra-
tion, and I beg leave of the Senate to read from the messages of
the President, to show the clear, unqualified and unmistakable
position of the Administration upon the prosecution of the war.

President Lincoln, in his Inaugural Message, says :

" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institu-
tion of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful
right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated
and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this and
many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than
this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to them-
selves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read.

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic
institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that
balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political

fabric depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion, by armed force, of
the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among
the gravest of crimes.

" I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the
public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is suscep-
tible, that the property, peace and security of no section are to be to any-
wise endangered by the now incoming Administration."

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la his Message to the special session of Congress on July 4th,
he says :

" Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what
to be the course of the Government toward the Southern States after
e rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to
Ky, it will be his purpose then as ever to be guided by the Constitution
and the Laws, and that he will probably have no different understanding
of the powers and duties of the Federal Government, relatively to the
rights of the States and the people under the Constitution, than that
expressed in the inaugural address. He desires to preserve the Govern-
ment that it may be administered for all as it was administered by the men
who made it."

In his Message to the present session of Congress in Decem-
ber, the President refers to his two former messages upon this
subject, and says, " Nothing now occurs to add or subtract to or
from the principles or general purposes stated and expressed in
those documents."

In his Message of March 6th, the President recommends to
Congress the adoption by them of a joint resolution, to the effect
that the United States ought to co-operate with any State which
may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, by giving pecuniary
aid for such purpose.

This course has been approved by eminent and conservative
statesmen for many years, and its adoption at the present time
is specially recommended, with the hope that it may induce some
of the Northern slaveholding States to emancipate their slaves,
and by so doing weaken the hopes of the leaders of the insur-
rection. The resolution contemplates only such action as is
strictly within the limits of the Constitution. As the President
correctly states in the Message proposing the resolve, —

"Such a proposition on the pan oi' the General Government sets up no
claim of a right bv Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State

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limits, referring us it docs the absolute control of the subject, in each qui
to the State and its people immediately interested. Ii is proposed as a
matter of perfectly free choice will i them."

The President further says :

"The point is n<»( that all the Stall's tolerating slavery would soon, if at
all, initiate emancipation ; but that while, the offer is equally made to all,
the more Northern shall by such initiation make, it certain («» the more
Southern, that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their prj
posed Confederacy. Initiation, because, in my judgment; gradual and
sudden emancipation is better for all."

These plain and intelligible enunciations of the principles
which the Administration proposed to bo guided, met with tl
approval of the entire people of the loyal States, excepting the
class whose basis of operations is outside the Constitution.
Men of all parties joined in a patriotic and enthusiastic support
of the President upon this distinct line of policy, who would not
upon any other; and all who now advocate a different principle
of action not only place themselves in Opposition to the Admin
istration, but initiate a partisan conflict. This war on the part
of the Federal Government is either for the purpose of restor-
ing and maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution, or for
the destruction of it. There is no middle ground. If Senators
believe there is such a necessary antagonism between slave labor
in one State and free labor in another, that they cannot exist
together in the future, they should reflect how far this belief jus-
tifies an attempt at separation. I believe there is no such antag-
onism, and the experience of seventy years demonstrates it.

I have not favored the passage of any resolutions by the Leg-
islature upon the conduct of national affairs; and have taken DO
part in discussions referring to past issues, but these resolutions
have been pressed upon us and we shall be wanting in duty if we
remain silent. It is proposed to endorse a portion of the Presi-
dent's policy without reference to the remainder. Such a com e,
as stated by the Senator from Hampden, Mr. Thompson, in his
eloquent remarks, might imply a repudiation of the policy not
referred to. All Senators who have spoken, have stated that
the people concurred in the entire policy of the President. IT
this is true, why not express it here. The policy of the Presi-

dent- lias been continuous, connected and consistent, and should
be endorsed as a whole. I believe that it has been wise,
judicious, patriotic. The people believe so. Senators who state
that the policy of the President previous to March 6th is
approved by their constituents and record their votes against the
proposed resolve, will be misunderstood by the people. We
should net with a view to our great responsibilities in the
present, with a wise regard to the future, forgetting all past
^tiffereuces and party divisions.

■pur greatest and most holy duty is to sustain the Government.
B>'} other consideration, however important, is secondary to
^H The evils of slavery were known to the fathers, as they are
|V"rii to us, yet they permitted them, in order that they might
achieve the paramount and supreme good of a Government for
this whole people. Let us not assume to be better or wiser than
they were. These evils cannot be properly relieved by violence
or the arbitrary use of power. They were not born in a day.
They cannot be cured in a day. Providence will work out its
own great results. This war is for the purification of the nation,
but not by the overthrow of the Government, or a perversion of
any of its fundamental principles. Events sublime, collossal,
irresistible, are at work. If we listen, we can hear their mighty
tread. We cannot hasten or aid their progress by the exercise
oH extraordinary powers. Our duty is to exercise faith, patience,
in the support of the Government. Let us do this, and God will
protect the right, and in his own way, and in his own good time,
will purify us from the wrong.

I know of no way for the restoration of the Union, unless the
pilots of the great ship of State shall be guided by the North
Star of the Constitution. If this shall be obscured — if we veer
to the right hand or to the left, we shall find ourselves on a dark
and tempestuous ocean, with no haven for safety. Our brave
soldiers and seamen will have fought to no purpose. Ellsworth,
Lyon, Lander, and the host of other noMe patriots who have
offered up their lives, will have died in vain; and history will
record the humiliating truth, that becau.se the sons would not
perform the conditions imposed by the fathers, they lost forever
for themselves and their posterity, the most precious inheritance
ever bequeathed to a great and prosperous people.

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