Part 9

in accordance with sound reason & the "inexorable logic" of the Constitution, since that noble edifice was attacked in two points simultaneously by the Repub^cn party: 1°. by abrogating the Fugitive Slave Law; 2°. by depriving the South of eq^l rights in the Territories. These are 2 points in which the North has transgressed the limits of immutable Justice, and nothing which is unjust can be _reasonable_, for, they (Just. & Reas.) are twin sisters. Moreover, the Bible justifies no war but that of self-defence. Then are the North invaded? No, nor never will be, by the South, for all they ask is peace within their borders. While they hold in one hand the sword of self-defence, they present the "Olive Branch" with the other; and so God grant it _may be ever_.

You lament the inconceivable disasters "inaugurated by the attack on Sumter." True enough they may have been _inaugurated_ by that _act_, but their unconcealed cause lies _far_ back of that, as we have shown. That was only a raising of the curtain, or rather a forcing of it to be raised by the Abolitionists--a beginning of the bloody drama. Who caused the attack? What meant those _human cargoes_ that approached so close to its walls the day before the battle? Why did the worthy (?) Lincoln so long deceive the South^rn Commissioners by promise after promise not to make war, but to _evacuate_ the fort, & meet them, as a sensible Pres. would have done, in friendly negotiation for peace? S.C. was right, and acted nobly in the affair, and was as justifiable therein, as was _Anderson_ in occupying the Fort _before_ he had a reason for doing so, declaring by his overt act that the U.S. forces under him were at _enmity_ with S.C. But then you say S.C. should have _first tried_ Lincoln before determining to secede. I think she saw with prophetic vision the end from the beginning. She took Lincoln at his word--that itself was oppression & tyranny sufficient to burst asunder the closest ties of Union that could exist in any Country. You say we sh^d. give everything a fair trial. I disagree. If I saw a _serpent_ in my path & it sh^d. attempt to make battle, or declare its hostility by displaying its horrid fangs, do you think I would coolly stand by & give it a fair trial, & test its friendship? I would be impelled, even had I never seen or heard of such a creature before, to crush it immediately, & so S.C. has sensibly said to the Administration "_Serpent, bite a file!_" As to your Eulogium on Lincoln I have not much to say. If he pleases you, well enough, you're easily satisfied. _I_ take it that he is a disgrace to the Chair he occupies; and to judge from his conversations, he is devoid of all sense of refinement & etiquette; to look at his executive powers as displayed thus far, he had better be _a Bey_ than helmsman of the "Old Ship"; and what of his _efforts_ at speeches? In the language of Logan, "I appeal to any white man" to say if they would not be a disgrace to many a "Country 'Squire"! And yet such a man elevated to the highest position in the gift of the American people! There was a time when the soundest and most learned men of the land were made Presidents, now a man's capacity for the office seems to depend on the meanness of his intellect & the _number of rails he can split in a day_. And so great were his "maul & wedge" propensities that he withheld not his hand from splitting the Tree of Liberty. But let us inquire upon which side "_humanity_" stands in this contest. You complain much of several (local) depredations com^td by South on private _boats_ &c. I ask, in candor, if it was not in retaliation for like outrages com^td by the North. I am certain as to its being so in several cases. The very 1st boat thus ill-treated was one belonging to the South on its way down the Miss. & attacked at Cairo. To retaliate they determined to attack _North^en boats coming up the river_. And what have your noble _Ohioans_ done lately & repeatedly with our _Ka._ boats at _Gallipolis_? Thrice have they overhauled the same boat and twice kept every pound of freight on her timbers. But this is not all; your _humane Lincoln_ has closed the Southern ports, & is daily _robbing vessels_ on their way in & out of the same. During the last week he stole $150,000 worth of Southern Tobacco, & thus the programme continues. _Very humane indeed!_ Again, he is _no invader!_ No indeed! by no means! yet hundreds of Citizens are now fleeing from Wheeling, & other towns invaded, for personal safety. Scarce a day passes but some one stops here who has thus escaped. If they remain on their own soil and round their proper hearthstone the (very) humane doom of a murderer awaits them! The North don't intend to make invasion at all, yet _4000 F^l_ troops are now in _Parkersburg_, breaking up printing presses, putting innocent people in jail, and doing other _humane_ acts, "too numerous to mention." According to my letter from Father I understand they don't have the first principles of _Civilized warfare_--they intend to _hang_ all their prisoners. Oh! _humanity!_ HUMANITY!

And now that we have seen that neither Reason, Justice, nor Humanity is on the side of the North, let us look at the subject in the light of _Expediency_, admitting, for the sake of argument the while, that it _were_ right or just to wage the war. And viewing it from this standpoint, we ask, what does the North expect to _gain_ by it? Does there live a man so lost to reason & common sense as to imagine that the Union of the seceded States with the N.S. can ever be effected again? _And if it could be done by force_, how long could a Repub^n Gov. exist as a military despotism? And who would not prefer _banishment_ or _death_ to _such_ a _life?_ What Satisfac^n could the North themselves have in such an event? They would live a life of misery; provoke the sneers of the civilized world; and draw down upon their heads the terrible wrath of an offended God.

But this war will _not_ be permitted _thus to terminate_, the South can _never be conquered_. You yourself know their "_spirit_" too well to believe otherwise. Rather than be _subjugated_ they will _die_ a _triple death_. Like their mighty _Henry_ they cry, "Give us liberty or give us _death!_" And still more _I_ don't think they can be _exterminated. 8,000,000_ of people, armed in the holy cause of self-defence; struggling for their _liberties, honor, interests, & lives_, with a laudable ambition, & an _unyielding perseverance_, are _invincible_ by any force the North can raise to send against them. Besides (to continue the sentiments of Henry), the battle is not to the _strong_ alone, it is to the _vigilant, the active_, the _brave_. Especially so when, as I said before, the forces of Lincoln are not composed generally of men of the first rank of Society (except a few Officers desirous of Fame), but the "offscouring" & rabble of the land--men who have nothing at stake, not even their own lives we might say, since they care so little for anything. So that notwithstanding the immense number (and here let me remind you of the _disparity_ of _forces_, of which you said so much, at _Sumter_)--"stubborn facts"--of which you speak, the South has nothing to fear. And, moreover, as certainly as I believe there exists a God of Justice & Mercy, so certainly & conscientiously do I believe He will defend the South from the Vandals of the North. Yes, dark as they seem, the clouds of gloom do not shut out the star of hope, and they are beginning to be spanned by a radiant bow of promise; the fall of _Ellsworth_ & the shattered walls of the _once presumed impreg^ble_ Sumter, abundantly testify that _God_ is on their side, and "if the Lord be _for_ them, _who can be against_ them?" So I heartily say "God speed" them--they shall have my prayers.--But let us take one more glance at the _expediency_ of this matter. Are not the North fighting for a Patroclus' grave in this struggle? What matters an _abstract banner?_ especially to the _"matter of fact" Yankee?_ And then behold the inconsistency of the North in another point; they have through their Representatives, for many years, cried "_no more slave_ territory"; and indeed many of them, such as Seward &c., have declared that slavery _must be abolished_, as both can't exist under the _same gov.;_ yet, _now_ they are _fighting to the death_ to _keep_ or _get back slave territory!!!_ "Oh! consistency!" And, _finally_, at this point, will it not cost _myriads_ of _lives & millions_ of _money_ to accomplish their infernal designs, even _could_ they do it? And can the North afford this? Even now it is costing _Lincoln's Anarchy_ (for I can't call it _gov._) _$1,000,000_ per day--a _matter_ of _record!_ Suppose then the war sh^d last a year, what then? Union or dis-union? Alas, _farther separation_. Continue it then two years more. What then? _Ditto & ditto_ it will _be_ should it last as long as the "_War of the Roses_," for we have no houses of York & Lancaster to _unite_, sign and settle the dispute by marriage--_one_ or _both_ annihilated!--And now I ask how, in the name of Reason, Justice, or Humanity, can you lift up your voice in defence of the North when they are the cause of all this accumulating misery?--when they have deprived the South of her Consti^tn rights, driven her to the necessity of a separation, and now raise their arm against her as an enemy, declaring either to subjugate her, to overrun her with their vandal hordes, or exterminate from her soil every living creature?--& when, "Oh bloodiest picture in the book of time!" they are ready to repeat with a triple vengeance the untold horrors of the Spanish Inquisition? They are madly, blindly rushing, they know not where. The blame of dissolution rests upon her. And the still more awful responsibility of a civil war will hang as an everlasting incubus upon her shoulders. Then let her beware ere she "_cross the Rubicon_"--let her "pause long upon its brink." And shall we all perish by her fratricidal hand? Shall the blood, shed by brother in deadly war with brother, flow ignominiously through our rivers to the ocean & be carried by its waves to stain the shores of Nations that for long years have been centring their fond hopes on America as the _grand ideal_ of the gov. they too would some day enjoy? Shall such hopes be blasted as soon as fondly cherished? and now that Italy has trampled upon the tyrannical "Mitre"--torn from her long subdued neck the yoke of Papal bondage--passed from the darkness of superstitious bondage into the light of religious freedom, shall we sink back to what she was, by casting ourselves into the whirlpool of civil war? Shall we not only put out, but shatter, the lamp of liberty, a lamp whose effulgence was beginning to scatter the shades of despotism from off the earth? Shall we extinguish the brightest star in the constellation of human freedom? The united voices of Humanity, Justice, & Reason answer, _No!_ The cries of myriad free men living, & of millions yet unborn, rend the air with a universal negative! and from the vaulted canopy of heaven there swells back the solemn echo, "_God forbid!_" As if augmented by the mournful strain of 10,000 angels hovering in amazement over the conflicting scene! _Oh! then let the North beware!_

Mrs. Tompkins says that if _you_ can justify your Bro. Ulysses in drawing his sword against those connected by the ties of blood, and even boast of it, you are at liberty to do so, _but she can not_. And should one of those kindred be stricken down by his sword the awful judgment of God will be meted out to him, &, if not repented of, the hot thunderbolts of His wrath will blaze round his soul through eternity. On the contrary, if the _vice versa_ should occur, she thinks "those kin" would be justified, because in _self-defence_. As to Mr. _John Marshall's_ being _promoted_ in the army of Lincoln, she thinks _that fact explains itself:_ he spent much of his time _previously_ seeking, or at least _expecting, promotion_, & failing in a _laudable way_,--in defence of his own kindred & the home of his bosom companion!--he resorted to _Yankeedom_, and sold as it were his birthright for a mess of Abolition pottage. This helps confirm my view, that many take positions in Lincoln's Army with the expectation of military promotion, & the hope of an easy conquest of the South. Oh, how deluded! But as for many of them, "God forgive them, for they _know not what they do_."

But I must bring these desultory remarks to a break-off. So, begging pardon once more for transgressing the limits of formality, and hoping you may live to see the verification of many of my remarks, I have the pleasure of signing myself

THE SECRETARY OF YOUR AUNT RACHEL

P.S. If you sh^d write again, please use white paper; it almost gives me the "blues" to read your letter.

[Footnote 3: Representatives.]

[Footnote 4: Publications.]

[Footnote 5: Population.]