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what can only be got by force of arms. The Constitution and Union are not to be shot down by paper bullets; and they are not statesmen who think so.

Utterly denying the existence of any right of secession, I think, with Henry Clay, "that the attempt to exercise it ought to be resisted to the last extremity."

If the Constitution is a compact which every State is capable of breaking, whose obligations every State may throw off at its pleasure, it is not worth preserving. We believe it, the great mass of the people of this country believe it to be a wiser, better, nobler thing, a frame of government capable of amendment in the mode itself provides; capable of being overthrown only by revolution, only by successful revolution. Men may, it is true, for just cause, by revolution, change or overthrow government. It is also true, that men may maintain and uphold government for just cause; and it is just cause when their only rational hopes of peace, of security, and of wellregulated liberty, for themselves and their children, are bound up with it. I am very sorry there are not other ways to vindicate the Constitution and the laws but by force of arms; but I see no way of meeting force but by force. If men tear down from the fort of my country the flag of my country, I honestly believe that you and I have a right to help restore it if we can, to give it again to the breeze, with all its stripes and all its stars.

The duty of maintaining just government is as

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sacred and binding as that of maintaining our hearths and altars it is the same thing.

If it be said that it will be impossible to maintain the Union if other States secede, the plain answer is, If it be impossible, our duty is at end. But

I do not believe it impossible. Upon the simple issue, whether the laws of the Union are to be maintained, and its flag upheld, nine-tenths of the freemen of this country are with us. The opinion of the civilized world is with us. Moreover, God governs in the affairs of men, and will be with us as he was with our fathers.

There is a sensibility, which borders on fear, on this question of resort to force. Freedom is a blessing: license is not. Government is a necessity: a firm, vigorous government is a necessity. "Influence is not government" (Washington.) That only is government which can command obedience and enforce it. The existence of society and of social order is possible on no other theory.

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But what, you may ask, is the duty of the National Government, after such an ordinance has been passed? The general answer is obvious: What it was before it was passed, to enforce in every part of the Union, South Carolina included, the Constitution and laws of the United States. The National Government can never know of such a thing as secession. She has no legal capacity to hear or comprehend it. She can know of rebellion, and must govern herself accordingly.

But what is practicable and reasonable in such an exigency? All possible and long-suffering forbearance consistent with the execution of the laws. But the revenue may and must be collected. No vessel can enter or leave ports of the United States but in conformity to the laws. In places where the United States have exclusive jurisdiction by the cession of the State, the jurisdiction must be maintained.

But this will result in civil war. That war is already begun. No man loves peace more than I do ; but I say deliberately, war, even civil war, is better than to give up this glorious inheritance from our fathers, the noblest government on earth, without a struggle, or to leave the struggle, that belongs to us, to our children. I see no reasonable hope for peace but within the pale of the Constitution as it is, and in obedience to its mandates.

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I have no hope in saving the Union by amending the Constitution. The powers of the National Government over every matter in dispute are ample. only hope is in the moderate, firm, just, and equitable administration of the Constitution as it is. If we sever in peace, not many years will elapse before we shall have war. Slavery will create greater causes of difference and strife after separation than now. Demands will be made by the Slave States for the extradition of fugitives from service: the Free States will never consent. They will make discriminating duties against us: the Free States will not submit. The Slave States will re-open the African slave-trade:

we shall, ere long, unite with all Christian States to exterminate the traffic, to sweep it from the highway of nations.

I am, you well know, no partisan; and have had no connection with party politics for many years. Upon full consideration of my duty in that regard, I voted for Abraham Lincoln. I have no misgiving about that vote. In view of all that has taken place, I would give it to him to-morrow with alacrity. If he pursues the wise, moderate, and national course and policy which his past life and opinions and his firm and manly character lead me to expect, he will have my loyal, unwavering support in the execution of his great, and, at this crisis, solemn and momentous duty, -that of executing in every part of this indivisible republic the Constitution and laws of our yet glorious Union. I feel, that, in my humble sphere, I can do him no better service than to do what I may to remove all stumbling-blocks from his path. These statutes are among them.

Hoping for better things, seeking, in all the honorable ways of peace, the adjustment of our present difficulties, we ought to prepare for the worst. “Faint hearts are usually false hearts." For our country, for our children, for the cause of well-regulated liberty, we have no right to do or suffer less than our fathers. It cost seven years of suffering to secure these blessings. Seven years, if need be, will be wisely spent in the struggle to maintain them. To suppose that the people of the Free States will consent to give up such a govern

ment, and the infinite blessings it secures to the country, without a struggle, is the saddest of mistakes. This government is a great and sacred trust. We shall be false to country, to freedom, to humanity, if we consent to give it up till the struggle is seen to be utterly hopeless.

Very truly your friend,

BOSTON, Jan. 1, 1861.

BENJ. F. THOMAS.

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