Democratic Members of the New York Legislature to Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, December 5, 1850

NEW YORK, December 5, 1850.

HON. D. S. DICKINSON—

Dear Sir—Although the results of the recent election in this State may seem to be such as to withhold from you the support of a majority in the next legislature, we, representatives elect from the city of New York, Long Island, and the valley of the Hudson, beg to assure you that in our judgment no such circumstances can deprive you of the devoted attachment and cordial support, not only of your immediate personal and political friends, but of the great body of the Democracy of the State. They feel that other causes than those affecting an estimate of your great services and able and intrepid course have produced this result, and they only await an opportunity, whenever your name shall again come before them in connection with the high station, the duties of which you have filled with equal firmness, ability, and patriotism, to testify by their acts their sense of your character and career as a statesman, and your virtues as a citizen.

At the close of the present Congress, you will have served seven years in the Senate of the United States. During that period, questions of the first magnitude, affecting the rights and honor of the country, and the lasting well-being of the people, have been passed upon. In all of them you have borne a conspicuous part. In all of them you have identified yourself with the cause of the nation, and have adhered, with inflexible fidelity, to the requirements of the Constitution. No consequences personal to yourself, nor any considerations beyond your duty to your country, have for a moment swerved you from the path of rectitude. Unawed by threats, regardless of the assaults of faction, uninfluenced by any selfish tear or any desire of favor from those who pursue their ends through denunciation or agitation, your course has been such as honor dictated, and as a disinterested love of country will applaud.

During the last session of the present Congress especially, through a long period of agitation which, extending from the halls of legislation to all quarters of the Republic, disturbed the public tranquillity and threatened the very foundations of government, your labors were most arduous and responsible. You were found, during all that period, in the faithful discharge of your public obligations, true to the Union and the Constitution, and foremost among the noble-minded statesmen of both parties, who, laying aside all partyism, and every personal consideration, gave to the country their best energies, and brought to happy consummation the great measures of pacification, upon the maintenance of which, in the noble spirit which animated their framers, rests the continuance of our glorious Union.

Whatever may be the effect of events in our own State, we feel assured that signal and triumphant approval and renewed elevation await you in the future. The American people, true to the impulses of justice and patriotism, will not fail to bestow upon an approved and faithful public servant renewed expressions of their confidence and favor.

With sincere wishes for your prosperity and happiness, we remain, with the highest esteem,

Your friends and fellow-citizens,

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, New York.

ALBERT A. THOMPSON, do

HENRY J. ALLEN, do

ELI PERRY, Albany.

JAIRUS FRENCH, Madison.

CHARLES ROBINSON, Dutchess.

EGBERT T. SMITH, Suffolk.

JACOB SICKLES, Rockland.

WILLIAM F. RUSSELL, Ulster.

MILTON BARNES, Orange.

A. L. LAWYER, Schoharie.

HENRY KINSLEY, Greene.

WILLIAM BOWNE, Putnam.

WORTHINGTON WRIGHT, Otsego.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 457-9

 

Senator Daniel S. Dickinson to Democratic Members of the New York Legislature, January 20, 1851

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1851.

GENTLEMEN—I thank you most sincerely for your esteemed favor of the 5th ultimo, which I had the pleasure to receive a few days since. Next to the pleasing consciousness of having sought with earnestness and fidelity to discharge a public trust, involving the dearest rights and interests of the country, and of an honored constituency, is the approval of those in whose friendship we confide, and whose opinions we respect.

You are pleased to speak of my public course in terms of gratifying commendation. The period of nearly seven years' service which has been allotted me in the United States Senate, is, in the importance of its events, without its parallel in the history of the government. Questions of the highest magnitude, and such as must affect for good or evil, through future generations, the destiny of our country and the institutions we hope to perpetuate, have pressed upon each other for consideration and action. In all this, I have endeavored to do nothing that should prejudice, disturb or mar our political or social structure, but to contribute, regardless of personal consequences, the best energies of my life, to preserve it erect and entire, in all the beauty of its proportions. Time and truth will show with what fidelity and what success. For the present, I can only say, that a careful review of my own share in the disposition of all the great questions which have engaged the public mind during my senatorial term, approves to my own judgment the conclusions I have adopted and the course I have pursued; and in all such cases, I would not, were the occasion to be repeated, cancel a single act or reverse a single position. But I am proud to declare that I would give to the same policy which has governed my public conduct such additional force as a more enlarged experience and a better acquaintance with public affairs would enable me to command.

I need not bring to your attention by historical detail the incidents and events and the legislation of the period to which I allude. They are familiar to you, and the country cannot be unmindful of them. They embrace, among others, the annexation of Texas, the settlement of the Oregon question, the war with Mexico, the acquisition of vast and valuable territory, and, finally, the great measures of adjustment, which happily, in my judgment, brought a long and angry controversy to a wise and patriotic conclusion, at the last session of Congress. The struggles by which they were decided, and the perseverance with which sectional animosities were fostered, will stand out hereafter upon the history of the country as a most signal proof of the inveteracy of partisan hatred, and the disregard of the welfare of the country, the integrity of the constitution, and the promptings of the democratic faith, with which personal aims or political resentments can be pursued. That the policy and measures so loudly decried have triumphed, and are daily gaining strength and approval in every section of the confederacy, is owing to the inherent patriotism and national attachments of the American people, and to the firmness and devotion of their representatives. If in some of the States such representatives have been visited with obloquy and denunciation by partisan vindictiveness, and been rewarded for their exertions by desertion and sacrifice through malign influences, sinister efforts, and questionable combinations, it should be remembered that it is not the first and probably will not be the last instance where such has been the fortune of those who have labored for the public good; but it should cause no regret to such as are conscious of having discharged with fearless alacrity the responsibilities of their station, for they know that time will rectify the error and impartial history vindicate the truth.

In our own State the progress of events has certainly been marked with features replete with instruction. The results of the late election, which placed the democratic party in the minority, to which you refer, were the legitimate fruits of an effort to harmonize by conventional arrangement hostile and conflicting elements, and should have been unexpected by no one. It is notorious that the arrangement, termed a union, between those who had steadfastly adhered to the principles and candidates, State and national, of the democratic party, and those who for years had separated from and assailed both, was carried out, as I had no doubt it would be, in most of the assembly districts where true democrats, supposed to coincide in my own avowed views upon the leading questions of the day, were in nomination, by deliberately defeating their election by open and declared opposition in some instances, disguised but not less active hostility in others, and by predetermination and concert in all. I regard all this as a flattering compliment to the integrity of my public course, for having early and uniformly advocated principles now admitted to be just by almost common consent and upheld by the patriotic of all parties, and for having resisted at all times and upon all occasions a dangerous element of agitation, with which the harmony and integrity of our country have been so seriously threatened; an agitation which, without having served a single worthy, just, or humane purpose, has prostrated the democratic party in our State and in the nation, has filled our land with contention and bitterness, and shaken the very foundation of the Union itself. The history of the late election furnishes an earnest of what is in reserve and may be expected from this harmonious political element by all who stand by the constitution and the Union, and refuse to subscribe to the modern dogma, and as illustrative of the beauties and benefits of attempting to mingle in harmonious concert the friends of constitutional democracy and the adherents of a spurious abolitionism.

I have never sought, or expected, or desired the support of those whose vocation is sectional agitation, and who live and move and have their being in assailing the rights and interests of any of the sovereign States of this confederacy. I have poured no libations to the Moloch of political abolitionism. I have offered no sacrifices upon its polluted altar. I neither enjoy nor covet the confidence of its votaries, either lineal or collateral, and feel more honored by their denunciations than I should by their encomiums. I have not united with them in planting, and am entitled to no share of their fruits. I am proud to enjoy, with other democrats avowing like opinions with myself, the hostility of all recusants who, finding themselves abandoned in their unprofitable experiment of secession and disunion, were anxious to avail themselves of the forms of union to seat themselves again with the democracy of the State, that they might control results for the benefit of their partisans where they could, and defeat democratic nominees where they could not.

The democratic party is essentially national in its organization, in the State as in the Union. The history of its triumphs bears no record of its treaties with those hostile to its own catholic creed, under any pretence however specious, or under any name however euphonious; nor has it consented to lay aside or conceal its own cherished principles, or adopt shades of such as it was wont to repudiate, that it might swell its train of followers and secure the spoils of office. In all its functions, attributes, and characteristics, it is co-extensive with the Union, and it should not be less in its action and in the views and aims of those who are admitted to its membership. It cannot be otherwise, without derogating from its true attitude, or departing from all the great principles by which, since the organization of the government, it has been guided. If it shall be made by those who temporarily govern its action in the State to minister by any act, or by any prudential omissions to discharge its whole duty to the constitution and to the cause it has upheld for half a century, that it may pander for votes to the morbid spirit of abolitionism and retain those in its organization who are hostile to all it holds most sacred, it will be degraded from its former elevation, and can no more secure the confidence of the honest masses than it will deserve it. For one, I will neither by word nor decd, or even by silence, contribute to any such course. If the democratic party is to be abolitionized in whole or in part, either in its doctrines or its associations; if it is to be so far demoralized that it may not declare its own principles, or must adopt sectional heresies; if acts passed in a benign and patriotic spirit to quiet agitation, the offspring of demagogues and fanatics, and to protect the Union itself from threatened invasion, must be repealed; if a law enacted not only in accordance with the spirit of the constitution, but to carry out one of its plainest provisions, is to be nullified so far as State legislation can nullify it, let who will favor or acquiesce in it, I will not; and it will be regarded by all true democrats as at war with every dictate of good government, the obligations of law, and the supremacy of the constitution.

I am deeply sensible of my obligations to the true democracy of the State. I acknowledge with pride the cordial support which they, companions in many campaigns, have afforded me, and you, my kind friends, in particular. To all such, in the State and beyond it, I tender my warmest thanks, and unite with them in sincere wishes for the welfare of our common Union. A few days will close my public service. Had it been my fortune to leave the Senate before the great questions which have so long and so deeply agitated the country had been fully, and, as I think, rightly passed upon, it would have occasioned me serious regret; but since I was permitted to bear a part in their adjustment, so far as it could be accomplished by legislation, and they now stand for decision before the tribunal of public opinion, I shall return to my private pursuits with far more gratification than I left them. As the Legislature is composed, there is no prospect whatever of the election of myself or any other democrat, and having no desire under such circumstances to be a candidate, I trust my friends will do me the favor not to present my name.

With kind consideration and regard for each of you, I am

Your sincere friend and fellow-citizen,

D. S. DICKINSON.

To the Hon. Messrs. MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, ALBERT A. THOMPSON, HENRY J. ALLEN, ELI PERRY, JAIRUS FRENCH, CHARLES ROBINSON, EGBERT T. SMITH, JACOB SICKLES, Wм. F. RUSSELL, MILTON BARNES, A. L. LAWYER, HENRY KINSLEY, WILLIAM BOWNE, WORTHINGRON Wright.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 459-64

Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, February 6, 1851

Boston, Feb'y 6th, 1851.

My Dear Mann: — The telegraph will tell you the result of to-morrow's fight before this reaches you.

Adams, and the shrewdest men I meet, say it is impossible to foretell what will be the result. The knowing Whigs say they will be beaten; whether they say so to gammon us, I know not. For myself I have little hope. It looks to me as if the Democrats meant to let Sumner get within one or two votes, and yet not get in; it is however a dangerous game.

This I know, things look better than they ever have before. The Coalition has certainly gained three votes, the Whigs have certainly lost two; and unless some of the Democrats who voted for Sumner before bolt the track, he goes in. I fear they will.

There has certainly been much hard work done, and much drilling and coaxing resorted to to bring the waverers into line. I have done what I could in conscience, — but oh! Mann! it goes against the grain. I have a right to boost Sumner all I can, and I will do so, but not as a Coalitionist, not by working with pro-slavery men. Think of Free-soilers voting to put Rantoul into the Senate; he is no more a Free-soil man than R. C. Winthrop, not a whit! the Free-soilers should have declined all State offices, and claimed the long and short term.

However, let that go.

Mr. W— is a very pig-headed, impracticable man, all the more so because he means to be liberal and thinks he is so. Others have yielded to the great outside pressure upon them.

We have one more card, and that we must play if Sumner fails to-morrow: we must bring pressure enough to bear on Wilson and every Free-soiler in office, to make them go to Boutwell and tell him to put Sumner straight through, or they will all throw up office, leave the responsibility with the Democrats, and go before the people and make war with them. Boutwell is a timid, cunning, time-serving trimmer. He can elect Sumner if bullied into it: he has only to send for half a dozen men to his closet and tell them that Sumner must and shall be elected, and he will be. He won't do it unless he is forced to do so, and Wilson will not force him unless he is forced by outside pressure. We can manufacture that pressure, and by the Jingoes we'll squeeze him tight but he shall do it.

You complain of the paper; bless you, Mann, you do not know under what difficulties we have laboured: I say we have done well to start a new daily paper at four days' notice, commence it without an editor, and carry it on thus far as well as it has been carried on. A daily paper is no joke — you know well enough. . . .

I have been hoping for something from you that we could publish — but in vain. I am going to Albany as soon as this fight is over to address the Legislature on the subject of idiocy.

Our friends are in high spirits here — I am not, but am

Ever yours,

S. G. Howe.

I have used your letter, but it has not been out of my hands.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 337-9

Petition to the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York Delivered by Gerrit Smith, January 22, 1850

What a wonder, what a shame, what a crime, that in the midst of the light and progress of the middle of the nineteenth century, such an abomination and outrage as slavery should be acknowledged to be a legal institution! Who that reverences law, and would have it bless the world, can consent that its sanction and support, its honor and holiness be given to such a compound of robbery and meanness and murder, as is slavery?

Your petitioners pray that your Honorable Bodies request the representatives and instruct the senators of this State in Congress to treat the legalization of slavery as an impossibility; and moreover, to insist that the Federal Constitution shall, like all other laws, be subjected to the strict rules of legal interpretation, to the end that its anti-slavery character be thereby seen and established, and all imputations upon that character forever excluded.

The slave-holder will be strong so long as he can plead law for his matchless crime. But take from him that plea, and he will be too weak to continue his grasp upon his victims. It is unreasonable to look for the peaceful termination of slavery while the North, and especially while abolitionists of the North, sustain the claim of the South to its constitutionality. But let the North, and especially the abolitionists of the North, resist, and expose the absurdity of this claim — and slavery, denied thereafter all countenance and nourishment from the constitution, will quickly perish.

Your petitioners will esteem it a great favor if your Honorable Bodies will consent to hear one or more of them in behalf of the prayers of their Petition.

January 22, 1850.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 175-6

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 24, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 24, 1864.

. . . The trees are beginning to put forth their leaves, and the fruit trees their blossoms; the green grass is making its appearance, and real spring is upon us. I rode out for exercise this afternoon and could but contrast the acts of our soldiers in fencing in and caring for the cemetery near here, in which is buried many hundreds of the enemy's dead, with the brutal massacre at Fort Pillow. How full of reverence for Christianity is the contrast in favor of our brave but humane soldiers. The dead and those who are captives with our army cease to be objects against which they war. All that religion demands in reverence of the one, and all that humanity requires in kindness to the other, is freely and willingly given by those who fight for our Democratic institutions beneath the bright banner of stripes and stars.

Enclosed I send you some lines written by Alfred B. Street on the presentation of war banners to the Legislature of New York. I think them decidedly beautiful and hope you will coincide with me in this opinion. I also send you by to-day's mail a late Richmond paper, from which we have the latest news from Plymouth, which is that that place was carried by storm on the 20th by the enemy, with a loss to us of full sixteen hundred men, besides armament, supplies, etc. This place had held out stubbornly, and we were in hopes all would be safe after they had repulsed the first assaults. This comes of the Government persistently urging the holding of places for political effect on the people in the seceding States and abroad, also for the protection of such of the inhabitants as commit themselves to our side. General Butler had asked permission to withdraw the troops from Plymouth some time since, but the reasons urged, as I heard him state to General Grant, were the ones I have just recited. If the force was to stay at Plymouth, then capture will not materially affect us, for they were virtually dead to the service while they remained there, at any rate. I hope that Policy will after a while have discovered that she can only succeed through force of arms, and that force should be made as strong as possible and as compact, and be directed with energy against one point at a time. In this way only can we succeed. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 423-4

XXXVIIth Congress – First Session

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.

SENATE. – Mr. Wade presented a joint resolution from the Legislature of Ohio, instructing members of Congress to use their efforts to secure such amendment of the naturalization laws as well grant naturalization to those of foreign birth who serve during the war.

Mr. Wade also introduced a resolution for a national armory in Ohio.  Passed.

Mr. Chandler presented resolutions from the Legislature of Michigan, re-affirming loyalty to the government and hatred of traitors, and asking the government to speedily put down the insurrection; favoring the confiscation of the property of rebels, and asking that as slavery is the cause of the war it be swept from the land.

Mr. Harris presented a petition from citizens of New York, asking that Congress take speedy measures to repeal the present reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States.

Mr. Harris also presented resolutions from the Legislature of New York, asking a modification of the law for raising revenue so that any amount may be raised by any State, by any mode of taxation except duties on imports; that each State be allowed to assume the amount of tax and assess for the payment and the collection of the same, according to its own laws and by its own officers.  Referred.

Mr. Pomeroy offered a resolution asking the Secretary of War for all orders relative to the force in the military command of Kansas, and whether the same be commanded by Gen. Lane, and whether any change has been made in the military orders since Gen. Lane left the Senate and took charge of the force, and whether Gen. Hunter’s order already published is in accordance with the orders of the War Dept.  Laid over.

Mr. Chandler offered a resolution that the committee on commerce inquire in the expediency of immediately notifying Great Britain that the reciprocity treaty is not reciprocal, and that it be terminated at the earliest possible moment.  Laid over.

Mr. Simmons, from the committee on patents, reported back the joint resolution appropriating $3,000 for the purchase of cotton seed for general distribution, with an amendment appropriating $1,000 for the purchase of tobacco seed.  Amendment adopted, and the resolution passed.

Mr. Anthony offered a resolution that the [committee] on patents inquire into the expediency of making an appropriation to aid in the experiment of manufacturing flax as a substitute for cotton.  Adopted.

Mr. Johnson moved to take up the bill providing for the construction of a military RR through the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.  Disagreed to.

Mr. Cowan offered a joint resolution relative to the lake and river defences of Pa.  Referred.

After executive session adjourned.

HOUSE. – Mr. Lovejoy offered the following:

Whereas, It has been learned by this House that five Illinois regiments did, on learning the contents of the report of Sec. Cameron, lay down their arms in token of their refusal to fight for the same; therefore

Resolved, That the committee on the conduct of the war inquire into the alleged fact, and report the same to Congress.

Mr. Fouke desiring to discuss the subject, it went over under the rules.

On motion of Mr. Baker, it was resolved that the committee on Post Offices and post roads be requested to inquire into the propriety of establishing, by law, a system for the free receipt and delivery, by postmen, of all mail matter in cities containing upwards of 10,000 inhabitants, in conformity with the admirable and economical Post Office system of the principal cities of Europe.

The House then proceeded to act on the Senate’s amendment to the House bill making appropriation for completing the defences of Washington, which amendment provides that no volunteers or militia in any State shall be mustered into service on any ground or condition and confined within the limits of any State or vicinity; and if any volunteers or militia have thus been mustered into service, they shall be discharged.

Running discussions followed, in which it was maintained on one side that Home Guards were necessary in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, official provision having already been made to that end; and on the other, that no troops had a right to ask for special privileges, but all should be placed on the same footing.  The House finally disagreed to the above Senate amendment by a vote of 55 against 86.

The House then went into committee of the whole on the Treasury note bill.

Mr. Vallandigham made a speech on the subject.

Adjourned.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport Iowa, Tuesday Morning, February 4, 1862, p. 1

Expulsion of Bright

(Special to the Tribune.)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. – A telegram, signed by Representatives McKean, Fenton, Wheeler, Clark, Spaulding, Frank, Van Valkenburg, Pomeroy and Baker, of New York, was sent to Albany to-day, urging the Legislature to pass resolutions instructing Senators Harris and King to vote for the expulsion of the traitor Bright. – More of the New York Delegation would have signed the paper had they been in session.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

The New York Legislature's Concurrent Resolutions Tendering Aid to the President of the United States in Support of the Constitution and the Union

Concurrent Resolutions Tendering Aid to the President of the United States in Support of the Constitution and the Union.

Whereas, Treason, as defined by the constitution of the United States, exists in one or more of the States of this confederacy, and

Whereas, The insurgent State of South Carolina, after seizing the post office, custom house, moneys and fortifications of the federal government, has, by firing into a vessel ordered by the government to convey troops and provisions to Fort Sumter, virtually declared war; and whereas, the forts and property of the United States government in Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, have been unlawfully seized, with hostile intentions; and whereas, further, senators in congress avow and maintain their treasonable acts; therefore,

Resolved (if the senate concur), That the legislature of New York, profoundly impressed with the value of the Union, and determined to preserve it unimpaired, hail with joy the recent firm, dignified and patriotic special message of the president of the United States, and that we tender to him, through the chief magistrate of our own State, whatever aid in men and money he may require to enable him to enforce the laws and uphold the authority of the federal government. And that in defence of “the more perfect union,” which has conferred prosperity and happiness upon the American people, renewing the pledge given and redeemed by our fathers, we are ready to devote “our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honor” in upholding the Union and the constitution.

Resolved (if the senate concur), That the Union-loving representatives and citizens of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, who labor with devoted courage and patriotism to withhold their States from the vortex of secession, are entitled to the gratitude and admiration of the whole people.

Resolved (if the senate concur), That the governor be respectfully requested to forward, forthwith, copies of the foregoing resolutions to the president of the nation, and the governors of ill the States of the Union.

STATE OF NEW YORK,

IN ASSEMBLY, January 14, 1861.

The preceding preamble and resolutions were duly passed.

By order.

H. A. RISLEY, Clerk.

STATE OF NEW YORK,

IN SENATE, January 14, 1861.

The foregoing preamble and resolutions were duly passed.

By order.

 JAS. TERWILLIGER, Clerk.

SOURCE: Supplement to the Fifth Edition of the Revised Statutes of the State of New York, p. 107

Accepts The Invitation

The other evening a humorous member of the New York Legislature wrote a note to a sensitive member from an extreme Western county, saying that a lady in the gallery had been attracted by the fine appearance of said member, and would like to meet him.  If the desire was mutual, the “lady” wished the gentleman from C_____ to hold a newspaper in each hand, so that she could see the signal.  The note having been dispatched to the member, the wicked author posted all those around him, and soon half the Chamber awaited the developments.  The unfortunate legislator read the note, cast a sentimental glance at the ladies’ gallery, and seized two Tribunes, and held them aloft with all due energy.  A loud laugh from those around him followed, but this will be about the first notice he has received of the rather practical sell. – He is yet looking for “that woman.”

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 4

In an able speech . . .

. . . made in the Senate of New York in the debate on the expulsion of Mr. Bright, by Judge Law of Sullivan County, we find the following striking passages:

“We fail to appreciate the era in which our lot is cast.  We fail to realize the rapidity of the march of events, moving swiftly and irresistibly forward, but never backward, and changing almost in a moment the whole aspect of the country and sweeping from our minds the tissues of forms, precedents, technicalities and learned absurdities as the swift wind drives away the mountain mists.  The truth is – and we might as well learn it at once – we are making history for the future; not reading that of the past.  We are stamping our own character and impress upon the people and nationalities yet unborn, and whose weal or woe will be determined by our conduct now.

“I have no fear of the guillotine in the intelligent, the free, the patriotic North.  But I will tell the learned Senator where, at no distant day, he may find the counterpart of the bloody horrors he has invoked.  Where wrong and crime and oppression have already worn deep the channels of human suffering; where the pent-up aspirations of enslaved and degraded men beat vainly against their prison bars; where the chains of human bondage clank harshly upon the unwilling ear, and the cowering victim that wears the image of his God is bought and sold and worked and whipped by his fellow man, where violence and treachery and terror stalk through the land; where loyal men are dragged to the scaffold for no crime but that of fealty to their Government, and weeping women and innocent children are fleeing to the rocks and mountains to hide themselves from the armed robbers that scourge the land.”

Judge Law has always been a thoroughgoing member of the Democratic party, and such words from him afford a clear indication of the revolution which this atrocious rebellion has produced and is still producing in the minds of a very influential class of Northern men.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1