Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/508

 502 Southern Historical Society Papers.

privileges ol the Southern States and people. But coercion, in de- stroying the Union, and making a consolidation, and in destroying the States, can have no logical result but in the destruction of all the liberties of all the people North and South. Will our people never perceive the patent truth that coercion must work consolidation, and that consolidation must destroy the identity and powers of the States and the liberties of the people? To coerce a State, is necessarily to enslave the State, and to enslave the State is necessarily to enslave the people of the State. Nothing but the roar of cannon, in the hands of unreasoning physical power, can silence this logic of liberty.

Here, then, great impartial judge of the future, we rest the law of our case. Secession did not destroy the Union, nor the States, nor the liberties, the Union of States was formed to secure. It only pro- posed to divide the Union, in order to rescue the States and the liber- ties of the people from destruction and overthrow. But coercion is the ruthless criminal which has consolidated the Union, enslaved the Slates, and destroyed the liberties of the people!

Secession invaded no State, interfered with no right, lessened the privileges of no man. Coercion laid waste the States, enslaved the people, murdered their sons, despoiled their daughters, desolated their hoines, and burnt up their property!

And what is Reconstruction ? It is the practical application of coercion. It is logic turning to facts. It is coercion at its work. It is the torch of the incendiary, the knife of the assassin, the fire- arm of the bandit, sending death-blows to the life of the State, to the heart of society, and to the hopes of civilization, that ignorance and vice may be exalted, and intelligence and virtue degraded!

Do 1 exaggerate ? Look at South Carolina and answer. See the land of Marion and Sumter, of Rutledge and Pinckney, of Calhoun and Butler, the prey and sport of rioting thieves and gluttonous plun- derers whose orgies continue days, months and years in the face of the nation and under Federal protection!

Look at Louisiana! Behold a sovereign State sentenced to the chain-gang by telegram from Washington, to work at hard labor under negro and carpet-bag drivers!

This, this, is the fruit of coercion! These are the works of recon- struction!

Have the people of America no shame? Has the God of heaven no wrath ? If coercion and reconstruction shall continue, their fruits will mul;if>ly, until all the people, in agonized remorse, shall cry out: Surely several unions were better than one Empire, and divided liberty more to be desired than concentrated despotism!