Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/250

 196 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS against Stephen A. Douglas and in favor of John C. Breckinridge. In a letter addressed to Jefferson Davis, under date of January 6, 1860, he wrote: &quot;Without dis cussing the question of right, of abstract power to secede, I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without bloodshed; and if, through the madness of northern Abolitionists, that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon s line merely. It will be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional obli gations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home. ... I have tried to impress upon our own people, especially in New Hampshire and Connecticut, where the only elections are to take place during the coming spring, that, while our Union meetings are all in the right direction and well enough for the present, they will not be worth the paper upon which their resolutions are written unless we can overthrow abolitionism at the polls and repeal the unconsti tutional and obnoxious laws which in the cause of personal liberty have been placed upon our statute-books.&quot; On April 21, 1861, nine days after the disunionists had begun civil war by firing on Fort Sumter, he addressed a Union mass-meeting at Concord, and urged the people to sustain the