While the fire of liberty burned at the heart of
citizens of abiding loyalty, it seemed best, that, like the Psalmist,
they should hold their peace even from good words. Many thought it an
act of necessary self-restraint to dwell only upon the Union as a symbol
of that universal freedom which they felt the Union must finally
represent. The dread of overleaping the restraints of law, which,
perchance, has prolonged the conflict, has been most creditable to the
genuine democracy we have represented. We are proud to remember many
intelligent soldiers who used no language of passionate denunciation
towards the guilty institution which called them to the field, yet who
knew the end when they gave their lives to a cause utterly antagonistic
to its despotic claims.
By the representations of Secessionists encountered in the Free States,
as well as from disloyal newspapers which the "Lincoln despotism" never
sought to suppress, Mr. Dicey was convinced that the sole purpose of the
Rebellion was to get possession of the vast regions which lie west of
the Mississippi, wherein to establish Slave States and Territories.
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