I appeal to the nation. I ask not the defeat of sectionalism by sectionalism, but by nationality. These men who talk of a united South, know well that it begets a united North. Talk of frightening the North into measures by threats of dissolving the Union! It is child's play and folly. It is all the Black Republican leaders want. American blood, North nor South, has not yet become so ignoble as to be chilled by threats. Strife begets strife, threat begets threat, and taunt begets taunt, and these disunionists know it. American blood brooks no such restraints as these men would put upon it. I would blush with shame for America, if I could believe that one vast portion of my countrymen had sunk so low that childish threats would intimidate them. Go to the North, and behold the elements of a revolution which its great cities afford. Its thousands of wild and reckless young men, its floating population, ready to enter into any scheme of adventure, are fit material for demagogues to work upon. To such as these, to the great hive of working population, the wily orator comes to speak in overdrawn language of the threats and the words of derision and contempt of Southern men. The angry passions are roused into fury, and regardless of consequences they cling to their sectional leaders. As well might the Abolitionists expect the South to abandon slavery, through fear that the North would go out of the Union and leave it to itself. No, these are not the arguments to use. I would appeal rather to the great soul of the nation than to the passions of a section. I would say to Northern as well as Southern men, " Here is a party inimical to the rights of the whole country, such a party as Washington warned us against. Let us put it down "; and this is the only way it can be put down.
The error has been that the South has met sectionalism by sectionalism. We want a Union basis, one broad enough to comprehend the good and true friends of the Constitution at the North. To hear Southern disunionists talk, you would think the majority of the Northern people were in this Black Republican party; but it is not so. They are in a minority, and it but needs a patriotic movement like that supported by the conservatives of Texas, to unite the divided opposition to that party there and overthrow it. Why, in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey alone, the conservatives had a majority of over 250,000 at the last Presidential election, and in the entire North a majority of about 270,000.[1] Because a minority at the North
- ↑ In the six Northern States—New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, and Wisconsin—where elections have been held, the Republicans have gained over the State elections of 1856, 37,145. Leaving out Connecticut, where the gain is 37,715, owing to the fact that the Black Republicans had not organized for the State election in 1856, there has been a falling off. As compared with the Presidential vote of 1856, they stand:
1856. 1860. Republican. . . . . . . . . . 265,357 Republican. . . . . . . . . . 254,875 Opposition. . . . . . . . . . 186, 121 Opposition. . . . . . . . . . 215,670 Black Republican majority in 1856 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79,236 Black Republican majority in 1860 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39,205 Opposition gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40,031 Popular vote of 1856 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .451,478 Popular vote of 1860 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .470,545 It will thus be seen that on a gain in the popular vote of 19,067, the Black Republicans fell off 40,031.
