Any other
course would be madness_; as it would at once enlist all the Southern
States in the controversy and plunge the whole country into a civil
war.... As a matter of policy and wisdom, therefore, independent of the
question of right, we should deem resort to force most disastrous."
The "New York Herald"--a journal which claimed to be independent of all
party influences--about the same period said: "Each State is organized
as a complete government, holding the purse and wielding the sword,
possessing the right to break the tie of the confederation as a nation
might break a treaty, and to repel coercion as a nation might repel
invasion.... Coercion, if it were possible, is out of the question."
On the 31st of January, 1861--after six States had already seceded--a
great meeting was held in the city of New York, to consider the perilous
condition of the country. At this meeting Mr. James S. Thayer, "an
old-line Whig," made a speech, which was received with great applause.
The following extracts from the published report of Mr. Thayer's speech
will show the character of the views which then commanded the cordial
approval of that metropolitan audience:
"We can at least, in an authoritative way and a practical
manner, arrive at the basis of a _peaceable separation_.
[Cheers.] We can at least by discussion enlighten, settle, and
concentrate the public sentiment in the State of New York upon
this question, and save it from that fearful current, which
circuitously but certainly sweeps madly on, through the narrow
gorge of 'the enforcement of the laws,' to the shoreless ocean
of civil war! [Cheers.
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