_ [Applause.] Painful and
humiliating as it is, let us temper it with all we can of love
and kindness, so that we may yet be left in a comparatively
prosperous condition, in friendly relations with another
Confederacy." [Cheers.]
At the same meeting ex-Governor Horatio Seymour asked the question--on
which subsequent events have cast their own commentary--whether
"successful coercion by the North is less revolutionary than successful
secession by the South? Shall we prevent revolution [he added] by being
foremost in over-throwing the principles of our Government, and all that
makes it valuable to our people and distinguishes it among the nations
of the earth?"
The venerable ex-Chancellor Walworth thus expressed himself:
"It would be as brutal, in my opinion, to send men to butcher
our own brothers of the Southern States as it would be to
massacre them in the Northern States. We are told, however, that
it is our duty to, and we must, enforce the laws. But why--and
what laws are to be enforced? There were laws that were to be
enforced in the time of the American Revolution.... Did Lord
Chatham go for enforcing those laws? No, he gloried in defense
of the liberties of America. He made that memorable declaration
in the British Parliament, 'If I were an American citizen,
instead of being, as I am, an Englishman, I never would submit
to such laws--never, never, never!'" [Prolonged applause.
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