WALKER'S REPLY TO SLIdell.

123

makes war upon it, is amazing folly. Why predict that, when reunited and with slavery extinguished, we would bully the world? Who were our bullies? Who struck down Charles Sumner, the Senator from Massachusetts, the eminent scholar and orator, on the floor of the Senate, for denouncing the horrors of slavery? A South Carolina member of Congress, while all slavedom approved the deed. Who endeavored to force slavery on Kansas by murder and rapine, and the forgery of a constitution? Who repealed the Missouri Compromise, in order to force slavery upon all the Territories of the United States? Who are endeavoring now to dissolve the Union, and spread slavery over all this wide domain? Who conspired to assassinate the American President on his way to Washington? Who murdered, in Baltimore, the men of Massachusetts, on their way to the defense of the Capital of the Union? Who commenced the conflict by firing upon the starving garrison of Sumter, and striking down the banner of the Union which floated over its walls? Who, immediately thereafter, announced their resolution to capture Washington, seized the national arms and forts and dock-yards and vessels and arsenals and mints and treasure, and opened the war upon the Federal Government? There is a plain answer to all these questions. It is the lords of the whip and the chain and the branding-iron who are our bullies; who insist upon forced labor, and repudiate all compensation to the toiling millions of slaves-who repudiate among slaves the marital and parental relation, and class them by law as chattels-who forbid emancipation-who make it a crime to teach slaves to write or read, aye, even the Bible-who keep open the inter-State slave-trade (more horrible than the African, making Virginia a human stock-farm), tearing husband from wife, and parents from children-founding a Government boldly announcing the property in man based avowedly on the divinity, extension, and perpetuity of slavery— these are our bullies, and when they are overthrown we shall

commence a new career of peaceful progress and advanced civilization. And why sow the seeds of international hatred between England and America? Is war really desired between the two countries, or is it supposed that we will yield to foreign intervention without a struggle? No; the North will rise as one man, and thousands even from the South will join them. The country will become a camp, and the ocean will swarm with our privateers. Rather than submit to dismemberment or secession, which is anarchy and ruin, we will, we must fight until the last man has fallen. If the views of a foreign power have been truly represented in Parliament, and such an aggression. upon us is contemplated, let him beware, for in such a contest the political pyramid resting upon its apex, the power of one man, is much more likely to fall than that which reposes on the broad basis of the will of the people."

This first article was a bombshell in the ranks of the conspirators sent to Europe to poison our credit and blast our fame, and it was followed by a number of even greater force and ability, in one of which he said:

"Why, the legal-tender notes of the so-called Confederate government, fundable in a stock bearing eight per cent. interest, are now worth in gold, at their own capital of Richmond, less than ten cents on the dollar, (two shillings on the pound), while in two thirds of their territory such notes are utterly worthless; and it is treason for any citizen of the United States, North or South, or any alien resident there, to deal in them or in Confederate bonds, or in the cotton pledged for their payment. No form of Confederate bonds or notes or stock will ever be recognized by the Government of the United States, and the cotton pledged by slaveholding traitors for the payment of the Confederate bonds is all forfeited for treason, and confiscated to the Federal Government by act of Congress."

On the 26th of November, 1863, at a great Thanksgiving dinner of the loyal Americans in London, in accordance with

SLAVERY ABOLISHED.

125

the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, of which Robert J. Walker was president, he used the following inspiring language, which I quote, not only to revive the recollection of his great services, but as most pertinent at the present hour:

"This day has been set apart by the President of the United States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, a vast addition, even during the war, to our material wealth, and augmented immigration to our shores from Europe. Our finances have been conducted with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union and as an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the expenses of the great contest. [Loud cheers for Mr. Chase.] During the present year nearly four hundred million dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States has been taken at home, at or above par, while within the last few months European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to thank God for those victories in the field which are bringing this great contest to a successful conclusion. This rebellion is, indeed, the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the attention and affects the political institutions and material interests of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. [Cheers.] If God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and liberties of man; if he has assigned us the post of danger and of suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. [Loud cheers.] The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that of national unity [Hear, hear], which is the vital element of our

existence; and any settlement which does not secure this, with the entire integrity of the Union and freedom throughout all its borders, will be treason to our country and to mankind. [Loud cheers.] To acknowledge the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us here ; to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union to be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one alternative-we must and will fight it out to the last. [Loud and prolonged applause.] If need be, all who can bear arms must take to the field, and leave to those who can not the pursuits of industry. [Hear, hear.] If we count not the cost of this contest in men or money, it is because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union can not be estimated. [Hear, hear.] If martyrs from every State, from England, and from nearly every nation of Christendom, have fallen in our defense, never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood since that of Calvary been shed in a cause so holy. [Cheers.]

"The Union will still live. It is written by the finger of God, on the scroll of destiny, that neither principalities nor powers shall affect its overthrow, nor shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the results? It is said we have accomplished nothing; and this is re-echoed every morning by the pro-slavery press of England. We have done nothing! Why we have conquered, and now occupy, two thirds of the entire territory of the South, an area far larger (while overcoming a greater resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of Cæsar or Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its mouth, with all its thirty thousand miles of tributaries, is exclusively ours. [Cheers.] So is the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal district, containing the Capital of the Union, but in all our vast territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred million acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slave

holding States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri are devotedly loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours; all that vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also. But still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains to the Ohio, is ours also; and not only ours, but, by the overwhelming voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the free States of the American Union. [Loud cheers.] And where is the great giant State of the WestMissouri? She is not only ours, but, by an overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her constitutional convention, has provided for the abolition of slavery, and enrolls herself soon as one of the free States of the American Union. [Cheers.] And now, as to Maryland. The last steamer brings us the news of the recent elections in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an overwhelming majority to Congress and to the State Legislature in favor of immediate emancipation; and Delaware adopts the same policy. [Loud applause.] Tennessee is also ours. From the Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers; from Knoxville, in the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and Memphis, the commercial metropolis, in the west, Tennessee is wholly ours. So is Arkansas. So is Louisiana, including the great city of New Orleans. So is North Alabama. So is Western Texas. So is two thirds of the State of Mississippi; and now the Union troops hold Chattanooga, the great impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which may be regarded as the great geographical central point of the rebellion, the armies of the Republic will march down through the heart of Georgia, and join our troops upon the sea-board of that State, and thus terminate the rebellion. [Loud cheers.] Into Georgia and the