, costing from
thirty-six cents to ten dollars apiece: then the duty on tea; and,
finally, the quartering of soldiers on our citizens in time of peace, for
the express purpose of subjugating our industry and energy to the selfish
purposes of the crown.
It is enough to say, that the rebels against our Government have suffered
no oppression. They do not set forth any legal ground of Secession. The
government has done nothing to call out their indignation, or to inflict
on them a wrong. They have had more than their share of public office;
they have had a larger representation, in proportion to their free
citizens, than we have; they have been protected in their claims, even
against the convictions of the North; we yielding, as a political demand,
what we do not wholly admit as a Christian duty. We have assisted them by
enactments, by money, and by arms, in the preservation of a system at war
with our conscience, and with our liberties. We have paid for lands which
they occupy; and after all their indignities and taunts, and attacks on
our citizens, their plunders, and their warlike demonstrations, we have
been patient; and are even now imposing on ourselves restraint from the
execution of that chastisement, which many of their sober and awed
citizens acknowledge to be just, and which, if the call were made by the
Executive, would at once be hurled on the rebels by an indignant people,
like the rush of destiny.
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