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Though abolitionists
found much of their strength in New England, Democrats in that region
sided with the South in its determination of be free of the North. After
this editorial of the Bangor Democrat appeared, a pro-Lincoln mob
burned the news offices and printing presses. The editorial was
re-printed in the New York Evening Day-Book of 18 April 1861.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Defense of the Same Sacred Principles of Liberty
“Throughout
the broad land of the fair South, the rising sun is no longer welcomed
with the cheerful song of the husbandman wending his way to the toil of
his peaceful field, but is greeted with the drum-beat that summons to
arms the gathering hosts of war. From Carolina to the Rio Grande all is
hasty preparation for a fearful conflict of arms.
There,
to-day, are no peaceful, happy and quiet homes, for the invader is on
their soil, and the government which was created to protect and defend
them, has ruthlessly turned its guns against their altars and firesides.
Gray-headed
fathers, stout-hearted husbands, and fair-cheeked youths, are taking a
tearful adieu of their wives, their children, their mothers and their
sisters, and buckling on their armor, and hastening away to the
battle-fields from which many, many may never return to gladden their
homes again.
This,
reader, is no fanciful picture; it is a stern reality. To-morrow, in
thousands of homes, wives, mothers, daughters, and little children will
gather in mournful silence around the family board no longer cheered by
the presence of their natural guardians and protectors.
Why is all this?
It
is because that old Tory party, which under a multitude of names and
disguises, first resisted the independence of America, and after its
Government had become an established fact, has been unceasing in its
efforts to get possession of it, and after having gained possession of
it, by hypocritically assuming the garb of freedom, it has undertaken to
convert the Government into an instrument of tyranny, and to use all
its powers to overturn the very bulwarks of liberty itself – the
Sovereignty of the States.
Yes,
Abraham Lincoln, a Tory from his birth, is putting forth all the powers
of government to crush out the spirit of American liberty. Surrounded
by gleaming bayonets at Washington, he sends forth fleets and armies to
overawe and subdue the gallant little State which was the first to raise
its voice and arm against British oppression.
DEMOCRATS
OF MAINE! The loyal sons of the South have gathered around Charleston
as your fathers of old gathered about Boston, in defense of the same
sacred principles of liberty – principles which you have ever upheld and
defended with your vote, your voice and your strong right arm. Your
sympathies are with the defenders of the truth and the right. Those who
have inaugurated this unholy and unjustifiable war are no friend of
yours – no friends of Democratic Liberty. Will you aid them in their
work of subjugation and tyranny?
When
the Government at Washington calls for volunteers or recruits to carry
on their work of subjugation and tyranny under the specious phrases of
“enforcing the laws,” “retaking and protecting the public property,” and
“collecting the revenue,” let every Democrat fold his arms and bid the
minions of Tory despotism [to] do a Tory despot’s work. Say to them
fearlessly and boldly in the language of England’s great Lord, the Earl
of Chatham, whose bold words in behalf of the struggling Colonies of
America in the dark hours of the revolution, have enshrined his name in
the heart of every friend of freedom, and immortalized his fame wherever
the name of liberty is known – say in his thrilling language:
“If
I were a Southerner, as I am a Northerner, while a foreign troop was
landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms – never, never,
NEVER!”
(Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait, Herbert Mitgang, editor, UGA Press, 1989, pp. 256-257)
