Excerpt from Proceedings of the Convention of the People of Massachusetts: Holden at Faneuil Hall, Boston, October 7th, 1862

Wisdom requires that the country, in this crisis, should have all the strength of every one of her children, whatever may have been, or may now be, his political beliefs. Let that strength be made available. The blood of Democrats and the blood of Republicans has been poured out as freely as water, in defence of our common country; the lives of both have been freely laid on her common altar. And so it will be to the end. No party has the right to arrogate to itself exclusive devotion or exclusive patriotism. Let us unite, then, the strength of both, of all parties, for the common object of all true hearts; let us not be guilty of the unwisdom of spending the strength of loyal men in differences and quarrels among themselves, when all is wanted for the common enemy. For once in such a crisis, let us come together as one people, laying aside all party differences, and devote all to our country in this hour of her sore and direful peril. And we can un'ite on the common ground of the defence of our government, constitution, and laws. The necessity is the more constraining in this time of struggle, amid the din of arms, and the horrors of a civil war, that we should hold fast by that sheet anchor of our safety, the most exact observance of the laws of the land. If we swing away from that anchor we are adrift on a sea of violence, without chart or rudder.

N ow, more than at all other times, the ark of our political salvation is the Constitution and the Laws. If we break up into parties, foment discords and differences, set at naught the Constitution and the Law, the violence and bloodshed of civil dissension are surely at our very doors. But the people do not, cannot wish for this, - they want no party differences, no discussions, no war of words, no impotent proclamations, now. The time for all that has gone by. The only argument now to be used is that flashed from the cannon's mouth, - the only logic, that taught by the gleam of the bayonet and the flash of the sabre. The one great desire and aim of all loyal men, is how most effectually to use such arguments and teach such logic.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.