8 treason ac^ainst the National Government, repudiating its jurisdiction, and designed to destroy its territorial integrity, —treason long planned, as many of its leaders have distinctly affirmed,— treason too against 'A. po])ular government, committed by the very class of men who for years had controlled the political councils of this nation, —treason for no cause that justifies a forcible revolution,—treason without just provocation or excuse,—treason inthe supposed interests of a slaveholding aristocracy, and against the rights of the masses. No man can point to any act of this Government, any law of Congress, or any act of the President, or any principle adopted by any political party in the Northern States, or any act of State Legislatures, that before God can afford the least justification for this rebellion. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the immediate occasion of the outbreak ; but I ask in all soberness. Had not the people a right to choose whom they would for President % Mr. Stephens, one of the ablest of Southern statesmen, told the people of Georgia, that this election furnished no just occasion for secession. You look in vain to the Constitution for any such right. The right does not exist in the plan of our national system ; and the thing itself can never be accomplished without destroying its integrity. Hence I say distinctly and strongly, that this struggle on the part of the Rebels is simply the struggle of traitors against the supreme authority of the land. Such it was in the outset ; and such it is to-day. It is, moreover, the most wicked treason in its principles and purposes, that was ever perpetrated in the history of man. I must call things by their right names. With me a spade is a spade ; and a traitor is a traitor. '' Our present adversaries" are traitors ; and while occupying this attitude, and seeking to subvert the Government of my country, they are not my political brethren. I do not recognize them as such. I contem])late them only as criminals, public enemies, deadly assassins against the order and peace of society. I know full well that some people have honeyed words, soft phrases, ambiguous rhetoric in application to this issue ; some who are unsparing in their denunciations of the Government, and apply the very vilest language to the President, do not seem to know that there are any armed traitors in this land ; it is perhaps conven-
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