19 OF ARMED HOSTn.ITY AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT. I pi'OpOSe, for Olie, fairly and squarely to meet tlie question, whether when the people elect their President by a (jonstitutional majority, he shall be peaceably accepted and obeyed by the defeated minority. I do not wish to dodge this issue, or make a compromise in regard to it. I go now for establishing the principle of national sovereignty as inherent in the people. The man who has the credentials of the popular will legally written for his authority to rule, shall rule, so far as I can make this a fact ; and all traitorous resistance thereto, come whence it may, East, West, North, or South, in what form it may, whether as nullification or secession, shall be met, not by surrender, compromise, or negotiation, but by a forcible and triumphant suppression. This is my plank, and my platform. I stand here ; and as a true man, I can stand nowhere else. On this plank rests the life of the nation, and also the future safety of the people. I bow to the Government by whomsoever administered ; and I mean for one that every other citizen shall do the same thing. If it be necessary to fight for this doctrine, then I will fight for it, and keep up the fight till I absolutely conquer treason, or am conquered by it. I believe in coercing rebellion, I recognize no rights in the States, and none in the people, adverse to the coercive power of the supreme authority as organized under the Constitution. You hence see, that I cannot accept, and I do not believe that the American people will accept, the theory of an armistice and a convention of the States as the true remedy at this moment. It surrenders the principle in the interests of rebellion, and withal creates a very dangerous precedent. It virtually confesses that the Government is beaten in this struggle, that it cannot maintain its authority, and that too at the very moment when the military situation proves exactly the reverse. " The resources of wise statesmanship " are very well in their place ; but their pr'oper place is after ^ and not hefare " The Unconditional Submission of the Kebels." Then I shall be prepared for these " resources ;" but till then I am not. Till then I have much more faith in the military arm of the Government. Let that do its work first, and then have tlie talk afterwards. This, I
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