Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 1, Chapter 3, 74-87

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

                     PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 74  

                            PART I.  GENERAL HISTORY.

                                   CHAPTER III.

                     OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION.

ON the morning of the 22d of February, 1861, the anniversary of the birth-day of 
WASHINGTON, a number of companies of volunteer militia appeared on parade in the 
principal streets of Harrisburg, mustered to receive and honor ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
President elect of the United States, journeying from his home at Springfield, 
Illinois, to the National Capital.  A similar display of the State Militia had 
been made a few weeks previous, to signalize the inauguration of ANDREW G. 
CURTIN as Governor of the Commonwealth.
  This display, though represented to be the greatest ever before seen in the 
State Capital, was an index to the discipline and numbers of the militia force 
of the Commonwealth, and a real acknowledgment of its weakness.  The dull and 
lusterless muskets, the varied and grotesque uniforms, the feathers and tinsel 
of officers, appeared in strong contrast to the complete equipments, and well 
burnished armor, of the full ranked regiments of a later day.  Their presence 
proved their patriotism, and their willingness to serve, when in due time they 
should be called to the field; but it attested the lack of military spirit, and 
the almost total want of preparation for the desperate conflict which was so 
soon to follow.
  The people of the State through all its borders had been earnestly devoted to 
the development of its resources.  They saw no occasion, and had no desire for 
war.  Moralists had proclaimed the wrongfulness of the Trial by Battle, and had 
magnified the glories and the blessings of Peace; the Pulpit, imbued with the 
mild and gentle spirit of the Gospel, had constantly deprecated the arts of war; 
and some of the finest 

OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION - 75

specimens of eloquence of the schools taught that the true grandeur of a nation 
consisted in cultivating and maintaining peace.  "Iniquissimam pacem," says 
Sumner in his master plea, "justissimo bello anteferro, are the words of Cicero; 
and only eight days after Franklin had placed his name to the treaty of peace 
which acknowledged the independence of his country, he wrote to a friend:  'May 
we never see another war, for, in my opinion, there never was a good war, nor a 
bad peace.' . . .  True greatness consists in imitating, as near as is possible 
for finite man, the perfections of an infinite Creator; above all, in 
cultivating those highest perfections, Justice and Love;--Justice, which like 
that of St. Louis, shall not swerve to the right hand, or to the left; Love, 
which like that of WILLIAM PENN, shall regard all mankind of kin."
  Meditating no violent measures, and studying no cause of quarrel with her 
sister States, Pennsylvania sought by good offices to cement the integral parts 
of the Union, and by the well-directed and industrious habits of her people to 
contribute as well to its steady growth and prosperity in every material 
resource, as to its elevation and ennoblement in every spiritual grace.  But 
while making no preparations for war, and seeking no cause for conflict, there 
was nurtured in the breasts of her people that vigor which kept them ready for 
manly warfare, and that Spartan virtue which led them to court danger in the 
hour of battle.  "Walled towns," says Lord Bacon, "stored arsenals and armories, 
goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordinance, artillery, and the 
like; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition 
of the people be stout and warlike."
  The impossibility of obtaining fixed ammunition at the moment of the most 
pressing need in the outbreak of the rebellion, is an evidence of the 
unexpectedness of war, and the almost total lack of preparation to meet it.  The 
arsenals of the State were empty.  When the President, immediately after the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter, called on the several States for men to defend the 
National Capital, and Sherman's Battery was ready to move forward from 
Harrisburg, a delay of several days was occasioned by the want of suitable 
ammunition.  Communication with Wash-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 76

ington had been cut off.  It seemed probable that forces marching thither would 
be obliged to fight their way through an enemy's country.  Hence this company 
was not allowed to depart without having a supply.  Telegrams were sent to the 
commandants of arsenals at Philadelphia, Carlisle, and Reading, seeking it, but 
without success.  It was finally obtained from a distant National Arsenal.
  The maintenance of the national honor, and protection against foreign 
invasion, are, by the Constitution, left to the General Government.  Hence this 
lack of preparation could not be imputed to the State as a fault.  Having a 
strong aversion to intestine feuds, no warlike material had been laid up that 
might tempt to sudden enterprise.  Slow to move and cautious in policy, her 
history has exemplified the principle that
          "Rightly to be great,
          Is not to stir without great argument."
  The Constitution of the State provides that "the freemen of this Commonwealth 
shall be armed, organized, and disciplined for its defence, when and in such 
manner as may be directed by law."  During the early part of the present century 
the organization of the militia was well preserved.  Military drills and parades 
were popular.  The esprit du militaire was respected and maintained.  In 1824, 
the militia force was reported to be 162,988, of whom 28,439 were volunteers.  
From this date commences the decline of the military feeling.  Public sentiment 
began to bear heavily upon the immoral tendencies of "trainings" and "musters," 
as the company drills and division parades were respectively termed.  Thus in 
Niles' Register for September 5th, 1829, we find the following paragraph:  "The 
State of Delaware has abolished its militia system altogether.  The Aurora says, 
it is a creditable act, and we cherish the hope that Pennsylvania and other 
States will follow the example.  It has been estimated that it costs the State 
of Pennsylvania and its citizens upwards of three millions of dollars annually 
to support the caricature of an army-to perpetuate a series of periodical 
nuisances; to scandalize and bring into contempt the military art."  The 
Philadelphia Aurora here referred to, in an issue of the same year, in a severe 
strain of condemna-

OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION - 77

tion, says:  "It has been established by the concurrent testimony of most of the 
eminent military men of the country, that the militia laws, as universally 
enforced and observed, in place of promoting military science and discipline, 
produce a directly contrary result.  No dispassionate person, who has ever 
witnessed our militia musters, trainings, and battalion days, will for a moment 
doubt the correctness of this conclusion.  As military displays, they are a 
ridiculous burlesque-as schools of vice, deplorable; many a youth is there 
initiated into the practice of drunkenness, and the records of the county courts 
bear testimony to the violence done to morality."
  Under the influence of similar denunciation and appeal public opinion was 
rapidly changed.  In 1841, though the population had nearly doubled since 1824, 
the numbers of the volunteer militia had only slightly increased, being reported 
at 33,791.  A few years later came the Mexican War, by which the military 
enthusiasm was suddenly set ablaze.  But on the return of the veterans, after 
the close of that war, it seems to have been almost totally extinguished.  A 
large class of citizens never cordially endorsed the purposes of that war.  The 
indifference thus engendered, united with the general disposition to depreciate 
military glory, produced a feeling of apathy, and in the minds of many of 
derision towards the profession of arms.  The stage sought no better subject of 
comedy than the trappings of a militia man.  Officers, possessing professional 
skill, and sincerely desirous of preserving some creditable organization of 
citizen soldiery, who visited the Capitol to secure legislation to further the 
object of their wishes, were received with little favor.
  The Presidential election of 1856, in which the Republican candidate, John C. 
Fremont, was barely defeated, had been preceded by an unusually active canvass, 
in which Southern leaders had talked loudly of violence in certain 
contingencies.  The defeat of Fremont allayed excitement for a time; but the 
frequent declaration of an intention to attempt a forcible dissolution of the 
Union, and the evidence of preparation for such an event, induced reflecting men 
to consider the military weakness of the North.  Moved by these considerations, 
the Legislatures of several of the Northern States enacted more efficient 
militia regulations.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 78

A revised code was adopted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1858, drawn 
with much minuteness of detail.  Commendable effort was made to organize new 
companies in compliance with its provisions.  Encampments were ordered by the 
commander-in-chief, and were held at Williamsport, at Bellefonte, at Pittsburg, 
at Hollidaysburg, at Lancaster, at Johnstown, and at McConnellsburg.  But 
notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts, the Adjutant-General's Report at the 
close of the year gives the number of volunteer militia at only about 13,000, 
out of an estimated number subject to military duty of 350,000.  In the 
following year encampments were not ordered, and the number of the militia was 
reported at a slight increase over the previous year.  The last exhibition of 
vitality by the old militia, previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion, was 
at an encampment held at York, in the fall of 1860.
  The General Government had taken upon itself to manufacture and furnish the 
several States with arms, and consequently none had ever been purchased for 
Pennsylvania on its own account.  By an act of Congress, passed in 1808, the sum 
of $200,000 was annually expended in the manufacture of arms, to be distributed 
among the States and Territories in proportion to the number of the enrolled 
militia in each.  The method of distribution was amended in 1855, so as to make 
it in proportion to the representation in the popular branch of Congress.  As 
the number of States was constantly increasing, and the population in the new 
States multiplying much faster than in the old, the portion which annually fell 
to the share of Pennsylvania was constantly decreasing, the number of muskets 
received in 1857 being 852 less than in 1847, in the former year the number 
being 1233.  By reference to the Adjutant-General's Report of 1858, it will be 
seen that there were issued to Pennsylvania by the Ordnance Department at 
Washington, from the year 1812 to 1857,* upwards of 56,000 rifles and muskets, 
over 12,000 pistols, over 27,000 infantry accoutrements, 152 pieces of 
artillery, ranging from six to twenty-
  *45,901 muskets, 10,202 rifles, 12,602 pistols, 9767 swords, 27,271 infantry 
accoutrements, 1829 cavalry, 77 bronze six-pound cannon, harness and carriages; 
45 iron sixes, harness and carriages; 6 iron twelve-pounders, harness and 
carriages; 4 iron howitzers, 14 caissons, 2 six-pounders, 2 twelves, and 2 
twenty-fours, with harness and carriages for each.

OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION - 79

four-pounders, and other arms and accoutrements, costing in the aggregate 
$1,179,191.  Of this considerable armament the Adjutant-General reports 519 
muskets, and 15 brass cannons in Arsenal, and 8477 muskets, and 32 pieces, in 
the hands of the militia.  The remainder, and by far the largest part, had 
disappeared, having been condemned, sold, or carelessly given out without taking 
and preserving the necessary vouchers.  "It is a useless inquiry," says the 
Adjutant-General, Edwin C. Wilson, "to ask now what has become of so large an 
amount of arms and accoutrements.  I am aware that many have been sold, but the 
bulk remains unaccounted for, and no books nor papers remain in this office to 
tell of their existence."
  It was the policy of the National Government, in addition to these supplies 
annually distributed to the States, to keep its own arsenals well furnished.  
But during the last year of Secretary Floyd's administration, in 1859-60, there 
was an unusual movement of arms from Northern to Southern arsenals.  An 
investigation, instituted by a committee of Congress, showed that 115,000 
muskets had been transferred from the Springfield, Watertown, and Watervliet 
arsenals to arsenals in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and 
Louisiana; that over 30,000 had been sold at $2.50 apiece, and that 250,000 had 
been contracted for at $2.15-the contractor, one Belknap, alleging that they 
were for the use of the Sardinian Government; but this sale was not consummated, 
the successor to Mr. Floyd, Joseph Holt, refusing to recognize the contract.  By 
the testimony of General Scott, it appears that eight States, Virginia, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas, 
received their quotas, by the order of the Secretary of War, for 1861, in 
advance.  The Mobile Advertiser, in commenting upon this action, said:  "During 
the past year 135,430 muskets have been quietly transferred from the Northern 
arsenal at Springfield alone, to those in the Southern States.  We are much 
obliged to Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has thus displayed in disarming 
the North and equipping the South for this emergency.  There is no telling the 
quantity of arms and munitions which were sent South from other Northern 
arsenals.  There is no doubt but that every man in the South who can carry a gun

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 80

can now be supplied from private or public sources.  The Springfield 
contribution alone would arm all the militiamen of Alabama and Mississippi."
  But even this extraordinary action of the Secretary for depleting the arsenals 
of the North of small arms both by sale and transfer, was surpassed in 
effrontery by the attempt to move heavy guns.  He ordered, without any report 
from the Engineer department, which is usual, that forty-two columbiads and four 
thirty-two pounders should be sent from the arsenal at Pittsburg to an 
unfinished fort on Ship Island on the coast of Mississippi, which could not be 
got ready for any part of its armament in less than a year, and that seventy-one 
columbiads and seven thirty-two pounders be sent to a proposed fort on the coast 
of Texas, work upon which had not been begun, and which could not be made ready 
for any part of its armament in less than two years, nor for the entire armament 
in less than five.
  Unquestioning acquiescence in the action of the General Government has ever 
been the habit of the American people.  At times political excitement is 
intense, especially in the canvass for the chief executive officer; but however 
earnest are their words, and energetic their exertions to help on their party to 
success, when the decision has once been made, it is the especial pride of even 
the most violent to submit gracefully and even good-naturedly to defeat.  In the 
transfer of small arms, and the dispersion of the navy no interference had been 
attempted, nor even question made.
  But when, on the 24th of December, 1860, it was heralded upon the streets of 
Pittsburg, that an order had been received by the commandant of the United 
States Arsenal at Lawrenceville, a short distance from the city, to ship nearly 
700 tons of war material to points on the shores of the Gulf, and that the 
steamer "Silver Wave" was already at the wharf awaiting the enormous burden, a 
strong but smothered feeling of indignation was excited.  That feeling was 
intensified, when it was known that the captain of this vessel, which was not 
valued at more than $11,000, had a contract with the Government for removing 
these guns, whereby he was to receive $10,000 for the service.  The willingness 
of the Government to pay so exorbitant a price

OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION - 81

seemed to indicate that the authors of the bargain were conscious of the 
impropriety, if not criminality of the act, and that they anticipated that 
trouble would be encountered in executing it.
  The leading men of the city proved themselves, in this emergency, reliant and 
discreet.  The temper of the people was such that it only needed slight 
encouragement to incite to acts of violence.  This would have put them in the 
wrong, as being the assailants of the Government, and would have defeated the 
purpose which they sought.  It was, accordingly, deemed advisable that the 
precise facts in the case should be ascertained before any public action or 
demonstration should be made.  At an informal meeting held at the Controller's 
office, in which General William Robinson acted as president, and Ex-Governor 
Johnston, Judge Shaler, C. R. Simpson, and R. H. Patterson, as vice-presidents, 
the impropriety of stripping the arsenal of its ordnance was discoursed upon, 
and the following resolutions were adopted:  "That the chairman appoint a 
committee to ascertain what number of small arms, accoutrements, munitions of 
war, etc., have been sent from the United States Arsenal within the last ninety 
days, and the number of cannon and small arms now ordered away, and their 
destination; and further to make inquiry as to when said cannon were cast, and 
if for any particular fort; and whether the number is not greater than the 
capacity of the forts to which the armaments are professedly sent; the number of 
cannon remaining on  hand, and the probable time required to replace those 
ordered; and further, that said committee call on Major Taliaferro, and the 
contractor for removing and transporting the cannon, and request them to suspend 
operations until an opportunity has been afforded us to communicate with the 
authorities at Washington city."
  In conformity with these resolutions, the following committee was appointed:  
Mayor Wilson, Hon. William Wilkins, G. W. Jackson, R. H. Patterson, Dr. A. G. 
McCandless, and W. W. Hersh.  Enquiries were prosecuted both at the arsenal and 
at the departments in Washington, the members of Congress from Allegheny 
district entering actively into the examination.  It was ascertained that the 
appropriations for the purchase of these guns had been made some time before, 
and that they had been cast

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 82

accordingly.  But the forts for which they were intended, not having been yet 
built, and one of them not even begun,  it was apparent that the haste to get 
the guns below Mason and Dixon's line was for a purpose not legitimate, and that 
Secretary Floyd had given the order, just upon the eve of his departure from 
office, that the guns might be got within the bounds of the contemplated new 
Confederacy, before hostilities actually commenced, though he had coupled with 
his order the condition, which he knew his agents at the arsenal would 
disregard, that the guns were to be at Ship Island and Galveston by the time the 
defensive works at those points should be ready to receive them.
  When these facts became known to the populace, the purpose of the order was so 
apparent, and the disguise so thin, that the excitement was greatly heightened.  
The volunteer companies were held in readiness to move at the tap of the drum; 
the antagonism of political parties had vanished, and the whole city was 
prepared, as with the impulse of one man, to rise up and arrest the disgraceful 
act.  It was evident that public opinion would need to be led in the right 
direction, or it was liable to be carried off in the wrong.  A call, numerously 
signed, was, accordingly, presented to the Mayor, requesting him to summon a 
public meeting.  It was set for the afternoon of Thursday, the 27th, at two 
o'clock.  At that hour a vast concourse, estimated at over 4000 men, assembled.  
Only a small part of the multitude could gain admission to the court-house, 
where the meeting was to be held, and it was proposed to adjourn to the City 
Hall, which was more commodious; but, failing in obtaining that, the crowd 
returned, and an organization was effected by calling General William Robinson 
to the chair and appointing ex-Governor William F. Johnson, R. H. Patterson, 
Hon. Charles Shaler, and Colonel Edward Simpson, vice-presidents.  Addresses 
were made by Messrs. Shaler, Moorehead, and Swartzwelder, counseling peaceful 
measures, and an appeal to the President to purge his cabinet of men acting the 
part of traitors to their country.
  That sentiment touched the loyal heart, and its ringing tones were heard at 
the capital.  While the meeting was in progress, and speakers were denouncing 
the wrongs which the people of the North were suffering, a dispatch was received 
from Philadelphia,

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and read from the stand, which greatly intensified the excitement and fanned 
anew the flames of patriotism.  It was as follows:  "Fort Moultrie has been 
abandoned, guns spiked, and Captain Anderson has retreated to Fort Sumter."  
Resolutions were adopted in harmony with the principles which had been 
advocated, deprecating interference with the removal of arms while being done 
under Government orders, however inopportune or wrongful the order might appear; 
deploring the administration of the Government in some of its departments, 
whereby the confidence of the people of the free States had been shaken; 
asserting the special duty of Pennsylvania to look to the fidelity of her sons, 
and in that view to call on the President as a citizen of this Commonwealth, 
that the public receive no detriment at his hands; urging him to rid his cabinet 
of every man known to give aid and comfort to, or in any way countenance the 
revolt of a State against the authority of the Constitution and the laws of the 
Union.
  A committee was appointed to visit Washington, and seek the revocation of the 
order for the removal of the arms, before the shipment was effected.  The Hon. 
Robert McKnight, and Hon. J. K. Moorhead, then members of Congress from 
Pittsburg, at once proceeded to Washington, and vigorously representing the 
iniquity of the act, urged the abandonment of the attempt.  The fact that the 
forts could not be ready for the guns for years, and that the order for their 
removal contained the condition that they were to be delivered by the time the 
works were ready for their reception, gave the committee a good argument for 
their request.  The great uprising of the people of Pittsburg, and the pointed 
resolutions they adopted, had a marked effect upon the mind of the President.  
Some of his life-long friends and supporters had participated in that meeting, 
and he was induced to listen to their voice.  "Mr. Buchanan," says Mr. Moorhead, 
"could not resist the intensely loyal pressure that was brought to bear upon him 
by our citizens."  A citizen of Pittsburg, Mr. Stanton, was then Attorney-
General, and he interested himself warmly in the cause of the committee.  "We 
were more indebted," says Mr. Moorhead, "to the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, who was 
the Attorney-General, for the revocation of the order, than to any other person 
or party."  The order was revoked, Joseph Holt of Kentucky hav-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA- 84

ing succeeded Mr. Floyd in the War office on the 29th, and the guns, several of 
which had already reached the city, were returned to the arsenal.
  Thus was a question, which at one time threatened violence, and an issue 
violative of law, amicably and with dignity settled, and a scheme for rifling 
the North of heavy arms, and putting them in the hands of those who were already 
making war upon the Government, frustrated.  Pittsburg, the Birmingham of 
America, upon which the Government was relying for much of its war material in 
case of an outbreak, from its nearness to the border, was exposed to attack.  
These guns, had they been removed, could not have been replaced for many months.  
The administration, too, was finally aroused from its lethargy, and was brought 
to realize that the people of the North, irrespective of creed or party, would 
not stand tamely by and submit to the dismemberment of the Government.
  The sentiment respecting national affairs, which prevailed for a number of 
years previous to the Rebellion among the people of the State, may be gathered 
from the Messages of its Governors.  They may be regarded as uttering the united 
voice.  In his Inaugural Address, Governor Pollock said:  "Pennsylvania, 
occupying, as she does, an important and proud position in the sisterhood of 
States, cannot be indifferent to the policy and acts of the National Government.  
Her voice, potential for good in other days, ought not to be disregarded now.  
Devoted to the Constitution and the Union, as she was the first to sanction, she 
will be the last to endanger the one, or violate the other.  Regarding with 
jealous care the rights of her sister States, she will be ever ready to defend 
her own.  To the Constitution in all its integrity, to the Union in its strength 
and harmony, to the maintenance in its purity of the faith and honor of the 
country, Pennsylvania now is, and always has been pledged-a pledge never 
violated, and not to be violated, until patriotism ceases to be a virtue, and 
liberty to be known only as a name."  After recounting the leading principles of 
the State's organic law, he adds:  "The declaration of these doctrines is but 
the recognition of the fundamental principles of freedom and human rights.  They 
are neither new nor startling.  They were taught by patriotic fathers at the 
watch-

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fires of our country's defenders, and learned amid the bloody snows of Valley 
Forge, and the mighty throes of war and revolution.  They were stamped with 
indelible impress upon the great charter of our rights, and embodied in the 
legislation of the best and purest days of the Republic; have filled the hearts 
and fell burning from the lips of orators and statesmen whose memories are 
immortal as the principles they cherished.  They have been the watchword and the 
hope of millions now, and will be of millions yet unborn."
  In his message of 1857, he said:  "Freedom is the great centre truth of 
American republicanism-the great law of American Nationality; Slavery is the 
exception.  It is local and sectional, and its extension beyond the jurisdiction 
creating it, nor to the free territories of the Union, was never designed or 
contemplated by the patriot founders of the Republic. . . .  The Union of the 
States, which constitutes us one people, should be dear to you, to every 
American citizen. . . .  Pennsylvania tolerates no sentiment of disunion.  she 
knows not the word."
  Governor Packer, in his message of 1859, said:  "While I entertain no doubt 
that the great republican experiment on this continent, so happily commenced, 
and carried forward to its present exalted position, in the eyes of the world, 
will continue, under the Providence of God, to be successful to the latest 
generations, it is the part of wisdom and patriotism to be watchful and 
vigilant, and to carefully guard a treasure so priceless.  Let moderate counsels 
prevail-let a spirit of harmony and good will, and a national and fraternal 
sentiment be cultivated among the people, everywhere-North and South-and the 
disturbing elements which temporarily threaten our Union, will now, as they have 
always heretofore, assuredly pass away.  Pennsylvania, in the past, has 
performed her part with unfaltering firmness.  Let her now, and in the future, 
be ever ready to discharge her confederate duties with unflinching integrity.  
Then will her proud position entitle her, boldly and effectually, to rebuke, and 
assist in crushing treason, whether it shall raise its crest in other States, in 
the guise of a fanatical and irrepressible conflict between the North and South, 
or assume the equally reprehensible form of nullification, secession, and 
dissolution of the Union.  Her central

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA- 86

geographical position, stretching from the bay of Delaware to the lakes-with her 
3,000,000 of conservative population-entitles her to say, with emphasis, to the 
plotters of treason, on either hand, that neither shall be permitted to succeed-
that it is not in the power of either to disturb the perpetuity of this Union, 
cemented and sanctified, as it is, by the blood of our patriotic fathers-that at 
every sacrifice, and at every hazard, the Constitutional rights of the people 
and the States shall be maintained-that equal and exact justice shall be done to 
the North and the South, and that these States shall be forever United."
  In his inaugural address, in 1861, Governor Curtin said:  "No part of the 
people, no State nor combination of States, can voluntarily secede from the 
Union, nor absolve themselves from their obligations to it.  To permit a State 
to withdraw at pleasure from the Union, without the consent of the rest, is to 
confess that our Government is a failure.  Pennsylvania can never acquiesce in 
such a conspiracy, nor assent to a doctrine which involves the destruction of 
the Government.  If the Government is to exist, all the requirements of the 
Constitution must be obeyed; and it must have power adequate to the enforcement 
of the supreme law of the land in every State.  It is the first duty of the 
National authorities to stay the progress of anarchy, and enforce the laws, and 
Pennsylvania, with a united people, will give them an honest, faithful, and 
active support.  The people mean to preserve the integrity of the National Union 
at every hazard."
   Finally, the Legislature of the State passed the following resolutions early 
in the session of 1861, upon the subject of secession, then being actively 
pushed in the Southern States, which were a fair index to the temper of the 
people, and which gave no uncertain sound as to the course which the State would 
pursue in the impending crisis:  "Resolved, That if the people of any State in 
this Union are not in the full enjoyment of all the benefits to be secured to 
them by the said Constitution, of their rights under it are disregarded, their 
tranquility disturbed, their prosperity retarded, or their liberties imperiled 
by the people of any other State, full and adequate redress can and ought to be 
provided for such grievances through the action of Congress, and other proper 
departments of the National Government.  That we adopt the

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sentiment and language of President Andrew Jackson, expressed in his message to 
Congress, on the 16th of January, 1833, 'that the right of a people of a single 
State to absolve themselves at will and without the consent of the other States 
from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of 
millions composing this Union, cannot be acknowledged, and that such authority 
is utterly repugnant, both to the principles upon which the General Government 
is constituted, and the objects which it was expressly formed to attain.'  That 
the Constitution of the United States of America contains all the powers 
necessary to the maintenance of its authority, and it is the solemn and most 
imperative duty of the Government to adopt and carry into effect whatever 
measures are necessary to that end; and the faith and power of Pennsylvania are 
hereby pledged to the support of such measures, in all manner and to any extent 
that may be required of her by the constituted authorities of the United States.  
That all plots, conspiracies, and warlike demonstrations against the United 
states, in any section of the country, are treasonable in character, and 
whatever power of the Government is necessary to their suppression should be 
applied to that purpose without hesitation or delay."