EEMARK8 ON THE GOVERNMENT TAX. 123 
tural productions of the Nortt, while they tax enormously 
the chief agricultural product of the South ? 
From the views just presented, and from the clauses of 
the Constitution quoted to support them, I think that every 
candid mind must decide that the tax law referred to is 
clearly and grossly unconstitutional, and therefore void. 
We will close this section by an appeal to the sense of 
justice which we hope still remains with a majority of the 
Northern people. We invoke the sympathies of our com- 
mon humanity, and call upon you to use your best efforts 
at the ballot-box, and by the force of public opinion to 
correct the evil of which we complain. In electing mem- 
bers of Congress, we implore you to select men who are 
worthy of the name of statesmen — men who understand 
the Constitution of their country, and whose sense of 
moral obligation will insure its faithful observance — men 
of pure morality, high-toned honor, lovers of their coun- 
try, their whole country — patriots who will zealously labor 
to promote justice, peace, good will, and prosperity through- 
out the whole country — men free from sectional hate, and 
a blind and frenzied fanaticism. It is useless to make any 
appeal either to the justice, the magnanimity, the mercy, 
the wisdom, the prudence, or the patriotism of the ruling^ 
majority in Congress. I apprehend that it will require a 
larger intellectual microscope than any philosopher or 
statesman of the present day possesses to find much, if 
any, of those desirable qualities in the leaders who control 
the present Congress. But to you, the masses of the 
Northern people, to you who have not lost your senses 
under the stupefying and maddening influence of a wild 
and frenzied fanaticism — you who love the Union of our 
fathers, and regard the Constitution as the bulwark of free- 
dom, the palladium of our safety, and the sheet-anchor of 
