With one breath you say we must not
coerce the wills of others, and now you say you would, even though
you did violence to universal and sacred beliefs."
"I say only that the nation MUST do this as must the individual.
Some one might say to me, 'I honestly think I should take off your
right arm.' I would not permit it if I could help it. No more can a
nation submit passively to dismemberment. The South did not expect
that this nation would do so. It promptly prepared for war. If the
North had said, 'We can do nothing, there's a blank, write out your
terms and we'll sign,' we would have been more thoroughly despised
than we were, if that were possible. There are two kinds of
coercion. For instance, I do not say to you, Mrs. Whately,
representing the South, that you must think and feel as I do and
take just such steps as I dictate; but that there are things which
you must refrain from doing, because in their performance, no matter
how sincere you were, you would inflict great and far-reaching wrong
on others.
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