Excerpt from Speeches and Letters of Gerrit Smith on the Rebellion, Vol. 2
War goes beyond Constitutional Restrictions.
Down with the Rebellion at Whatever Cost to the Constitution.
"The Body is more than Raiment!" The Country is more than the Constitution.
Time now for nothing but to Crush the Rebellion.
To My Neighbors:
"Damn the Constitution!" said one in the hearing of myself and several others. I had always disliked profanity: and I had always honored the Constitution - welcoming every part of it. Nevertheless this exclamation was music in my ears. Why was it? It was because of the connection and spirit in which it burst from the speaker. He was arguing with rapid and fervid eloquence that the Government should ply every possible means for the speediest crushing of the rebellion - when a listening Conservative threw in the qualification: "But all according to the Constitution!" No wonder that the speaker could not brook this interruption. No wonder that an oath should leap forth to attest the indignation of his patriotic soul. It was not contempt for the Constitution, but displeasure at the thrusting of it in his way, which prompted the profanity. Had it been the Bible itself, that was thus impertinently cited, an oath might still have been the consequence.
In a past century a New-England Puritan, in order to reconcile his black boy to the periodical whippings he gave him, said: "I whip you for the good of your soul." To which the sufferer very naturally replied: "I wish I had n"t a soul!" Often during this War has the excessively tender and untimely care for the Constitution tempted me to wish that we had n"t a Constitution. Thus was I tempted when, July 22, 1861, the House of Representatives, instead of manfully resolving that the War was for putting down the Rebellion and for nothing else, meanly resolved that it was for maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution. Thus was I tempted when Congress, a year or two ago, was ridiculously employed in looking into the Constitution to learn how far it might confiscate the possessions of the millions who were striking at the life of the nation. I notice that, now again. Congress is, in this same connection, twattling about the Constitution.
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