436  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents

And  whereas  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  the  25th  day  of  July,
1 861,  adopted  a  resolution  in  the  words  following,  to  wit:

Resolved^  That  the  present  deplorable  civil  war  has  been  forced  upon  the  country
by  the  disunionists  of  the  Southern  States  now  in  revolt  against  the  constitutional
Government  and  in  arms  around  the  capital;  that  in  this  national  emergency  Con-
gress, banishing  all  feeling  of  mere  passion  or  resentment,  will  recollect  only  its
duty  to  the  whole  country;  that  this  war  is  not  prosecuted  upon  our  part  in  any
spirit  of  oppression,  nor  for  any  purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  nor  purpose
of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of  those
States,  but  to  defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  all  laws
made  in  pursuance  thereof  and  to  preserve  the  Union,  with  all  the  dignity,  equality,
and  rights  of  the  several  States  unimpaired;  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accom-
plished the  war  ought  to  cease.
