George Templeton Strong

Today will be known as . We are utterly and disgracefully routed, beaten, whipped by secessionists.

The bird of our country is a debilitated chicken, disguised in eagle feathers. We have never been a nation; we are only an aggregate of communities, ready to fall apart at the first serious shock and without a centre of vigorous national …

All the indications are that this treasonable inflammation—secessionitis—keeps on making steady progress week by week.

If disunion become an established fact, we have one consolation. The self-amputated members were diseased beyond immediate cure, and their virus will infect our system no longer.