It was but a short time until personal example followed these glowing words, this noble advice. His fidelity to the Union and the honor of his State prompted him Boon to take the field, where a short but bright and promising career gave the name of Moses Wisner to the long list of Michigan martyrs to American liberty. Following the valedictory of Governor Wisner, the Legislature of 1861 list­ened with intense interest to the inaugural of Austin Blair, his successor, who, in a profound and philosophical address, set forth the true nature of our system of government, and the real meaning of the present and impending issues, and closed with these emphatic and forcible utterances:

"We are satisfied with the Constitution of our country, and will obey the laws enacted under it, and we must demand that the people of all the other States do the same; safety lies in this path alone. The Union must be preserved, and the laws must be enforced in all parts of it at whatever cost. The President is bound to this by his oath, and no power can discharge him from it. Secession is revolution, and revolution in the overt act is treason and must be treated as such. The Federal Government has the power to defend itself, and I do not doubt that that power will be exercised to the utmost. It is a question of war that the seceding States have to look in the face. They who think that this powerful Government can be disrupted peacefully have read history to no purpose. The sons of the men who carried arms in the seven years war with the most powerful nation in the world, to establish this Government, will not hesitate to make equal sacrifices to maintain it. Most deeply must we deplore the unnatural contest. On the heads of the traitors who provoke it must rest the responsibility. In such a contest the God of battles has no attribute that can take sides with the revolutionists of the slave States.