SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS ...

On the eve of the War, Massachusetts Senator Wendell Phillips gave a speech at the New Bedford Lyceum in which he defended the Confederate States' right to secede:

"A large body of people, sufficient to make a nation, have come to the conclusion that they will have a government of a certain form. Who denies them the right? Standing with the principles of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right? 

I maintain on the principles of '76 that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter. . . . You can never make such a war popular. . . . The North never will endorse such a war." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1861, p. 2.

Oh really? Not long after this speech he did a 180 and threw his full support behind the war effort, very much like Lincoln’s own secretary of state: 

William Seward April 4th 1861 “It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use armed force to subjugate the South. If the people of the South want to stay out of the Union, if they desire independence, let them have it.” Spoken to a London Times correspondent. 

April 10th 1861 “Only a despotic and imperial government can subjugate seceding States.” Officially written to C.F. Adams Minister to England.