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THE) PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE— PARTY-UNITY-THE SOUTH 
 ON THE DEFENSIVE. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 ^ 
 
 HON. AUGUSTUS E. MAXWELL, 
 
 OF FLORIDA, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 27, 1957. 
 
 The House being in Committee of tbe Whole 
 on the state of the Union — 
 
 Mr. MAXWELL said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I dislike, at this stage of the 
 'session, to interrupt the legitimate business be- 
 fore us, and perhaps I do wrong to continue the 
 discussion of general subjects, I would not risk 
 this, were it at all probable that such discussion 
 would cease if I refrained. As it is not, and I 
 have been unfortiuiate in my efforts to obtain the 
 lloor, and as the example has been set me by 
 others, I may as well say new what I could not 
 get an opportunity to say at the proper time. 
 
 I have wished to notice some comments upon 
 the President and his message, though I will 
 not follow the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. 
 Davis,] or others, in discussing at large the pro- 
 prieties of the message, its history, reasoning, 
 or conclusions. 
 
 So far as these relate to the agitation which has 
 recently convulsed the country, I am satisfied 
 with it in every particular. My confidence in 
 the man, or his views, has not been shaken. The 
 admirable exposition he has given of the state 
 of the Union, could not have been but incom- 
 plete if he had ignored the controversy which 
 has filled the m.inds of all the people for the last 
 few months, and which was itself full of threat- 
 ening against the peace and security of the coun- 
 try. He v/as forbid, by every sign around him, 
 to regard it as a. mere party controversy, with 
 which a President should not deal. It had risen 
 to an awful magnitude of danger, alarming every 
 patriotin the land. That he should have touched 
 it, therefore, set it forth Ijefore us, explained his 
 own policy in regard to it, was most natural, and 
 scarcely to be avoided. That he should have done 
 this in other spirit or terms than those character- 
 izing the message, could not have been expected 
 by any one familiar with his political opinions and 
 previous public action. He had no need to sugar 
 his words to suit the tastes of those whose taking 
 offense was a predetermined, inevitable thing. 
 A grave subject was before him, and it imposed 
 
 ! a sterner duty than trifling niceties of speech in 
 I deference to the tender feelings of opposing parti- 
 zans. That duty he performed; and in this, as 
 ! ever before, he has been a man true alike to him- 
 j self and to liis country — consistent, right-minded, 
 : honestly patriotic. Undaunted by difficulties, 
 1 undissolved by the pretended commiseration of 
 , his enemies, unshaken by t!ic loss of favor, or 
 ! by the taunts of those who preyed upon his sup- 
 ! posed misfortunes to satiate their vengeful appe- 
 j tites, he has steadily pursued his course; some- 
 times, it may be, mistaken as to the right path, at 
 I others misled, but always going on, determined 
 j to reach at last a proper destination. It is not 
 I Only as a southern representative, it is as one 
 ! having an equal regard for every portion of tlio 
 : Union, and every interest in it, that I honor him, 
 I and thank him for his firm adherence to the cause 
 j-of the Constitution, and for his scalous advocacy 
 , of tlie rights it secures, and his bold defense of 
 those rights against powerful assaults. 
 I It may be well enough for some gentlemen to 
 express indifference as to his views, or even pity 
 i for his weakness as a fallen man; but it cannot 
 I have escaped observation, tiiat while thoy do tlria 
 ! they exhibit a sensitiveness under his expose 
 , quite incompatible with either. If we may judge 
 i from the many efforts we have witnessed, from 
 I that of the chairman of your leading committee, 
 j [Mr. Campdell, of Ohio,] and that of the gen- 
 ! tleman from Maryland, [Mr. Dams,] down to 
 I that of the gentleman from Ohio, who last ad- 
 dressed you, [Mr. Bliss,] to parry the force of 
 ; his message, we are not permitted to regard it as 
 the weak twaddle of a dishonoVcd or dying man. 
 There must be something in it of life, of vigor, 
 [ of power — something to alarm and stir the energy 
 ' of opposition, or else it would have gone unques- 
 : tionea to our committees and our printer. But 
 I that would not do. It had to be arrested until 
 ! his opponents could exhaust their wrath in it.s 
 i denunciation — until they could hack and balte 
 [ its core to acquit their fears. They are engage'. 
 j as I am glad to believe, in a vain labor. It l-ts 
 its place on the record, and will tell its storyof 
 
 \; 
 
^43 5 
 
 justice to all men, of faithfulness to all the coun- 
 try, unto the people everywhere. That he cor- 
 rectly apprehends and sets forth the meaning of 
 the rt'cent election I hold to be most evident — his 
 main deduction being that the geographical or 
 sectional party of the country was condemned. 
 This is unquestionably true. And I believe it to 
 be also true, that the party which was uplield in 
 the posscs.sion of the Government, and author- 
 ized to continue its control, was the one which 
 most fully recognizes the ccjuality of the States, 
 and the equal rights of their respective citizens. 
 A policy which can suit every portion of the 
 Union, as opposed to that which advances one 
 portion at the expense of the other — a policy not 
 so much of action, as of abstinence from action, 
 and one which cannot provoke a complaint of 
 aggression from either side, because it holds 
 itself denied the exercise of any power to favor 
 or to interfere with either, was " sanctioned and 
 announced" as the right policy. 
 
 But it is not my purpose to undertake a de- 
 tailed defense either of the President or his mes- 
 sage. I am willing, and I am sure he may well 
 be willing, that through any the worst present 
 ordeal, both may pass to their proper places in 
 the history of the country. As yet, the message 
 has encountered little more than the broadest con- 
 tradiction, with only the idlest hypercriticism; 
 and I must say that that of the gentleman from 
 Maryland [Mr. Davis] was of a kind better 
 suited to some other forum than to this body of 
 ■which it is his fortune to be a foremost member. 
 He seems to exult in the idea that the compla- 
 cency of the President in his references to the 
 result of the recent election is not warranted by 
 the majority of the popular vote. Can it be that 
 my friend objects to the congratulatory strain in 
 ■which the President speaks of the defeat of^scc- 
 tionalists .' Or does he permit a passing allusion 
 to the defeat of his own party to check the cur- 
 rent of his satisfaction at the overthrow of the 
 greatly stronger party whose narrow organiza- 
 tion he himself so sternly condemned .' Sir, I 
 ask him what he has ^ainfd when he has shown 
 that the fact disclosed by the recent election is 
 that the majority of the people of the United 
 States is opposed to the present men in power, 
 opposed to the present Auniinistration, opposed 
 to continuing its policy, opposed to the Kansas- 
 Nebraska act, opposed to aivers other things said 
 to be held in favor by the Democratic party, of 
 M'hich he made mention? The same process by 
 •which he arrives at this conclusion certainly 
 bhows that an overwhelming majority of the 
 people i.s opposed to the men and the measures 
 of the Republican party; and probably he will 
 admit that it also sliows the majority not just yet 
 disposed to trust the men or the measures of the 
 Anif-rican party. What, then, has he gained? 
 Why, simply tnat the majority of the intelligent, 
 8elf-gov( riling American people is opposed to all 
 men and to any policy, aim that this glorious 
 «»untry of ours is brought to a stand-still. I 
 think, Mr. Chairman, that my reasoning is as 
 good as his, and equally suits the gravity of a 
 ■talesman, when it brings rne to the eonclusion 
 that we are led out of the difficulty in which he 
 »iui places us by the Constitution; and tin refore, 
 a> through that the DemoTatic party is continued 
 invowcr, the Consliiulion really ducted our can- 
 
 didate. With such indorsement and warrant, he 
 should not complainif that party thinks itself still 
 empowered to carry on the Government after its 
 old habit. 
 
 In a right view of the nature of our Govern- 
 ment, the popular will — the only popular will we 
 are permitted to regard — must be admitted as 
 having decidi dly favored the choice of Mr. Buch- 
 anan, and, through him, the continuance of Dem- 
 ocratic policy. It is not simply that he received 
 more votes than either of the other candidates, 
 or that he received a majority of the States. It 
 is that a majority of the people of the United 
 States, through the only mode by which we can 
 constitutionally ascertain their will, is commit- 
 ted to a preference for him overall others. Does 
 the gentleman ask how I reach this result ? I 
 answer him, by regarding this, not as a consol- 
 idated, but as a Federal Government. There is 
 no such will to be recognized as that of the ma- 
 jority of the whole people. We must go to the 
 Stales in search of the true popular will, for it is 
 only through them, each expressing the will of 
 her own people, separate and independent of all 
 the others, that we can correctly arrive at it. 
 Maryland, in casting her vote for Mr. Fillmore, 
 informs us that the will of her people would make 
 him President; and that must be taken as not 
 merely what the majority would do, but as the 
 will of all. And so of the other States. Now, 
 taking the rule thus indicated to guide our calcu- 
 lations — summing up the aggregate vote of the 
 States which preferred Mr. Buchanan, and giving 
 all the others to his opponents, he will be elected 
 by some two hundred and fifty thousand major- 
 ity. And herein, sir, may be found, for all those 
 who need it, a lesson in the philosophy, and 
 frame and working of our institutions, which 
 it would be well for us to understand and appre- 
 ciate, but which the errors of a laiitudinarian 
 construction of the Constitution have too often 
 and too much obscured. I doubt not Mr. Buch- 
 anan will be able to gather instruction from it 
 which will serve to console him for that con- 
 demnation in advance which the gentleman from 
 Maryland so unkindly flaunts in his face. 
 
 But the lemark.s of the gentleman I wish to 
 notice more particularly, were those exposing, ns 
 he imagined, the fatal want of unity in the Dem- 
 ocratic party. In this connection I will say, I 
 have listened with some degree of anxiety to tlie 
 discussion which has been going on in reference 
 to the late political canvass, and its result. I have 
 felt anxiety because when it is charged, and the 
 impression is sought to be made upon the country, 
 that the northern wing of the Democratic party 
 obtained its large vote through deceitful practices, 
 by which the people were led to believe that it 
 was a good Free-Soil party, a question is raised, 
 a doubt suggested, about something ■which 1 
 thought had been fully put to rest by every form 
 of contradiction, spoken, written, and acted. 
 What I had heard from llie prominent men of 
 that wing of the party, what I had read from their 
 pens, the votes I had seen ihom give, and all 
 their recent action when the subject of slavery 
 was involved, had convinced me that, so farfrom 
 entertaining Free-Soil views, or wishing them 
 adopted by Congress, they held in the main a. 
 sound constitutional position — certainly much 
 sounder than any taken by other parties of the 
 
same section, if tried by the same tests. Their 
 ready and enthusiastic acceptance of the princi- 
 ples announced in the Cincinnati platform on this 
 subject, which were satisfactory to the southern 
 people, could but confirm this conviction. The 
 sort of man they so zealously supported for the 
 Presidency, whose avowed, well-known princi- 
 ples, and whose whole career, prominently re- 
 corded, marked him as one not at all disposed to 
 countenance Free-Soil agitation in any shape, left 
 no room for suspicion or distrust of them. Be- 
 sides this, the very basis of opposition to them, 
 the very charge upon which they were arraigned 
 for condemnation, the one very thing which was 
 urg^d as their crime, by the heterogeneous Re- 
 publican party, was, that they belonged to a pro- 
 slavery party. 
 
 If, after all this, the boldness with which the 
 Democratic party have been accused by both Re- 
 publicans and Americans — in fraternal union still 
 when the work of war upon the Democratic party 
 is to be undertaken — should have caused some 
 anxiety, who will say that what we have since 
 heard from the accused themselves is not sufficient 
 to remove it? For one, the gentleman from Mary- 
 land says that; but the incredulous ear takes in a 
 plain story reluctantly. There are none so deaf 
 as those who will not hear. That between Dem- 
 ocrats there is a difference of opinion on some 
 points, as he urges, is undeniably true; but that 
 this difference leads to any different policy on the 
 part of Congress, is just as undeniably untrue. 
 And this is the point which gentlemen obstinately 
 refuse to look at, or else they could not be so 
 mistaken in their view of Democratic organiza- 
 tion. For instance, while some hold slavery to 
 be an evil, and doubtless so declare unreservedly, 
 and others hold a contrary belief, yet they agree 
 perfectly as to the duty upon Congress to abstain 
 from interference with it. So, too, while some 
 advocate what is called " squatter sovereignty," 
 and others oppose it, yet there is no difference 
 between them as to what shall be the action of 
 Congress; for the "squatter sovereignty" doc- 
 trine concedes the essential point insisted upon 
 by its opponents, that the question of slavery in 
 the Territories is one not within the sphere of 
 congressional action. Now, the man who sees 
 that in Federal politics we organize parties and 
 announce principles in reference only to Federal 
 measures, will see that, notwithstanding the dif- 
 ferences mentioned, there can be, as there really 
 is, a true unity of action. Their difference is of 
 that kind which their agreement in constitutional 
 doctrine as to the powers of Congress puts entirely 
 out of the way. That difference cannot be reached 
 but by overriding this fundamental doctrine. 
 While the doctrine stands, it cannot go into the 
 sphere to which the national party holding it 
 belongs, and hence can never be an operating 
 difference in that sphere. Elsewhere it might be 
 otherwise. In the sphere of territorial politics, 
 it would produce conflict. But while we hold 
 that this latter sphere shall not be entered by the 
 national Democratic party, organized with refer- 
 ence to Federal objects alone, it can cause no 
 conflict, nor lead to the divisions which our 
 opponents so industriously insist should destroy 
 us. 
 
 The true explanation of the unity of the Dem 
 ocratic party, notwithstanding the diversities of 
 
 opinion alleged against it, is, that it is neiiher a 
 pro-slavery nor an anti-slavery party. It holds 
 that whatever may be the opinion of this man or 
 that man in reference to slavery, the Constitu- 
 tion forbids him to thrust that opinion upon the 
 theater of the Federal Government. He must 
 be content with private indulgence of his views, 
 so far as every State or Territory but his own 
 maybe affected; though in this, whether State or 
 Territory, he is at liberty, and it is his duty as 
 an intelligent citizen, to exercise those views, 
 when he may properly do so, as he may deem 
 best for the local good* But outside of that, when 
 acting in connection with those of other States 
 and Territories, where the citizen has the same 
 privilege that he in his enjoys, he must leave the 
 subject to be dealt with as those locally interested 
 may prefer. Mark the simplicity of the distinc- 
 tion. A local Government for local purposes, a 
 national Government for national purposes; a 
 local party for local purposes, a national party 
 for national purposes. It is the very distinc- 
 tion characterizing our system of Government 
 in which is lodged its greatest security — the lead- 
 ing, fundamental distinction by whieh we secure 
 the largest liberty of the citizen, and at the same 
 time the most effective agency for his protection. 
 A party that in its organization and objects thus 
 adopts the very spirit of our institutions, and 
 plants itself upon a basis corresponding with' that 
 upon which rests the superstructure of the Amer- 
 ican Government, cannot but commend itself, as 
 it has so often done, to the confidence of the 
 people. By those who understand it, its triumphs 
 can be traced to far deeper sources than that 
 which has been so liberally insinuated in this 
 discussion — the gullible ignorance of the masses. 
 
 Now, sir, under this view of the proper sphere 
 and business of a national party, I can well con- 
 ceive that, in the late canvass, northern Demo- 
 crats may have expressed a repugnance to the 
 establishment of slavery in Kansas, just as south- 
 ern Democrats may have expressed a wish that 
 it should be established there; for, differing in 
 this, they nevertheless could cordially unite and 
 act together upon their agreeing idea, that Con- 
 gress has no commission to enforce the preference 
 of either — no power to establish it, or to prevent 
 it from being established; and therefore their 
 wishes in the matter can have nothing to do with 
 their party objects, and could not interfere with 
 the result. 
 
 I repeat, sir, the Democratic party is neither 
 
 pro-slavery nor anti-slavery. Not pro-slavery, 
 
 because it has no business with the question; 
 
 not anti-slavery, for the same reason. All it pro- 
 
 i poses on the subject is to recognize and protect 
 
 I the institution to the extent thai the Constitution 
 
 I recognizes and protects it — nothing more, nothing 
 
 less. 
 
 If gentlemen will take this fact into their nrjinds, 
 they will readily see that the bond of affiliation 
 between northern and southern Democrats bears 
 upon if only the great seal of the Constitution. 
 That attests their common obligations — their 
 obligations as coequals in a common Union. 
 Their separate obligations, those which rest upon 
 them as members of different States, confined each 
 to his own, have no mention in the bond. They 
 are excluded from it. They cannot properly get 
 there. They are left as correlatives of those 
 
powers " not delegnted to the Uiiiti d States by , 
 the Constitution, nor proliibiicd by it to the 
 States, [which] iu"e reserved to the States respect- 
 ively, or to liie poo[)le." 
 
 Mr. Cliairmaii, tliis fraternal war of Americans 
 and Republituins upon the Democratic party, 
 while sustained by a common enmity, is waijed 
 by movements to very opposite jioiius. The 
 Americans are seeking to deslroy southern con- 
 fidence in tlie party, while the Republicans are 
 seeking to destroy northern confidence in it. The 
 former woidd produce the belief that the southern 
 people have been duped iiflo the adnussion of \ 
 Free-Soil allies to their camp; the latter, that the i 
 northern people have, to some extent, been duped j 
 into the admission of pro-slavery allies to theirs, j 
 The ditfereiice between them is, that, while the i 
 Americans readily accept such munitions as the 
 Republicano are disposed to furnish for the south- 
 ern field of operations, the latter, thus generous,! 
 because what they contribute can be of no avail 
 to themselves, on the contrary would incumber | 
 them, must move to their point of attack, care- 1 
 fully stripped of every piece of armor and every 
 weapon which would serve the former. It would : 
 not suit them to show to their section , as it would 
 suit the Americans to show to the South, that 
 jiorthern Democrats are advancing Free-Soil ob- 
 jects; and hence, when they have paraded news- 
 paper'paragraphs, and exhibited placards about 
 "free Kansas," to furnish aid and comfort to our j 
 southern opponents, they slop short, wheel round, [ 
 and charge that all this was intended to deceive] 
 the northern people, inasmuch as it is well known I 
 here that northern Democrats are really strength- , 
 ening pro-slavery men and pro-slavery schemes, j 
 
 It is evident, sir, that there is some mistake i 
 between them. It is equally evident to me that 
 it arises from the party solicitude of Americans : 
 to fasten Free-Soil objects upon northern Demo- j 
 crals, and of Republicans to fasten pro-slavery ] 
 objects upon them, when in fact neither is right 
 — the truth being, as I have insisted, and as you 
 have heard them declare here again and again, 
 that they 'regard and treat the subject of slavery \ 
 in the Territories as without the jurisdiction of . 
 Congress, where no opinion of theirs, whether i 
 fbr or against it, can rightfully be permitted to : 
 interfere one way or the oilier. How easy to | 
 avoid the mistake, if gentlemen would look at' 
 the facts directly, and not through a distorted j 
 medium! I rejoice to know that the people have; 
 the inl<;lligence to use their own unclouded vision, ' 
 and that they have wisely distinguished between j 
 individual preference and Federal governmental 
 authority to enforce that preference — between a j 
 party of national scope and a party of Stale or 
 territorial scope — between an opinion for practice j 
 and an opinion for Huncombe. j 
 
 lftliigiiiili;miin from Maryland will study more 
 carefully wherein consists the unity and strength 
 of the Democratic party, despite the diversities 
 of opinion upon v.hich he dwells, he may easily j 
 relieve himself from the fear he expresses — or' 
 perhaji.s it was a hope — that its dissolution is I 
 near nt hand. Thai once j>roud and powerful , 
 party, as he styles it, he will find possessing! 
 tlemriits of life which no breath of i)a8sion or' 
 jircjudi'-i; can ili.ssolve. It has little felir of its 
 own for the future, and has been t0(» often told 
 by others that it was in a dying condition, to be 
 
 alarmed now by a repetition of the story. Tlie 
 gentleman does well, therefore, to amuse his 
 fancy with graphic pictures of the scenes to be 
 enacted around iVIr. Buchanan when he shall conre 
 to take his position at the helm of State. It is a 
 cheap gratification, but he must be content to 
 enjoy it, as he is doing, only in fancy. Some- 
 how or other, this unartistic, homebred, simple- 
 minded, stubborn, self-willed, independent Dem- 
 ocratic ])arty, will go on successfully doing its 
 own work in its own way, not dreaming that a 
 laugh at its expense can affect or hinder the free 
 course of its earnest, honest purpose. It feels 
 more concern, however, when arraigned as a 
 " disturber of the public peace," and I must tell 
 the gentleman he is unkind in making such a 
 charge after a solemn verdict of acquittal by the 
 people — or, if he will have it so, after acquittal by 
 the Constitution upon the findijig of the people. 
 
 It is not difficult to see what the Republicans 
 are aiming to accomplish by renewing their war- 
 fare upon the Democratic party. They have 
 found it a stumbling-block in the way of their 
 progress, resisting and checking the sectional 
 animosity by which they are hurried on and 
 governed; and in the hour of defeat they would 
 gladly prepare the field for a better fortune in the 
 future. But as to the Americans, led on by their 
 chiefs from Kentucky and Maryland, [Messrs. 
 H. M.vRsiiALL and Davis,] I confess myself 
 unable to discover what they are to accomplish., 
 unless it be the mere gratification of party spite. 
 Suppose them successful in establishing the un- 
 soundness of northern Democrats in the view of 
 the southern people: what follows? Anything 
 from which they, as Union-loving men, can de- 
 rive comfort.' Anything upon which they can 
 build a hope either for themselves or for the coun- 
 try.' Take away these northern Democrats, and 
 who are left.' Who but Republicans? None, sir, 
 save only a few straggling, powerless bands of 
 Americans? And shall we look to their weak- 
 ness for the strength, to their death for the life, 
 which is to relieve us in such friendh'ss desertion c 
 But, join these Democrats in a common purpose 
 with the Republicans, or in a purpose leading to 
 the same end, and where are we then r The North 
 against the South, united each, waiting only for 
 the opportune moment, the full ripe season, to 
 begin their deadly contlict. I can see no other 
 result of that state of the northern mind, which 
 will be shown when the Americans shall have 
 established their charge. Let them prove it, and 
 they have but proved that the South must soon- 
 yield to subjugation, or else that we arc hastening 
 to a convulsion from which there can be noescape 
 — to a doom which will wrap up these Stales in 
 a darkness the darkest. 1 do not envy them the 
 satisfaction they are thus to achieve; nor do I 
 appreciate the simply querulous tone, sometimes 
 flippant tone, in which they speak of this state 
 of things, when it is one that shi)uld bury all 
 thought or speech, if nol in despair, in the one 
 sole, stern resolve to prepare a readiness for the 
 worst. 
 
 I will not argue with the gentleman upon the 
 justice and propriety of the removal of the Mis- 
 souri restriction. It is bad enough to have that 
 to do with the avowed friends of tiie Republican 
 party. But that a southern man, whatever may 
 have been his views of the expediency of the 
 
measure at the time, should join them now in 
 deprecating and denouncing it, in the face of the 
 braggart spirit wliich warns his section that its 
 day of peace shall come no more till anti-slavery 
 vengeance shall have accomplished its work, and 
 notwithstanding the purpose of the measure to 
 restore equality of right to the people he repre- 
 sents, is more than passing strange. It borders 
 upon the fatal step v/hich plunges into the angry 
 flood to become a part of its wild-rushing, de- 
 structive power. No, sir; in a time like this, 
 and upon such a subject, I prefer to use the little 
 strength I have, not in a contest with collaterals, 
 but in resisting the legitimate chiefs of the anti- 
 slavery movement. 
 
 I hear much said by these about the over- 
 weening desire of the South to extend her polit- 
 ical power — about the restless ambition with 
 which she grasps far the control of the Federal 
 Government. You hear it in this Hall every day, 
 and it is worth our wiiile to inquire what amount 
 of truth there is in the charge. What do gentle- 
 men mean by such an accusation? That the 
 South seeks to gaLa power antagonistic to any 
 end for which the Union was formed? That she 
 has objects of her own to accomplish which con- 
 flict with the true objects of our Government, 
 and cannot be attained without detriment to other 
 portions of the Union? This must be the idea. 
 No one would wish to be considered as objecting 
 to any natural or proper growth of her strength. 
 It is, then, a charge that her aim and efforts are 
 directed to her own aggrandizement for her own 
 peculiar purposes, as opposed to purposes right 
 in themselves, and held in proper regard by all 
 the other States. Is this true? 
 
 Why, Mr. Chairman, the extremest of south- 
 ern statesmen, so far as I know, have never gone 
 further than to insist that a balance between the 
 sections should be preserved in the Senate; and 
 this, not with a view to give undue weight to 
 southern influence, but to secure southern insti- 
 tutions against external interference. An equality 
 in the Senate could give no superior power there; 
 and even if it should, through the ascendency of 
 individuals of the body, there would always be a 
 check in this House, where the free States can 
 never be deprived of their large majority of Rep- 
 resentatives. To acquire and keep this much, 
 therefore, the utmost that is asked, would confer 
 no ability to shape the public policy at will, much 
 less to shape it to any exclusive sectional end. It 
 would only furnish reliable security against the 
 superior power of the other side — a security which 
 would never have been thought necessary or de- 
 sirable if the same could have been found in the 
 kindly, fraternal sentiment ^vhich our fathers 
 hoped would bind us together indissolubly. 
 
 You perceive, sir, that it is ability for defense 
 v/hich is sought by this proposition. Had there 
 been no outcry against our institutions; had there 
 been no scheming to interfere with them, no at- 
 tempted restrictions to familiarize the mind with 
 attacks upon them, no hostile prejudice nursed 
 and disseminated against them, the South would 
 have reposed in quiet contentment, careless of the 
 distribution of political power, because proudly 
 confident of justice to herself under any distri- 
 bution, however unequal. This desire for equal- 
 ity of power, not for full equahty, but only for 
 that in one branch of the legislative department 
 
 of the Government, which will cnablo her to frel 
 secure of protection for the rights of her citizens, 
 proceeds from no over-ambitious motive. What 
 lias she done to authorize any suspicion of sucli 
 a motive? She asks but to be let alone. Any 
 right she claims is claimed as already existing 
 from the adoption of the Constitution, and not 
 as a new gift. In all that she has said, or de- 
 manded, or done,if honestly and fairly construed, 
 you find her looking only to the defensive. Power 
 to resist aggression is the utmost she would have 
 through the action of this Government; and this 
 not by positive aid, but by free, equal, uninvidi- 
 ous permission to take her chances for a share 
 of the common territory. Satisfy her people 
 that you do not mean war upon their institutions, 
 and even that much no one would seriously care 
 for. I am sure, sir, there would have been no 
 disposition on her part to set aside the Missouri 
 line — although almost universally believed to have 
 been wrongly imposed — if she had not been con- 
 tinually harassed by hostile efforts to deprive her 
 of an equal right in the country south of that line. 
 And it is in these efforts the gentleman from 
 Ohio [Mr. Bingham] will find the explanation of 
 that seeming departure from the precedents since 
 1820, to which he refers in support of his asser- 
 tion of unlimited congressional power over sla- 
 very in the Territories. While tnere was a hope 
 that that line would be respected by others, the 
 South was willing to let it remain; and any action 
 of hers, or of her statesmen, acquiescing in its 
 terms, north or south of the line, was based upon 
 that willingness thus induced, and not upon ab- 
 solute approval of the line itself, or acknowl- 
 edgment of the power to establish it. She has 
 been provoked to reassert the equal rights of her 
 citizens, and then, forsooth, is held chargeable 
 with grasping ambition ! She gets back what 
 she has lost, and is held responsible as a wicked 
 aggressor. 
 
 It is simply a misrepresentation of the South 
 to say that she strives for more power than 
 enough to protect and preserve herself. She has 
 not the folly to suppose she can ever acquire even 
 an equality of power^vith the North, nor has she 
 any especial desire for it, except, as I have said, 
 for defensive purposes. If there were ao.danger 
 that the power of the North, instead of bcin» 
 used solely for th# common good, would be used 
 to strike her — if the course of events had per- 
 mitted her to rest secure in the belief that tficre 
 was no purpose to array the General Government 
 upon a policy of discrimination against her — if, in 
 short, she did not see that enmity to her institu- 
 tions was ripening itself for a breach into their 
 stronghold, she would have no concern as to the 
 ej^ent to which that power might surpass her 
 own. It will be apparent to any one who will 
 take the trouble to understand her position, that 
 any anxiety she manifests to maintain a partial 
 equality of political power, is the anxiety of a 
 weaker party to guard itself against abusive treat- 
 ment by the stronger. How far removed from 
 an aggressive spirit! And yet, this is made a 
 ground upon which to arraign her for cherishing 
 an unholy lust for power. 
 
 But gentlemen take offense at the President 
 for justifying this southern sense of insecurity, 
 which he does by pointing to the revolutionary 
 tendency of recent organizations founded on anti- 
 
6 
 
 rlarery sentiment; and they would persuade us 
 that no blow is niined at our institutions, and thiit 
 wc do wrong lo nusjKCt them of harmful designs. 
 Mr. Chiiirnmn, tluy decchve themselves, or are 
 tryin» to deotive us. Even the gentleman from 
 iMaryland [Mr. Davis] will tell them that. If 
 they art" innocent of mischievous intention, they 
 arc none the le^^s working to mischievous ends. 
 They are induljjing a habit of thought in con- 
 demnation of slavery, which, as it grows upon 
 them, becomes more and more eager for expres- 
 Bioa in practical action. They are ever feeding 
 a prejudice, which becomes proporlionably rest- 
 less of restraint the more it is pampered. They 
 are following the track of a single idea, till it is 
 leading them to a point beyond which the tyraimy 
 of tlie uund will permit no turning aside, nor any 
 turnin? back. They are obeying a law of prog- 
 ress, the same that poor human nature obeys 
 when yielding to temptation in some weak point, 
 abandoning principle and virtue for some tempo- 
 rary gratification, it finds itself more easily mis- 
 led a second time, and ever afterwards, until it is 
 finally driven to adopt the society and the prac- 
 tices of the dissolute. It might be profitable for 
 thein to remember that 
 
 " Vice i» a monster of so rriplilful mien 
 A*, to be hated, iieedn but lo bo seen ; 
 Yel, keen i<Ki olt, lannliar with her I'ace, 
 W'c i\t:,t endure, tlien pity, llicn embrace." 
 
 If abolitionism be the vice from which they 
 have been shrinking, it is nevertheless abolition- 
 ism they are enduring, pitying, almost embrac- 
 ing. The history of the northern wing of the old 
 Whig party, its gradual absorption into section- 
 alism, 18 instructive and full of warning on this 
 point; and so is the history of those men of the 
 Democratic party, who, first yielding to erro- 
 neous views of the power of Congress over sla- 
 very, have gone on till they, too, are urging the 
 demands of sectionalism. Thus is their progress. 
 They march on, and deny that they march — 
 march on again, and still deny that they march; 
 and, if not reformed by an awakened sense of 
 the dangers of their evil course, will continue 
 this till the end is before them with all its horrors. 
 
 The leading Abolitionists understand this bet- 
 ter, and congratulated themselves accordingly 
 upon the complexion of the late canvass. Hence 
 you hear Gerrit Smith saying, Uiat the few rad- 
 ical Abolitionists " who ret'use to vote for Colonel 
 Fremont are, after all, to be numbered among the 
 most effective supporters of his election;" leave 
 them, therefore, " to ply the jiublic mind with 
 their radical doctrines, and tlien," » » » 
 " however they shall vote, Colonel Fremont will 
 have been a great gainer;" and Wendell Phillip.s 
 saying, that tlie Republiam is " the first sectional 
 party ever organized in this country. It does not 
 Know its own face, and it calls itself national; but 
 it i.i not national — it is sectional. It is the North 
 nrniyed against the South;" and Garrison saying, 
 when he gave his "judgment of the Ilej)ublican 
 party," that in "proportion to the growth of dis- 
 unionism will bi- the growth of Ilepublicanism and 
 Frce-Soihsm," and that an examination of the 
 map of MaHHrtcliuHi tts would show " that in those 
 jilaces wher<- theri- are the imiHi Abolitionists who 
 nave disfranchiKcd theniHelves for conscience and 
 for thu hIuvc'h sake, the heaviest vote is thrown 
 for the Frcc-Suil ticket." These men, standing 
 
 forward, thus hail the coming on of their co- 
 workers. They are patient with any reluctance 
 they witness; for, if tne march is slow,atil! there 
 is progress, and they feel assured their waiting 
 will be rewarded. 
 
 The South is not mistaken. The leaders of 
 the Republican parly have let loose a wild spirit 
 against her which they cannot control if they 
 would; and if it does not exhaust itself in its 
 furious conflict with the better spirit of their .scq- 
 tion, its career of mischief is but begun, for it 
 treads a path that leads through " burning cities, 
 and ravaged fields, and slaughtered populations. "' 
 Our only hope is, that as in the past, so in the 
 future, the Democratic party will stand as a firm 
 barrier to meet and check tlie danger — that as the 
 solid rock receives the surging wave and dashes 
 it into spray, so will that party receive and dis- 
 embody the encroaching tide of anti-slavery 
 fanaticism. 
 
 The excuses urged for disturbing our peace 
 are not of a kind to weaken our conviction that a 
 great wrong is threatened. Are we reminded, as 
 by the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Bisgham,] of 
 
 I the excellency of freedom, and censured that we 
 
 ! smother it in the oppressions and outrages of 
 
 ' slavery ? This imports nothing less than that 
 slavery should be extinguished, and, whether we 
 will or not, extinguished by those who have a 
 
 ; better understanding of its injustice than we have. 
 Do we hear lamentations over the condition of 
 the negro.' The inference is inevitable that the 
 
 ' negro should be relieved, and, as we will not re- 
 lieve him, that it should be done by others who 
 are more humane. Is the condition of the white 
 man in the slave States deplored? You cannot 
 resist the idea that something more is meant than 
 
 i idle wailing. Are we upbraided that the South 
 is inert, stagnant, desolate, unskilled in the move- 
 ments of the age, and withal blind and presump- 
 tuous.' Who can believe that the painting of 
 
 I such a picture for our inspection has no other end 
 
 ! than to gratify our tastes, or mortify our vanity ? 
 
 1 It answers no purpose to show that all such 
 
 I excuses for harassing us are founded in aviciou." 
 philanthropy, or in mistaken views of the life and 
 
 I condition of the South. A visionary love of free- 
 dom prevents the access of correct knowledge, 
 and colors the one fact of slavery with a black- 
 ness that darkens all else. For in.stance, what 
 would it avail to show to the Free-Soil partisan 
 that the South is not, as he insists, lying under 
 a blight of desolation — that she has, in fact, mul- 
 tiplied her population, both white and black, mul- 
 tiplied her schools, her colleges, her churches, 
 her railroads, her productions, her commerce, her 
 
 I wealth, at a rate UDi^iiproached in the history of 
 progress, except by her sister States— that her 
 older States, notwithstanding they have contrib- 
 uted largely, even lavishly, to the building up of 
 her newer ones, some of wiiich have outstripped 
 them, have grown and strengthened and im- 
 proved the condition of their people steadily, 
 through every decade.' A mere glance at the 
 census will exhibit these facts; and yet they weigh 
 nothing in the minds of those who decry our in- 
 stitutions. The free States having progressed 
 more rapidly in some respects, they look only 
 to this, fill tliiir minds with an exaggerated con- 
 trast, and exalt themselves to a superiority which 
 
 I their great modesty forbids them to ultributi 
 
to anything but the bad influence of slavery. 
 If they could be led to imagine for a moment 
 that there is no North, or could forget her ex- 
 istence while looking elsewhere, then perha])s 
 they would be able to discover that the progress 
 of the South has been constant, rapid, grand, 
 wonderful; and that there is much to admire and 
 commend in the growth of her feeble colonies 
 into a mighty empire, in the march of her bold 
 pioneers through the wilderness, hewing the way 
 for the approach of other States with their stand- 
 ards of civilization, their emblems of greatness, 
 and their armories of power, and in the energy 
 and hardy industry with which she has advanced 
 the fruits of her soil into an unexampled control- 
 ling magnitude in the commerce and markets of 
 the world. But all this is shut out from their 
 point of vision. Why? Because they are ab- 
 sorbed with enmity to our institutions, and with 
 the self-complacent idea that their own should 
 be forced in to supplant them; because they are 
 being led captive by a habit of mind which con- 
 cerns itself only with war upon slavery, and 
 which will not be satisfied to release them short 
 of its extermination. 
 
 The President is right, Mr. Chairman. Those 
 who have joined the Free-Soil movement have 
 " entered into a path which leads nowhere, un- 
 less it be to civil war and disunion, and which 
 has no other possible outlet." To believe other- 
 wise is to believe that the South will submit to 
 
 all that she holds to be wrong, unjust, unconsti- 
 tutional, and destructive. 
 
 When I Gontemplatc the arraying of a strong 
 party, bent upon giving the direction to northern 
 power, dictated by the prevalent anti-slavery sen- 
 timent, and unmindful of the high guarantees by 
 which southern rights were meant to be secured, 
 and can find no opposing organization but that 
 of the Democratic party of sufficient strength to 
 withstand its aggressive purposes, it cannot be 
 surprising that I should indulge the pride of a 
 partisan in the result of the recent election. 
 What is it, in fact, but the pride of patriotism ? 
 A great calamity to the country has been arrested 
 — arrested by my party, and shall I not join the 
 President in words of satisfaction that it is so ? 
 With all my heart I do. I shall accept the 
 triumph as the promise of a still hopeful future, 
 trusting that the incoming counsels will be ruled 
 by the wisdom, discretion, and courage so much 
 needed to keep down the adversary, and to per- 
 petuate the power which conquers usurpation 
 and wrong. But should this trust fail, and the 
 sectional party continue to grow, then — but I 
 will not speak despondingly. Even then it may 
 be that a higher wisdom would but prepare to 
 enforce anew the old lesson — 
 
 "Jove strikes the Titans down. 
 Not when they set about their mountain piling, 
 But when another roclc would crown their work." 
 
 Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe, 
 
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