s J pennuliffe* pH8J E 440 .5 .RA9 Copy fiTATE OF THE UNION. SPEECH J^ OF ^ HON. ALEXANDER H. RICE, OF MASSACHUSETTS, Jf THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 26, 1861. The House having under consideration tlie report from the select committee of thirty-three — Mr. RICE said: Mr. Speaker: The value of any discussion upon the great questions which now agitate the country will be somewhat estimated according to the spirit in whicii it is conducted, and the meas- ure of faitli entertained in the possibility of ad- justing the existing difficulties. I have felt many impulses to participate earlier in the discussion, but have been prevented by the same necessity which, up to this time, has excluded some mem- bers of the committee whose report furnishes the propositions before us. And although I may now fail to present any considerations which shall change a vote, or conciliate an opposing opinion, yet I feel it incumbent upon me as a participator in these important scenes, and as the Represent- ative of a constituency which might present many claims to respectful audience, to utter, for myself and for those who agree with me, a few words indicative of my own purposes, and of peace and conciliation inbehalf of the noblest and best Gov- ernment that the sun in all his cour.se looks down upon. If there were no other considerations than those which spring from the current events of these days, I might be among those who despair of the Republic; for we seem to be dissolving and sep- arating into isolated fragments, like some fair globe which once adorned the sky and shed its benignant light throughout the universe of God; but now, riven with convulsion, is bursting into meager and telescopic stars, no longer beautifying any constellation in the firmament, and in danger of becoming lost from the observation, if not from the knowledge of mankind. We have listened to those, here and elsewhere, who talk as lightly of the value of the American Union as of a piece of merchandise, which may be produced or disposed of at pleasure. One might almost suppose the Federal Constitution, the great compact of the people, to be a convenient instrument which may be followed or violated at pleasure. And we may soon expect to hear the names of those who stand foremost in our country's fame classed among dreamy enthusiasts, or as gleaners only in the fieldsof political speculation. But, thank Heaven, such is not the voice of the people of the land. Amidst all the discord and apparent disintegration of the country, the great heart of the people sends forth the pulsations of patriotic blood, giving hope that the day is even yet to dawn when it shall re- animate the whole body-politic, when the members of the great confederate system shall revive under its invigorating streams, and the glow of health and the vigor of life shall once more restore us to the normal condition of unity, fraternity, and power. Mr. Speaker, I cannot refrain from speaking warmly for that Union which I have been taught to hold in devoted admiration from my earliest years. It was my fortune to be born upon soil near which transpired some of the principal events of the American Revolution. The home of my childhood, and of my maturer life as well, was within sight of the smoke of the conflict on Bunker Hill, in which the gallant little army of the colo- nies suffered a defeat, the glory of which sur- passed even the victory of that day. The plains of Lexington and Concord sent their startling echoes over the very hills which have since been my familiar haunts. I have gazed at frequent in- tervals, all my life long, upon the effigies in mar- ble and upon canvas of those who braved the perils and directed the counsels of these and of later struggles. I have dwelt olways amidst the associations a 'H traditions of their deeds. The walk to my daily avocations has been beside the memorials with which patriotism has sought to bestow veneration and gratitude upon their names, and I have worshiped in temples beneath and around which all but theirimperishable glory and their immortal spirits sleeps in the silence and repose of death. Sir, I am not prepared to cele- brate the obsequies of the nation which, under the will of Providence, the patriots founded; and those who are now engaged in the sacrilege of its destruction shall, I verily believe, after the pas- sion of the hour has passed, live, while they con- tinue, amidst the displeasure of earth and Heaven; and history, through all the yeairs to come, shall render their disgrace immortal. 1 said that if there were no other considerations than those derived from current events, we might almost despair of the country. There are other considerations. The instincts of men seem al- ways to have pointed to a period when the ex- periment of aGovernment founded upon the con- sent of the governed should be successful; and the repeated failures which have attended such experiments hitherto, have not yet extinguished either the hope or the conviction of ultimate suc- cess. The American was founded in that hypoth- esis and faith. It seemed sufficient to account for the failure of antecedent republics tliat they had lieen based upon the ruins of older political systems, the relics and influence of which were necessarily intermingled with their structure and tempered their legislation. Here wasa newcoun- try, with a fresh and vigorous people, where, in theeslablisliment of a Government, the tusk was not so much to change and alter as to organize and create a social system. The result has for nearly eighty years stood forth us the example of a nation which has become more and more the pride and the marvel of the world. They have seen its wonderful growth in population, their enterprise, thrift, and intelligence; its development in arts, the spread of its commerce, its advance- ment in all the elements of high civilization, and its early attainment of the rank of one of the four greatest Powers of the earth. In the majestic presence of the great Republic, tyrants have trembled, and kings have wielded their scepters with gentler hand. Imperial cabi- nets and hoary Parliaments have tempered their decrees with growing deference to the jjopular will. Justice has entered the royal courts, and poised her balance upon the fulcrum of civic rights; and fame — no longer the patron of privi- leged classes — has laid the avenues to her shining temple within the aspirations of the masses of men. And all this has been done before the Cap- itol of the nation is completed, and before all the companions of its peerless founder have passed from the earth. Butthere was another consideration, orelement, to which the founders of this Government looked for its stability, and which made it an exception j| to its predecessors. It was to stand upon the basis m of popular intelligence and civic virtues. It was li not upon its arms, or upon its industry, or upon i| commerce, that they depended, so much as upon j{ these. If it falls now, what a tremendous fact will I be added to the history of human governments! ij Its decline will send dismay into the hearts of every oppressed and struggling people upon earth, and will be everywhere accepted as the final demon- stration of the incapacity of the race to govern itself; or else we must accept the humiliating al- ternative, that, in this nineteenth century of the Christian era — the golden period of modern times — there was not enough of virtue and intelligence among the American people to preserve a Gov- ernment conceived by the wisdom and patriotism, and sealed with the blood, of their immediate an- cestors. I cannot believe we have reached such national degeneracy as is thus implied. The physical structure of the continent, and the commercial relations thereby incident to our people, all point also to a unity of Government, j We compass the width of the domain from sea i to sea. VVe have great navigable waters upon | the north and upon the south; nearly all varieties j of natural productions grow under the several degrees of latitude between them; while the North is bound to tlie South, and the South to the North, by navigable streams whose courses conform nearly to the meridians of longitude. To these physical bonds we may always add the less pal- jwible, but even atrimger, ties of community of race, of language, of religion, and of mutual in- terest; and wo find in these all the assurance that, whult ver obstacles may for the mon\ent interrupt our peaceful union, the laws by which wc are held tngciher are stronger even lliun the jtassiona of men. There iw, to be sure, Mr. Speaker, one aspect of afliiirs wliich suggisis a j>rovidential interrup- tion in the events which are now transpiring. Every reflecting mind may not have" the f-ACt that these events occur at a peculiar l,(3 riodinournational progress; and the lesson which they are designed to teach may have a significance which is not immediately apprehended. During the existence of the Anglo-Saxon race upon this continent, they have passed through the various political stages of colonial dependence and con- federate Stales, and are now in the relation of a General Government, superseding that Confed- eration. It would not be difficult to suggest prov- idential reasons why the discovery of the conti- nent itself was assigned to the particular period whenit0(xurred; and something more than chance seems to have directed the remarkable incidents of the immigration by which it was settled, and the peculiar elements of which that immigration was composed. Certain it is, that nowhere else could that freedom of opinion have been attained which has here been exercised; nor the same elas- ticity of character have been developed, except when there was the same boundless territory in- viting to enterprise and adventure. Was it, then, r)art of the providential design that such pecu- iaritics of character, and a corresponding elas- ticity of government, should be constituted for the purpose of subjugating this continent, and open- ing it to the purposes and uses of the noblest civ- ilization ? And this result having now been rhainly accomplished, the wilderness threaded, the mount- ains scaled, the savage subdued, and the oceans united by a cultivated and homogeneous race, are we preparing to enter upon a new phase of polit- ical life, in which the characteristics of discovery and expansion shall be exchanged for consolida- tion and discipline? A French writer of distinc- tion has given his conception of an ideal condition of society, " in which all men would profess an equalattachmentand respect for the laws of which they are the common authors; in which the au- thority of the State would be respected as neces- sary, though not as divine, and the loyalty of the subject to the Chief Magistrate would not be a pas- sion, but a quiet and rational persuasion; where every individual, being in the possession of rights which he is sure to retain, a manly reliance and reciprocal courtesy should arise between all classes, removed alike from pride and from meanness." Certainly the United States have already realized all, and more than this conception; and if we have at length reached one of those great transition periods which occur in the life of nations, then, indeed, the time has come when the real great- ness of our Government and the strength of its [ institutions are to be tested; when we are to ex- I hibit the nobility of the American people, and en- ter their final vindication among men ; or when wc are to meet the fate and fortunes of those whose weakness, or blindness, or impetuosity, shall add onemore to the wrecks of empires. In view, then, of the emergency which is before us and around us, we may well summon our best powers to meet this hour of trial; to resist this demon of national discord; to cast out the influence which is allur- ing us to national dissolution and fratricidal war; so that, after its departure, we may survey with clearer vision this fairest heritage of the earth, and from the heights of a loyal patriotism in- voke those ministrations of peace which shall con- secrate afresh and forever our devotion to our native land. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the ^reat contro- versy which is at present waged with such fero- city as to tlireaten the destruction of this Govern- ment, is assigned to the smallest causes-that ever engendered a national tumult. And if the case were fully stated in the catalogue of grievances which has been presented for its justification, it would seem to require but little either of time or of ability to bringabout a satisfactory settlement. It has been alleged that the election of a President by a party limited to one section of the country is justifiable cause for the people of the opposite sec- tion to dissolve their connection with the Govern- ment. If this be so, then the election of a Presi- dent would seem to be a geographical problem, a question of zones and of parallels of latitude and longitude, whose heterogeneous suffrage must be blended into the unit of a successful candidate — an experiment in political alchemy too dangerous and intricate, 1 imagine, for common undertaking. But if it be said that the complaint is not so much a matter of locality as of certain opinions and sentiments which are predominant in certain places, then the contest is against the incorpora- tion of those supposed peculiar opinions, or the policy founded upon them, into the administration of the General Government; and the matter of locality is, after all, of little account. Now, the present Ad ministration was elected by the blended suffrage of free and of slave States; and yet, in reference to certain opinions and pol- icy upon the only question of great importance in controversy between the North and the South, it has been as thoroughly sectional as though all the suffrage which created it had laid south of Mason and Dixon's line. So true \h this, that when the Democratic party assembled at Charles- ton to nominate new candidates for the highest offices in the Government, there was so much division of sentiment on this question that some of those who had been its loyal supporters for years, in the North, revolted in offense; and left their recent associates ultimately to nominate can- didates who received not a single electoral vote outside of the slave States of the Union. And yet men who were the supporters of these candidates in the extreme South are, for the most part, those who propose to break up this Union for the al- leged reason that the nev( President, though elected by legal and constitutional means by the people of the country, did not receive his support m accordance with a certain geographical distri- bution of popular opinion and suffrage. But let us suppose the President to have been chosen by one section of the country only, and that he sym- pathizes with the opinions which are in a great degree peculiar to that section: this is, after all, a small matter, compared with the offset proposed. The Government of the United States is design- edly so constructed as to place in no one indi- vidual, and in no one department, an amount of authority or power, which, if exercised alone, could be largely destructive of the liberties and rights of the people. It is made up in the form of a system of checks and balances, in which the prerogatives and immunities of the citizen are se- cured on the one hand, and the restraints and regulations of law are determined and exercised by Congress, Executives, Cabinets, and courts, on the other. It is only when all these are combined in a sin- gle dir*" tion, and thus become independent of super jion or control, that danger and oppres- sion and abuse are to be apprehended; when all departments of the Government, concurring in one line of policy, may become a manifold despot. All experience testifies that good faith and effici- ency are promoted by the supervision and re- straints of minorities; and that parties become corrupt, and the Government which they control weakened and pillaged, very much in proportion to the magnitude of their majorities and the dura- lion of their power. It so happened that, with the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the party which supported him had secured a major- ity in neither branch of Congress, and therefore his opponents need not entertain fears of his ad- ministration, even if, under other circumstances, evil might be apprehended; because the existing laws have been enacted or approved by Con- gresses and Presidents of opposite opinions to his own respecting the disputed question of the day, and no new laws could be reached , except througii a Congress in which his friends would be the minority. But it is not strictly true that the recent election was decided wholly upon the issue of the slavery question, as is so often stated, here and elsewhere. The people not only suspected, but had become convinced, that great corruption existed in some of the departments of the Government. The lim- ited and hasty investigations which had been in- stituted, gave abundant evidence of that fact; and j thousands of persons gave their votes for the suc- ! cessful candidate, from the conviction that it was j necessary to clear away the abuses which had been so freely tolerated. The election overthrew the ascendency of the then dominant party; but it did not institute its rival with such completeness as to render it liable to similar excesses. There was such a mingling of success and of failure in the result, as to invite watchfulness, preventfraud, and secure vigilance in all departments of the Government; so that the new Administration, judged by any reasonable supposition, was so constituted as to render it national in tone, and conservative of the interests of the whole country. But, besides the election of a President who did not reside within the limits of the slave States, although he was born in one of them, certain le- gislative acts of some of the free States are cited as being unconstitutional, and hostile to the re- covery of fugitives from service in the southern States. It would seem to be sufficient to say, aa has been said already, that the laws complained of must be of very little practical importance, since they have never secured theliberty of a sin- gle slave. It is also well understood that all legis- lation of the States must be subordinate to the Constitution of the United States; and conse- quently, that any law which is in conflict with that instrument is as inoperative and void as though it had never been written. It would be needless even to rejjeal such laws, except it be to clear the records of statutory rubbish, to remove causes of misapprehension, and to maintain that respect for the supreme law of the land which will be the desire of all patriotic people. The va- lidity of any law of the free States may be easily determined. The Federal courts in that section are free to every citizen, come whence he may; and the judges are as incorruptible as the tri- buiials are accessible. If any law whatever be consiiimionni, then ii is the rig;ht of any State to enact it; and tliis liglU becomes a duty when de- manded by the security and welfare of its citizens. If, on the other hand, it be unconstitutional, it is for that reason dead. It is a notable fact that the importance of the laws, known as ]>eisonal lib- erty laws, seems to be estimated inversely in the ratio of the necessity for their existence. Thus the Gulf cotton States, which were the first to raise the rebellion which assitrns these laws, in part, as its cause, or its ju.stification, lose com- paratively few slaves; and the States at the op- posite extremity of the country, where fugitives seldom remain, and through whose domain they rarely pass, are those which have been among the readiest to enact them. There is no reason that I am aware of, to doubt that the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution was designed to secure the rendition of fugitive slaves, and that it was so understood at the time of its adoption ; and therefore, the States are legally and honorably bound to recognize pro- ceedings properly instituted for that purpose. While, therefore, such is the duty of the States to conform to this obligation, that is also a reason why the Federal law, carrying the provision into effect, should not be needlessly stringent; and above all, why it should not be made specially repugnant to the feelings of the people, among whom at best ita execution must be more or less odious. It is, doubtless, the right of a State to protect its citizens against the malexecution of even Federal laws within its own jurisdiction, but its loyalty forbids that it shall interfere with their legitimate opera- tion. The fact that some of the State.s in wliich the personal liberty laws exist have voluntarily modified or repealed them, or liavo instituted in- quiries respecting their validity and necessity, is abundant indication that the public mind is so open to a proper understanding of the subject, and to a right decision, wliatever it may be, as to de- stroy all occasion for a disruption of the Govern- ment on this account. It is still further asserted that the people of the free States arc imbued with certain sentiments of hoBlility to slavery, the logical sequence of which would lead to its entire abolition in the United States. Now, if it be objected that the people of one Beclion of the country entertain certain opin- ions respecting any subject, which opinions are the result of n-axon and observation and convic- tion, then, inderd, we have a difficulty not easily removed; becauHe that objection strikes at the foundation of all freedom, and, passing through the Bj)heresof public, mid hocial and domcsiic liff, invades the sanctity of the individual intellect and heart. It is an invasion, not of the rigiit of ac- tion or of speech, but of thought, iifion which no restraint, unless self-imposed, has ever been long Buccessful; an invasion which will be submiiied to only by a weak and pusillanimous people. F,r- roncous opinions, whose falsity nxu be clearly demonstrated, ore cf)niparatively harmless, be- cause they are easily cured; and as there is a p6wer in nature which springs into exercise for the feBior.iiiimof order, whenever any of its forces arc disturbed, ho there is a law of ojiinifni work- ing through the cycles of lime as infii-xible ns na- ture's king. Theref(»re,whatevererrors ofopinion prevail in conscquenceof the difficulty of demon- strating their falsity, will surely be corrected by reaction, sooner or later, at the very point where they ha*'e been most common, liut the appre- hension felt at the South respecting the hostility of the North, and the purpose of the people of that section to interfere with slavery where it ex- ists under legal .sanction, is totally unfounded. The discussion of this subject, if attended with loss of temper and with alienation of feeling, has been producliveof abetterand clearer understand- ing of the mutual rights and obligations of the two sections of the country in respect to this in- stitution. While the conviction almost univer- sally prevails that slavery is an evil and, as an ele- ment in society, a weakness, for which the people of the North will not hold themselves responsible in their own section, yet it is admitted to be an institution which has legal existence in certain States of this Union, which they are bound to recognize. And the extent of this recognition is to security from interference by Congress or by the Legislature of one Slate with that institution in any other State where it exists by sanction of the local law. The resolution which was unani- mously adopted by this House, a few days figo, on this subject, shows that there is no diversity of opinion here on this point, and I do not believe there is in the Legislatures of any of the free Slates. Fiut it is said that the danger lies not in the senti- ment of opposition to slavery as at present devel- oped, but in that form which, to use the current expression, is its logical sequence. Now, there is scarcely an opinion on any subject which has not its rational limits, beyond which it lapses into a vice or an absurdity; and almost every virtue has at some time or other been drawn out of its practical and operative sphere into the barrenand useless formula of an abstraction. Thus, we are told that the natural consequence of hostility to slavery, which the northern people of this coun- try share with nearly the whole civilized world, is the desire for its abolition everywhere; and the sequence of this desire is the attempt to ac- complish ihat object; and this attempt is war- fare upon the rights and property of the people of the South, and hence the necessity for a dissolu- tion of the Union. On the other hand, the state- miMit is, that slavery being "a great moral, social, and political evil," it ought not to be tolerated anywhere; but it is tolerated in a portion of the Federal Union, and in a measure sanctioned by that Union and its Constitution, through the opera- tion of local laws; hence that Constitution is an infamous compact, and the Union a league with powers of evil, which ought to be dissolved; and ihus the theory of logical sequence, applied in opposite directions to this vexed t|uestioii of sla- very, takes us to precisely the same result; and hence, too, it is that at tlii.s very day the violent champions of slavery on the one hand, and the violent Abolitionists on the other, meet in unhal- lowed fellowship to destroy this Union, which the loyal and patriotic citizens of all sections are striving to maintain. It is, indeed, not to be wondered at that excite- ment and apprehension prevail at the South, if the people (if that section l)elieve it to be the purpose of the Hepublican party to make forays upon their towns, incite servile insurrections, and imperii the lives of those who are dearest to them on earth. Examples of the most imaginary nature are held up as reprpsontativcs of northern sentiment; and the expressions of men, whose well known ultra- isms long since rendered their opinions powerless at home, are disseminated as the current and ac- cepted discussion of the relations of the two sec- tions of the country; while the foray of John Brown, who, after the labor of years, found, in the United States and Canada, twenty men willing to join a piratical expedition against one of the States of this Union, is promulgated as the legiti- mate fruit of the intellectual and religious train- ing of the whole body of the northern people. But who is to be blamed for all this misrepresent- ation, when neither northern men nor the north- ern press, generally, is allowed to bear the con- tradiction and the evidence to their doors? Strong and general as is popular disapproval of slavery inthefree States, I do notbelieve itis much, if any, stronger now than it was ten or fifteen years ago. The resolutions of the conventions of the dom- inant party in the country are not more stringent or decisive than those of the Whig party were within the time alluded to; nor do the most dis- tinguished men of the Republican party to-day give it stronger opposition than did Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay. The Whig party had contended for the constitutional rights of freemen, and the limitation of slavery, until the controversy was supposed to be virtually ended in the compromise measures of 1650. Tiie dominant party in the country to-day contends for nothing more. But, sir, the difficulty which at present sur- rounds us is deeper than the causes which are Eublicly assigned; and, as the conspirators grow older, they become more frank in their avowals. It is not that Mr. Lincoln has been elected, not that the question of slavery is discussed, not that its emancipation in the States where it exists is apprehended — for they know that is impossible so long as the Constitution and the Union are pre- served — but it is that two systems of civilization are brought into contrast upon this continent; and that one of these systems is supposed to sufl'er from the other, to which it nevertheless contributes . the means of superior success. The distinguish- ing difference between them is, that, under one system, there is a union of labor and capital in the conduct of its enterprises without disparity in the prerogatives of citizenship among its popula- tion; and that, under the other system, capital owns the labor and dictates the character and amount of its social and political privileges. Out of these different relations maybe traced, respect- ively, the tendencies towards the perpetuation of a Republic, and towards the establishment of a Government essentially aristocratic or monarch- ical. The peculiarities of soil and climate have favored pursuits in which this distinction may be obtained; and the growing alienation of the peo- ple of the two sections, arising from an interrup- tion of cordial and confidential intercourse and association, and from contest for control of the unoccupied territory of the country, has obscured the immense advantages which accrue from a common Government. In the midst of this unnatural isolation, the aeeds of separation, planted in an unhappy hour by an able but always disloyal statesman, have germinated and are budding for their legitimate fruit. The dreamy and sunlit glories of a south- ern confederacy, in which the principles which he promulgated and the policy which he foreshad- owed are j)romised realization, now entrance the gaze and bewilder the patriotism of a portion of our fellow-countrymen; while the herald of an untried and perhaps blood-stained future sum- mons others still to its desperate embrace. But another of the chief causes of the present disaffection in the cotton States is the arrogance engendered by an excessive estimate of their im- portance in relation to the markets of the world. " Cotton is king," has become the watchword and the accepted conclusion of the people of that sec- tion, and they have also grown into the belief that while the throne of this textile sovereign is based upon a narrow belt of States above the Gulf of Mexico, his empire is the world; and that his scepter can sway the destinies of commerce and manufactures, and finally of races, and regulate the opinions of men. The vast importance of cotton to the commerce and industry of the world need not and cannot be questioned. But, however gi-eat, it is insuflicient, as is any other single prod- duct, for the support of a civilized nation. One of the grand mistakes which I apprehend would be discovered in the proposed cotton con- fedei*acy, is forgetfulness that a diversity of em- ployments is essential to national development and national wealth; and that this diversity is incompatible with but a single product, or with several products, provided they require labor of but a single grade. A significant example of this fact is found in the difference between the free and the slave States of this Union; and especially between the States of Massachusetts and South Carolina, two among the oldest of the number. Nature has bestowed upon the latter superior ad- vantiiges of soil and climate, and yet, in material prosperityand population, she is among the slow- est States in progress; while the former, with natural disadvantages, supports a larger popula- tion to the square mile, well fed, clothed, and ed- ucated, than any other State, and has also a larger amount of wealth in proportion to her population, a large share of which has been derived from her diversified industry. This diversity is compati- ble only with a considerable dtgree of education and discipline on the part of the laborers them- selves. Without this the arts cannot flourish, and their products will always present the contrast of crude and unskillful experiments. Those who are more familiar with the characteristics of slave population than I am, can better tell how far itis consistent with security and subordination to ed- ucate them; but all can judge how far the African can compete with the white laborer in the compe- titions of mechanical industry extensively prose- cuted. It is true that we have heard suggested as an alternative to this education and employment of the blacks an invitation to colonies of northern mechanics to settle in the South underinducements of larger profits and constant employment; and I remeinber that the newspapers, about a year ago, furnished accounts of such invitations from the extreme South to certain bodies of mechanics then temporarily out of employment in Massachusetts. But the progress of emancipation in the States which have become free has been tolerably com- mensurate with the introduction of free labor; and I do not know why this should not still con- 6 tinue to be so. Besides, if the evil or danger of living; under h common Government with the nortliorn people, tliough separated from them by long distances, is so great as to be sufficient cause for ilie destruction of the Government and a dis- solution of the Union, it is not apparent how that evil will be abated, or that danger removed, by importing a sufficient number of those people to make up the diversity of industrial employments, which is essential to the vigorous growth of States. But furthermore, Mr. Speaker, there is a proverb made trite by frequent illustration, which says that " whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." And to entertain the idea, in this age, that the exchanges of the world and its in- dustry can be indetinitely controlled, by monop- olizing within a small space a product which will grow upon one quarter or one third of the earth 's surface, is surely an approximation to the hint of the proverb. Why, sir, the "world's exhibi- tions," as they are termed, showed that the in- ventive genius of the age is unparalleled, and we see the practical evidences of the fact on every hand; and if there be one characteristic in which tl>e people of the northern States proverbially excel, it is a wonderful sagacity in the discovery of expedients to overcome difficulties. ' Itsingiilarly happens that two or three incidents , occur at this juncture of affairs which are likely j to affect tlie progress of the confederacy of cotton j States which is foreshadowed. > 1. The divergence of the flow of cotton from the southern commercial cities to the inland rail- ; road routes, to which it is forced by the inter- ruption of southern ports, and the development! of the fact that this mode of communication and \ transport presents special advantages of speed, safety, and probably of economy; which consid- erations are likely to render the employment of these routes permanent after the present necessity fortheir use has been withdrawn. Siiould this be 80, the effect upon the points alluded to must bo •very unfavorable, especially as the return freights v^ijf be likely to follow the same lines of travel and in the same vehicles. 2. As to the supply of cotton. England, if I mistake not, obtains about thirty per cent, of her supply from India; and the quantity from that source is likely to increase, rather Uian diminish, in the ratio of her future consumption; the balance she gets from various sources, butchielly from the United Slates. Uecentdiscoveries in Africa indicate the adaptability of an immense tract of country to cotton culture, surrounded and overrun with labor suited lo that purjjose; and linglish t'nter[)rise has already commenced its occupation. We have ul.so nccountsof influences at work inTurkey, through which that ancient country, ri'j)ut(,-d now to grow thirty-five to forty million pounds of cotton an- nually, will immensely increase lur production. Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and the VVest Indies, are also growing competilor.i. Two of our coun- trymen who have enjoyed opportunities for ex- tensive (observation in Central Am'-rica, have ri-- cently givi.-n to the public statem«:nts showing the complete facilitii-8 for cotton culture in lheregit)n lying at the foot of our continent, and the jobcu- iiur inducements for its joroseculion. Measures have already been initiai<:d for the organi-/.alion of enterprises of a peaceful nature, to be sustained by associated capital, which shall undertake this business. The land may be obtained at small cost, the local governments favor the enterprise, and the desideratum of cheap labor may be con- sidered to be substantially supplied by the local population and the opening of voluntary emigra- tion from China to California, and elsewhere, and which would undoubtedly be attracted to this new field. Here are already resources sufficient to supply the world with cotton; and the reason why they have not been earlier considered and devel- oped is because the regular sources of supply from the cotton States have not been materially inter- rupted. Much less than the enterprise and capital which have been expended on northern railroads or northern factories would render the cultivation of cotton in these new fields abundantly success- ful, and the supply inexhaustible. 3. There is a new rival to King Cotton himself, of different, but possibly of formidable lineage. During several years past, various experiments have been made for obtaining a substitute for cot- ton from flax; and, since the idea of compulsory terms for a supply of cotton from the southern States has been promulgated, the result of these experiments hasbeeabroughtmore conspicuously into notice. I have before me a specimen of flax cotton, for- warded to me within a week past by an extensive merchant, residing in the district which 1 have the honor to represent. The specimen was ac- compiuiied by a letter, which says that this article can be produced and delivered in Boston at seven and a half cents per pound, it being grown in the free States. Two million pounds of this article will be manufactured during the present year, the letter proceeds to say; and the quantity can be extended indefinitely. I do not know how universally adapted to use this cotton is, and 1 am aware that two million pounds is not an alarming I quantity. But if this article is only adapted to I the commonest purposes, and if we remember, I also, how recent is the tinn; when the United States I altogether did not produce two million pounds of cotton, this may be esteemed a competitor not to be despised. With all these facts before them, ; luid many others, which this occasion does not I permit me to mention, it ajipears to me that, if j there be any portion of the American people who j are in danger of mistaking their commercial im- ! portance, and whi(;h needs that alliance and pro- lection which is found in a great Power like the undivided Union, that portion is the cotton States. ! As the cause of the existing difficulties is mis- taken or insufficient, so is the remedy resorted to I unjustifiable and treasonable. It is an attempt, under the guise of a plausible and inoffensive phrase, to break engagements solemnly made at home and abroad; to destroy the Government which the disaflected can no longer control; and lo preciiiitale the country into revolution, regard- less of the rights of those whose fealty is un- broken, and reckless of the happiness of the young and of millions yet unborn, lo whom this glorious Union belongs as tlit'ir rightful heritage. Why j will any deceive themselves with the change of I name, when the startling fact of rebellion or of revolution is everywhere visible — States passing what are tenderly called ordinances of secession; declaring themselves independent of a Govern- ment whose responsibilities they have jointly cre- ated; seizing the public forts und arsenals and — n^nouses and treasuries; navy-yards and n« Federal authority, and firing settjnffatd''*"'^^' flag. Sir, if there be depths of uDC '^'-'01 'o which an American citizen can de- -_end,,-nore profound than the disgust which lie feels at the imbecility or treachery of those whose early and decisive action might have prevented these atrocious deeds, it was found in the experi- ence of a gallant young officer attached to the naval station at Pensacola, and whose cheek burned with mingled shame and indignation as he told the fact that the stars and stripes, which -had so often kindled his ambition, and beneath which he had stood in the conscious pride of«i citizen of a free and mighty nation, ignoniiniously fell by j rebellious hands in the very presence of a foreign [ man-of-war. Secession is not a dissolution of a [ partnership of States; it is rebellion against the Government of the country, as has been most forcibly presented by that stern and vigorous pa- triot who dealt successfully with secession thirty years ago. Says General Jackson: " The Constitution of tlie United States forms a Govern- ment, not a league ; and wlietlier it be formed by compact between tlie States, or in any otlier manner, its cliaracter is the same. It is a Government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individ- ually, not upon the States; theyretained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted witli so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot, from that period, possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation ; and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole Union. To say that any State may secede at pleasure from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation ; because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts to their injury or ruin, without connnitting any otfensc. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression ; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms." Sir, there is not an American citizen who could endure the insults and atrocities which have been heaped upon his country by the seceding States if they had proceeded from a foreign Power. TheGovernmenthas submitted to these wrongs and indignities, and still stands waiting and ap- palled before this gigantic rebellion. The execu- tion of the laws has been discussed in the aspect of coercing States, and the seizure of Federal property by revolutionary States, as the resump- tion of their undelegated rights; and all the while we have been apparently drifting towards worse results. The prestige of the Government abroad, as well as at home, is almost gone; its credit broken; its power questioned. The iDUsiness of the country is becoming paralyzed ; our ships idle ; our industry hushed; and all this because of the madness of a few men, who are bent upon the policy of rule or ruin. Nor are the evils which flow from this great conspiracy limited to national disgrace and national calamity, but they perme- ate all orders of society, and demoralize the whole sentiment of obedience, and all love of order. The example of stupendous crimes and misdemeanors on the part of States, and of some in Federal au- thority, have corrupted the public conscience, and prepared it for the toleration of every species of wrong. In places where honor dwelt, treason boldly stalks, and shame flaps its filthy garments, and displays its pilfered, or meretricious charms. Instead of appeals to executives and tribunals for redress of grievaiTces, anarchy is introduced to drown the voice of justice, and mobs are invoked to anticipate with swifter vengeance the deliber- ate processes of law. It is but a single step fur- ther to the revolver and the stiletto, as the ac- cepted and accustomed arbitrators and avengers of individual wrongs. And now, Mr. Speaker, are there any means by which these evils, public and private, may be overcome, and order be composed in their stead.' Such an undertaking, as I have already intimated, will demand the best powers of the nation, but it is not altogether hopeless. I understand full well the feelings of those who, smarting under a sense of indignation and injustice, refuse to accede to any measyi-es which seem to them like an atone- ment for wrongs which have never been commit- ted, and who believe that the voices of living men, and the silent but unequivocating testimony of history, will alike declare that, in the prolonged controversy which has been waged, the North has had the unequal task of bearing up against hostile opinion supported by the whole power of the Government, which for half a century, with small interruptions, has been its constant auxiliary. I can applaud with honest sympathy the spirit which refuses to bow to the domination of'its peers, or to negotiate for peace with those who appear in the panoply of rebellious arms. Something in the way of indulgence may also be granted to the pride of a great party in the flush of its triumph, and disposed to wear its laurels with comeliness, save when its submission is im- periously demanded. But let it be remembered that those who have gone out of the Union, and now stand in the attitude of hostility to its Gov- ernment and to its people, seek no terms of recon- ciliation. Their purposes, no longer aided by the resources of the Union, are no longer disguised under the form of grievances seeking for redress. It is but a few days since one of the Represent- atives of the State of Louisiana, in his valedic- tory remarks, upon retiring from this Hall, said it was his belief, that if the most conciliatory propositions now before the Hqusc were adopted, that would not stop the progress of secession in the section of country from whence he came. The declaration of Mr. Yancey, in his recent speech before the State convention of Alabama, is still more uncompromising and decisive. He said: " I avow myself as utterly, unalterably, opposed to any and all plans of reconstructing a Union with the Black Re- publican States of the North. No new guarantees, no amendments of the Constitution, no peaceful resolutions, no repeal of offensive laws, can offer me any, the least, inducement to reconstruct our relations with the non-slave- holding States." This much, then, at least, is settled; we need not seek for terms of reconciliation with those who decline, beforehand, any appeal which could be submitted, and who have chosen for themselves the attitude of implacable enemies of the Govern- ment and the Union. But, air, there are those who have assumed no such attitude, and yet who^ from personal apprehension, or from the neces- sity of their position, look to those who desire to preserve the Government for some consideration of their position; and I have heard, not without emotion, the patriotic appeals of those gentlemen from the border States who have spoken so nobly and so ably for the preservation of the Union. Their words have fallen upon the country like 8 the voice of Providence interposing to stay the | tide of rebellion and to avert the horrors of in- testine war. 1 And I felt afresh liope for tl>e continuance of the Union when 1 heard my distinguished colleague the , other day, under circumstances which exemplified j and tested his statesmanship, make his jmtrioiic ' response to those appeals. We may wj;11 seek for consistent eft'ort and fellowship with those who j have been as loyal to the Union as ourselves, and who have never .approached us with maledictions ' or threats, to join again as our fathers joined, to preserve that Union which they toiled and died to create; and for myself, I feel it to be my duly, j without the sacrifice of essential principles, to pay some heed to the exigencies and necessities of the : t)resent and the future, as well as to any shibbo- eths of the past. And I believe the generous j constituency which sent me here, not as a politi- ; cian or as a partisan more than as a citizen, and , by a various surtVage, will justify me, amidst these unexpected embarrassments, in the exercise of . tliat independence which is requisite to insure the guidance of my own judgment. If otherwise, then, much as 1 might regret the loss of their con- j currence, I cannot decline the responsibility of j doing that which patriotism and duty demand of me. I am not prepared to sacrifice any princif)le 1 which seems to me essential to the right position j of the incoming Administration. Having con- tributed in a humble degree, to its inception, I expect to do whatever I may to promote its con- tinued success. But may not some of the weapons of aggressive warfare be laid aside after the cita- del is taken, and those be brought into action which are adapted to its security and defense.' Viewed from a political stand-point, the rallying principle of a party is valuable to it chiefly to that degree in which it may be administered when that party is successful. Licentiousness may be but an excess of liberty and superstition of failh. May Jiol men of all parties pause, then, and see to it that in our contests to settle the doctrine of civil freedom wedo not blot out from theearth itsfairest and most hopeful and most puissant example? If they will restore peace to the country, or satisfy our friends in the border Slates, as I think they ought to tlo, I am willing to support, in the main, the propositions of the committee, the prin- cipal features of which are, the constitutional amendment and theenabling act forNew Mexico, proposed by my colleague; or, if it may be deemed more satisfai-tory, a convention of the people, legitimately called, to which the subject in con- troversy may be referrt-d. But I cannot vote for measures wliicli, in my bi-lief, would secure only a temporary lull of exciti'ment, with tht? |)roba- bility of bringing back an aggravation of evils at no distant day. The Union is loo great a prize to be slaked at every presidential election. The question ofits preservation, in spite of the existing causes ofdiscontent, should be definitively settled now. If possible, it all on Id be so settled as to restore that ancient harinnny and fi-lluWHhr|) among the States, which would lie a liond of Union stronger ttiaii stiilules or compromises or cunstitulions. In addition to theTTC spoken here and elsewhereords which have been the border States, several ot c-.friotic men from spoken for themselves in unmistaiv',>„t(.s have Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri hav.,..,^jj so; and Virginia, mother of Slates and of Pres*. dents, has spoken with the great voice of her peo- ple, proclaiming that the remains of him to whose tomb strangers from every land make pilgrimage, and at the mention of whose name every Ameri- can heart swells with mingled reverence and grat- itude, shall still sleep in the soil of that Union which has rendered the glory of liis name imper- ishable. Mn^achusetts, which holds in her bosom the ashes of his great compeer — that Massachu- setts which poured out her treasure like sand, and her blood like water, in the days of common peril, and whose valiant sons sleep in the soil of every State, from Maine to Georgia — will hail with joy the steadfast loyalty of her ancient friend. Mr. Speaker, in the failure of a peaceful adjust- ment of the existing troubles, we have been told the dread alternative is war. Already have our ears become accustomed to thatsound; some speak of it as possible, and others even as propable,and speculate upon its duration and picture iis horrors. More than once have we heard how valiant and relentless will be the contest on the part of those who have already left, or who design to leave, the Union. I have no wish to say a word in retalia- tion; but let me cite the language of Mr. Clay, uttered a little more than ten years ago, upon the characteristics of such a war. He said: " If, unhappily, we should be involved In war — a civil war — between the two pans of this Confederacy, in which the etTorts upon tlie one side should be to restrain the intro- duction of slavery into new Territories, and upon the other, to force its introduction there, what a spectacle should we present to the astonishrnentof mankind, in an eirort,not to propas^ate ri^rhts, hut — I must say, though I trust it will be understood to be said with no desi-jn to excite feeling — a war to propagate wrongs In the Territories thus acquired from Mexico. It would be a war in which we should have no sympathies, no good wishes; in which all mankind would be against us ; in which ourown liislory itself would be against us." Even in such a war as that, sir, I will not doubt the valor of any of our countrymen; I will not impugn the courage of any portion of the Ameri- can people. But I mean no threat when I say, that it should be remembered that this manly vir- tue is not limited locithersection. Those whoscoff at Puritan blood should trace the history of those who have come of it. If it be cold and not easily roused, when roused it does not so easily subside. It has overflowed its earlier landmarks, and gone I mingling with the sturdy races which people the ; mighty West; it has sent nola small element into I the gallant South; and wherever found, it will be folly to count lipon its weakness. The same ;{ ipialities which would make a civil war terrible I among our countrymen, are those most valuable 1 1 in the conservation of a steadfast peace. 'I'o this , end, therefore, let our present counsels be aimed, j and our elTorts directed, and only after reason has I failed, and conciliation trenches upon ju.stice, let us think of an alternative which shall fill our land with mourning, and its rivers with blood. ';JCA?«,?y