LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1955 r SSIOISr AND XtECONSTRUCTION. E 458 ^^ -.^= = - =— ;g64 ^^ SPEECH Copy 1 HUiN. DANIEL W. GOOCH, OF MASS, '45 '■ '«~. * DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY, 3, 1864. The House having under consideration the Bill to guarantee to certain States whose governments have been overtlirown a republican form of government — Mr. GOOCH said : Mr. Speaker: It is a grave mistake for lis to suppose that the con- test in which we are now engaged has been going on only since the rebels took up arms against the Federal Government. It is almost as old as the Government itself. More than thirty years ago it assumed a form which, but for the patriotism, ability, and firm resolution of the man then in the presidential chair, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully to discharge the duties of the high trust which millions of freemen had committed to his charge, would have devolved upon the generation which has pre- ceded us the duties and responsibilities which we are now called upon to meet. It is equally a mistake to suppose that the agitation of the question of slavery has produced this contest. The contest is older than the agitation. It has been going on ever since two antagonistic states of society commenced existence under our republican form of government, each striving for development and the mastery. I do not believe that any intelligent and reflecting man has ever believed that these two antagonistic states of society would or could continue to exist permanently under the same Government. In the early days of the Republic the leading men of both sections of the country looked forward to the time when it should be peacefully, and with the con- sent of all parties, abolished. When the leading men of the South came to look upon the institution as essential to their prosperity, and to desire its permanence, they at the same time began to look for- ward to a dissolution of the Union, The remark of Mr. Calhoun to Commodore Stuart, made more than fifty years ago, is precisely to this point. He said : " That we are essentially aristocratic I cannot deny ; but we can and do yield much to democracy. This is our sectional policy; we are from necessity thrown upon and solemnly wedded to that partj, however it may occasionally clash with our feelings, for the con- servation of our interests. It is through our affiliations with that party in (he middle and western States that we hold power; but when we cease thus to control this nation, though a disjointed deraocracj^ or any material obstacle in that p.irty should tend to throw us out of that rule and control, we shall then resort to the dissolution of the Union." Mr. Calhoun went on to say that : "The compromises in the Constitution, under the circumstances, were sufficient for our fathers; but under the altered condition of our countrj' from that period leave to the South no resource but dissolution, for no amendment to the Constitution can be reached under the three-fourths rule." ^A^ 1 (X Mr. Calhoun believed the compromises of tlie Constitution to be sufficient to secure what its authors, the fatliers oftheTlepublic, desired and intended, the temporary existence of the institution of shivery, but not suited to the altered condition of the country, when tlie permanent existence of slavery was deemed essential to the prosperity of his sec- tion, and, seeing' that no amendment could be made to that instrument which would ati'ord that security, he and his disciples wedded them- selves to the Democratic party, and determined to stake the existence of their country on the success of that party and their ability to con- trol it. When a taritf was passed, and the law enforced which in his opinion favored the development and growth of the free institutions of the North — beneticial to free society, and therefore prejudicial to slave society — he and his associates threatened nullitication, and when, in 1860, hisfollowers sawa "disjointed democracy," and their " power to control'the nation" j)ass away, they attempted dissolution or destruc- tion of the Government. When nullification had been crushed, General Jackson, seeing that the cause of the conflict between the two sections of the country had not been removed, said : "The tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and the aouthcrn confederacy the real object The next pretest will be the negro or slavery question." He felt that ho had but prevented M the time being a contest which would be sure to break out again. Nullification did not go far enough to aflord an opportunity to destroy its cause. Secession has not only ati'orded the opportunity, but made it both a duty and a necessity, if we desire to uphold and maintain the Government. Probably the time has been when every member of this House, who desired to see his country rid of the institution of slaver^' has believed that its abolition could and would be peacefully accomplished ; that by placing the Federal Government firmly on the side of freedom, and preventing the extension of slavery into new territory, it could be left to each of the States to determine the time and the mode of emanci- pation, knowing that, although the time might be distant, still the day would come when the moral and material forces of every State would Array themselves against it and secure its destruction. I believe now that such would have been the result had not slavery itself willed it otherwise. When it proved itself to be so antagonistic to the great fundamental ]»rinciples of the Government, which must and would be carried out in its administration ; when it found free society, which it regarded Hs its enemy, making a far more rapid growth and development than slave society could possibly attain ; when it found itself far outstripped in everything which can contribute to the hapi)iness, wealth and power ot a peo}de l)y its rival ; when it found that five million people in the South coidd no longer rule and dictate law to twenty million people in the North, instead of being willing to assume that position in the (xoverriment which i)elonged to it, it determined upon the immediate destruction (jf the Government which it had so long controlled. The day and the hour which Mr. C'alhoun had so long foretold had come. Shivery, in making war upon the Government, has staked its existence upon the isaiie; and if the Government wins, slavery must die. It h:is said that it could not and would not live under such a Govern- ment, and it must be taken at its word; and while our jurisdiction niniitt.-e can r.-i LIBRARY OF CONGREbb have Ihein filled with the utmo.it promptitude, and with the bi-sl Ju Iho locality where the speeches are to be sent. Printed by Jj. Toweis for the Union (.'ongrc ill 012 027 638 4 # LIBRARY OF CONGRESS lllilllllilHIII Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-l< LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 027 638 4 % r Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1955