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 XKCE ST^ft^TE OE TKCE XJHSTIOnST. 
 
 SPEECH /^OFs„T^^-%^y' 
 
 WASH'S^ 
 
 HON. ALFRED ELY, 
 
 OF NEW YORK, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 18th, 1861. 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 The House Having under oousideration the Keport of the Select Committee of TUirty-three- 
 Mr. ELY said : 
 
 Mr Si-EAKER : We have passed the threshold of a momentous era iu the his- 
 tory of this country, and are now standinor iu the presence of events that will 
 S their shadows tlpon our fafure for all coming time. Every man however 
 humble or ohscure, tfpon whom is devolved the duty of casting a vote that may 
 S to give shape and color to these events, should feel that a grave responsi- 
 bUity is resting upon him. In the midst of a criMs, tipon which aepends noth- 
 ■L less than The future existence of the noblest and most beneficent |overu- 
 mfnt ever instituted by man. ordinary party issues dwtnd e into inMgnihcance^ 
 I shall not, therefore, in what I have to say, review the issues of the late 
 presidential contest, but endeavor to address myself to the consideration of 
 Questions which, by the rapid progress of events within the last ninety days, 
 have been placed iu the foreground of our political landscape. 
 
 The present condition of our country demands of us a carefu aud candid 
 examination of the nature of that political structure which we call our Federal 
 Government, and of the duties and obligations which it imposes upon its citizens. 
 The great mistake under which one portion of our people appear to be labor- 
 ing i« That they fail to perceive that the General Government witbin its sphere 
 i. as much a unity as the government of Mass-achusetts or .South ^«-olina-ot 
 England or of Russia. They seem to forget that we are nvt snll living under 
 the old Confederation : and to regard the General Government as though it wer. 
 BiiU dependent for the enforcement of its decrees upon Executive machinery of 
 the States. The fact is, that we are not living under a confederation at all ; but 
 under a central government, limited in its powers, it is true, but^withm its legi- 
 timate sphere, having the same absolute right to execute its functions that a 
 State government has within its sphere ; a government which acts directly upon 
 individual citizens, and not upon States, and is provided with all the machinery, 
 for enforcing obedience to its authority and its laws. _ . , , . . „ •+„, 
 "Allforrner confederate governments," says a distinguished foreign writer 
 on American institutions "presided over communities; but that oi the Union 
 rules individuals ; its force is not borrowed, but self-derived ; and itis served by 
 its own civil and military officers, by its own army and its own courts ot jua- 
 
 ' The General Government does not demand its supplies at the hands of the 
 State governments. Congress has, in the language of the Constitution, '«poT7er 
 to levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." _ _ 
 
 The General Government does not call upon the States to assist m executing 
 the laws of Congress. It has its own courts of justice, and its own ministerial 
 and executive officers. It does not call on the State governments to deliver up 
 offenders against its laws, but it puts forth its own hand, and seizes and pun- 
 ishes them without so much as saying "by your leave" to the State govern- 
 ments. The power of the courts of the United States to act on individual citizens 
 of the several States, constitutes a principal diflference between our Government 
 and the confederations proper which have existed in the Old AVorld They have 
 too often been formed by independent states that had no honest intention oi 
 
2 .^^^ 
 
 obeying the central government; arc! which, -while they readily gave up th» 
 nominal right of command to the federal head, cautiously reserved the power 
 of non-compliance to themselves. History calls to us, from the fate of such 
 confederationp, to take warning. I might multiply proofs that ours is a govern- 
 meiit of the people, and not of the States. But 1 will only refer to the emphatic 
 declaration in the preamble to the Constitution itself: " We, the people of the 
 United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution." 
 
 Another mistake is, that some of us have come to imagine, of late years, that 
 the line of "Mason and Dixon," familiarly so called, divides the nation into tw» 
 rivjil sections; and that we must contrive in some way to keep these sections 
 equal in regard to population and political power. This, however, is impossible. 
 The Constitution knows nothing of sections. At the time it was adopted, the 
 people of no section thought of asking guaranties that no other section should 
 outstrip them in the race of population, or in the contest for political power 
 dependent thereon, as it must be in a popular government. This idea of pre- 
 serving the political equality of sections is an insidious and dangerous one. 
 Every man in this country is a citizen of the United States, and to that govern- 
 ment he owes allegiance. He has certain duties to perform also with reterence 
 to his State government; but he owes no allegiance to any "section."' I, sir, 
 owe allegiance to the United States and the State of New York, but none to "the 
 North." The citizen of South Carolina owes allegiance to the General Govern- 
 ment, and to his own State government, but none to "the South." Our Gov- 
 ernment is neither a compact between States, ncr a league between sections. We 
 are one nation and one people. 
 
 From the adoption of the Constitution to the present time, that section of the 
 Union now complaining of its waning power, has controlled the policy of the 
 General Government, "it has furnished the Chief Magistrate fur forty-nine out 
 of seventy-two years, and the few northern men who have tilled that office, 
 •with two or three exceptions, have owed their elections mainly to southern 
 votes. By the aid of a minority of the northern Representatives, acting in con- 
 cert with them, they have had almost uninterrupted control of both branches 
 of Congress. The Supreme Court has been so constituted, that the South has 
 always had a majority of the judges. Ever since southeru statesmen began to 
 regard slavery as an element of political power, the General Government has 
 been made an active agent in extending and spreading it. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, the Union is now to be dissolved, on the ground that 
 it has proved intolerably oppressive to southern rights and southeru interests. 
 Six States have already revolted ; renounced their allegiance to the Federal 
 Government, and are now in open rebellion against it, upon the plea that the 
 rights of slaveholders cannot be maintained, nor their interests protected in the 
 Union. And we of the North, are called upon to save the Union, by making 
 concessions and giving new guaranties to the South. Concessions are not now 
 demanded, it is true, by those States which stand in open rebellion against the 
 Government, for they ask no compromises, and will accept none. But they are 
 demanded by other States, which have not yet actually joined in the rebellious 
 movement, but threaten to do so, unless concessions are speedily made. I do 
 not say that all the people of the South, or all their Representatives, make the 
 granting of concessions by the North a condition of continued fidelity to the 
 Union. On the contrary, it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge, that some 
 southern representatives, while eloquently pleading on this floor for concessions 
 to conciliate the feelings of their people, have nobly proclaimed their determin- 
 ation to stand firmly by the Union and the Constitution, as our fathers made 
 them, whether their requests are granted or refused. To such gentlemen I can 
 listen with the most respectful attention. To such appeals I feel like yielding 
 anything that can be yielded, without a sacrifice of principle. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I am sure I do not misinterpret public sentiment at the North, 
 when I say that our people are ready to redress any real grievances of our 
 southern brethren, if satisfied of their existence. They are willing to go further, 
 and yield something to mere prejudice ; something to quiet apprehensions which 
 they know to be wholly groundlet-s. But here the question arises, what can 
 we concede that will have a tendency to settle existing difficulties ? Many Repub- 
 lican members of this House have mauilested a disposition to goto theextremest 
 verge of their principles, to meet southern gentlemen on some compromise 
 ground. Many southern Representatives profess, and no doubt feel an anxious 
 desire for an amicable and honorable adjustment of the pending controversy. 
 And yet, the most yielding of our Republican friends have been unable to come 
 
to an agreement with the most liberal of our southern brethren, upon any 
 measure which they can give us a reasonable assurance will reconcile any one 
 to the Union, who is threatening to renounce his allegiance to it under any 
 coutingtncy. And why ? It is because the grievances of which the South 
 complain, are so shadowy and unsubstantial that it is impossible to grasp them. 
 It is because the leaders of this rebellious movement are actuated by a mad 
 ambition, and not by a sense of wrong and oppression. It is because the people 
 of the South are excited by imaginary dangers, founded upon the grossest mis- 
 representations of the principles and objects of the Ropublican party. Sir, it 
 is extremely difficult to cure imaginary evils, or dispel imaginary dangers, by 
 legislation. 
 
 Now, sir, what are the grievances, of which the South complains? 
 
 Ist. They say the fugitive-slave law is violated, and its execution inter- 
 rupted. This is not true to any considerable extent. Fugitive slaves are ar- 
 rested in the free States, and taken back to their masters every day. It is 
 exceptional cases only, of attempted rescue, that attract public attention. 
 The present fugitive-slave law is certainly obnoxious to our people, but it has 
 been more faithfully executed than any other law equally obnoxious, which 
 ever had a place upon our statute books. The true way of securing its more 
 faithful execution is to relieve it of its obiaoxions features, and in this I will 
 cheerfully concur. 
 
 Some of the northern States have passed personal liberty bills, which are 
 said lo be in derogation of the constitutional rights of the South. To this I 
 reply in a word : if unconstitutional, they are void ; and it is in the power of 
 any citizen who feels himself aggrieved by them, to have their constitationality 
 tested in the United States courts. No State ought to pass unconstitutional 
 laws, it is true ; but inasmuch as they are void and harmless if unconstitu- 
 tional, they afford but a lame and impotent justification for an attempt to break 
 up the Union. These laws have been long in existence. If they constituted 
 no cause for a dissolution of the Union under Democratic administrations, what 
 has so suddenly aggravated their enormity now that a Republican administra- 
 tion is about to be inaugurated? Besides, these laws were not enacted by Con- 
 gress, and the General Government is not responsible for them. But so long as 
 the Union remains, the power of the General Government may be invoked to 
 defeat and render them harmless if they transcend the limits of the Constitu- 
 tion. But destroy the Union, and you net only lose this check upon the legis- 
 lation ot the free States to prevent the execution of the fugitive-slave law, but 
 you lose the fugitive-slave law itself, and all pretence of authority to pursue 
 your fugitives in the free States. 
 
 2d. It is alleged that the southern States are denied "equal rights in the 
 Territories," and this is put forth as the " head and front of our offending." I 
 shall not stop now to discuss the question whether, if you Avere actually ex- 
 cluded from taking your slaves into the territories, you would have any just 
 right to complain. The fact is, you are not excluded. Never, since the foun- 
 dation of this Government, have slaveholders had such unlimited privileges 
 in the Territories as now. They have the full benefit of the Dred Scott decision, 
 unreversed and untrammelled by subsequent legislation. However erroneous 
 Republicans may think that decision is, they have no power to compel the court 
 to reverse it ; no power to defeat or circumvent it by legislation. In a minor- 
 ity in both branches of Congress,jwe are at all events,/or the present, powerless 
 to disturb it. There is not a foot of territory now belonging to the United 
 States to which this decision does not recognize your right to take your slaves, 
 and not a foot south of 37 degrees north latitude, in which your right is not 
 further guarantied by stringent territorial legislation. As 1 have already said, 
 never before was your right of taking your slaves to the Territories recognized 
 by the General Government to such an unlimited extent. From the foundation 
 of the Government slavery was excluded from all that great and fertile region 
 lying northwest of the river Ohio, and east of the Mississippi. From 1820 
 until 1854, it has been excluded from all our Louisiana purchase north of the 
 parallel of 36° 30^. But since the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, accord- 
 ing to the decision of the Supreme Court, it is licensed to go everywhere in 
 every rood of our territorial domain. The truth is, we own no territory any- 
 where to which you desire to emigrate with your slaves; hence no concession 
 or guarantee of your right to take them into any Territory we now possess 
 would be of the least practical utility to you. The only contest there ever has 
 been in this country between freedom and slavery for supremacy in a Territory 
 
was in Kansas, and that has long been settled. The settlement of that contro- 
 Tersy has left nothing to contend about, becau.se there has been no Territory to 
 which you ilesired to take your blaves. How, then, are we to settle existing 
 difficultie.s by conceding rights in the Territories of which you would not avail 
 yourselves ? If we propose to re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, and 
 extend it through all our territorial possessions, will that satisfy you? No; it 
 gives you less by half a degree than is secured to you now by the territorial 
 law of New Mexico, to say nothing of the riglifs you claim under the decision 
 of the Supreme Court. What more can we oifer you ? You will never take a 
 slave north of that line into Nebraska, Utah, Washington, or Decotah, if we 
 expressly concede your right so to do. 
 
 Will the admission of New ^Mexico as a State, as recommended by the com- 
 mittee of thirty- three, satisfy you? If I had any evidence th;it it would, I might 
 consent to vote for the measure, strong as are my objections to it, on practical 
 grounds. It may involve no sacrifice of Republican principle — I do not think 
 it does. But the people of that Territory 'ire wholly unprepared to assume the 
 duties and respon.sibilities of a sovereign State, and do not even di are to 
 assume them. These objections to the expediency of the measure 1 cannot 
 waive without some better a^snrances than I have yet received that it will sat- 
 isfy somebody, and have some tenJency to arrest the march of rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the fact that no overture that h:is yet been made, short of the 
 •* Crittenden pronosition," has received the least favor from any body threaten- 
 ing to secede, is evid<'nce of the shadowy and unsut)stantiai nature of the com- 
 plaints upon which the secession movement is based. And what is it in that 
 proposition, that commends it to secei-sionists ? It is that by an irrevocable ar- 
 ticle of the Constitution, it proposes to recognize, establish and jaotect slavery 
 in all the territory we may ever acquire, for all coming time, in the only direc- 
 tion in which we ever can expand. It is that it prospectively establi.-hes slavery 
 iuforcii/n territory, which we do not own, and have nn right to asmme that we 
 ever will own. This fact, that nothing short of a transfe.- of the slavery ques- 
 tion Xa foreign territory will satisfy secedeis, or those iuc'ined to secede, proves 
 that they have no real ground of complaint as to the teriiiory we now possess. 
 If nothing short of such a concession as this wi'l save the Union, th( n, indeed, 
 is the ease hopeless. The proposition is infinitely worse 'ban the Breckinridge 
 platform — worse than the proposition which the northern democracy at Charles- 
 ton and at Baltimore chose rather to break up their party than accept. It is 
 worse, inasmuch as it propot-es to incorporate into the Constilution, as an irre- 
 pealable nrtic\e, precisely the same principle which the Northern democracy re- 
 fused to incorporate in a parti/ platform merely. And it is worse in the still 
 more important feature, of applying to territory hereafter to be acquired, as 
 well as to that which we now have. But for the character of the distinguished 
 statesman who was induced to stand god-father to this monstrous proposition, 
 I could not believe that it was offered for any other purpose hut as an insult to 
 Republicans. 
 
 od. Again, the South complains that public sentiment in the northern States 
 is becoming more and more opposed to slavery ; and upon this assumption is 
 based an apprehension, that the North mny in process of time become strong 
 enough to amend the Constilution so as to enable the General Governmeia to 
 interfere with slavery in the States. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, so far as public sentiment is concerned, it will be found ex- 
 tremely difficult to regulate and control it by constitutional amendments. But 
 so long as that public sentiment does not manifest itself in overt acts of aggres- 
 sion against the rights of their neighbors, what cause have they to complain? 
 There are many things which the .'■trongest governniout cm earth cannot do. To 
 control the consciences and opinions of men is one of these things. 
 
 Itistfuethat our people do not love or respect the institution of slavery. 
 They believe, with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, that it is morally wrong- 
 unjust iiod oppressive to the enslaved race. They know that it is deleterious to 
 the welf;ire ..f the dominant race, wherever it prevails. They know that it de- 
 grades, del-a.ses sind impoverishes the laboring white min, while it renders the 
 wealthy prujirietor imperious, arrogant, and impatient of the salutary restraints 
 of governmi'nt and law. Of this they have had emphatic evidence in the 
 events of the last few months — events "that certainly do not tend to increase 
 their respt> ■ !br the institution. This is no new phase of public sentiment at 
 the North. From the foundation of the Government the northern people always 
 have been opposed to slavery — they always will be opposed to it. If the South 
 
5 
 
 regards this as an evil, it is one for which, in the nature of things, there can be 
 no remedy. It is at least as harmless to them in the Union, as out of it. 
 
 But while the con,«cience, the sentiment and the judgment of the northern 
 people have always condemned slavery, they have never proposed to intertere 
 with it in States where it exists. On the contrary, they have uniformly dis- 
 claimed any right, intention or desire so to do. I think it may be sately assum- 
 ed that this doctrine that the slave States have the exclusive right to manage 
 and control the institution of slavery within their own limits, is more universally 
 recognized throughout the northern States at this time, than during any former 
 period of our history. The thorough discussion which the slavery question, as 
 a political topic, has undergone within a few years past, has had a tendency to 
 enlighten the minds of the peopW vu this point, and produce almost entire una- 
 nimity of opinion. The most radical abolitionist will now scarcely venture to 
 dissent from the proposition. Only a few days ago every Republican Repre- 
 sentative on this floor recorded his vote iu favor of a resolution emphatically 
 affirming this doctrine, and disclaiming, on the part of his constituents, any in- 
 tention or desire to interfere with slavery in the States. 
 
 But we are told that we are not sincere, and that we would, if we had the 
 power, abolish slavery in the States. To guard against such a contingency, the 
 committee of thirty-three have proposed an amendment to the Constitution. 
 Translating its ambiguous phrases into plain English, this proposed amendment 
 provides, that no amendment of the Constitution havmg for its object any interjer- 
 ence within the States, loith the relation of master and slave, shall originate with any 
 free State, or shall be valid loithout the assent of every one of the States composing 
 this Union. 
 
 Is it really apprehended that the people of the free States may amend the 
 Constitution in the point which it is here proposed to guaid ? Let us see how 
 immineut this danger is ? To ratify any amendment of the Constitution, three- 
 fourths of the States must concur. There are now fifteen slave States, and if 
 there never should be another one added to the Union, we roust have forty-five 
 free States, or sixty States in all, before we can amend the Constitution in ac- 
 cordance with these groundless fears. Look upon the map, and where do you 
 find the Territory for the formation of twenty-six new States, even if we should 
 Btret'^h out our arms, and gracp all that lies between us and the Isthmus of 
 
 Panama? j, i /-, •* t- 
 
 Mr. Speaker, when we adopt the principle that any part of the Constitution 
 is to be made perpetually unchangeable, we advance, at a single step, a long 
 way on the road to despotism. It is a principle full of danger to the liberties 
 of the people. I acknowledge the force of the argument advanced by the dis- 
 tinguished gentleman from Massachusetts. [Mr. Adams,] that the local insti- 
 tutions of a State ought not to be changed without the consent of its own 
 citizens. But is the institution of slavery so peculiarly sacred, that no one not 
 interested in it shall even propose an amendment to the Constitution affecting 
 it ? Shall we hedge it round with guards and guar.anties that we withhold from 
 all other institutions? The proposition comes more than a century too late. 
 It shall never be said of me, that I voted to deprive the people of the State of 
 New York of the right of proposing such amendments to the Constitution as 
 they may deem proper. I will never fail to raise my voice and cast my vote 
 against such a dangerous measure— never, never. 
 
 It is said that the people of the South really entertain apprehensions that 
 the Republicans are about to commit some monstrous outrage upon their rights, 
 and therefore we ought to give them some constitutional guaranty that we will 
 not do what we have never proposed to do— -what we have always disclaimed 
 any intention or desire to do, and what, m fact, we have no power to do, under 
 the Constitution as it is. Who is responsible for these groundless apprehen- 
 sions ? Who but unscrupulous political leaders at the South, who have wilfully 
 misrepresented our principles and our purposes to their people? Knowing 
 that we have no power to interfere with slavery under the Constitution, if they 
 have succeeded in creating a belief among their ignorant masses, white and 
 black, that we would abolish slavery as soon as we came into power, would any 
 constitutional guaranties that we could now give disabuse their minds of this 
 error ? If from your own misrepresentations your slaves have received a vague 
 impression, that with the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln the day of their deliver- 
 ance would begin to dawn, we are not responsible, and no concessions that we 
 can make will remove that impression. You have " sown the wind," and if com- 
 
pelled to "reap the ■whirlwind," the fault is not ours, and the remedy is not in 
 our hands. You may do something to remedy the false impressions which your 
 own unfounded and indiscreet statements have produced, by retracting them and 
 conceding their injustice ; by telling your people that Mr. Lincoln is a law- 
 abiding man, who will scrupulously respect all your constitutional rights, with- 
 out in the remotest manner interfering with the relation of master and slave in 
 your midst, and not a "John Brown Abolitionist ;" that Mr. Hamlin is a ^vhite 
 man, and not a "free negro," or a "mulatto," as some of your leaders have 
 alleged. You can do still more to allay these groundless fears, by quietly sub- 
 mitting, like good citizens, to the administration of Mr. Lincoln, until time 
 and experience shall demonstrate the falsity of the charges that you have 
 industriously circulated against him and his party among your people. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I am satislied with the Constitution as it is. I do not say that 
 it is perfect — no mere work of human hands can be. But I am opposed to 
 tinkering with it, especially in these exciting times. If it is ever to be revised 
 and remodeled, it should be when the public mind is calm, and in a mood for 
 deliberation — not when excitement and passion rule the hour. 
 
 But if the door is to be thrown open to constitutional amendments, are addi- 
 tional guards to be thrown around no other rights or interests than those per- 
 taining to slavery ? Are no other institutions in peril than the peculiar institu- 
 tion of the South? Sir, that great institution which is the parent and protec- 
 tor of all our institutions — the Government itself — is in imminent peril. It is 
 in peril from a construction put upon tbe Constitution by the Southern States — 
 a purely " sectional" construction — which is now working out its pernicious re- 
 sults in disrupting the bands of the Union. If the Constitution is to be amended 
 BO as to guard the perpetuity of southern institutions against remote and im- 
 probable dangers, I insist that it shall at the same time be so amended as to 
 guard the perpetuity of the Government itself against this ruinous heresy of 
 secession. It is idle to patch up a Constitution which binds nobody. If we are 
 to amend that instrument, therefore, let us begin by expressly giving it some 
 binding force, which the South now denies to it. Before we make any conces- 
 sions to States which have seceded, or are threatening to secede, by way of con- 
 stitutional modifications, let us at least demand from them an acknowledgment 
 and a guaranty that it imposes upon them obligations which they cannot throw 
 oif at pleasure. 
 
 Sir, if this rebellion at the South were based upon any real grievances 
 iniiicted upon that section by the General Government, or the Northern 
 States, I should have high hopes of its speedy settlement; for I believe that the 
 people of the North would hasten to redress them God forbid that I should 
 interpose any obstacle to the full and complete redress of any wrong, of which 
 the people otthe South have just cause to complain. Representing, as I do, in 
 part, the great State of New York, with her three and a half millions of intel- 
 ligent and enterprising citizens ; with her vast anu varied productions ; her im- 
 mense commerce, extending its ramifications to every State of this Union, and 
 thereby giving to her a greater interest in its preservation than any other 
 State, I should prove unworthy of the trust reposed in me, if I could withhold 
 my consent to any just and honoral)le concession that would tend to avert the 
 dangers now impending over us, and restore harmony to our distracted country. 
 With the great Senator of that State, to whom all eyes have been turned in this 
 hour of peril, I am in favor of conciliation, if you can point out any fair and 
 honorable way of conciliating men who have no substantial ground of com- 
 plaint. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I believe it is as much a feeling of pride and punctilio, as a sense 
 of wrong or danger, that requires to be conciliated in the border slave States. 
 Something may be conceded to feelings of this kind — and I do not abandon the 
 hope that a ground of compromise may yet be discovered, upon which we may 
 meet the people of those States, and stand together under the protection of the 
 stars and stripes, without a feeling of wounded pride on the one side, or a sac- 
 rifice of principle on the other. Notwithstanding my objection to tampering 
 with the Constitution in these times of excitement, I will not say but that I 
 might consent to vote for submitting some amnndmentof that instrument to the 
 people for their ratiffication or rejection, if I could see in that course a reason- 
 able pruspect of harmonizing our dilEculties. But I think the most appropriate 
 body to revise the Constitution, and propose amendments thereto, would be a 
 convention of delegates elected by the people of all the States, expressly for 
 that purpose. If we had power now to call such a convention, I would vote for 
 
the measure if demanded by the people of any of the southern States, or if it 
 would be accepted by them as a peace-offering. I have confidence in the wisdom 
 and discretion of the people, and should not fear to commit the whole subject 
 to their hands. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, while I would do anything that is just, and right, and 
 honorable, to conciliate the discontented, I would at the same time maintain 
 the honor, the dignity, and the integrity of the Government by enforcing its 
 authority and the execution of its laws. 1 would not "coerce a State," in the 
 true sense of that term, but I would coerce citizens to obey the laws and respect 
 the rights of the Federal Government. Whatever else I conceded, I would 
 never concede the right of any one to resist the laws and trample upon the au- 
 thority of the Government with impunity. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the policy of treating this rebellious movement with this kind 
 of indulgence and " concession " has been tried by the present Executive ; and 
 what has been the result? The fullest license to resist the Federal lawt, 
 trample upon the Federal authority, seize the Federal property, and insult the 
 Federal flag, has been conceded by the Executive from the beginning of the 
 movement. The result has been a progress unparalleled in the annals of revo- 
 lution and rebellion. Never before has rebellion been treated with so much in- 
 dulgence by any government. Never before did rebellion so thrive and flourish. 
 Our Executive met it at the threshold with the theory that it was not to be 
 opposed by force — that "coercion" was not to beresorted to. Union men at the 
 South, with great unanimity, and many at the North, recommended and approved 
 this policy ; while those who doubted its wisdom had no power to counteract it. 
 While the General Government has been quietly submitting to every indignity 
 that could be hurled against it, gentlemen have been declaiming upon this floor 
 against Federal coercion, as if that were the great evil of the times. Rebellious 
 forces seize our forts, arsenals and magazines, our custom-houses, mints and de- 
 positories of public money; and yet professed Union men can see nothing so 
 much to be dreaded and deprecated as coercion. If the Executive attempts to 
 introduce a few additional soldiers and supplies into any fort on our southern 
 coast, it is denounced as an act of "coercion." When the Government property 
 in this capital, including its official archives, is boldly threatened with seizure, 
 the concentration of a few Federal troops at this point is deprecated as an act 
 of "coercion," to which even Union loving men at the South, it is said, will 
 reluctantly submit. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, while I would not condemn the Executive for treating froward 
 States with all reasonable forbearance, surely there is a point at which " for- 
 bearance ceases to be a virtue." I see little reason to hope that this rebellious 
 mavement will not continue to progress as it has progressed, until the Federal 
 Government shall manifest some disposition and some power to assert and main- 
 tain its authority in the enforcement of its laws and the protection of its prop- 
 erty. If there is not enough of virtue and patriotism in the people to sustain 
 the constituted authorities in such a course, then, indeed, is our Government 
 already broken up, and our boasted Union a myth and a delusion. 
 
 I do not think, Mr. Speaker, it would be wise or expedient for the General 
 Government to interfere svith the internal afi'airs of seceding States, so long as 
 no portion of their citizens are invoking its aid or protection. But I think it is 
 bound to defend the forts and collect th^ revenues in all their ports and harbors 
 with a strong hand, leaving the damnable heresy of secession to work out its 
 own condemnation among the people by the ruinous consequences it will surely 
 bring upon them. Let this be done, and let it be understood that the Federal 
 Government is ready and able to extend its protection to loyal citizens of the 
 seceding States when they shall invoke it, and we may hopefully await the result. 
 There are thousands of Union-loving men in those States, who are compelled for 
 the time being to yield to an over-ruling necessity, and submit in silence to a 
 reign of terror inexorable and supreme. By and by, when the heavy hand of 
 oppression shall have laid its full weight upon them, when intolerable taxation 
 shall have consumed their substance, when anarchy and confusion shall have 
 destroyed all security of life and property, they will begin to yearn for that 
 peace and prosperity which they enjoyed under the best Government ever de- 
 vised by the wisdom of man. Then they will increase in numbers from a com- 
 mon sympathy in distress, and take courage from desperation. Then we may 
 look for a counter revolution, which will hurl from power and consign to infamy 
 the usurpers who now, clothed with a little brief and illegitimate authority, are 
 leading them on to destruction. 
 
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 Mr. Speaker, some gentlemen who are neither secessionists nor enemies of 
 the Union, entertain the opinion that the safest and best solution of our diffi- 
 culties will be found in a peaceful separation of the States of this Union. In 
 my judgment this is a threat delusion. You may agree to separate in peace to- 
 day, and to-morrow the see Is of war and strife will begin to germinate. The 
 causes which produce perpetual irritation while we remain together, will not be 
 removed by separation, but will be intensified in a tenfold ratio, and soon be- 
 come a fruitful source of actual violence and war. He who thinks that we can 
 amicably arrange all our difficulties when our relations shall be changed to 
 those of aliens and foreigners with respect to each other, has neither studied 
 history or human nature to advantage. The invariable tendency with contigu- 
 ous nations having no natural boundary between them, is to strife and war. 
 When we superadd a difference of institutions and a conflict of iuterests diffi- 
 cult to harmonize under a common Government, this tendency must be greatly 
 increased. Look at the history of England and Scotland. Until united by an 
 accident, they were perpetually at war. Since that event they have been per- 
 petually at peace. History teaches us that hostile nations have often been 
 united for the purpose of putting an end to war and strife. But who ever heard 
 of dividing a nation with a view of promoting peace and good will between the 
 dissevered sections? 
 
 You charge that the members of the dominant party at the North are sympa- 
 thizers with John Brown, and in their hearts approve of his insane and criminal 
 raid to Virginia. If this be so ; if the people of the North really approve of 
 such invasions of your territory for the liberation of your slaves, it must be 
 confessed that the Union, and the obligations it imposes, have had a powerful 
 influence to restrain them. During its existence of seventy-two years there 
 has been but this solitary instance of a northern man setting his foot upon your 
 soil with any such purpose. If there is any truth in your charges, you must 
 owe your security entirely to your political connection with us; to that Union 
 and that Constitution which you are now madly threatening to disrupt and 
 destroy. 
 
 While we utterly deny your charges in this respect, and assert that not one 
 in a thousand of our people ever had the slightest disposition to interfere with 
 your domestic institutions ; that the great body of the northern people would 
 cheerfully take up arms to defend you against lawless invasions from any quar- 
 ter, so long as we remain fellow-citizens of the same nation and a common Gov- 
 ernment, we cannot answer for your securitj' when you shall become aliens and 
 foreigners. When the ties of political brotherhood shall have been broken, and 
 the obligations imposed by the Federal laws swept away, no man can s.ay how 
 soon the groundless charges which you now make against our people may be- 
 come fearful realities. 
 
 Our northern people are neither fanatics nor filibusters; but they are men of 
 like passions with ourselves, and if you will persist in making them aliens, you 
 will make them alien enemies. Divide this Union by Mason and Dixon's line, and 
 when the causes of irritation which now disturb our harmony shall have cul- 
 minated, as too soon they will, in open war, John Brown raids across the bor- 
 der, now abhorred by our people as criminal and treasonable, will become h'git- 
 imate belligerent enterprizes. If these two sections of our Union should ever 
 become separate and belligerent powers, (which God forbid!) it is no dispar- 
 agement to your courage or your military prowess to say that you cannot with- 
 stand the hordes that will come down upon you from the populous North, to 
 overturn your institutions by the power of the sword. As the Goth and Visigoth 
 swarmed forth from the great northern hive to overrun all southern Europe, 
 during the middle ages, so will the teeming millions cf the North swarm forth to 
 overrun your fair land, when that dreadful day shall come. God grant that 
 it may never come ! God grant that reason may resume her sway over the minds 
 of men, now drunk with i)assion, and that with returning reason, they may re- 
 turn to their allegiance to the best Government that heaven ever vouchsafed to 
 man! God grant that our glorious Union may yet be saved without the effu- 
 sion of one drop of American blood, or the sacrifice of a single principle essen- 
 tial to render it a blessing to the people of every portion of your common coun- 
 try, and to their poserity forever. 
 
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