CONGRESS, U. S. 



167 



ments of this Government. Why, sir, five or 

 six of our conservative Senators have already 

 to give place to others on the 4th of March ; 

 and if the others do not, it is simply because 

 their terms have not expired. Both the Sena- 

 tors from Indiana and the Senator from Illinois, 

 [Mr. Douglas,] and other gentlemen, would be 

 beaten by that same majority, if it were not 

 that their terms have time to run. They must, 

 however, be cut down at no distant day. Not 

 only that ; but if the House of Representatives 

 is divided to some little extent, how long can 

 it be so ? We all know that New England has 

 presented an unbroken front for some time 

 past ; and does any man doubt that the same 

 organization that elected Abraham Lincoln can 

 make a clear majority of both branches of Con- 

 gress? The efforts of the Abolitionists will be 

 directed to the few doubtful districts, and they 

 will soon be subjected to their control. So 

 powerful and %teady is the current of their 

 progress that it will soon overwhelm the entire 

 North. In this way they must soon control 

 the President both Houses of Congress, the 

 Supreme Court, and all the officers of the Gov- 

 ernment. The result is that a sectional party 

 will wield the entire power over all the depart- 

 ments of the Government. 



"But this is not the worst view of the case. 

 We are not only to be governed by a sectional 

 domination which does not respect our rights, 

 but by one, the guiding principle of which is 

 hostility to the Southern States. It is that, Mr. 

 President, that has alarmed the country ; and 

 it is idle for gentlemen to talk, to us about this 

 thing being done according to the forms of the 

 Constitution. 



i( My purpose was not so much to make a 

 speech as to state what I think is the great dif- 

 ficulty; and that is, that a man has been elected 

 because he has been and is hostile to the South. 

 It is this that alarms our people ; and I am free 

 to .ay, as I have said on the stump this sum- 

 mer repeatedly, that if that election were not 

 resisted, either now or at some day not far dis- 

 tant, the Abolitionists would succeed in abolish- 

 ing slavery all over the South. 



''Therefore I maintain that our true policy is 

 to meet this issue in limine; and I hope it will 

 be done. If we can maintain our personal 

 safety, let us hold on to the present Govern- 

 ment ; if not, we must take care of ourselves at 

 all hazards. I think this is the feeling that 

 prevails in North Carolina.'' 



Mr. Lane, of Oregon, said: " We are all aware, 

 Mr. President, that there is great dissatisfaction 

 in tins country, and a very near approach, un- 

 les? something can be done very speedily, to a 

 dissolution of the Union. It is not very strange, 

 as I look at it, that this condition of things 

 should exist. It has been truly said that the 

 election of any man to the Presidency would 

 not be good cause for a dissolution of the 

 Union. I am prepared to say that the simple 

 election of any man to that office, in my judg- 

 ment, would not be cause for a dissolution. 



Nor is that the cause of complaint in the coun- 

 try ; but it is the principles upon which the 

 late election has taken place that have given 

 rise to the trouble. Never in any previous 

 presidential election has the issue been so fully 

 put, so directly made, as in the late one. The 

 question everywhere was: shall the equality 

 of the States be maintained ; shall the people 

 of every State have a right to go into the com- 

 mon territory with their property ? And the 

 verdict of the people has been that equality hi 

 this country shall not prevail. It is to the 

 effect that fifteen States of this Union shall be 

 deprived of equality ; that they shall not go 

 into the common territory with their property ; 

 that they are inferiors, and must submit to in- 

 equality and degradation. Then, sir, with such 

 a state of facts before us, is it strange that there 

 should be dissatisfaction and trouble ? 



"Mr. President, it is not the election of Mr. 

 Lincoln that is troubling the country, as I said 

 before, but that he is regarded as a dangerous 

 man; that he entertains views and opinions 

 as expressed by himself, which are dangerous 

 to the peace, safety, and prosperity of fifteen 

 States of this Confederacy. He is an 'irre- 

 pressible conflict ' man ; he holds that the 

 slave States and free States cannot live to- 

 gether. I apprehend the result will be, that 

 they will not live together." 



Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, from the other 

 side of the Senate, replied : " I think we might 

 as well look this matter right clearly in the 

 face ; and I am not going to be long about 

 doing it. I think that this state of affairs looks 

 to one of two things : it looks.to absolute sub- 

 mission, not on the part of our Southern friends 

 and of the Southern States, but of the North, 

 to the abandonment of their position it looks 

 to a surrender of that popular sentiment which 

 has been uttered through the constituted forms 

 of the ballot-box ; or it looks to open war. We 

 need not shut our eyes to the fact. It means 

 war, and it means nothing else ; and the State 

 which has put herself in the attitude of seces- 

 sion so looks upon it. And I avow here I do 

 not know whether or not I shall be sustained 

 by those who usually act with me if the issue 

 which is presented is that the constitutional 

 will of the public opinion of this country, ex- 

 pressed through the forms of the Constitution, 

 will not be submitted to, and war is the alter- 

 native, let it come in any form or in any shape. 

 The Union is dissolved and it cannot be held 

 together as a Union, if that is the alternative 

 upon which we go into an election. If it is 

 pre-announced and determined that the voice 

 of the majority expressed through the regular 

 and constituted forms of the Constitution, will 

 not be submitted to, then, sir, this is not a 

 Union of equals ; it is a Union of a dictatorial 

 oligarchy on the one side, and a herd of slaves 

 and cowards on the other. That is it, sir ; 

 nothing more, nothing less." 



Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, said in answer : 

 " All we ask is that we be allowed to depart in 



