CONGRESS, U. S. 



171 





the arbitrary power of the monarchy, Louis 

 Philippe saw his danger, and attempted to 

 avert it by changing his ministry. He turned 

 out M. Guizot and nominated M. Thiers as his 

 principal adviser. That he supposed wotfc 

 quiet the dissensions which lie saw rising 

 around him ; but, sir, the words ' too late,' 

 'too late,' went all through the streets of 

 Paris. The next day, when he found the streets 

 barricaded, he abdicated the throne in favor of 

 his grandson, and made an effort, through his 

 friends, to obtain the regency of his daughter, 

 the mother of the Count of Paris. When that 

 was done, in the hope that he might quell 

 the insurrection then raging around him, the 

 same words ' too late ' ran through all the 

 masses of Paris, ringing out in sepulchral tones 

 like the trump of the archangel summoning 

 the dead to judgment. So now, sir, you may 

 tinker the Constitution, if you please ; you may 

 propose concessions ; you may suggest addi- 

 tional legislation ; you may present additional 

 constitutional securities ; you may attempt by 

 all these ingenious devices to stay the storm 

 which now rage's in the Southern States, to 

 prevent that people from marching on to the 

 deliverance and liberty upon which they are 

 resolved ; but, sir, the words ' too late,' 

 that ring here to-day, will be reiterated from 

 mountain to valley in all the South, and are 

 now sounding the death knell' of the Federal 

 Union." 



Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, regarded the assertion 

 that the people of the Northern States had set 

 on foot some policy in regard to the institution 

 of slavery, as an invention of history. The as- 

 sertion of things as facts, which are not facts, 

 has raised all this vast cloud of passion and 

 misrepresentation in both extremes of the coun- 

 try. He said : 



" Now, sir, I do not believe that ninety-nine 

 hundredths of the men, who voted for Mr. Lin- 

 coln, thought any thing about the subject of 

 slavery in the States, or had any policy on the 

 subject. They were opposed to the introduc- 

 tion of slavery into the territories. They were 

 in favor of a general division of the offices and 

 the plunder ; Many of them wanted protection 

 to iron, and I do not know what all ; but most 

 of them were animated by a thorough hatred 

 of the Democratic party. But as for any policy 

 in their minds, bearing upon the institutions of 

 the Southern States, I believe this day, if the 

 question were put in any shape, that even in 

 New England, though I cannot speak for her 

 in every State of the North there is a large 

 majority of the people who are opposed to any 

 interference whatever." 



Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, in reply to state- 

 ments respecting the non-execution of the fugi- 

 tive slave-law in the North, said " that nine- 

 tenths of the complaints on that subject are 

 unfounded." 



Mr. WigfalL, of Texas, in answer to a demand 

 for a specification of the wrongs, or supposed 

 wrongs, under which the Southern States were 



suffering, stated that it was the denial by the 

 Government that slaves were property, and the 

 refusal to protect the owners in their title, 

 whenever they were within the Federal juris- 

 diction, and proceeded : 



" My objection to the course we are now pur- 

 suing, is simply that these discussions amount 

 to nothing. We cannot save the Union. The 

 Senators on the other side, and the Senator 

 from Illinois can, possibly. I do not know that 

 they can. If they cannot, it cannot be saved. 

 "We cannot do it. The people of the South 

 I speak of the people of the different slavehold- 

 ing States, and especially those upon the Gulf, 

 commonly called the cotton States are dis- 

 satisfied with the present Government, as it is 

 about to be administered by the President elect. 

 There is nothing that can satisfy them except 

 amendments to the Constitution, and those 

 amendments must be made by the Northern 

 States unanimously, or they will not be satis- 

 fied ; and I say here, that they should not 

 be." 



Mr. TVade, of Ohio, said : " I have listened 

 to the complaints on the other side patient- 

 ly, and with an ardent desire to ascertain 

 what was the particular difficulty under which 

 they were laboring. Many of those who have 

 supposed themselves aggrieved have spoken ; 

 but I confess that I am now totally unable to 

 understand precisely what it is of which they 

 complain. Why, sir, the party which lately 

 elected their President, and are prospectively 

 to come into power, have never held an execu- 

 tive office under the General Government, nor 

 has any individual of them. It is most mani- 

 fest, therefore, that the party to which I be- 

 long, have as yet committed no act of which 

 anybody can complain. If they have fears, as 

 to the course that we may hereafter pursue, 

 they are mer8 apprehensions a bare suspicion, 

 arising, I fear, out of their unwarrantable pre- 

 judices, and nothing else." 



In answer to the question what has caused 

 this excitement? he ascribed it to the belief 

 by the Southern people, that the Republicans 

 were their mortal enemies, " and stand ready 

 to trample their institutions under foot." 

 Those who make the complaints " have, for a 

 long series of years, had this Government in 

 their own keeping. Therefore, if there is any 

 thing in the legislation of the Federal Govern- 

 ment that is not right, they are responsible for 

 it, for the Republicans have never been invest- 

 ed with the power to modify or control the 

 legislation of the country," He said : 



" Now, sir, I should like to have the Senators 

 on the other side tell me when ever a Repub- 

 lican has violated, or ever proposed to violate, 

 a right of theirs. I have listened to your argu- 

 ments here for about a week. They are all in 

 very general terms. They are very loosely 

 drawn indictments, and I do not know where 

 to meet you at all. Is there any thing in our 

 platform detrimental to your rights, unless in 

 modern tunes you have set up a construction 



