CONGRESS, U. S. 



195 



Union, and moved by a common sympathy 

 with the people of the section of 'which her 

 territory forms the extreme southern part, and 

 with whose fate her destiny is indissolubly 

 bound, Florida has resolved to withdraw from 

 the present Union. Her course derives sanc- 

 tion from the important fact that she is pre- 

 ceded in it by the chivalrous State which, by 

 a spirited act in 1765, became, by acknowl- 

 edgment of a Massachusetts historian, ' the 

 founder of the Union.' And her resolution is 

 rendered more fixed by the development, since 

 her movement began, of a general tendency in 

 the public mind of the majority section to, a 

 theory of the Constitution, and to principles 

 of construction, which must convert this Gov- 

 ernment into an unlimited despotism. She 

 sees fast rising above all others the great issue 

 of the right of the people of the States to 

 sovereignty and self-government within their 

 respective territorial boundaries ; and in such 

 an issue she is prepared to devote the lives and 

 fortunes of all her people. 



" Although the present means of Florida are 

 acknowledged to be limited, yet, having once 

 assumed the rank of a State, she assumed with 

 its rights its duties also, and its responsibilities 

 to her people and their posterity. These she 

 must fulfil, according to her best judgment, 

 with all the more jealousy of control because 

 weak, but with none the less claim on that ac- 

 count to the respect of all true men. 



u Acknowledging, Mr. President, with grate- 

 ful emotions, my obligations for the many cour- 

 tesies I have enjoyed in my intercourse with 

 the gentlemen of this body, and with most cor- 

 dial good wishes for their personal welfare, I 

 retire from their midst in willing loyalty to the 

 mandate of my State, and with full approval 

 of her act 1 ' 



Mr. Mallory, of Florida, followed: "Con- 

 curring, as I do, with all that my colleague 

 has said, I ask but to add a word or two. 



" In retiring from this body, I cannot but 

 feel, and I will not forbear the expression of, 

 profound regret that existing causes impera- 

 tively impel us to this separation. When rea- 

 son and justice shall have asserted ascendency 

 over party and passion, they will be justly ap- 

 preciated ; and this Southern movement, de- 

 manded by considerations dear to freemen in 

 every age, will stand proudly vindicated. 



" Throughout her long and patient endurance 

 of insult and wrong, the South has clung to 

 the Union with unfaltering fidelity ; a fidelity 

 which, while nourishing irritation in the hearts 

 of her own sons, has but served to nerve the 

 arms of her adversaries. 



" Florida came into the Union fifteen years 

 ago, upon an equality with the original States, 

 and their rights in the Confederacy are equally 

 her rights. She could not, if she would, separate 

 her action from her Southern sisters ; and, de- 

 manded as her action is, by those consider- 

 ations which a free people can never ignore, 

 she would not if she could. From the Union, 



governed by the Constitution as our fathers 

 made it, there breathes not a secessionist upon 

 her soil ; but a deep sense of injustice, inequality, 

 and insecurity, produced by the causes to which 

 I have adverted, is brought home to the reason 

 and patriotism of her people ; and to secure 

 and maintain those rights which the Consti- 

 tution no longer accords them, they have placed 

 the State of Florida out of the Confederacy. 



" In thus turning from the Union to the 

 veiled and unknown future, we are neither 

 ignorant nor reckless of the lions in our path. 

 We know that the prompt and peaceful organi- 

 zation of a practical republican government, 

 securing liberty, equality, and justice to every 

 citizen, is one of the most difficult, as it is one 

 of the most momentous duties devolving upon 

 men; and nowhere perhaps upon the earth, 

 beyond our own country, could this great work 

 be achieved. But so well are human rights and 

 national liberty understood by our people ; so 

 deeply are they imbued with the spirit of free- 

 dom and knowledge of government, that were 

 this Republic utterly broken and destroyed, 

 like the shattered vase of the poet, to whose 

 very fragments the scent of the roses still 

 clung, its very ruins breathing the true spirit 

 of civil and religious liberty, would plead for 

 and demand a wise and noble reconstruction. 



"Whatever may be the immediate results, 

 therefore, of the momentous crisis now upon 

 us, I have no fears for the freedom of my coun- 

 trymen. Nor do I admit for a moment that 

 the great American experiment of government 

 has proved or can prove a failure ; but I main- 

 tain, on the contrary, that passing events should 

 inspire in the hearts of the patriot and states- 

 man, not only hope, but confidence. Five 

 States have already dissolved their connection 

 with the Union ; and throughout the several 

 stages by which their people, in their sovereign 

 capacity, have reached secession, they have ex- 

 hibited a calmness and deliberation which find 

 no parallel in the history of mankind. This is 

 entirely the result of our admirable system of 

 independent State governments. And, sir, were 

 this Federal District, with President, Congress, 

 Departments, and Courts, and all the machinery 

 of Federal Government, suddenly sunk a thou- 

 sand fathoms deep, under the admirable work- 

 ing of these State governments the rights and 

 liberties of their people would receive no shock 

 or detriment. 



" In thus severing our connection with sister 

 States, we desire to go in peace, to maintain 

 towards them an attitude not only of peace, 

 but, if possible, of kindness ; and it is for them 

 to determine whether we shall do so or not ; 

 and whether commerce, the great pacificator 

 of earth, is to connect us as producers, manu- 

 facturers, and consumers, in future friendly re- 

 lations. If folly, wickedness, or pride shall 

 preclude the hope of peace, they may at once 

 rear up difficulties in our path, leading at once 

 to what I confess I regard and dread as one of 

 the greatest calamities that can befall a nation 



