CONGRESS, U. S. 



197 





nounced us by deliberate resolves? of popular 

 meetings, of party conventions, and of religious 

 and even legislative assemblies, as habitual vio- 

 lators of the laws of God and the rights of hu- 

 manity ; it exerted all the moral and physical 

 agencies that human ingenuity can devise or 

 diabolical malice can employ to heap odium 

 and infamy upon us, and to make us a by-word 

 of hissing and of scorn throughout the civilized 

 world. Yet we bore all this for many years, 

 and might have borne it for many more, under 

 the oft-repeated assurance of our Northern 

 friends, and the too fondly cherished hope that 

 these wrongs and injuries were committed by a 

 minority party, and had not the sanction of 

 the majority of the people, who would, in time, 

 rebuke our enemies, and redress our grievances. 



" But the fallacy of these promises and folly 

 of our hopes have been too clearly and conclu- 

 sively proved in late elections, especially the 

 last two Presidential elections, to permit us to 

 indulge longer in such pleasing delusions. The 

 platform of the Republican party of 1856 and 

 1860 we regard as a libel upon the character 

 and a declaration of war against the lives and 

 property of the Southern people. No bitterer 

 or more offensive calumny could be uttered 

 against them than is expressed in denouncing 

 their system of slavery and polygamy as " twin 

 relics of barbarism." It not only reproaches 

 us as unchristian and heathenish, but imputes 

 a sin and a crime deserving universal scorn and 

 universal enmity. No sentiment is more in- 

 sulting or more hostile to our domestic tran- 

 quillity, to our social order, and our social ex- 

 istence, than is contained in the declaration 

 that our negroes are entitled to liberty and 

 equality with the white man. It is in spirit, if 

 not in effect, as strong an incitement and invo- 

 cation to servile insurrection, to murder, arson, 

 and other crimes, as any to be found in Aboli- 

 tion literature. 



" And to aggravate the insult which is of- 

 fered us in demanding equality with \is for our 

 slaves, the same platform denies us equality 

 with Northern white men or free negroes, and 

 brands us as an inferior race, by pledging the 

 Republican party to resist our entrance into the 

 territories with our slaves, or the extension of 

 slavery, which as its founders and leaders 

 truly assert must and will effect its extermi- 

 ation. To crown the climax of insult to our 

 'eelings and menace of our rights, this party 

 lominated to the Presidency a man who not 

 only endorses the platform, but promises, in 

 his zealous support of its principles, to disre- 

 gard the judgments of your courts, the obliga- 

 tions of your Constitution, and the require- 

 ments of his official oath, by approving any bill 

 prohibiting slavery in the territories of the 

 United States. 



" A large majority of the Northern people 

 have declared at the ballot-box their approval 

 of the platform and the candidates of that party 

 in the late Presidential election. Thus, by the 

 solemn verdict of the people of the North, the 



slaveholding communities of the South are 

 ' outlawed, branded with ignominy, consigned 

 to execration, and ultimate destruction.' 



" Sir, are we looked upon as more or less 

 than men I Is it expected that we will or can 

 exercise that godlike virtue which ' beareth all 

 things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 

 endureth all things ; ' which teaches us to love 

 our enemies and bless them that curse usf Are 

 we devoid of the sensibilities, the sentiments, 

 the passions, the reason, and the instincts of 

 mankind? Have we no pride of honor, no 

 sense of shame, no reverence of our ancestors, 

 no care of our posterity, no love of home, or 

 family, or friends ? Must we confess our base- 

 ness, discredit the fame of our sires, dishonor 

 ourselves, degrade our posterity, abandon our 

 homes, and flee from our country, all for the 

 sake of the Union ? Must we agree to live 

 under the ban of our own Government? Must 

 we acquiesce in the inauguration of a President 

 chosen by confederate but unfriendly States, 

 whose political faith constrains him, for his 

 conscience and country's sake, to deny us our 

 constitutional rights, because elected according 

 to the forms of the Constitution? Must we 

 consent to live under a Government which we 

 believe will henceforth be controlled and ad- 

 ministered by those who not only deny us jus- 

 tice and equality, and brand us as inferiors, but 

 whose avowed principles and policy must de- 

 stroy our domestic tranquillity, imperil the lives 

 of our wives and children, degrade and dwarf, 

 and ultimately destroy, our State ? Must we 

 live, by choice or compulsion, under the rule 

 of those who present us the dire alternative of 

 an " irrepressible conflict " with the Northern 

 people in defence of our altars and our fireside, 

 or the manumission of our slaves, and the ad- 

 mission of them to social and political equality ? 

 No, sir, no ! The freemen of Alabama have 

 proclaimed to the world that they will not; 

 and have proved their sincerity by seceding 

 from the Union, and hazarding all the dangers 

 and difficulties of a separate and independent 

 station among the nations of the earth. 



" They have learned from history the ad- 

 monitory truth, that the people who live under 

 governors appointed against their consent by 

 unfriendly foreign or confederate States, will 

 not long enjoy the blessings of liberty, or have 

 the courage to claim them. They feel that were 

 they to consent to do so, they w r ould lose the 

 respect of their foes and the sympathy of their 

 friends. They are resolved not to trust to the 

 hands of their enemies the measure of their 

 rights. They intend to preserve for them- 

 selves, and to transmit to their posterity, the 

 freedom they received from their ancestors, or 

 perish in the attempt. Cordially approving 

 this act of my mother State, and acknowledg- 

 ing no other allegiance, I shall return, like a 

 true and loyal son, to her bosom, to defend her 

 honor, maintain her rights, and share her fate." 

 Mr. Fitzpatrick : " Mr. President, I rise mere- 

 ly to add, that having had an opportunity of 



