CONGRESS, U. 8. 



199 



known to be great,) severs all the ties of affec- 

 tion, (and they are close and enduring,) which 

 Lave bound her to the Union ; and thus divest- 

 ing herself of every benefit, taking upon her- 

 self every burden, she claims to be exempt from 

 any power to execute the laws of the United 

 States within her limits. 



" I well remember an occasion when Mas- 

 sachusetts was arraigned before the bar of the 

 Senate, and when then the doctrine of coercion 

 was rife, and to be applied against her, because 

 of the rescue of a fugitive slave in Boston. My 

 opinion then was the same that it is now. Not 

 in a spirit of egotism, but to show that I am not 

 influenced in my own opinion because the case 

 Is my own, I reter to that time and that occasion 

 as containing the opinion which I then enter- 

 tained, and on which my present conduct is 

 based. I then said, if Massachusetts, following 

 her through a stated line of conduct, chooses to 

 take the last step which separates her from the 

 Union, it is her right to go, and I will neither 

 vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her 

 back ; but will say to her, God speed, in mem- 

 ory of the kind associations which once existed 

 between her and the other States. 



" It has been a conviction of pressing neces- 

 sity, it has been a belief that we are to be de- 

 prived in the Union of the rights which our 

 fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought 

 Mississippi into her present decision. She has 

 heard proclaimed the theory that all men are 

 created free and equal, and this made the basis 

 of an attack upon her social institutions ; and 

 the sacred Declaration of Independence has 

 been invoked to maintain the position of the 

 equality of the races. That Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence is to be construed by the circumstan- 

 ces and purposes for which it was made. The 

 communities were declaring their independ- 

 ence ; the people of those communities were 

 asserting that no man was born to use the 

 language of Mr. Jefferson booted and spurred 

 to ride over the rest of mankind ; that men 

 were created equal meaning the men of the 

 political community ; that there was no divine 

 right to rule ; that no man inherited the right 

 to govern; that there were no classes by 

 which power and place descended to families, 

 but that all stations were equally within the 

 grasp of each member of the body-politic. 

 These were the great principles they announced ; 

 these were the purposes for which they made 

 their declaration ; these were the ends to which 

 their enunciation was directed. They have no 

 reference to the slave ; else, how happened it 

 that among the items of arraignment made 

 against George III. was that he endeavored to 

 do just what the North has been endeavoring 

 of late to do to stir up insurrection among 

 our slaves? Had the Declaration announced 

 that the negroes were free and equal, how was 

 the Prince to be arraigned for stirring up insur- 

 rection among them ? And how was this to be 

 enumerated among the high crimes which 

 caused the colonies to sever their connection 



with the mother country ? When our Consti- 

 tution was formed, the same idea was rendered 

 more palpable, for there we find provision made 

 for that very class of persons as property ; they 

 were not put upon the footing of equality with 

 white men not even upon that of paupers and 

 convicts ; but, so far as representation was con- 

 cerned, were discriminated against as a lower 

 caste only to be represented in the numerical 

 proportion of three-fifths. 



" Then, Senators, we recur to the compact 

 which binds us together ; we recur to the prin- 

 ciples upon which our Government was found- 

 ed ; and when you deny them, and when you 

 deny to us the right to withdraw from a Gov- 

 ernment which, thus perverted, threatens to be 

 destructive of our rights, we but tread in the 

 path of our fathers when we proclaim our in- 

 dependence, and take the hazard. This is done 

 not in hostility to others, not to injure any sec- 

 tion of the country, not even for our own pecu- 

 niary benefit ; but from the high and solemn 

 motive of defending and protecting the rights 

 we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty 

 to transmit unshorn to our children. 



" I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the gen- 

 eral feeling of my constituents towards yours. 

 I am sure I feel no hostility to you, Senators 

 from the North. I am sure there is not one of 

 you, whatever sharp discussion there may have 

 been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in 

 the presence of my God, I wish you well ; and 

 such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people 

 whom I represent towards those whom you 

 represent. I therefore feel that I but express 

 their desire, when I say I hope, and they hope, 

 for peaceful relations with you, though we must 

 part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in 

 the future, as they have been in the past, if you 

 so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on 

 every portion of the country ; and if you will 

 have it thus, we will invoke the God of our 

 fathers, who delivered them from the power 

 of the lion, to protect us from the ravages 

 of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in 

 God, and in our own firm hearts and strong 

 arms, we will vindicate the right as best we 

 may. 



" In the course of my service here, associated 

 at different times with a great variety of Sen- 

 ators, I see now around me some with whom I 

 have served long ; there have been points of 

 collision ; but whatever of offence there has 

 been to me, I leave here ; I carry with me no 

 hostile remembrance. "Whatever offence I have 

 given, which has not been redressed, or for 

 which satisfaction has not been demanded, I 

 have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to 

 offer you *my apology for any pain which, in 

 heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence 

 unencumbered of the remembrance of any in- 

 jury received, and having discharged the duty 

 of making the only reparation in my power 

 for any injury offered. 



" Mr. President, and Senators, having made 

 the announcement which the occasion seemed 



