210 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



lately estimated, four million of her people de- 

 pend for daily bread ? Kely upon it, sir, that, 

 bitter and unreasonable as her prejudices may 

 be, the same causes which have reconciled Eng- 

 land to the use of slave-grown sugar and cotton, 

 would never suffer either France or herself to 

 acquiesce in this blockade. The South need 

 only wait patiently and silently, with absolute 

 assurance that those great Powers would be 

 forced to an active interference. And then, 

 sir, how would you conduct the war ? 



"No course would be open to you but actual 

 invasion, which, indeed, passion and resistance 

 would probably bring about at a much earlier 

 period. Invasion, sir ! invasion of what ? and 

 under what conditions? Of an agricultural 

 country eight hundred and fifty-one thousand 

 square miles in extent larger than all the em- 

 pires and kingdoms of central Europe, yet with 

 only about fourteen inhabitants to the square 

 mile, and consequently withoul large cities or 

 means to sustain an invading host; but, sir, not 

 without brave men, trained to the use of arms, 

 and ready to destroy the invading army, which 

 would melt away like snows of winter every 

 mile as they advanced into the Southern clime, 

 far from their resources. Napoleon, in his dis- 

 astrous Russian invasion, was not so far from 

 his supplies, and in a country twice as densely 

 peopled, twice as able to sustain him. Your 

 population may outnumber ours by millions ; 

 but you would be hundreds of miles from your 

 true base of operations, while we would be at 

 home. You are doubtless as brave as we are, 

 though not more so ; but your soldiers would 

 be led on by the unhallowed lust to bring broth- 

 ers beneath their yoke, while ours would strike 

 for their homes and their altars. I know that 

 fanatics daily depreciate to the Northern people 

 the exertions of the South in the Revolution, 

 and teach that, as slaveholding is the sum of all 

 human villanies, so is it the source of incurable 

 weakness and impotence. But before they be- 

 lieve such teachers, let them read history. 



" But, sir, no sane man believes that we could 

 be conquered. If we have no ships of war, 

 you have vessels in abundance who would ac- 

 cept our letters of marque and reprisal ; and 

 the same Northern capital that now engages in 

 the slave-trade could be transferred to privateer- 

 ing on your commerce. If we did not invade 

 you, we could at least repel your invasion, and 

 cut off your attacking forces. Patience alone, 

 on our side, would insure a victory. But I will 

 not contemplate such scenes." 



Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, followed, saying: 

 " You complain that the seceding States have 

 seized the forts and other public property. 

 These forts were permitted to be erected in 

 these States for their defence, and the arms 

 that have been taken were placed there for the 

 same purpose. The Federal Government has 

 no right to use this property for any other pur- 

 pose. And whenever the people who had 

 granted the sites of the forts for their defence 

 discovered that they were to be used for the 



opposite purpose of an attack upon them it 

 was not only just, but wise, for them to see 

 that they were used for their defence, the legit- 

 imate purpose for which they were erected." 



Mr. Ferry, of Connecticut, said he would 

 have the President collect the revenues in every 

 Southern port, and every other port in the 

 Union, peaceably if he can, forcibly if he must. 

 More than this, he would have him maintain 

 the national flag at every hazard, over every 

 fortification, arsenal, dock-yard, and navy-yard 

 in the Union. If, in the discharge of this duty, 

 he is met by force, then he would place at his 

 command the army and navy and purse of the 

 nation. This Union must and shall be preserved. 

 The experiment of self-government was not yet- 

 exhausted. It would be a shame, an everlast- 

 ing reproach to the American name, to allow 

 it to be destroyed by the hand of domestic 

 violence. 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, in reply to the asser- 

 tion that the army should not be used to coerce 

 a State, submitted that if, by this, it was meant 

 that the army should not be used to conquer a 

 State, to compel her to be represented, to main- 

 tain the courts or post-offices within her limits, 

 to burn her cities or desolate her fields, it was 

 entirely correct. He did not believe that any 

 Administration will pursue such a policy. But 

 we have a Government, a great Government, 

 to maintain. It was supreme within the pow- 

 ers delegated to it; and it was provided with 

 ample authority to protect itself against foreign 

 or domestic enemies. It had the exclusive right 

 to collect duties on imports. It was the exclu- 

 sive owner of forts, arsenals, navy-yards, ves- 

 sels, and munitions of war. It had a flag, the 

 symbol of its nationality, the emblem of its 

 power and determination to protect all those 

 who may of right gather under its folds. It 

 was our duty, as the representatives of this 

 Government, to maintain and defend it in the 

 exercise of its just powers. Had it trespassed 

 upon the rights of a single individual ? Did 

 any citizen of South Carolina complain that 

 this Government had done him wrong ? N"o 

 man can say that. The Government for years 

 had been in the hands of the Democratic party, 

 controlled chiefly by Southern citizens. They 

 controlled its power and patronage ; and now, 

 when the Republican party was about to as- 

 sume the reins, they seek to subvert it. They 

 organized revolution under the name of seces- 

 sion. 



He continued : "My argument is, that South 

 Carolina is not coerced, but that she is coercing 

 this great Government ; that she is coercing all 

 the border slave States; that she is leading 

 them, by wild fanaticism and by the community 

 of interests, to take a step which I do not be- 

 lieve Virginia, or North Carolina, or Maryland, 

 or any of the border States would take, in the 

 light of calm and cool reason. 



" Mr. Chairman, I appeal in all candor to the 

 Representatives of the border States to arrest 

 the tide that, but for you, will in a few days 



