.1 
 

A SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE CAUSES 
 
 WHICH HAVE LED TO THE 
 
 OVERTHROW OF OUR UNION: 
 
 BY A MAN 
 
 WHO HAS BEEN AN ACTOR IN MANY SCENES, AN 
 ATTENTIVE AND INTERESTED OBSERVER, AND PER- 
 SONALLY ACQUAINTED WITH ALL THAT HE 
 REPRESENTS, FOR MORE THAN FIFTY 
 YEARS PAST TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
E-45 5) 
 
A. SKETCH 
 
 OP THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CAUSES WHICH HAVE 
 
 LED TO THE OVERTHROW OF OUR UNION. 
 
 Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1861. 
 
 My Dear Sister : — 
 
 I have waited a few days since the receipt of your letter, hoping I 
 might get something new about the war to write you. 
 
 You say : " I should think you would prefer to leave Washington until 
 this horrid war is over ;" and ask, " where could you go to, to get out 
 of it?" You ask : " Are -there encampments near you?" You also ask : 
 " When will the war be at an end ?" 
 
 Alas ! there is no place to avoid the effects of this, as you say, 
 "horrid war." Every interest, except that of fraud, corruption and 
 immorality, is prostrated all over this once happy country, and it is pro- 
 ducing starvation and dismay in Europe ; and though in the very midst, 
 and heart of it in Washington, we perhaps feel its dire effects as little, 
 or less, than any other place. Yes, there are encampments near to me; 
 Washington is surrounded by them, and filled, also, with them. They 
 have devastated the whole country around us, and wantonly destroyed 
 everything within their reach. There are exceptions, but, generally, a 
 lawless, drunken, immoral, blasphemously profane, undisciplined, un- 
 manageable mob, with no respect for their officers or any one else. The 
 entii'e country, with few exceptions, about Washington, has been made 
 one universal waste and ruin ; the fences bm-nt up, buildings pulled down 
 and burnt, orchards stripped of unripe fruit, crops destroyed, forest and 
 ornamental trees cut down and destroyed, and acres and acres laid waste. 
 No tornado, no scourge from Heaven of fix-e and storm, could have been 
 more devastating ; — and no one benefitted by it. ' ' When will it end ?" 
 Alas ! I can see no hope for its end yet, and no hope for a termination 
 that can in any degree restore, harmonize, or reconstruct our once glori- 
 ous Union ; that, alas ! is gone forever. For the last thirty years it has 
 been but a Union in name — a Union without harmony ; and has any one 
 ever known discoi-d and strife to produce harmony ? 
 
 But when taxation becomes so enormous, abominable and oppressive, 
 to meet the interest on the immense debt for the cost of the war, which 
 the people have not as yet felt, because not called on to pay ; when every 
 interest and business prostrate and ruined ; when there is no foreign de- 
 mand for the produce of the Great West, and she fully realizes the im- 
 mense advantages she has heretofore possessed in her entire control and 
 monopoly, of supplying the South, and which she might have possessed 
 forever ; when the manufacturers of the Eastern States have been com- 
 
pelled to stop all their mills and machines, because of no demand for their 
 products ; when the commercial ships of the great Northern cities are 
 rotting at their wharves, because they have no cotton to carry to Europe, 
 and no emigrants to bring to this country, and no merchandise to carry to 
 the South ; when the millions of poor laborers in manufactories, and 
 others, are starving; when property has no value, as it cannot be con- 
 verted into money, and those now well off become destitute, and without 
 means to feed the hungry and clothe the naked ; when the agrarians and 
 other isms come forth and claim a division of property, but take all, and 
 leave the now wealthy houseless and destitute ; when all the young men 
 now in the war, who do not get killed or die from disease, retm-n to their 
 homes demoralized, diseased, drunkards, vagabonds, a curse upon the 
 land that reared them ; when religious and civil liberty shall be at an 
 end ; when the boasted freedom for which our fathers fought, bled, suf- 
 fered and conquered, shall be extinguished ; when man is no longer what 
 his Creator intended him — a man — but a vile, humiliated, subjected thing, 
 to cringe and fawn under the frown or smile of a military tyrant ; when 
 the Independence of the Confederate States is acknowledged by France 
 and England, and the Confederate States propose Free Trade with all 
 nations and peoples, who will do the same ; — after all these and more the 
 Great West will begin to reflect, and will first see that its great, all-im- 
 portant interest is Agriculture ; that it can produce food for man — bread- 
 stuffs and meat sufficient for all the world, too, without fear of competi- 
 tion; that it can receive no benefit from protective tariffs, and unwilling 
 to be taxed for the sole benefit of capital, as a premium to its possessor 
 and security of his power over labor, by drawing the last mite from the 
 starving and destitute to his already overflowing coffers. When the Great 
 West sees that its true interest is in fi'ce, unrestricted trade and exchange 
 of commodities with all the world ; that it only wants markets for its 
 enormous products, and to get markets it must make exchanges. When 
 the West can see that the substance of its labor has been wasted in pay- 
 ing tribute to the capital of the East ; that the war has so prostrated and 
 ruined all and every commercial, agricultural and industrial interest, 
 wasted the capital, means and resources of the people, and thrown what 
 remains of capital into the hands of a few individuals who will hold and 
 own the entire Government debt, which, if the war continues five years, 
 will amount to more than three billions five hundred millions of dollars 
 (^3,500,000,000), with an annual interest of two hundred and forty-five 
 millions of dollars (^245,000,000); and this enormous debt held and 
 owned by those who, by fraud, have made their fortunes out of the war ; 
 who, too, will hold, own and manage the Government and Legislature of 
 the entire country, abolish the right of suffrage, curtail the freedom and 
 rights of man, restrict the Press, and blot freedom, independence, justice 
 and equality from the history of man, and make whom they please King, 
 Emperor or Dictator. Will the Great West submit to all this ? as it must, 
 or separate from it. I think not. So soon as England and France ac- 
 knowledge the Southern Confederacy (which is not far distant), I think 
 the West will separate — cither make Fremont, or some other demagogue, 
 Dictator, and make peace with the South, to have a demand for its pro- 
 duce, and a direct free trade with all Jjurope, which it can have through 
 the South, the Mississippi lliver and the ditf'erent Railroads, and through 
 Canada. 
 
 When all that I have specified takes place, then, and not till then, 
 will the war end. And what will the North have gained by all this ? 
 Just what they have been longing after for more than thirty years ; — yes, 
 this longing commenced with many soon after our glorious devolution — a 
 Despotism, with hereditary rights and privileges ; a Nobility, with an 
 enormous debt, that shall require a taxation to almost take the bread from 
 
the destitute millions— the privileged class holding and owning the debt, 
 as in England, and controlling the entire Legislative body, the State Leg- 
 islatures being entirely suppressed with the right of suffrage ; and a State 
 or Government Religion estabUshed, thus ending forever Religious and 
 Civil Liberty, and throwing all mankind back into the darkness and op- 
 pression which existed before the dawn of our once glorious Independence, 
 Light and Liberty ; for, all the reforms for the benefit of the down- 
 trodden millions, all over the world, have been consequent upon, and in- 
 fluenced by, our example. And now, as we go back to despotism, liberty, 
 freedom and equality wiU be a bye-word and a mockery, and every despot 
 with his privileged classes, will use it to subjugate more completely and 
 debase the masses below the power of resistance. 
 
 Thus the North, by the war, will have gained what it has most de- 
 sired—a despotism, with nobility, hereditary titles, &c. But they will at 
 the same time overthrow, destroy and lose forever the best Government 
 ever formed by man ; they will lose Religious and Ci\il Liberty ; they 
 will lose freedom, independence and equality in man ; they wUl lose the 
 power of self-government by man ; they will lose the great com- 
 merce which made us the rival of England all over the world; they 
 will lose the immense carrying trade for all the South ; they will lose the 
 monopoly in the immense amount of supplies of manufactured goods, 
 mechanics, &c., furnished to the South— or, if they continue to supply, 
 it must be in competition with aU Europe ; besides this, they will have 
 forced the South to manufacture for its own use, as well as to produce its 
 own corn, flour and meat. x- ^^ ^ 
 
 I have never read the history of the overthrow and complete downtaliot 
 any nation or people that has surprised me so much as this complete over- 
 throw of our own. It does appear to me that tbe people everywhere have 
 run stark mad, and it is not one party alone, but all together seeming to vie 
 with each other, and striving to see which can be most extravagant m his 
 madness. And what is it all for? Certainly no one of sane nimd can, 
 for a moment, believe that the horrible war now being waged between the 
 two great sections of our once great and happy country can tend to, or 
 ever result in, Union and harmony. Can rapine, robbery, murder, and 
 all the horrors of this barbarous war, instigated and carried on by the 
 worst of passions and worst of men, ever produce harmony and Union? 
 No, never. Suppose, for a moment, that the North overrun, devastate 
 the' South, murder and destroy all the whites, and let loose all the blacks, 
 what will be gained by it ? Will it restore Union and harmony ? No, 
 never. But it will ruin every interest of the North— commercial, manu- 
 facturing and agricultural But the South will not be overrun and ruined ; 
 they will gain then* Independence as our fathers did, and perpetuate Re- 
 ligious and Civil Liberty. 
 
 How much better to have let the South go by herself, as she proposed, 
 peaceably. Agreeable to the Constitution and the compact formed by 
 "the fathers," the South had the same, or equal, interest in all that 
 belonged to the whole Union, and the same legal and equitable rights m 
 all things pertaining to it, as the North ; and as to equitable rights, from 
 whence has been derived the money that paid the debt of the war of the 
 Revolution, and all succeeding wars with England, the Indians, Mexico, 
 &c. ? Whence came the money that built all our naval ships, &c.; that 
 has built all our forts, arsenals, &c.; our splendid post-oifices, custom- 
 houses, and other public buildings ? Whence came all the money that 
 has paid the annual expenditures— the support of hundreds of thousands 
 of idle, in many cases drunken, useless, almost vagabond, Govermuent 
 dependents, and grog-shop political party demagogues, by whom and 
 through whom the people have been maddened to their own destruction, 
 and with it all the freedom of man is gone? I say, whence came the 
 
money for all this — who paid it ? Now every one must know that all the 
 money paid out by our Grovernment, for all causes — war, purchase of 
 lands or new territory — since the war of the Revolution to this time, 
 (with two exceptions, and that but small in amount by direct taxation,) 
 has come from the duties on imports and the sale of public lands ; and 
 who has paid these duties on imports, and from whence came the public 
 lands ? The South and the West being agriculturists, and not manufac- 
 turers, have paid almost all the duty. And not only have the Great 
 West and South paid the debts of, and supported, the Grovernment, but, 
 at the same time, this unequal, unjust tax upon tlie South and the West, 
 has been a tribute to the people of the North and East, and to their capi- 
 tal — they being merchants and manufacturers. The public land, too, 
 except what was given by Virginia to the old thirteen States — now Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin — have all been purchased by 
 money from duties on imports and sales of public lands. Then, in equity, 
 to whom should all the naval ships, forts, arsenals, public lands, &c., 
 belong ? Who has paid for them ? The South claim but her equal share 
 with her right to free government. Did our fathers in the Eevolution 
 claim more? No; it is just what they fought for, and suffered for. But 
 they gained what they paid for with their toil, trials and blood — Religious 
 and Civil Liberty, Freedom, Equality and Justice to man. Man was 
 made a sovereign ; they proclaimed this to the world. Not only were the 
 thirteen States declared free, independent, sovereign States, with execu- 
 tive, legislative and judicial powers and branches ; but man everywhere 
 was free, and a new era dawned in the history of men. But they were 
 rebels and traitors ; Washington was a rebel and traitor, and a price set 
 for his head. And they were truly rebels and traitors, for the Crown 
 owned all the land, and claimed all the people as subjects, with the exclu- 
 sive, undisputed right to use them at will and to pleasure. But our 
 fathers foreswore their allegiance to any but to the God of Heaven and 
 Earth, and claimed the wilderness as their inheritance, for the good of 
 man at large. They instituted a government as their agent, to transact 
 the business for the whole, in which all were or might be equally inte- 
 rested, but which could not be done by each State acting separate and 
 distinct from the others so well as if done by an agent acting for all 
 together. The powers of this agent were clearly defined and restricted, 
 its limits fixed so that it could never transcend them. They made the 
 People the Government, and the agent subject to them, and never the 
 people the subjects of the Government. Why, in the early part of my 
 life, were a man called a subject, it would have been considered an indig- 
 nity, for all felt that the inheritance bequeathed by our fathers established 
 that none but despots and monarchs could any more claim man as a sub- 
 ject. But it now seems that all the ideas, precedents and acts of the 
 fathers are forgotten, and here one section of this great country is fighting 
 to the death to overrun and subjugate the other. 
 
 No, my dear sister, I see no hope for any end to this war that can ever 
 restore union and harmony ; that is now gone forever. Had the South 
 been permitted to have gone out peaceably, she would have formed such 
 commercial treaties with all Europe as would have opened her ports to free 
 trade, and the Great West, being exclusively agricultural, would soon see 
 that its interest compelled it to form an alliance with the South, by which 
 the Great West would forever secure a market in the South for its pro- 
 ducts, and, more important still, a free market, to a free trade with all 
 Europe, South America, Mexico, all the Islands, and, in fact, all the 
 world, without paying tribute to any. And California and Oregon, so 
 soon as they cannot get all they want from the United States Treasury, 
 would also form a separate government. Then the North and Eastern 
 States would be left under a military despotism, with an enormous debt ; 
 
commerce, manufactures, and every interest prostrate; ruin, starvation 
 and dismay at every corner, with taxation beyond endurance, and ex- 
 changes of commodities, the fruits of mechanic labor, cut off with the 
 South and West, which latter has been the never-failing source of wealth 
 and power to the North and East. The peaceable separation of the South 
 would have produced all this, and then reflection and sad experience might 
 have brought the minds of the people everywhere to a right understand- 
 ing of the whole subject, with a just appreciation of the great, the incal- 
 culable loss to all of the disruption ; and, above all, a proper appreciation 
 of the separate, distinct interests of each section, and in time a recon- 
 struction might have been formed under and upon the basis of the old 
 Constitution, defining and limiting Congress, beyond the power of con- 
 struction to evade, or of the wisdom of all the wise Daniels in the land to 
 expound and confound away ; and the revenue for the support of the 
 Grovernment to be alone from direct taxation and the sale of the public 
 lands, with no tariff" on imports, but free trade and a free exchange of all 
 products and commodities with all the world ; then ours would still be 
 a glorious Union, what our fathers intended it; property would then 
 pay the expenses of the Grovernment, and labor free and man enjoy the 
 full fruits of his toil, and pay no tribute as now, by the tariff, to capital; 
 labor being the source of all wealth, should never pay tribute to it, but 
 all the legislation of the world has had for its great object and aim the 
 increase of the power of wealth over labor, and the entire subjugation of 
 labor to it. But, alas ! I now fear that this bloody, barbarous war will 
 so embitter the feelings towards each other, that there can be no hope of 
 reconstruction. The South, so far as I can learn, seem to be united to a 
 man, and feel as our fathers, that they are contending for their liberty, 
 their freedom, their independence ; feel that they had equal rights in the 
 Union with the North — that these rights have been disregarded, and the 
 compact which bound them together, violated and sundered by the North. 
 While it seems that the North assumes, as the Crown of England did in 
 our Revolution, that it is the sole owner of the government — the flag, 
 the lands, and the people, — and, as England did the North, fight for 
 conquest, a subjugation of the South ; and if they succeed, to whom will 
 the South be subject? Certainly not to the people of the Union ; such 
 was not the intention of the fathers, and nowhere provided for in the 
 Constitution or compact ; — but, alas ! to some military despot. I look 
 upon a military despotism over the North as inevitable, impossible to be 
 prevented. Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet may have no such intention, 
 but have now an organized military power of 650,000 men ; add to it the 
 contractors, speculators, attendants, attaches, and those actually interested 
 in the continuance of the war— 200,000 to 300,000 more — and this im- 
 mense army is beyond the power of Mr. Lincoln or the people to control. 
 A military despotism is for their interest, and they will have it; some 
 chieftain will lead them on to it, and there is no power to restrain them, 
 and Mr. Lincoln and his party must give in to, or be swept away with, 
 the current that will overwhelm all. 
 
 I know there are those who make Abolition the basis of all their acts 
 here and all their hopes of Heaven hereafter, and they are a numerous 
 class, too. But it appears to me they do not see that it was an all-wise 
 and an overruling Providence that sent the negro into bondage, for other- 
 wise they could not come here to be trained to labor, to civilization, and 
 to Christianity ; to be carried, in God's own proper time, to their native 
 land to train to labor. Christianize and civilize the lower than heathen or 
 savage barbarian. Can any one pretend that God's Providence is not 
 seen in all this ? And can any one pretend that the slaves in the South- 
 ern States are not, in their worst condition, ten thousand times better off 
 than the negroes in their native land ? And can any one pretend that 
 
6 
 
 God's Providence is not visible in all this, as well as in the progress made 
 in civilization and Christianity in Africa ? But who are the Abolitionists 
 who make such a hue and cry for human freedom ? Alas ! many of them 
 do not believe in a God at all. I say, who are they ? Many the most 
 conspicuous, are they not. Free Thinkers, Free Lovers, Spiritual Rappers, 
 Mesmerisers, Mormons, Women's llights, Fanny Wrights, Agrarians, 
 Anti-Renters, &c. &c. ? Are such people — infidels, heretics, disowning 
 the Saviour who bought them : immoral, drunkards, and worse than 
 vagabonds ; — are such people to lead such a great and glorious nation as 
 this was to ruin, to destruction V Such are the people who have raised 
 the cry for universal human freedom ; yes, it is universal freedom they 
 demand in all things — unrestrained indulgence of all their vile passions, 
 prejudices and appetites. Alas ! with them what would be sacred ? Vir- 
 tue, honor and Christianity would not, for they discard them all, and 
 violate the first principles of freedom and Christianity — Charity — and 
 with the power, would hang and burn every one not subscribing to their 
 profane dogmas. Till Mr. Lincoln, no one of them has ever proposed 
 any disposition of the negro after emancipation. They cry human free- 
 dom, but what will they do with the emancipated negro? The North do 
 not want them, and many States have, by legislative acts, excluded them, 
 and none allow them to chil freedom. It is true, many preach amalga- 
 mation, and still they are not permitted to seats in any public conveyance, 
 nor t o any social equality or political rights. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's scheme of emancipation and colonization in some foreign 
 country, by purchase of territory for them, is just as Utopian as if he 
 proposed to take them to the moon. First, he cannot emancipate until he 
 gets the power so to do, and that cannot be done until the entire South 
 shall be subjugated ; and that cannot be done till all the white population 
 of the South is exterminated. And when all that is done, the negroes, 
 if any remain, will be unwilling to be removed, and if sent at all must 
 be by force ; would this be liberty and freedom ? But suppose that Mr. 
 Lincoln and his party could succeed, and emancipate all the 4,000,000 of 
 slaves, what would he do with them? for most surely they could not re- 
 main in the South where they now are, for there could be no white popu- 
 lation remain to employ, protect, guide and provide for them, and they 
 are too improvident to do this for themselves — never had any such expe- 
 rience, no, never had any thought for the morrow. No, they would be 
 thrown loose paupers on the North. And to make any progress in Mr. 
 Lincoln's plan of colonization, there are not ships enough in all the world 
 to make an impression on them ; besides, from whence the means to carry 
 out this gigantic Utopian scheme? Will the North, after paying the tax 
 on the war debt, pay this also ? The South certainly will never pay it, or 
 any part of it. But, perhaps Mr. Lincoln will confiscate and sell all the 
 lands South, but who will buy, who will have the money to pay ? No, 
 Mr. Lincoln's plan is so wild, so impracticable, that no person of sane 
 mind and common sense can for a moment entertain or believe any one 
 can be serious in proposing it, and it can be looked upon only as a blind 
 to lure the people of Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky and Mis- 
 souri to loyalty to Mr. Lincoln's government, while the real plan is to in- 
 stigate the slaves to a revolt against their masters, and arm and aid them 
 to burn their cities, rob and murder them ; to inflame the slaves to mad- 
 ness, and turn them loose upon helpless women and children. Such is 
 proclaimed as the policy and intent of one section of this country against 
 the other, both having equal rights under the compact or Constitution, 
 which, by our fathers, made them one people, each pledged and bound to 
 the other to fulfill the conditions of that compact, and protect each other 
 in their rights under it. The government, their agent, was instituted by 
 them for that purpose, and not an instrument with power and authority to 
 
coerce and subjugate one section to the other. By the Revolution our 
 fathers threw off their vassalage, and in the compact formed by the thir- 
 teen independent, sovei-eign States, they were made equal, one with the 
 other, and no one would be or could be made a vassal to the others ; even 
 the suspicion that the idea of the vassalage of one of the States, or sec- 
 tions, to the others, would have sundered them forever. 
 
 Now, I ask, is this war, this attempt to coerce into subjection one sec- 
 tion of this country to the other, authorized by the compact ? Is it carry- 
 ing out and fulfilling the* conditions of the Constitution? When the 
 compact (the Constitution) was formed, slavery existed in all the States 
 except Massachusetts, and slavery was as much provided for, and all the 
 States pledged to the owners for its support and protection, as for any 
 other interest ; and more so, because this was a special interest. And 
 now, I ask, is the arming the slaves, and instigating them to insurrection, 
 and turning them loose on their masters, their helpless wives and children, 
 to pillage, murder, and commit all the horrid crimes that their natural 
 instincts and half barbaric passions and appetites may suggest, the fulfil- 
 ment of the conditions of the compact? Is this the Christianity, the 
 good fellowship to be exhibited and meted out by one section of a great, 
 a once free, happy, united people, to the other ? I am sick, I am bewil- 
 dered ; I cannot comprehend at all the motives or means by which the 
 people have been lead by the political demagogues to this madness, which 
 is to be the sure means of the overthrow of all that our fathers fought for, 
 and considered so dear to us as a nation and to posterity for all time to 
 come. It does appear to me that God is maddening the people every- 
 where for their own destruction. 
 
 As before remarked, when the Con,stitution was adopted slavery existed 
 in all the States but one, and since my remembrance slavery has been 
 abolished in all the free States. And why was it abolished ? Because 
 the emigration of free white labor from Europe came in competition and 
 caused it to be unprofitable. And how was it managed ? Why the slaves 
 were sent South and sold, so that when the time fixed for emancipation 
 arrived there were but few slaves to be made free. And what has been 
 the condition since of those made free, together with those who have been 
 under the cry of ' ' human freedom " enticed away from their masters ? 
 Yes, I may say stolen from their masters, for, by the Constitution, it is as 
 much of a theft as the taking of any other commodity ? I say, what has 
 been their condition ? With few exceptions, are they not a degraded 
 class, more so than when slaves? Has not emancipation tended to ex- 
 termination ? Go to our large cities, Philadelphia and New York ; is 
 there any class so miserable, so destitute, so immoral, and so little capable 
 of taking care for themselves ? Go to Anthony and other such streets in 
 New York, as when I was a resident there — and the same in Philadelphia 
 and other cities — and tell me, is there in the very extreme, worst cases in 
 the South, any suffering, and misery, and degradation, and crime to com- 
 pare with these ? Why, you may go from Washington to New Orleans 
 and Texas, and for the entire distance you cannot find so much squallid, 
 abject misery, entire destitution, suffering, want, filth, immorality, indo- 
 lence and crime, as there existed in Anthony street. New York, when I 
 knew it. The philanthropist, the humane, the Christian, should bend his 
 efforts and use his means to benefit the condition of mankind, pecuniarily 
 so far as by labor to produce the necessary comforts of life, morally, re- 
 religiously, civilly and politically — not degrade and make him ten times 
 worse off in all respects. 
 
 There are, no doubt, cases hard to be borne, and are truly inhuman. 
 I have been in almost all the slave States, with all my feelings and strong 
 prejudices from a Northern education and associations ; and I have ,also 
 visited almost all the nations and peoples of Europe, as well as Asia, 
 
8 
 
 China, &c. , and have had time and opportunities to examine into the 
 forms and workings of different governments, and conditions of the peo- 
 ple at large, and I have looked back to my then happy country with the 
 inexpressible pleasure that nowhere have I found what is termed the la- 
 boring classes so well off as even ' ' the poor slaves " in our Southern 
 States. There are hardships everywhere for the poor and destitute, but 
 the slave is not poor or destitute ; he must be feed and clothed by his 
 master, and made comfortable, else he is unable to labor, and rather than 
 a profit is a burden to his master ; with no better motive, self-interest 
 compels this, and no thought for the morrow is forced upon the slave ; and 
 the master who is inhuman to, and does not properly clothe, feed and care 
 for his slaves, is subject to the censure and just indignation of the com- 
 munity around him. 
 
 It is charged that family relations are broken up, husband, wife and 
 children sundered, &c. This, too, is exaggerated. But does it not take 
 place amongst the whites even in the free States? Are not parents often, 
 from extreme poverty and destitution, obliged to bind out their offspring, 
 and often to most cruel masters V And even the humane and charitable 
 institutions, and even public authorities, do it for them. And fathers, 
 often, from necessity, forced to separate from wife and family and go to 
 distant States and countries to procure a living. And does not the mother 
 often send her children as paupers to the poorhouse, and herself go out to 
 service the worst of slavery ? And go through all the manufacturing 
 districts, in seasons of depression in business or some political crisis, when 
 the masters set out to get the tariff increased, or gain the election of some 
 party political demagogue, and see the poor operatives, thrust out of em- 
 ployment, without means of subsistance, to starve and suffer till the mas- 
 ter gains his point. And look at their moral condition. Is not the slave 
 of the South better off than this ? Then go to England, from whence 
 this abolition excitement for a long time received its greatest support. 
 Look at the miserable, suffering, starving mendicant — transported for life 
 as a penalty for taking a loaf of bread, when the suffering from starvation 
 forbade longer restraint? Gro to the coal mines, and see the thousands of 
 both sexes herded together, naked or nearly so, as ignorant as brute 
 beast, almost idiots — many of whom the light of day has never shone 
 upon. Are not the slaves of the South more happy and better off than 
 these? Then go to London, the great Babylon, and see, first, the 
 wretched, fallen women. What misery, what abject poverty and suffer- 
 ing ! Steeped in vice, crime and disease, many of them loathsome to 
 behold, and thousands of them brought to this degradation and misery 
 from actual starvation and want! Of such in Loudon, there are thirty 
 thousand (30,000,) who have no home, no shelter from the cold and 
 storm, and spend their nights on the door-steps and porches of the houses 
 in the streets. Are not the slaves of the South far better oft' than these ? 
 And these thirty thousand homeless, houseless, friendless, outcast women 
 are but a small part of all England. The population of England, Ireland 
 and Scotland is about 30,000,000. There are less than 400,000 who 
 have an income annually of seven hundred and fifty dollars ($750) each, 
 though some say about 150,000 out of the 400,000 have larger, some 
 very large incomes; but what of the 29,600,000 that do not anyone 
 have $750 per annum ? Many of them rarely, if ever, eat meat at all, 
 and want is so familiar that they do not complain. They are inured to 
 vice and crime, and ignorant almost as the brute creation. Let any one 
 pass through crowds of them as I have done, in London and other cities, 
 and witness the squallid suffering for want of proper food, the ghostly, 
 bloodless countenances and half-clad bodies, turned out perhaps to witness 
 the splendid retinue of some royal cortege pass ; and if there is any, even 
 a spark of humanity left, the heart must bleed for them, and exclaim, 
 
9 
 
 Are not the slaves of the South far better off than these ? Yes, I can 
 truely say that my heart has ached and bled for them, and felt proud and 
 rejoiced at the contrast with my own once happy country, slaves and all. 
 
 I might go with you to, and show the condition of, the working classes 
 of other countries, kingdoms and nations, with the splendid magnificence 
 of crowns, courts, nobles, and their attendants, the support of which is 
 always drawn from the hard-earnings of labor, and, in all the countries, 
 which I have visited, to an extent to produce want, starvation and crime, 
 and keep the laboring classes as low and as ignorant as possible ; and I 
 have looked back to my own dear country, with a glorious exultation and 
 pride that my lot had been cast in a land of freedom from tyranny and 
 oppression, where man could unrestrainedly worship Grod according, to the 
 dictates of his own conscience, enjoy the full fruits of his labor, and with 
 proper industry and economy could know no want. But, alas ! it was 
 but a dream, and is now all past forever — all gone ; man is no longer free, 
 but subject to military despotism ; all the rights and privileges bequeathed 
 by our fathers will soon be taken from him, and the fruits of his toil go 
 to support a despot, crown, court, nobles and attendants. 
 
 I have here instituted a comparison between the destitute, suffering 
 whites, in our own country and that of England, with the condition of 
 the slaves in the Southern States, not because I favor slavery, for human 
 bondage is obnoxious to my American instincts ; but, first, to show that 
 those who cry so loudly against it, could find a much more deserving, and 
 much more suffering subject for their humanity and philanthropy at 
 home — they who make the cry being mostly Englishmen and Americans ; 
 and because I have never believed this the way to benefit, or that the 
 good of the slave was the true object of interest at heart. All the acts 
 of those people confirm this latter fact. What condition have they placed 
 them in, in the free States, civilly, politically and morally ? And what 
 do they now propose ? Why, cast them loose, with no means for their 
 support — to eject them out of the country. God in His infinite wisdom 
 sent them here for His own special purpose, and no one who believes in 
 a Supreme Ruler of the universe can for a moment doubt that His inten- 
 tions are abundantly manifest, and being carried out, and will be carried 
 out fully to the end ; and those who do not even believe in His name, 
 with all their ' ' human reason " cannot alter one jot or one tittle of His 
 all-wise decrees ; but their rebellion against Him will surely bring His 
 curse, not only upon their heads, but upon those also who consort with 
 them. Such has been and will prove the result of their acts, which have 
 brought Grod's curse upon our once happy nation. 
 
 All who are conversant with the subject must know and see clearly, 
 that every act of those all-wise, self-righteous, fanatical "Human reason- 
 ites" reformers, has but riveted the chains more firmly upon the bondmen, 
 increased their burdens, lessened their liberty and privileges, diiuinished 
 instruction, weakened confidence between master and slave, and rendered 
 their whole lot in life fifty times harder in all and every respect than it 
 would have been without their meddling, inhuman, unchristian, and un- 
 constitutional interference. 
 
 The South have not been the founders of slavery ; it was entailed upon 
 us North and South by England. I have shown that it was interest, and 
 not humanity, that excluded slavery from the North ; for who carried on 
 
 the African slave trade till it became Piracy, by the Act of Congress 
 
 but the North '! And by whom was that Act of Congress advocated ? 
 
 was it not Southern Statesmen ? and I have just so much charity for, as to 
 believe that, the Northern manufacturers would this day have their mills 
 filled with black slaves, provided they could turn them out destitute as 
 they do the whites, when they cannot employ them to a profit ; while with 
 the Southern slave owner the case is very different — he is obliged to feed 
 
10 
 
 clothe and protect bis slaves, whether he gets anything from the fruits of 
 their labor or not. In my acquaintance with the South I have seen times 
 when their crops would not sell except at a very low price, and the fruits 
 of the labor of a whole plantation was required to feed and clothe the 
 slaves; and often too, on a plantation of 100 to 150 negros, 30 to 50 of 
 young, old, decripped, and infirm — not capable to labor at all, — these I 
 have seen nursed and cared for even by the wife and daughters of the-ir 
 master, and this was not considered as humane or charitable, but a duty, 
 an interest— to be faithfully regarded : and the master feels himself bound 
 to this, and never dreams of casting them off upon the world when no 
 longer useful or profitable to him, as with the white labor at the North. 
 In witnessing this, I have often prayed that all mankind everywhere, 
 miglit be as well cared for and as well off as the Southern slave. There 
 are, undoubtedly, hard cases, and hard masters — just as with the white 
 masters at the North ; but the worst cases I have witnessed or heard of, 
 are masters who have gone from the North and become slave owners, and 
 whose friends and relations North cry the loudest against slavery ; while 
 the Southern slave owner feels that his slaves have been bequeathed to him, 
 perhaps been in his family for generations ; he too has grown up with 
 many of his. slaves — mutual feelings and interests exist, and in many cases 
 strong friendships and attachments — and the master feels himself bound 
 by all that is honorable or sacred, to provide for and protect them. He 
 feels it a charge from High Heaven which he cannot forego, and though 
 it might be for his inter(!St or pleasure (which I have known to be in many 
 cases) to emancipate them, he does not do it to cast them on the cold 
 world helpless and destitute, he therefore continues his charge, his duty, 
 with all his family to aid him ; and have seen myself, highly educated, 
 accomplished ladies and their daughters, making clothing with their own 
 hands, attending the sick and nursing the young, as well as the old and 
 infirm, till I have concluded they themselves were in the closest bondage ; 
 and this has not been heralded to all the world in all the Newspapers, as 
 done by an association of christian, himiane ladies, or by societies of towns, 
 cities, and districts, but separate and distinct, by the owner of each plan- 
 tation, and they have not thanked God that they are better than their 
 neighbours. Now, would it be philanthrophy, or christian humanity to 
 forcibly break up this system of responsibility and dependence and turn 
 loose 4,000,000 of ignorant, destitute, improvident, I may say helpless 
 (as they are without a guide and superior protector) blacks upon the 
 world ? Would it be christian — would it be humane — to instigate their 
 hatred against those whom they have always looked to as their superiors 
 and protectors ? to arm them to rob and murder, and throw loose upon the 
 unprotected, helpless women and children, who have ministered to their 
 wants, and nursed them in illness — would it be humane even to the blacks ? 
 would it not be more barbarous, yes, more horrid even than the French 
 Revolution of 1798. My mind revolts with horror from such a scene, 
 and this is just what is now proposed to do by the North against the South. 
 Oh ! my Country ! my Country ! my whole country North and South. 
 Oh, that Grod would make me the instrument, or that my life could be the 
 sacrifice to restore it to what our fathers made and bequeathed it to us ; 
 but alas, I am helpless, I can do nothing. Oh, that I could travel from 
 Maine to Texas and from the Gulf to the great Lakes — yes, I would do it, 
 willingly, and bare-foot too, were that the condition, and talk to the people 
 everywhere, reason dispassionately with, and tell them how great, how in- 
 estimable is the prize they are trampling under their feet, and tell them 
 what I have seen in all the world ; and how transcendently superior was 
 their condition and position to all mankind. And oh, how can they wil- 
 lingly and freely of their own choice and act, cast this all from them for- 
 ever. Alas, alas ! it seems that the Die is cast — the seal is set — it must 
 
11 
 
 be so, and I can do my country no good : alas ! how can any one do any 
 good, for no one is allowed to speak or even think differently from the 
 military power which now rules this land. Is this the freedom our fathers 
 bequeathe(^to us ? I am here in the heart of this strife, this overthrow of 
 all that I have considered as most dear and sacred to man. I have no in- 
 tercourse or communion with any North or South — I have isolated myself 
 from the world, and labor for my daily bread — I have no interest North 
 or South to influence my opinions, or be ruined by the dire calamity of 
 this political tornado, which spreads over, engulphs and devastates our 
 whole country — and I am now an old man, and no children to inherit the 
 curse that is upon us ; and at the utmost the years which Providence may 
 be pleased to allot to me, cannot be many ; my habits simple, and there- 
 fore wants are few, so that there are few indeed with so little personal in- 
 terest. Still my heart bleeds for my country, my whole counti-y — and I 
 would that it had been God's will to have taken me to Himself, and spared 
 me the pain of witnessing the downfall, the utter overthrow of all, in a 
 government and country, people and all, of which I have felt such a glo- 
 rious pride, and in which I have seen so much general happiness and 
 universal prosperity. Situated as I am, I am compelled to look upon the 
 events transpiring around me, and judge of what is passing without preju- 
 dice or interest, agreeable to the dictates of my conscience, and from facts 
 which cannot be gainsaid. Now the facts are as clear as noon-day to my 
 mind, that had this slavery question been left where it should have been 
 left, where the Constitution, the compact, (which made the Thirteen inde- 
 pendent States a nation, a people) found and left it, with the States where 
 it existed, and not made a party political question ; apolitical geographical 
 division could never have been made. Before the attempt to make it a 
 party question, there was but one feeling and but one view of the subject, 
 and that was, it was a subject over which Congress, by the compact, was 
 fully and clearly restrained ; nor was it for a moment doubted that it 
 would ever remain so ; and the people of the North even, would as soon 
 have though of dictating to the South what crop they should raise, or how 
 they should feed, clothe and educate their children, as in any way meddle 
 with slavery ; and it was never dreamed that it could ever be made a sub- 
 ject of discord, much less of strife and civil war. The feeling everywhere 
 was, that slavery was a burden rather than benefit, and in time, the com- 
 petition with free white labor would from interest, as had been in the 
 North, force the abandonment of it at least in the border States, Maryland, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, &c., which would have been accomplished, as had 
 been done in the North, without strife or discord, by sending slaves far- 
 ther South. Such, it appears to me, would have been the plan on which 
 Providence would have smiled, and the owner and slave both benefitted ; 
 such was the intention of the border States I have named, and the State of 
 Virginia came within one vote in its Legislature of its accomplishment. 
 But to turn loose the slaves of even those border States, without means of 
 support, would have been wicked, cruel and impossible ; they would have 
 been destitute, improvident, incapable of providing for themselves, and 
 thrown as paupers upon the white population — a curse to themselves and 
 to their former masters. Such was the position and condition of Slavery 
 until the purchase of Louisiana, which as it was before the purchase, a 
 slave territory from New Orleans to our Northern boundary with England, 
 and, by the law of Nations continued to be slave territory after the pur- 
 chase ; to this period no agitation, no excitement of the slave question had 
 been made or even thought of, a subject over which Congress coidd have 
 no control, or any power of action. Virginia, it is true, in her cessions of 
 the North-West Territory, now the State of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, &c., 
 &c., made the condition, that slavery should be excluded; this as the 
 donor, she had a right to do, but the condition by the Constitution became 
 
12 
 
 inoperative, so soon as the territory was formed into States, after which 
 Congress could have no control over it, as any State may adopt or abol- 
 ish slavery at its pleasure, notwithstanding any acts of Congress or other 
 States to the contrary. This was in effect, an inoperative restriction, was 
 influenced by a motive of interest rather than consideration for^the slave ; 
 at that time the production of tobacco from slave labor was profitable, and 
 Virginia feared her slaves might be drawn off to the new territory to pro- 
 duce tobacco in competition, to her disadvantage ; and to the time that 
 Missouri applied to be admitted a State of the Union, all was peace and 
 harmony — but as the purchase of Louisiana gave an immense territory, 
 equal to several States, and slave States, too, agriculturists, producers from 
 the soil of sugar, cotton, tobacco, rice, hemp, breadstuff's and meat, 
 and all of which except sugar, tobacco and hemp, produced at a less 
 cost than in any other part of the world, consequently could receive no 
 benefit from a protective tariff — therefore, the population would reasonably 
 and naturally oppose being taxed by a tariff to make them tributary to in- 
 terests, benefitted by it. 
 
 Even at the time of the Declaration of our Independence there was a 
 party in favor of a Monarchy, with a Coui-t, Nobles, &c. Mr. Hamilton 
 headed this old English sentiment and party. As they could not gain a 
 monarchy, they aimed to approach as near to it as possible, and not make 
 their designs too palpable ; they commenced with bounties on fisheries, pro- 
 tection and premiums, on navigation and commerce, and then a United 
 States Bank, and sad to relate, Gen. Washington assented to these, too, 
 against his own better judgment, expressed before in the clearest and 
 strongest terms. These fostered interests, were all to the people of New 
 England, and just so far as they were benefitted, the South and all the 
 agricultural interests of the country being consumers of the fruits and 
 products of the people of the New England States, were taxed unjust- 
 ly, unconstitutionally. This same Hamiltonian party, were active, ener- 
 getic, and pushing forward their plans for the encouragement, protection 
 and bounty, to individuals, interests combined by individuals, charters, 
 &c. ; they however, began to see that the purely agricultural States began 
 to view their acts as burthensome to them, unauthorized by the compact 
 or Constitution, and subversive of the rights and independence of the 
 States which formed the compact — therefore, it was, that the Hamiltonian 
 party, Rufus King, of New York, their leader, saw, that more slave 
 States, as they would be pui-ely agricultural in all their interests, and 
 could not be brought into their schemes for the subversion of the Consti- 
 tution, and making the acts of Congress omnipotent, opposed the admittal 
 of Missouri as a State, though Missouri had complied with all the condi- 
 tions of the Constitution. In fact Congress has no power under the Con- 
 stitution to reject a State when applying with a "Republican form of Gov- 
 ernment" — it is a subject over which Congress has no power to act. At 
 this period the first cry of human freedom was raised, and so eflicient was 
 it made, that Missouri could not be admitted until a compromise, as it was 
 tenned wais made, fixing the line of 36°-30 — the North of which slavery 
 could never exist, but South of it slavery might or might not exist, 
 as the people elected for themselves. Here was a vile and palpable 
 overthrow of the constitution, and a violent outrage upon the people; and 
 look at its absurdity. No one, as yet, pretends that Congress can have or 
 has any powei- to legislate for the municipal or other laws of any State, or 
 that Congress has any power to prevent any State from adopting or abol- 
 ishing slavery at will ; the whole act was wicked in the extreme, because 
 it excited the people of the whole country to antagonistic interests, preju- 
 dices, and passions — kindled a fire to which they have been piling up fuel 
 till they have consumed and destroyed the most splendid and perfect fabric 
 of Government ever devised by human wisdom. The act was absurd be- 
 
IS 
 
 cause inoperative just so soon as the territory was made a State — the ab- 
 surdity could not have been more palpable had these wise Daniels taken a 
 map and drawn a line across over the Mississippi, and in their profound 
 wisdom enacted that just so far shalt thou flown down but no farther — 
 what would have been the result ? Why the river would have regarded 
 the mark on this map just as much as do the States when made such, this 
 restriction. The Hamiltonians thought they had in this seciu-ed the great 
 aim and object of their party. Humanity and freedom for the slave en- 
 tered into and was made their cry, but never entered into the heart. 
 This compromise gave to them, as they supposed, all the territory North of 
 36°-30 to make into many States entirely under their control, as they 
 would be settled mostly from New England and from Europe — people with 
 the prejudice formed from their political cry for freedom, and dependent 
 on the New England States for an outfit in their commencement in the 
 wilderness, as well as dependent for a market for their produce, and return 
 in changed commodities, and in every instance the East has stimulated the 
 territories to States. But while the North gained all this immense terri- 
 tory, the South was almost shut up in her then States. The most distin- 
 guished statesmen at the South opposed this so called compromise — pro- 
 nounced it a violation of the compact which bound the States together — 
 would never acknowledge that the States or the people had ever given to 
 Congress the power to make compromises or any way to alter, amend, 
 abridge, or transcend the powers conferred by the Constitution. But alas ! 
 these were always those of the South — men of high political repute, 
 who went with and sustained the Hamiltonian party ; and I can only ac- 
 count for the course of this from the supposition that they must have been 
 influenced by the hope of some great gain to themselves or friends from 
 the many unconstitutional grants by Congress ; but the high character of 
 many of these men almost exclude such a supposition, or even the fear of 
 it. But certainly from their known intelligence — with their acknowledged, 
 erudite, legal reputation, it i^very strange that they should so mislead, 
 misinterpret, and mystify and confound, an instrument so plain, so clear, 
 so simple, and yet so comprehensive as "the Constitution," and could 
 never in my mind come to any other conclusion than, that they, from 
 natural instinct, some inherent right, they felt such a propensity towards 
 and desire for a monarchy, with nobles, &c., with an omnipotent Congress, 
 that they could not resist. These, the men of the South, have been the 
 true cause of the overthrow of our institutions ; their votes in Congress 
 have been the food and sustinence, yes, the very life of the Hamiltonians 
 who are now ruling our land with Despotic, Mihtary power. These men 
 of the South have done this because up to recently, the Hamiltonians 
 could not have carried any of their measures without this Southern aid. 
 
 At this period ia our history, 1820, we were just emerging from the 
 war of 1812-'14 — government and people in debt ; previous to the war the 
 predominant interest of New England was commerce, next to that agricul- 
 ture, the great trade was with the West Indies ; but the war broke up and 
 prostrated these interests so much so, that all New England opposed the 
 war and refused aid to the Grovernment in carrying it on.; and actually 
 assembled a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, with the avowed purpose 
 of dissolving the Union : this convention was composed of the most 
 influential men and distinguished politicians of New England. The 
 Peace adjourned the Convention, and a temporary harmony existed. 
 But up to 1824, and later, the predominant interest of Massachusetts was 
 commerce and agriculture, and opposed, with all its force and talent, the 
 tarifi" system, as unconstitutional, unequal, unjust, and subversive of the 
 rights of the people. The most powerful argument ever made by Mr. 
 Webster in Congress was against the tarifi' system in, I think, 1824. Up 
 to this period Massachusetts was but just commencing to manufacture ; if 
 
14 
 
 my memory is correct, there was no movement at Lowell till after 1820. 
 The first machinery for spinning cotton put in operation anywhere was by 
 John Slater, an Englishman, at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, at about or a 
 little prior to the commencement of the war of 1812. This succeeded so 
 well — and during the war the entire cessation of all imports caused a great 
 demand for manufactured goods, such as we had before been supplied 
 with, both from England and India — this turned all the capital and enter- 
 prise, as well as the inventive, mechanical genius of New England to 
 manufacturing both machinery and goods ; and, in fact, a man was 
 thought below mediocrity if he had not invented some machine. When 
 peace took place all these interests, which had grown up under hot-house 
 influence, were prostrated by the competition they were subjected to from 
 an over-importation of English fabrics. Then first commenced the cry 
 for protection by the enactment of heavy import duties by Congress, and 
 many went so far as to demand an entire prohibition of foreign goods. 
 And though this a bounty, or premium upon the labor, capital, industry 
 and enterprise of the one exclusive section of the Union could be carried 
 out and sustained only by a tax upon, and making the other great and 
 paramount section and interest of agriculture tributary to it, the cry, 
 as always since, was raised, that we must be independent in all things, 
 and not look abroad for the supply of any of our numerous wants, and 
 the man who would not join in it was not patriotic, was denounced as a 
 traitor. The motives which influenced the actors of this great scene in 
 our political course was, at the commencement and to this day, that of in- 
 terest alone, for the duties levied on imports enabled them to charge just 
 as much more for their own as the duties and expenses of importation cost 
 upon the foreign goods, this being from 20 to 30, 40, and some times 100 
 per cent, on the cost in Europe — of course a tax upon the consumer, 
 eight-tenths being either agriculturists or agricultural laborers. Thus 
 the labor of the country from that day to this has paid the debts of, and 
 supported, the Grovernment. I say the labor, because it is the laboring 
 man that consumes most largely in mauullictured goods in proportion to 
 his means, and the labor in manufactures is not exempt from this tax, 
 though the master gets its full benefit. The laboring man on the farm, 
 in the machine shop, or the manufactory, generally wears a coat, vest, 
 pants, shoes, hat, &c., &c., for a year will cost him $80 to $50, and we 
 will suppose all to be of American manufacture, for which the master re- 
 ceives a bonus from Congress of 30 per cent, and upwards, would amount 
 to a direct (though indirectly collected) tax on each laboring man in the 
 Union of $9 to $15 per annum for himself alone. But suppose him to 
 have a wife and children, the tax would be augmented in proportion to 
 the amount consumed, and would be double or triple. This laboring man, 
 with no family, works for a farmer for $10 to $12 per month and board, 
 and here is 10 per cent, of his earnings made tributary to the capital em- 
 ployed in manufacturing, and what per centage of their actual wealth do 
 the wealthy pay ? Many, in fact, do not expend more for clothing, &c., 
 than the poor laborer. 
 
 The selfishness of the advocates of this system has blinded them to all 
 other interests and considerations. They have entirely lost sight of, or 
 never understood, the principles, the fixed, natural laws, which has ever, 
 and will ever regulate and govern trade, commerce and intercourse be- 
 tween difterent nations and peoples, with different products, different hab- 
 its and different industries, and, consequently, different wants. One 
 nation, from climate or soil, or mechanic labor, genius, or industry, pro- 
 duces an abundance, beyond its own wants, but its surplus products are 
 wanted by another nation, or people, in exchange for a product or com- 
 modity of which it has a surplus. Now to supply the wants of these 
 different peoples in commodities which they do not each of itself produce, 
 
15 
 
 they have no means to purchase except from the sale of their surplus, 
 and this sale can only be effected by a sale one to the other, and can be 
 paid for only in a return pm'chase or exchange. These are laws and 
 principles as fixed as the inmioveable hills. A nation or people may shut 
 itself up, and exclude the products and commodities of all other nations, 
 and live within its own shell, and what will be its condition? What will 
 be done with the surplus products of its soil, the fruits of its labor, the 
 source of all national, as well as individual wealth '! Why, if it cannot 
 be sold and exchanged for other commodities with other nations, it must 
 become a waste, and far worse than a waste, because it would bring want 
 upon all and prostrate the energies of labor, and place all the world in 
 precisely the condition of the Chinese, as regards their intercourse and 
 commerce with the world. Now it is a fact, so well known, that it is in- 
 disputable, that labor is the foundation, the source of all wealth, national 
 or individual — as well in the products from the soil as from hand or me- 
 ■ chanic labor, which wealth is only attainable or realized by the sale of all 
 surplus beyond a supply for the natural wants of the pj'oducer, and this 
 sale returns a supply of other diflerent commodities, adding comforts and 
 luxuries even to the enjoyment of the laborer ; and if the sale of his 
 surplus products goes beyond this, it is so much real, actual wealth, both 
 to himself and the nation to which he belongs. These are rules, laws 
 and principles, ordained by the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and the 
 selfish interest of wealth, unjust, oppressive acts of legislature or tariff 
 restrictions cannot alter them, except by debasing and prostrating labor, 
 and making it entirely subject to capital ; and, therefore, prostrating the 
 energies, restricting the sources of wealth's supply and impoverishing the 
 nation. For, go where you may, and that nation or people which has 
 the fewest restrictions upon its commerce, intercourse and exchanges of 
 commodities with other nations will be found the most humane, the most 
 moral, the most intelligent, the most prosperous, with the most general 
 comfort and happiness. If it be desirable and necessary to the general 
 good of a people to be moral (and who can doubt it ?) then the legislature 
 of a nation should enact no laws- which offer a bribe to their evasion, and 
 though too often considered a clever act to evade a customs law, it has 
 been, as I have often witnessed, the first loosing of moral obligation and 
 feeling, and sure to lead on to an entire overthrow of every principle 
 which should be sacred in the character of man. Now we all know that 
 the great and fertile West can produce breadstuffs and meat (food for 
 man) at a cost below what it can be produced for in any part of the world, 
 and in amount almost or quite equal to supply the wants of all the world ; 
 but still the Great West does not produce sugar, molasses, coffee, tea — 
 does not manufacture silks and other fabrics of luxui-y and necessity. 
 Now suppose that the West could find no outlet, no market, for its surplus 
 articles of food, how could the West procure the articles which it does not 
 produce but which it wants ? It is true that the New England States can 
 manufacture the cotton, woolen, and many articles of hardware, cutlery, 
 &c. &c., which the West want ; and it is also true that New England will 
 take from the West all they want in corn, wheat, meat, &c., but not to 
 one tithe of the surplus which the West desires to dispose of, or one- 
 fourth the amount of return articles wanted and demanded by the West. 
 And now, because New England cannot produce articles of food sufilcient 
 for its wants, but can manufacture cotton, woolen, and other goods, 
 cheaper than the West, is it right, is it just, is it in conformity with the 
 compact made by " the fathers," that the West should be made to pay 
 tribute to the capital and enterprise of New England, when, too, she 
 could have all her wants supplied (without paying tribute) by other 
 nations and peoples, who want her surplus food in exchange ? It has 
 always astonished me to see the West, not only submit to this tyranny 
 and oppression, but advocating and supporting it. 
 
16 
 
 Until after 1824, the now Great West was of but small consideration 
 in the national scale ; the population of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois was 
 sparse and small, with no outlet for its then small amount of the products 
 from the soil except by the Mississippi river, so that, in fact, the people 
 of those States found themselves more directly connected and interested 
 with the South than with the New England States, and consequently 
 voted with the South against the tariff' system, &c. But the opening of 
 the New York and Erie Canal, in 1824, was the commencement of a new 
 era ; it opened the entire lake country to all the markets of the world, 
 and made New York city the great commercial depot and banking house 
 for the American continent ; it caused an immense demand for lands in 
 the lake States, stimulated immigration fi*om Eiu'ope, and the rapidity 
 with which the Western States were filled up is without a parallel in the 
 history of mankind. These States were filled up from New England 
 (where the soil was too sterile to produce a comparative return to labor) 
 and from Europe. Up to this time Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, 
 and southern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southern New York, were 
 the wheat-producing States. In western New York even, before the 
 opening of the'^anal, wheat sold as low as twenty-five (25) cents per 
 bushel, and I have heard of a still lower price. But the canal made an 
 entire revolution. Its results far surpassed its most sanguine advocates. 
 Up to the war of 1812 the commercial tonnage of Boston exceeded that 
 of New York, and the population of New York and Philadelphia was 
 nearly equal. But the immense emigration from Europe direct to New 
 York for the West, and the immense produce of the West required an 
 increased amount of tonnage for the transit of the emigration to, as well 
 as the produce from, New York to markets. And this augmentation of 
 tonnage is also without a parallel. This was further stimulated by the 
 making of New York the great depot of everything, the South having 
 but a small amount of commercial marine, haATing found agriculture the 
 most available and profitable application of its labor, depended on the em- 
 ployment of Northern tonnage as their carriers, and Northern agents for 
 the sale of their produce, as well as a return supply of commodities for 
 their necessary and luxurious wants, this became unavoidable from the 
 fact that the New England States, with New York, had most unjustly and 
 unconstitutionally procured an act from Congress excluding all foreign ves- 
 sels from carrying between the States, and as New York was the great de- 
 pot, and Banking House for all, the South was forced to send its produce 
 there for reshipment to Europe, and from the fact that almost all the im- 
 ports of foreign goods together with the emigrants, came direct to New 
 York, thereby giving vessels between New York and foreign ports, freights 
 both ways, while European vessels going to Southern ports for produce 
 would have freight but one way, an advantage which almost excluded for- 
 eign tonnage from Southern ports, while the Southern produce being sent 
 to New York in Northern vessels alone and all supplies for the South taken 
 in them, gave an exclusive monopoly to the North of carrying both ways 
 for the South, but also of supplies of manufactured goods, hardware, cut- 
 lery, ready made clothing, shoes, hats, &c., to an amount in latter years 
 of (^250,000,000) two hundred and fifty millions of dollars per annum, 
 and on which, in addition to exclusive power of carrying, the South have 
 paid to the North a bonus by the way of the Tariff" of 20 to 100 per cent. 
 By these unjust, unequal and unconstitutional monopolies, both the South 
 and the West have been made entirely tributary to Pennsylvania, New Jer- 
 sey, New York and the New England States, and for which subjugation 
 they have been forced to pay dearly. 
 
 I have proudly exulted in the diversity of genius, enterprise, industry 
 and labor of my countrymen of all sections, and have esteemed it, with our 
 rich fertile soil, diversity of climate and products, as the source of our 
 
17 
 
 greatness and wealth, but that wealth and greatness could never be attain- 
 able or permanent unless by a free, equal, and just intercourse and ex- 
 change of the different commodities, the products of the different sections 
 and different enterprises, with each other ; as free and as unrestrained as 
 "the compijct formed by the Fathers" made, declared and intended ; then 
 if New York and New England could build, man and sail ships cheaper 
 than the South it would have been for the interest and benefit of both that 
 the South should employ them. The same with manufactured goods, if 
 New England could mai:e and sell as cheap as the South could get them 
 from Europe, where nine-tenths of the products of the South were sold and 
 used, it would have been well or better and more natural to get them from 
 New England ; but never if forced to pay tribute on them. And the same 
 arguments apply to the West, but not with equal force, because the West 
 does not border on the Atlantic, and has no direct commerce with Europe 
 except via the Mississippi or through Canada ; still it is as unjust, unequal 
 and contrary to the compact formed by "the fathers," that the West should 
 be taxed for the benefit of the capital and enterprise of the East. But for 
 the wise Daniels to expound and confound the Constitution, the Hamilton- 
 ian Royalists, and the Missouri Compromisers, the advocates of an Omni- 
 potent Legislature, the ignorers of the Constitution which reserves to, and 
 with the States and people all subjects not therein clearly specified and de- 
 fined ; clearly and fully withholding from Congress all and any power to 
 make any compromise or alteration of its specified conditions of compact. 
 But for these, I say, how beautiful, how glorious, how magnificently grand, 
 would have been the spectacle of this vast country, with all the soils, climates, 
 and products more than necessary for mans' wants; with a people with all 
 varieties of genius, enterprise, mechanic skill and industry, harmonizing 
 together in a free unrestrained intercourse and exchange of products and 
 commodities ; there could have been no cause for jealousy, but a lawful 
 and pleasurable emulation to arrive at the greatest good of all — New Eng- 
 land and New York might have caught all the fishes without a tax upon 
 the South — might have built, manned, and sailed all the ships, carried all 
 the produce of the South to market, sold and bi'ought home its return in 
 goods of all kinds, for aU the people North and South ; might have fur- 
 nished the South and West, a supply for all their wants in the various me- 
 chanic products of New England, the Northern States and from Europe, 
 now $250,000,000, and in a few years would be $500,000,000 yearly, 
 and the South and West would have rejoiced in a prosperity of the whole 
 land, without a parallel in history, as all their own, because the South and 
 North would then have been but one people or nation, with but one interest, 
 happy, free and independent, one and all, with all the varieties and parts 
 harmonizing into one grand whole of universal freedom and prosperity, e- 
 qually, the envy admiration of, and example for all mankind. But, al- 
 as ! the Fishing Bounty, the bounty and Protection to commerce, and the 
 accursed Tariff" system, has prostrated and overthrown all, and plunged us 
 into the abyss, from which there is no escape — and I fear forever destroy- 
 ed all hope of free, self, independent government by man; and extinguish- 
 ed forever the hope of the perpetuation of Religious and Civil Liberty. 
 
 I must now explain the workings and growth of this tremendous power, 
 which now overshadows all things. It commenced, as before remarked, 
 with bounties on the fisheries, on commerce and -navigation, then protec- 
 tion to manufacturers, &c. The manufacture with machinery, as before 
 noticed, did not commence till about the commencement of the war of 1812, 
 but immediately after the peace the Protective policy began, and entirely 
 changed the pursuits of the people of New England ; almost the entire cap- 
 ital being diverted from its former occupations and channels to manufac- 
 turing ; and the result was, as has for all time and in all countries been, 
 that of producing manufactured goods beyond the wants or ability of th§ 
 
18 
 
 people to pay for, and caused a general prostration and loss ; and such 
 has been the result so often as Congress have increased the duties on im- 
 ports as a protection to our manufactures — still this has never abated the 
 ardor of those advocating the policy. I have often witnessed intelligent, 
 active, industrious practical men invest there all, ^10 to $30,000 in some 
 manufactory directly under their own personal management and supervi- 
 sion, and perhaps in one year double their capital, and not satisfied with 
 this, (Congress having imposed an increased heavy duty as a further pro- 
 tection) he must extend his works, build new and expensive buildings and 
 fill them with new machinery, and to accomplish which he has incurred 
 and burthened himself with debt to the amount of $100 or |150,000, and 
 every body else in the same business having done the same, this of course 
 has tripled or quadrupled the amount of manufactured goods, while the in- 
 creased Tariff" has augmented the price or cost, and lessened the consump- 
 tion, so that the supply is far beyond the demand, and bankruptcy follows, 
 and the cry is, we want and must have more protection. This protection 
 party moved onward quietly and gradually, till about the time of the Mis- 
 souri compromise — the prime actors then began to form and lay their plans, 
 — they sought to unite with them every interest and enterprise which could 
 in any way be benefitted by the, as it was called, fostering care of Con- 
 gress. Till this period Coal and Iron had not been awakened to much 
 consideration — the latter in castings for machinery was becoming impor- 
 tant, and marshalled into place in the cry for protection — but coal still re- 
 mained in the bowels of the earth. The first trial of Anthracite Coal I 
 witnessed ia New York in 1816 — two specimens, one from Rhode Island 
 and one from Pennsylvania — the experiment was not successful, and fears 
 were entertained that it could never be made a useful fuel — still there were 
 those who had full confidence, and were also marshalled into line, thus 
 gradually augmenting their force and power till after the grand, I may say 
 wonderful success of the New York and Erie Canal, when the unparalleled 
 increase of population in New York and all the West with rich reward to 
 labor, by an increased demand for all the products from the soil, as well 
 as that from mechanic labor, rapidly increased the intercourse and ex- 
 changes of the different products and commodities of our different climates 
 and sections, and also enlarged our commerce, intercourse and exchanges 
 with foreign nations. The West poured into New York, (the great depot) 
 its immense crops of corn, wheat, meat, &c. &c. &c., food for man, to be 
 thence distributed to the mechanic labor of New England, to supply the 
 deficiency in Eui'ope, the wants of the Islands, &c. — while from the South 
 came the cotton, rice, tobacco, hemp, &c., products indispensable to all 
 Europe as well as to the Northern States. At this period, as has contin- 
 ued to be since, except in times of famine, more than three-fourths of all 
 our exports have been in the pai'ticular products of the South. Now the 
 North furnished the ships and the men, and were the carriers for all this 
 for the South, as also for the West, and between the North and South 
 exclusive carriers ; besides this, they were the agents or factors for both 
 in the sale of produce, as well as for the purchase, the manufacture and 
 supply, in return for all the various wants in any thing of general use, 
 ornament and luxury for these two great sections ; besides all this advan- 
 tage, power and profit, the North received from the South and West a bo- 
 nus by the Tariff" on imports of 20 to 100 per cent, on the entire amount 
 — for all of the articles consumed by the South could have been supplied 
 at a cost less the Tariff". 
 
 The commercial statistics of our country, the census reports, all show 
 conclusively that from the South has flowed the source of all our wealth, 
 all our greatness, the solid foundation upon which all has been built — the 
 support of our mechanic labor and our commercial marine has been just as 
 much dependent on it as on the winds from heaven. For with a nation as 
 
19 
 
 with an individual, his only real wealth consists in the sale of the products 
 of his labor, and after supplying his necessary wants, the balance, if any, 
 returns in gold and silver, enriching both the individual and nation. — 
 This position is being abundantly verified, and the next twelve months 
 will make it so plain that even he who cannot read, will feel and under- 
 stand it, — for we shall not have the Cotton, the Rice, the Naval Stores, 
 and the Tobacco of the South for our ships to carry to Europe — nor can 
 our mechanic labor receive its support from supplying the South, and our 
 merchants, traders and speculators cut oif from their profits and commis- 
 sions on $250,000,000 each way per annum, and the labor in shipping, 
 transhipping, cartage, storage, &c. made destitute. 
 
 But the North have held all this immense wealth and power, far surpass- 
 ing any thing chronicled before, the lawful and just possession and reward 
 for their genius, energy, industry and enterpi-ise, only when attained and 
 possessed with equal rights of those whose labor and industry had been the 
 life and sustenance of all — and still not satisfied, and the cry for more pro- 
 tection, more power, more tax upon the agricultural labor of the South and 
 West, Congress was besieged by combinations of every conceivable inter- 
 est or occupation, other than agriculture— Internal Improvements by the 
 General Grovernment, and even the potency of the United States Bank — 
 additions and alterations were made in the Tariif, threatening to Bankrupt 
 the nation and overthrow the Government, till in 1832. The South had 
 opposed all this as unconstitutional, unjust, oppressive and subversive of 
 the rights of the States and of the people. Still the combination felt se- 
 cure in its own might, and would not listen, and South Carolina, the pa- 
 triotic gallant little State, took her stand and declared that she would not 
 submit to a taxation so unequal, so unjust, and contrary to the compact of 
 the different States. The most of us now remember its history and its hap- 
 py termination, The North was not as strong in her power then as now, 
 and gave way — a new Tariif was proposed, gotten up by a northern man, 
 John Whipple, of Providence, R. I., (not by Mr. Clay who has ever had 
 the credit of it,) which proposed an annual reduction until the entire Ta- 
 riif should be reduced to 15 per cent, ad valorem. This Compromise Ta- 
 riff as it was called, became a law by a very decided majority of both houses 
 of Congress, satisfied all the South, and peace and apparent harmony re- 
 stored. The South never opposed the levy of a tax on imports for the ne- 
 cessary economical expenses of the government, but it opposed unequal 
 taxation, that is the levy of a heavy duty on specified articles which could 
 or might be manufactured in this country North, and wanted and con- 
 sumed by the South, by which the South would be unequally taxed for the 
 benefit of northern capital. 
 
 In this difiiculty the President, Jackson, acted with decisive patriotic 
 firmness. I have in the present difiiculty seen and heard him quoted as 
 having said ' ' The Union must and shall be preserved" — but they did not 
 quote and tell us how it must be preserved. He said, " the Union was 
 formed and can be preserved only by the free will and consent of the peo- 
 ple, from whom the government derives all its power, which can only be 
 permanent by a strict adherance to the conditions of the compact, and the 
 people must co-operate with united efforts to sustain and protect each other 
 in their separate local or sectional interest, guard and protect their own 
 rights and the sovereignty of the States." He used no force and did not 
 propose any. South Carolina did not secede, she remained in the Union, 
 but Nullified the Revenue Laws as unconstitutional. The President, as 
 bound by his oath, was obliged to see that the law was executed, and in- 
 stead of using Charleston as a Custom House, he used a Fort, till Congress 
 reduced the Tariff. The real friends of the Union hoped and believed the 
 subject was finally settled and for ever. But alas ! the protectionists de- 
 clared vengeance against the South. The Slavery question was then 
 
20 
 
 brought out and united with the protectionists, with the Bank and Inter 
 nal Improvement interest, Improvement of Rivers and Harbors, &c., and 
 altogether declared that the Slavery question should not rest till every 
 slave was unconditionally made free, or they gain their point, — and the 
 very next Congress the petitions poured in for protection, renewal of the 
 Bank charter. Improvement of Rivers and Harbors, Internal Improve- 
 ments, &c. &c. The Coal and Iron interests now became formidable, but 
 the most potent of all was the United States Bank. President Jackson 
 had vetoed the bill for its re-charter in July 1832, and its friends could 
 not get the constitutional vote of two-thirds of Congress to make it a law — 
 so that its adherents and dependents were maddened to desperation, and 
 were ready to take under their wing the Tariff, Anti-Slavery, all the Riv- 
 ers and Harbors, and every thing capable of any impression on a vote in 
 Congress ; they would not all go so far as to the abolition of Slavery, but 
 there should be no more Slave Territory, no more Slave States, because 
 they would be agricultural States, want nothing from Congress, unwilling 
 to be unequally and unjustly taxed for the benefit of others, and therefore 
 could not be bought into the combination. The Bank fully confident in 
 its own power, took the lead of all — determined upon its re-charter at all 
 hazards — it had already and almost entirely the control of our foreign and 
 domestic exchanges and finance — it now aimed at the entire control of 
 our foreign and domestic commerce, and business of the country gene- 
 rally. Its course was first, to inflate its circulation, and that of all the local 
 State banks, extend its loans and discounts, followed by the State local 
 Banks — this was followed by a rapid decrease of, and calling in its loans 
 and discounts, — the local Banks entirely under its control were obliged to 
 follow, and a panic immediately ensued. And here was a spectacle without 
 a parallel — a whole country in a state of unexampled prosperity, abundant 
 crops every where, with a good demand for them from abroad — the whole 
 business of the country in a healthy condition — no overtrading any where. 
 Exchanges with foreign nations all in our favor, so much so, that specie 
 was flowing to us from all the world ; the National Treasury full to reple- 
 tion ; and the following year the entire National debt paid off" with some 
 forty (^40,000,000) millions surplus in the Treasury, to be distributed 
 amongst the States ; with all this, the influence of the Bank over the en- 
 tire business of the country was such, that every'business and interest was 
 prostrated and ruined, and Bankruptcy stared everybody in the face. The 
 Bank suborned the Press, the leading politicians, and lawyers, and paid to 
 some as high as $50,000 dollars ; and the man who opposed or dared to 
 give an opinion against it, was denounced as an outcast — excluded from 
 society and at one time for more than two months in the winter of 1833- 
 '34, there were but two men who were bold enough to make their appear- 
 ance on 'Change in the great City of New York. No merchant, not a par- 
 tizan of the Bank, could get any accommodation from the Banks, the ruin 
 and prostration so general throughout the country that he could make no 
 collections, and it was in private circles announced that "the screws must 
 be put upon the merchants, their noses must be held to the grind-stone till 
 they would give in to the Bank — they had not began to suffer yet." Public 
 meetings were held — the President denounced — plots for his assassination 
 were publicly announced and large sums offered for its execution. Mr. 
 Biddle was the president of the Bank — was worshipped as the great money 
 god : for the whole length and breadth of the land. The frightened and 
 suffering merchants everywhere implore him on their knees for money and 
 for aid, but no ; as the government had declared war against the Bank, it 
 must wind up its business, and no aid could it render — all must go to ruin 
 together, unless the people would come forth in their might and show to 
 the government that they, the people, would have the Bank ; and the Bank 
 (ttust govern all. This panic and excitement was kept up from the meet- 
 
21 
 
 ing of Congress in December, 1833, to its adjournment in July, 1834; just 
 before its close the combined influences and pressure from without, forced 
 Congress to pass another Act of Re-charter, which received from President 
 Jackson the same fate as the first. But immediately after the close of Con- 
 gress, a number of the most wealthy and influential merchants who had 
 taken a conspicuous part in the panic and war upon General Jackson, for 
 the entire prostration and ruin of every interest in the whole country, agri- 
 cultural, commercial and even manufacturing, come out with a letter to the 
 great money-god, representing "that in as much as the whole country was 
 in a most healthy and prosperous condition that there was no overtrading 
 anywhere, and the balances with all the world, being in our favor, the 
 country had the promise of a most healthy and prosperous trade, and as the 
 Bank by its charter had five years to close its business, they humbly sug- 
 gested that it might be for the interest of its stockholders as well as of vast 
 benefit to all and every interest of the country — that he, Mr. Biddle, should 
 continue and even extend his indulgences and facilities to the business and 
 other classes of the people," particularly as the business community had 
 looked to the Bank as their hope and stay, and would not know how to get 
 on without, and never submit to its overthrow. With these same influen- 
 tial men, everything from the first of December to July, was ruin and dis- 
 may ; but so soon as Congress adjourned the panic ceased, and everything 
 bright and prosperous again. Was there ever a more abominable, a more 
 wicked act? Their object was, as ever has been, and now is, with the 
 same party, to establish a power more potent than the Grovernment itself, 
 to control the Legislature or make it subject to as well as control the entire 
 business and commerce of the country : and had they succeeded, the money 
 power would have subjugated all to it, and the slavery question would have 
 slept. From the charter of the first Bank in 1791, to the period of which 
 I am writing, the same party looked with "the fondest hope to the Bank as 
 the grand machine, all powerful in their hands, to control the government, 
 the legislature, the business and commerce of the whole country, and in fact 
 to control the people also. But losing the Bank (which they did not 
 dispair of till August, 1841) and checked in their protective policy — the 
 slavery question became the most potent because they could make a geo- 
 graphical diversion, and the cry of universal freedom would sound patriotic 
 and the people could not resist it. Up to this time and even later, the 
 party did not openly endorse or aflSliate with the fanatic abolitionist, but 
 used them at their local elections, and always voted together on all general 
 questions in Congress — they hoped to gain their control over the Legisla- 
 tive body, short of the overthrow of slavery, because they were not yet so 
 blinded that they could not see that almost every interest in the North, 
 most particularly that of manufacturing, was almost entirely dependent 
 upon slave labor for its support, and the extension of slave labor could be 
 but vastly beneficial to all their industry and enterprise. Slave States 
 would be purely agricultural ; could never embark in, or rival them by 
 manufacturing for their own use, but must always oppose the unequal and 
 unjust taxation by their protective system, and therefore always unfriendly 
 to their great object, and so long as there were as many slave States as 
 free the vote in the Senate would be balanced, except by and of the few 
 Southern men who had always not only given them aid and comfort, but 
 had enabled them to get a majority vote upon all measures except that 
 relating to slavery. They feared for the continuance of this uncertain po- 
 sition, as also that the pressure of public opinion against their protective 
 system might at any time deprive them of their Southern supporters. 
 The object was too great, too all-important, to be hazarded. In the panic 
 and general prostration of every interest in the country during the winter 
 and spring of 1833-34, the party had shown that it was determined to 
 succeed, even at the ruin, entire prostration, and even bankruptcy of the 
 
22 
 
 whole country ; but it all failed them, and their next move was to ruin the 
 whole country by overtrading, speculating, &c. Mr. Biddle, the president 
 of the bank, led off. He got a charter from Pennsylvania and in all the 
 other States for banks, organized his corps of bank ofl&cers, bank directors 
 and attendants in every State, and no man could get any accommodations 
 that was not a known bank advocate. Mr. Biddle and the party felt that 
 they must in the end gain their point and compel the people to succumb, 
 and though he had not the national treasury for his capital and great aid, 
 still felt that he had the finances, the commerce, the trade, the manufac- 
 turing, the agricultural interests, in his keeping and under his entire con- 
 trol. His bank and branches were ready to make loans, wherever they 
 could buy adherents, on ships, on merchandise, on lands, plans of cities on 
 paper, on ungrown produce, &c., &c. He established his agents and 
 commercial houses in Europe for the sale of cotton and other produce, and 
 his agents connected with his bank branches in the different States, to 
 make advances upon, receive and forward the produce to the North and to 
 Europe. At the same time, he with the party, urged and encouraged the 
 increase of the local State banks, which were magnified and multiplied in 
 all the States, so that the whole country was fiooded with paper money ; 
 all sorts of enterprises and wild speculations were entered into all over the 
 land, particularly in the North and West. This speculative excitement 
 was augmented by the fact, that though General Jackson had sundered 
 the connection of the government funds and business from the United 
 States Bank, still the local banks were used as depositories for the govern- 
 ment funds, and as the surplus was large, it was used by the banks to 
 extend their local business, and all things seemed combined to madden the 
 people into the most extravagant expenditures and wildest speculations ; 
 so much so, that the common industry in agriculture was abandoned or 
 neglected, and in the most favorable and promising seasons for agricul- 
 tural crops we were deficient in breadstuffs, and actually imported from 
 Europe in one year (1836) some eleven million dollars ($11,000,000) in 
 Wheat. Our credits had been extended in Europe to an extent almost 
 fabulous — payments were made only by renewals or new credits — our 
 country was flooded with European fabrics. Mr. Biddle had attempted to ' 
 monopolize and control the entire cotton crop, and held it in this country 
 and in Europe for high prices, and I believe that Mr. Biddle and the party 
 really and truly believed, that they had the entire control of everything in 
 this country, of England's commerce, the Bank of England and all, and 
 that they would blow every body and every thing up in their bubble but 
 themselves. But alas, "how foolish is man's wisdom." The Bank of Eng- 
 land stopped all facilities to Houses connected with American business, and 
 down went Mr. Biddle and all in a heap of ruin together. 
 
 This general overthrow and ruin of the whole country threw the general 
 population back again upon their own resources of industrious labor and 
 frugality, and slowly, but surely arose again ; but this so occupied the 
 minds of the people that the protectionists had an unobserved opportunity 
 to form their new plans — they sfill claimed more protection — and mar- 
 shalled all their forces for the battle. Texas had in this time declared her 
 independence, and was acknowledged as a nation. And at the close of Mr. 
 Tyler's administration a proposition was made for annexation — this was 
 opposed almost to the death by the protection party — became so violent at 
 the North that even the Democratic party became divided ; and what was 
 most surprising, Mr. Van Buren, who had before always been considered 
 as a strict constructionist of the Constitution, a champion for States rights 
 and sovereignty, went over to what was called the Free soil party ; he of 
 course carried many with him, but generally even amongst the party he 
 joined, he did not get credit for any patriotism in his course. It was thought 
 he could not be satisfied under the disappointment of a re-election. Texas 
 
23 
 
 had been annexed. Mr. Polk's administration commenced 1845 ; by this 
 time iron and coal had become so important as to influence the election in 
 Pennsylvania, and was only carried by the repeated declarations to the 
 people by Mr. Buchanan, "that Mr. Polk was a better Tariff man than Mr 
 Clay," his opponent The coal and iron interest of Maryland and Virginia, 
 and even some of the Western States, as well as tobacco, hemp, and the 
 sugar of Louisiana were brought in together with all the rivers and harbors. 
 Conventions were gotten up and Congress memorialized, a tariff with in- 
 creased protection was passed by both Houses, but the casting vote of the 
 Vice President, Mr. Dallas, defeated it in the Senate. The River and 
 Harbor Bill was vetoed by Mr. Polk, still they did not yield. Then came 
 the Mexican war which they denounced as murder and robbery, because it 
 might bring slave territory. The joint occupancy treaty with. England of 
 Oregon was about to expire. Mr. Polk asked Congress to give him au- 
 thority to notify England of its termination, which was all that was proper 
 or necessary, or that Congress was called upon to do. England had never 
 made any claim to the soil the joint occupancy gave them permission only 
 to fish, hunt, &c., for a specified time, no more, and they claimed no more. 
 Had this been done Mr. Polk would have entered into a negotiation, which 
 must have ended in a peaceful solution, and given us as we ought to have 
 had, the line to 54° 40 — but no ; it was feared that Southern or agricultu- 
 ral interest would settle Oregon, and as the South advocated the notice, 
 there might be a fear of a slave settlement, and months were exhausted by 
 Congress, and the whole length and breadth of the land excited to a frenzy, 
 by the public declarations of the leaders of the party in the House and in 
 the Senate, that we could have no claim to Oregon at all, or even not above 
 the boundary of the Columbia river ; and England thus notified that she 
 must have a claim, obtained it in the settlement. But they gained their 
 point, in a violation of the Constitution, by an unauthorized act of Congress 
 excluding slavery from the Territory. 
 
 Though they opposed the Mexican War, it proved a source of much 
 capital and strength to them ; they were always ready and urging large 
 appropriations by Congress for all sorts of objects, with a view to increase 
 the national debt, and render a protective tariff" the more necesssary. The 
 cost of the war aided them in this, and then came the poor soldiers who 
 had fought their country's battles ; they must have bounties in lands and 
 in money, and it became a mania to give away the public lands — every 
 soldier who had ever heard of any war must have a bounty, the warrants 
 for which went directly into the hands of speculators, and the poor soldier 
 left with but little or no benefit. This became a source of as great fraud 
 and speculation as ever has been witnessed, and hundreds made fortunes 
 by it. To this time but little progress had been made in the donations of 
 lands for railroads and other purposes. The majority vote in the Western 
 States had been almost universally cast for the democratic party, the strict 
 constructionists of the powers conferred by the compact ; but now every 
 conceivable scheme for railroads throughout all the Western and new 
 States, and even the wilderness Territories, were gotten up, and large do- 
 nations of land proposed. This excited the people to the expectation of 
 great benefits, and they could not be so ungrateful as to vote against bene- 
 factors so profuse ; and the result was that many frail, unsound democrats 
 could not resist and went with the popular current, and established a 
 power within those States which holds the whole State finances, business, 
 political freedom, all in vile servitude. Thus has been squandered hun- 
 dreds of millions of acres of the best lands on the globe, which should have 
 been held sacred for the homes for the destitute of all nations and kindreds, 
 and annually yield a large revenue towards the support of an economical 
 government, and largely reducing the burdens of taxation upon the people. 
 This inexhaustible mine of real wealth, such as no nation ever before pos- 
 
24 
 
 sessed, was given into the hands of unprincipled political demagogue.s and 
 gamblers, to demoralize and subjugate the people, and violate the Consti- 
 tution. This move was followed by the appropriation of large sums of 
 money for carrying mails without the United States, and in violation of 
 the strict reading of the Constitution, and in violation of all independent 
 rights, by granting a monopoly by which individual enterprise (one of the 
 main pillars of our temple of freedom) was excluded, and checked in its 
 hitherto onward, glorious course, which had raised us to our glorious po- 
 sition as rivals of, and competitors with, England for the commerce of the 
 world ; the hopes and objects of "the fathers" frustrated, and the guarantee 
 rights that man should enjoy the full fruits of his toil, enterprise, and 
 genius, unmolested, unrestrained, ended forever. Large appropriations 
 for building splendid marble custom houses in many places where there 
 could be but very little or any customs business, post office buildings, court 
 houses, &c., &c.; the proposition for each was almost sure to gain a vote ; 
 the process was to get some bawling political grog-shop demagogue be- 
 longing to the democratic party, and promise him a large interest in the 
 contract ; then if the member of Congress for the district would not yield 
 his assent and support, why another must come in his place ; the die was 
 cast, his political race run — and, wonderfully, their Southern adjuncts 
 always voted with them. 
 
 This system progressed rapidly, till under Mr. Fillmore's administration, 
 with the Speaker of his own party, who named the committees, a bill was 
 reported from the committee making appropriations for rivers and harbors, 
 &c., &c., from $20 to $150,000 each for eighty-five (85) Congressional 
 districts ; and under Mr. Pierce's administration they had the Constitu- 
 tional vote to pass bills over his veto. Mr. Buchanan's administration 
 followed, with protective tariff and other unconstitutional proclivities, and 
 added to the already enormous speculations and frauds in jobs and con- 
 tracts. No person having business with, or claim against the government 
 could approach Congress short of an organized agency. Mr. Buchanan's 
 administration added to the strength of the other party, now organized 
 and united in force to carry their point at all hazards, and the issue was 
 made. Mr. Lincoln was nominated upon the platform of no more slavery 
 — protective tariff, internal improvements, improvements of rivers and 
 harbors ; in fact, an omnipotent Congress, and an utter disregard to the 
 Constitution, or decisions of the United States Court. Many of the 
 Northern States had already, by legislation, passed acts in direct opposi- 
 tion to the conditions of the compact ; thereby annulled, violated, and 
 overthrew the Constitution, and in public meetings declared it but a 
 " league with hell." The South protested and declared that all they wanted 
 was a strict adherence to the compact as made by the fathers. The reply 
 from the North was, we have the majority and you must submit. The 
 South saw that a delay would but strengthen the power of the North by 
 admitting more free States, and as it now became impossible to add another 
 slave State, their continuance in the Union would place them under vas- 
 salage to the North This they considered in violation of the compact, 
 and diametrically opposed to the intentions of " the fathers" who estab- 
 lished it ; and though the North, under the cry of the Flag and the Union, 
 and under a pretense for a sacred regard for " the Constitution," would 
 not openly, deliberately and virtually (as they since have done) annul and 
 abolish that sacred compact, but wait till the rapid accession of new free 
 States might give them the Constitutional vote to set it one side altogether. 
 Therefore the South had but to follow the example of our fathers under a 
 similar, though not so aggravated a case ; and for this the war dogs of the 
 North are set loose upon them, and they are threatened with fire and sword, 
 rapine and murder, internal insurrection and extermination. They are 
 denounced as rebels and traitors, thieves and robbers, and they must un- 
 
25 
 
 conditionally submit, or be exterminated, their property destroyed, their 
 slaves let loose, armed and turned upon their helpless women and children. 
 Oh, horror of horrors, where is the heart with a spark of humanity that 
 can even read of such a proposition without a shudder ; but to hear its 
 enactment proposed and paraded before the public daily, it fills one with a 
 horror only to be equalled by feeling that we are on the brink of the Pit, 
 and within the grasp of the Infernals. But let me calmly investigate this 
 subject. Have the South, even in any one instance, asked the North for, or 
 attempted to force upon the North submission to any violation of '* the Con- 
 stitution" for the benefit of the South in any way ? Have the South asked of 
 the North any concession of any of the conditions of " the compact ?" Have 
 the South ever asked the North to compromise any conflicting opinions on 
 any interest of the South, under " the Constitution ?" Have not the South 
 generally, as a body, (only excepting the few who have been the main pil- 
 lars of the North,) been the strict literal readers, defenders and supporters 
 of " the Constitution," as made and established by " the fathers ?" Have 
 they ever voted for its violation ? Have they ever demanded anything 
 from the North which, by the compact, they were not clearly, justly, and 
 lawfully entitled to? Have the South in any one instance failed to fulfill 
 to the letter all the conditions of " the compact ?" Have the South ever 
 invaded the soil of the North ? Has the South ever made war upon the 
 North, laid waste its property, devastated its country, murdered its citizens 
 and ravished its women ? The North claims to own the flag, once the em- 
 blem of freedom, independence, liberty and justice. Have the South ever 
 proposed to deprive the North of it? Has not the North done all these and 
 more against the South ? Then, I ask, who are truly and justly to be 
 called robbers, murderers, rebels and traitors? Have not the South re- 
 adopted the very Constitution bequeathed to us by our fathers, as the chart 
 for religious and civil liberty ? and to whom and to what can any one be 
 a traitor except to that sacred chart ? and is not he who violates and annuls 
 its conditions, not only a traitor to his country, but a robber and murderer 
 of the dearest rights of his countrymen and of posterity ? 
 
 The monarch comes to his throne either by inheritance or by conquest. 
 If by the former, he inherits not only the throne, but his subjects and their 
 country — all his property ; they have no voice or choice in the matter. If 
 by the latter, he gathers his adherents, retainers, and paid soldiers, all in- 
 terested in, and to be benefitted by, his success ; he overruns and subjugates 
 his subjects and their country (the same as the North are now attempting 
 to do with the South) ; they submit to superior force and better organiza- 
 tion, and become the property, the menials of the crown ; they have no 
 voice or choice in the matter ; they have made no compact with the 
 monarch, and the monarch has made no compact or conditions with his 
 subjects. But he has graciously been pleased to burthen them with taxa- 
 tion sufficient to support his royal throne, nobility, attendants, &c., &c., 
 and fight all his battles and pay the cost of it, and they in humility sub- 
 mit. Now, I ask, by whom and for whom was our independence conquered 
 and achieved ? Was it not for the thirteen sovereign States ? and for the 
 people, one and all, of those thirteen independent States ? To whom were 
 those people, one and all, subject ? Did not our fathers, who fought and 
 sufi'ered for this greatest of conquest, declare them one and all free, inde- 
 pendent, and the States sovereign ? Did they attempt to make the North 
 subject to the South, or the South subject to the North, or either to pay 
 tribute to the other ? No, never. These thirteen States, though they had 
 fought together, and together conquered for themselves, their countrymen 
 one and all, and for their posterity, as they hoped, for all time, freedom, 
 independence, religious and civil liberty — yet they were separate, inde- 
 pendent, sovereign States or governments, each distinct from the other, as 
 much so as England and France. They were drawn towards each other 
 
26 
 
 by mutual interests, benefits and sympathies. They (these thirteen inde- 
 pendent, sovereign States — the people individually and collectively, for 
 every man had a voice in it) formed and entered into the compact called 
 "the Constitution," or an agreement for and between each other for par- 
 ticular specified objects, conditions and purposes, and bound each other and 
 to each other for its fulfilment to the strict readings of its conditions. 
 Now, this compact was entered into by parties who had the right and 
 power in themselves so to do ; they were equal, with equal rights, equally 
 guaranteed to one and all — no one State, or class, or section, inferior or 
 subject in any way to another; and no conditions or benefits provided for 
 one State, class or section, separate from, not applicable to, or not intended 
 to equally benefit all ; and the people one and all, of their own free will 
 and choice, adopted it as their own work, the chart by which they were to 
 sail together to the haven of human perfection in government, and by which 
 the freedom of individual man to worship his God according to the dictates 
 of his own conscience, and the justice awarded to the enjoyment of the full 
 fruits of his toil, and none to claim him as a subject or to make him afraid 
 — he was a man, and would "bow not his neck nor bend the knee to any" 
 but to his God. He now walked forth erect for the first time since our first 
 parents, in Paradise. Can any one, or does any one, doubt that they had 
 the right and the power to enter into this compact, and sacredly bind them- 
 selves to the strict fulfilment of all its conditions ? If this is doubted, then 
 are we still the property of the Crown of England, and should go back with 
 humble, penitent supplication to the Queen to graciously be pleased to take 
 us under her guidance and protection, promising to be loyal, dutiful sub- 
 jects. But if we admit the right and the power, who can claim or even 
 pretend that this or any other compact, however sacred, and however im- 
 portant and binding its conditions may have been, is valid, or binding, or 
 of any efi"ect, any longer than its conditions are truly and faithfully carried 
 out and executed in all its details by the parties to it. In all compacts, 
 conditions, or contracts, by and with individuals or associations of indi- 
 viduals, the only binding condition is that each party shall faithfully and 
 truly perform and execute his part ; failing in this, the binding conditions 
 on the other part become null and void. This is a universally established 
 and conceded principle and fact, both in law and equity. Therefore it 
 must be clear to any unprejudiced mind that — 
 
 First, " The compact" has not been faithfully executed, but has been 
 violated on the part of the North towards the South. 
 
 Second, That in consequence thereof "the compact" has become null 
 and void, of none eflFect, and no longer binding on the part of the South ; 
 and 
 
 Third, Inasmuch as the original parties were equals, entered into the 
 compact as such, the conditions of the compact being intended and formed 
 for the just, equal, separate and united interests and benefits of all, no 
 one party having any pretension or claim to superior rights and privileges 
 over the other, had no power or right (the Divine right having been 
 repudiated) of subjugating or making by legislative acts one part tributary 
 to the other. 
 
 Now, all this is clearly demonstrated by and in the ratification of the com- 
 pact by the different States. " The compact" provides "that nine States must 
 accept and ratify, to carry it into effect and make it binding on the nine 
 States ; but the nine States could have, and did not pretend to any power 
 to coerce the other States, nor did they attempt subjugation Several of 
 the States did not accept and ratify for some considerable time after ; and 
 several, Virginia, New York, Rhode Island and others, accepted and adopted 
 the compact only with the declared reservation, that they had the right to 
 withdraw from it whenever the interest or happiness of their people demanded. 
 The entire instrument, as well as the workings of the government under it 
 
27 
 
 for the first twenty years, show conclusively that it was the intention of its 
 founders to organize and establish a free government — the people's govern- 
 ment, emanating from their own free will and choice — a government only 
 as the agent of, and entirely subject to, the people, and not the people 
 subjects of the government. The absurdly false idea now palmed upon us 
 from high official source, that the States emanate from, and are the crea- 
 tures of, the government, is too preposterous even to be noticed ; it at once 
 aims to give the creature power and control over and superior to its creator ; 
 probably those who pretend to this do not believe in a Supreme Creator 
 and Ruler of all things, and make the creature his own creator. Now, this 
 is too transcendantly ridiculous. Who and what formed and made our 
 compact — the government? Now, does not every boy and man — yes, 
 woman, too — who have read or can read our history, know that when and 
 before the colonies revolted they each had a separate distinct organized 
 government, and when they confederated to carry on the War of Indepen- 
 dence they called themselves States, sovereign States, and never surrendered 
 that position? and were not these sovereign, free, independent States, with 
 their people, the creators, the founders of the compact, our once glorious 
 Union ? and did they not, in justification of their act, declare " that when- 
 ever any form of government becomes destitute of the ends, or fails to 
 perform the objects for which it was intended, it is the right of the people 
 to alter and abolish it ?" They do not anywhere say that if the people are 
 oppressed and aggrieved, they shall be subjugated and forced to submit to 
 the power that has oppressed them. No; on the contrary, they fought, 
 sufiiered, and overthrew this monarchial, tyrannic dogma, and bequeathed 
 to their children and to posterity for all time, as they hoped, exemption 
 from the very ruin and despotic oppression which is now marching through 
 our land, and overthrowing everything sacred to the liberty and freedom 
 of man. 
 
 Now, can it be pretended, claimed, or even doubted for a moment, that 
 the South did not enter into the compact on precisely the same terms and 
 conditions in every particular as the North ? Has the South by the only 
 known legal means (an amendment to the Constitution) surrendered her 
 equal rights and become vassals to the North ? No, never. Then, why 
 are not the North and South equal owners in all the government property, 
 the Union, the flag, the government itself, emanating from and of the peo- 
 ple — the ships, arms, and all the public buildings, forts and arsenals, built 
 expressly for particular local places, for the carrying on of foreign 
 commerce with those particular places, SiVidi for the protection and defence 
 oi those partictdar places against foreign invasion. And the public lands 
 — did not Virginia donate to the government all of what is now jour great 
 State, Ohio — Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin ? and from these 
 lands came the fund which has and does educate the children of some of 
 the New England States — Connecticut, for one ; and has not the South 
 done her part fully and freely (far more so than New England) in all our 
 wars and battles — in that of independence and all ? Besides and above 
 the donation of lands, has not the South paid its proportion of all the ex- 
 penses for the government, for the wars, for buildings, forts, and arsenals, 
 ships, arms, and all ? Has the North any claim on the South for any of 
 these ? Who can doubt or deny all this ? Then, why do not the public 
 lands belong as much to the South as to the North ? and by what right or 
 power can the North exclude the South from them ? 1 havo heard but one 
 reply, and that is " might is right," " and we will exclude them." Is this 
 honest? is this just? is it the fulfilment of, and the carrying out to its 
 intent the conditions of the compact of our fathers? JNow suppose, my 
 dear sister, that your husband has purchased a tract of land with another ; 
 they are joint purchasers, joint owners, and have agreed to a joint occupancy; 
 planting time arrives, and your husband announces his intention to plant and 
 
28 
 
 cultivate corn ; but his joint occupant and owner says, " No, I will have no 
 corn on our land ; it shall all be planted with wheat, your husband remon- 
 strates ;'' the other says, " No, I will have no corn ; if you are not satisfied 
 quit, and if you do not quit, I am the strongest and will eject you" — would 
 you not consider this a hard case? would you submit? and what would a 
 court of law decide? — " that as equal owners their rights must be equal, 
 and the law bound to protect them each in his right, and inasmuch as they 
 could not occupy in harmony, the Court would be bound to order a division 
 and make the aggressor pay costs and damages." Now, where is the dif- 
 ference in the comparison ? Is not our government, our Constitution, a 
 chart for a joint occupancy, founded upon and for the protection of the joint 
 privileges and rights of the people? I cannot think it possible that the 
 people read or understand the Constitution, or the vital principles on which 
 our institution of free government was founded ; they have become man 
 worshipers, and run first after one and then another bawling grog-shop 
 demagogue, whose very life is stimulant and extravagant excitement; and 
 the one who can bawl the loudest and longest, and most excite the passions 
 and prejudices of the people, and drink the most whiskey, is the man, and 
 they look to him to expound and take his declared reading of the Consti- 
 tion as law ; and no wonder they are all gone mad, and sold their birth- 
 right for less than " a mess of pottage." 
 
 I have often heard even such men as Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay, Mr. 
 Crittenden, Mr. Corwin, of your State, and all of that school, and Mr. 
 Douglas, (who was never a sound Constitutionalist,) in their places in 
 Congress and before large public meetings, misrepresent, misquote, and 
 entirely falsify that sacred instrument, the Constitution. Such men have 
 been the readers, thinkers and actors for the people — the gods to whom 
 they have fallen down and worshipped, and been by them led to the very 
 brink, from which they are plunging to the bottomless abyss, from whence 
 there is no escape. I have mentioned the names of those distinguished 
 persons only because they were and are the leaders of a party, and were 
 closely followed even to the letter by all under them, the people and all, 
 and whose declarations and opinions were above all law or precedent. I 
 have repeatedly heard them from their places in the House and Senate, 
 declare (and apparently quote from) " that the Constitution gives to Con- 
 gress the exclusive poiver to legislate for the Territories." On this mis- 
 representation an argument for days, months and years has been kept up, 
 to prove that Congress by the Constitution had full right and power to 
 restrict slavery from the Territories. These men knew full well that their 
 declarations would go forth to all their followers, all over this land, as 
 more sacred than law or gospel, and become " the higher law ;" and they 
 also knew that the arguments of their opponents, however sound, would 
 never be read by their adherents. 
 
 But let us see what the fact is, and then as I have often done, wonder 
 with astonishment, that such men could be the authors of such an imposi- 
 tion, such a palpable falsehood. "The Constitution," Article 4th, Section 
 3d, says : "The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all need- 
 ful rules and regulations, respecting the Territories or other property of 
 the United States, and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed 
 as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State." 
 
 Now in sober earnestness, can any school-boy read this to mean, or in 
 any way pretend to any power in Congress other than for the sale of, and 
 general care and supervision over the propertv belonging to the United 
 States ? And would not any other action by Congress be sure (as it has 
 done) "to prejudice the interests of particular States," and certainly this 
 cannot be read or construed so as to authorize Congress to make even or- 
 ganic or municipal laws for the people of a territory. There is no clause, 
 no expression in "the Constitution" that can even by perversion, be made 
 
29 
 
 to convey to Congress any power whatever to make any organic laws, ex- 
 cept for the organization of and carrying into effect, the three different 
 departments of the people's agect or government, and no municipal law 
 except for the District of Columbia. This is what our fathers fought for, 
 the one great principle, that the people should be free, dictate their own 
 laws, control and direct the mode and measure by which they should be 
 executed. They repudiated forever the old system that the people could 
 have no voice, and consequently no interest in their government but as 
 vassals. All their acts and declarations both before and after independ- 
 ence, in forming and accepting the compact, all, were based, as they be- 
 lieved on a sure foundation, for the security of the just and equal rights of 
 all, which is manifest in the clearly and fully defined restrictions of and 
 limitations to the powers conferred by the compact on the three branches 
 of the government. They intended to organize and institute an agent, 
 subject to the power that created it, this agent to be the custodian of their 
 united, but equal and separate, specified interests and rights ; therefore 
 Congress was restrained from general legislation, and confined to clearly 
 specified limits, because the immense Territory was so diverse in soils, 
 climates, and products, and the people of the different States, also possessed 
 various habits, industries, and enterprise, that any legislation by Congress, 
 while it might be vastly beneficial to one section or one interest^ would be 
 a tax upon and aggressive to another State or section, and it never could 
 be expected that impositions so unjust and unequal would be submitted to 
 by the aggrieved party, claiming and justly entitled under the compact, to 
 equal rights. All this was as plain to the view of those who formed the 
 compact, as the destruction of all their hopes from a violation of its condi- 
 tions are to us now. The plain reading of the compact shows clearly that 
 it was the intention to fully and clearly exclude from Congress all power 
 to legislate either for the organic or municipal laws, for either State or 
 Territory. The thirteen States being already organized, sovereign and 
 independent, with legislative, executive and judicial powers, with munici- 
 pal and all necessary laws in force and execution, would never surrender 
 their position and inalienable rights — and the Terricories or public lands, 
 being owned equally by all the States, peopled from all the States, and 
 each State having a particular and peculiar interest beyond the ownership, 
 excluded the possibility as well as expediency of any legislation by or pow- 
 er in Congress over them, except so far and no farther than prescribed by 
 the Constitution, and that "to make all necessary rules and regulations for 
 the care and sale of the lands" to one and to all who chose to purchase 
 them ; besides, the Constitution prescribes the conditions and mode by 
 which a Territory can be admitted as a State ; Congress has no power over 
 the subject, and if "the conditions" are fully complied with Congress has 
 no option in the matter and no power to make any conditions. Had the 
 true intent and meaning of the Constitution been fairly, fully and equally 
 to all carried out. the horrid difliculties which now overwhelm our whole 
 land could never have been dreamed of even. The people from all the 
 States would have gone to the Territories only as the filling up of the 
 already States rendered it for their interest to settle more and perhaps 
 better lands. Some would have gone with slaves, some with flocks and 
 herds, some with mechanics' tools, some with merchandise, and some with 
 professions; but all united and harmonized in one general object — the 
 united good of all ; and in proper time formed and adopted their own 
 Constitution, with or without slavery, conformable to their rights under 
 the Constitution, and become another State. To this time the common 
 law would have been their guide and protection, because for the common 
 good. But no, this must not be. The North had the majority in Con- 
 gress — must control the vote in this new State ; and in order to do so 
 Congress must violate and annul the Constitution, and slavery must be 
 
30 
 
 excluded while in a Territorial state. Now, let us reverse the case, and 
 in all sober earnestness let me ask, what would the North have said and 
 done, the South having the majority of votes in Congress, and enacted a 
 law excluding every white man who did not bring slaves to the Territory V 
 for certainly if (Congress have the power to exclude and make conditions 
 for the one, why not equal power for the other also ? Have T exaggerated 
 this? Is it not a plain, simple fact? Is it not this majority vote power 
 which the South is now forced to contend against ? And is it not for the 
 strengthening and augmenting this same majority power that the North 
 are now robbing, murdering and plundering the people of the South — 
 devastating and layiug waste their country ? 
 
 For the last forty years (since the Missouri Compromise — the monstrous 
 violation of the compact) every stimulant has been applied and every effort 
 to force settlements far beyond the wants of the population in the States, 
 and just so soou as some half dozen outcasts, half breeds, hunters, whiskey 
 drinkers, and sellers of whiskey to the Indians, could be gotten together in 
 the wilderness, far remote from civilization or even communication with it, 
 tremendous necessity has at once been discovered for the immediate or- 
 ganization of a Territorial government, and each party striven hard, too, 
 for the possession of the patronage in the appointment of Governor and 
 numerous Territorial officers, to preside over and officiate amongst the 
 savages and their wild wilderness game, and the full reward to the party 
 grog-shop demagogue who has bawled the loudest and drank the most 
 whiskey at the hustings has been awarded. With the proposition for or- 
 ganization has the battle commenced, and several times kept up for years, 
 the entire country agitated, the passions and prejudices of the people ex- 
 cited and inflamed, and all the profound wisdom in the land exhausted in 
 the endeavor to blind the people to the belief that Congress had the power 
 to exclude slavery, and the cause of human freedom demanded it. At 
 length the satisfactory bargains of barter and sale have been made, and the 
 bill finally passed, and the people stand aghast with wonder and astonish- 
 ment at the escape from utter annihilation ; but these demagogue leaders 
 have saved them this time only to lead them nearer to the brink the next, 
 as in the case of Kansas ; contributions and societies formed to hasten set- 
 tlement and organize a warfare, the parties in the Territory excited to 
 hatred against each other, to strife, civil war, and the most horrid barbari- 
 ties committed and encouraged ; and to keep this up, contributions in 
 money, arms, munitions, and bands of armed men, were sent to their aid, 
 encouraged and urged on, too, from the pulpit by those professing to be 
 " the messengers of peace and good will to man from high heaven." 
 Everybody throughout the land is familiar with the history of Kansas, the 
 precursor to the present barbarous warfare, now robbing, murdering and 
 plundering our brothers and our sons, bankrupting the nation, and devas- 
 tating the whole land ; and all this might have been checked in the bud, 
 had not the two parties in the North sought to make capital for the Presi- 
 dency out of it ; and the government lent its aid by the neglect of its first 
 duty. Though the (/on.stitution has given no power to Congress to legislate 
 for the Territories beyond the limitation, still the government, as the agent 
 of the people, has the entire and exclusive control over the sale and 
 management of the public lands for the benefit of all, and therefore bound 
 by all that is sacred to protect the settlers in the peaceable and lawful 
 possession of their just rights ; and those who have no lawful rights, and 
 are disturbing and endangering the rights, the persons and property of 
 those who have, should be considered as but robbers, murderers, and de- 
 stroyers of the peace and safety of the Territory, and the government 
 should eject them with force of arms, and punish them to the utmost rigor 
 of the law and its power to execute. This is but the plain duty of the 
 government, and bound by all that is sacred to its execution. Had the 
 
31 
 
 government done this, then we might have been spared all the strife and 
 all the bloodshed, and might still have been a harmonious Union. 
 
 But, alas ! all is gone ; all which cost our fathers so much suiFering and 
 blood, is gone. A chaos has succeeded the harmony, order and blessings 
 which they bequeathed to us, and now no one has the perception to pene- 
 trate the dark portentous cloud which overshadows all our hopes for the 
 future. 
 
 To my view, no reconstruction of our once glorious and happy Union 
 can ever be accomplished by force. It is not natural, or is it reasonable 
 to even suppose such an event possible V It is in direct opposition to all 
 the principles of independence for which our fathers fought, as well as 
 contrary to all the natural instincts of the American mind. It is in 
 opposition to the foundation of every idea which has been instilled into our 
 minds from our infancy up, and become a part of the American nature. 
 It is contrary to any precedent which history presents to us, for no people 
 have ever quietly and harmoniously united and become fully interested and 
 identified with another who have subjugated them. To hope for this, we 
 must expect the South to sink into a degradation even lower than the 
 slaves we are pretending to war for. No ; it can never be. The Ameri- 
 can born who holds his head proudly erect — the image of the Grod who 
 made him — is free, independent, and will never be a vassal to any ; and 
 those who act and argue to the contrary have not American instincts, have 
 not an American education, have not an American heart, cannot hold the 
 head erect and feel that they are free and the image of the God who made 
 them ; they do not understand the first principles of liberty ; they are ser- 
 vile slaves themselves seeking to enslave others, and marching rapidly to 
 military despotism. All can see this who will. There is not, or has there been 
 in our time, a despotic government in Europe so oppressively arbi-rary as 
 ours now is. Private property is taken without notice ; quiet, peaceable in- 
 habitants turned out of their homes, to make place for hired mercenaries ; 
 property wantonly wasted and uselessly destroyed, without remedy or 
 redress ; quiet citizens who have taken no action in any way, are taken by 
 force even from their beds and incarcerated in prisons for month, and not per- 
 mitted to know their accusers or the charge against them ; the public press 
 suppressed and public speech denied ; property seized and confiscated ; civil 
 and municipal tribunals and governments suppressed and military ones 
 substituted ; a large number of the legislators of a State on their way to 
 their Capital forcibly seized and incarcerated in prisons ; private citizens 
 and high officials forcibly taken from their State to a foreign State, and 
 there incarcerated in the strongest forts, denied a trial or the knowledge of 
 the charges against them ; ten thousand armed soldiers sent into a State, 
 to force an election, and no voter permitted to vote who would not take the 
 prescribed oath ; the writ of habeas corpus suspended ; money borrowed ; 
 armies levied, equipped and organized ; navies purchased, armed and 
 manned ; and the country overrun and devastated by a lawless, undisci- 
 plined military mob — all under an irresponsible military despotism ; all, 
 too, without the shadow of lawful authority, and in direct open violation 
 of every principle, spirit, and expressed conditions of the Constitution. 
 Is this the independence, the equality of rights, the liberty which our 
 fathers bequeathed to us? and will the South be subjugated to it? No : 
 never. The God of Heaven and Earth who kindled the first spark of the 
 holy fire of Religious and Civil Liberty in the American breast, will never 
 permit it. But will the people of the North permit it ? Alas ! alas ! the 
 North has become so mixed up with foreign, aristocratic, autocratic notions, 
 feeling, habits, principles, precedents, infidelity and all ; that the people run 
 after, throw up their caps and hurrah for the military despotism. But 
 alas, their liberty, and their rights, as secured to them by "the Constitu- 
 tion" are gone : yes, gone forever — and they but the hopeless vassals, who 
 
32 
 
 have riveted their own chains upon their own limbs. They have brought 
 all this ruin upon themselves — business of all kinds, commerce, manufac- 
 tures, and even agriculture, would be entirely prostrated but for the famine 
 alarm in Europe; the Treasury bankrupt; the National credit ruined ; with 
 a daily expenditure of more than $3,000,000 ; and the people to be taxed 
 beyond endurance or their ability to pay; and all for what? Do not tell, 
 me it is for " human freedom," philanthropy or Christianity. No : it would 
 be preposterous — yes, blasphemy. No ! it is for power ; to subjugate by 
 military force the supposed weaker to the stronger. 
 
 Now, if these people were really and truly in earnest, and sincerely in- 
 terested in "human freedoii)," and the srood of the slave at heart, morally, 
 mentally, socially and politically, why have they not come out with a pro- 
 position to purchase their freedom, and make suitable provision for their 
 support and improvement ? For certainly no one can pretentl it possible, 
 that they can jump at once from their present, to a state of cultivated civi- 
 lization. We will suppose there are, as the Census report represents 4,000,- 
 000, and an average price of $700 would be low, and would amount to 
 $2,s00,0()0,000 ; and these 4,000,000 might be fed as cheap as has been 
 paid for the board of horses, say forty (40) cents per day ; and would for 
 the 4,000,000 slaves amount to $1,600,000 per day, or $584,000,000 for 
 a year ; but as they are not horses and not to be put under an army con- 
 tract, we will allow one dollar each per week, or $52 per year, is $120,- 
 000,000; and for clothing, medical attendance, &c., &c., $30 each per 
 year, is $120,000,000— together, $3 128,000,000. 
 
 Three Billions one hundred and twenty-eight millions of dollars for the 
 purchase and support for the first year. Supposing this to be made a fund- 
 ed debt, the annual interest at seven "per cent, per annum would amount 
 to two hundred and eighteen millions, nine hundred and sixty thousand 
 ($218,960,000) dollars; to which must be added the annual coat of board, 
 clothing, medical attendance, &c., &c., amounting to three hundred and 
 twenty-eight iiiillious of (328,000,000) dollars, until they can provide for 
 themselves. Thuugh these sums look large on paper, war expenses and 
 war estimates have made such familiar ; and it would be as nothing to the 
 North, when a principle of such magnitude is involved. Had they come 
 forth with such a proposition to buy all the slaves of the South, pay for, 
 and take them to their bosoms, then they might well have claimed, not 
 only the sympathy, but the applause of all the world for their self-sacrific- 
 ing, philanthropy and humanity. But to first murder their masters and 
 families, destroy and devastate their homes and their property, and then 
 cast the slaves loose. What will the true philanthropist, the humane and 
 the christian call this ? does history present a parallel case ? I know Eng- 
 land is looked to, or pretended to be used as a precedent; and how do the 
 two cases compare. 
 
 First — we know that the powers of our Congress are defined and limited 
 by the Constitution, and its acts may be ignored and entirely set one side, 
 declared null and void by the United States Court. While the English 
 Parliament is omnipotent, and when its acts are sanctioned by the Crown, 
 become the Supreme Law of the Land, and all the people of the Realm 
 subject to it. 
 
 Secondly — the people of England, Ireland and Scotland agitated the 
 question of emancipation, and petitioned Parliament; and after along time 
 Parliament granted the prayer, because the people of England, Ireland and 
 Scotland were to be taxed to pay the owners a satisfactory indemnification, 
 and not rob, ruin and murder them; and because the people of England, 
 particularly the manufacturing interest, believed that the emancipation in 
 the West Indies would so change the habits of the slaves as to materially 
 lessen tropical products, the fruits of slave labor there — force the necessity 
 for, and naturally stimulate the production of tropical products in Asia, 
 
83 
 
 where they auticipated a vastly iucreased demand for their manufactured 
 goods; and the consequently augmented caiTyin,i{ trade between India and 
 England would greatly increase and benefit commerce, navigation, and 
 also the general interests of the kingdom. Now, in England the Parlia- 
 ment have the entire control, with the Crown, over all such subjects and 
 the unrestricted management of them, and the people with their property 
 are but subjects, and must submit and pay. This is the yoke which our 
 fathers cut off, as they hoped, for their posterity forever. 
 
 I have been particular in this sketch of the origin and progress of the 
 causes which have overthrown our Union and placed us under a military 
 despotic power, for you to keep, and give it to your children when I am 
 gone, that they may see and know what should have been their inheritance, 
 and let them contrast the free government bequeathed by our fathers, with 
 the yoke which will then be upon their neoks. 
 
 What I have written are facts which have come under my own observa- 
 tion, and of scenes in which I have acted a part, from before the war of 
 1812 to the present time, showing as I have seen from the beginning, that 
 the same party which now rules us, have spared no cost and bent all their 
 efforts to curtail the rights and liberty of man, to make labor subject to 
 capital, and to attain the end they have now reached — the overthrow of the 
 Union, or secure to themselves the entire control of it, subjecting the 
 people to their dictation and will. 
 
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