> 
 
TEEE M:Tssioisr 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 I 
 
 TO VIRGINIA. 
 
 FROM THE PliEHii OF JAMp:S J.UOAS & SON, BALTIMORE. 
 
O^'xjtUiM&fO- ^-^^OAJ^^ lO^U^^^-^nni'^AA^ 
 
 THE ]VIISSION 
 
 ©tLOTTtKl ©/a^(Q)3.ara^ 
 
 TO VIRGINIA. 
 
.5 
 
 DEC g/8 1916 
 
THE MISSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 TO VIRGINIA. 
 
 [From JJe JJow'-s Review, December, 18G0.] 
 
 [This is a fitting occasion to present to our readers a paper which has 
 been upon our table for several months, embodying the argument made by 
 South Carolina, through her eminent citizen, the Hon. C. Gr. Memminger, 
 at the bar of the Legislature of Virginia, touching the great subject of 
 Southern wrongs, and the proper remedy for them. The argument is 
 powerful, and leaves little to be said in justification of any course the 
 common perils of the South may urge upon her. We desire to preserve 
 it in the "Review." — Ed. Rev.] 
 
 Referring to the resolutions of the Legislature of South Carolina, under 
 which he acted, Mr. Memminger said,* "They direct me — 
 
 "1. To express to the authorities of Virginia the cordial sj-nipath}- of the people of 
 South Carolina with the people of Virginia, in the trial through which they have lately 
 passed. 
 
 "2. To express our earnest desire to unite with you in measures of common defence. 
 
 "3. To request a conference of the slaveholding States, and the appointment of dep- 
 uties or commissioners to the same on the part of Virginia." 
 
 harper's ferry outrage. 
 The expression of our sympathy is most grateful to our own feelings. 
 While, in common with the rest of the Union, we feel our obligation for the 
 large contribution of mind and effort which Virginia has made to the com- 
 mon cause, we of South Carolina are more largely indebted to her for man- 
 ifestations of particular concern in our welfare, which I shall presently 
 notice. We had supposed that her large contributions to the Union had 
 secured to her the respect and aS"ection of every State of this Confederacy. 
 Certainly there is no State to whom more kindly feelings are due. Her 
 statesmen and soldiers had devoted their lives to the service of the country, 
 and their honored remains now hallow her soil, There was the tomb of 
 
the Father of his Country. There lay the ashes of Patrick Henry and of 
 .Icffcrson, and of Madison, and of a host of others, whose names had given 
 lustre to our country's glory, and the fruit of whose labors was the common 
 inheritance of North and South ; and yet all this could not preserve her 
 from the invasion of her soil, the murder of her citizens, and the attempt 
 to involve her in the horrors of servile and civil war. That very North, 
 to whom she had surrendered a territorial empire — who had grown great 
 through her generous confidence — sent forth the assassins, furnished them 
 with arms and money, and would fain rescue them from the infamy and 
 punishment due to crimes so atrocious. 
 
 To estimate aright the character of the outrage at Harper's Ferry, we 
 must realize the intentions of those who planned it. They expected the 
 slaves to rise in mass as soon as the banner of abolitionism should be un- 
 furled. Knowing nothing of the kindly feeling which exists throughout 
 the South between the master and his slaves, they judged of that feeling 
 by their own hatred, and expected that the tocsin which they sounded would 
 at once arouse to rebellion every slave who heard it. Accordingly they 
 prepared such arms as an infuriated and untrained peasantry could most 
 readily use. 
 
 They also expected aid from another element of revolution. They did 
 not believe in the loyalty to the government of Virginia of that part of 
 her population which owned no ■slaves. They seized upon the armory, 
 and they expected help from its operatives, and from the farming popula- 
 tion ; and to gain time for combining all these elements of mischief, as 
 they conceived them to be. they seized upon a pass in the mountains, well 
 adapted to their purpose. For months had they worked with fiendish and 
 unweared diligence, and it is hazarding little to conjecture, that the ban- 
 ditti who had been trained in Kansas, were in readiness to obey the sum- 
 mons to new scenes of rapine and murder, as soon as a lodgment were 
 effected. 
 
 Is it at all surprising that a peaceful village, where no sound of war had 
 been heard for half a century, should be overcome for the moment, at 
 midnight, by so unexpected an inroad? The confusion which ensued was 
 a necessity ; and it can only be inscribed to the superintendence of a kind 
 Providence, that so few innocent lives were sacrificed. It is indeed won- 
 derful that none of the hostages seized by these banditti should have suf- 
 fered from the attacks which their friends were obliged to make, and that 
 at so early a period the inhabitants recovered from their amazement and 
 
reduced their assailants to the five who were entrenched within the brick 
 walls of the engine-house. 
 
 The failure to accomplish their purpose cannot lessen its atrocity; 
 neither can their erroneous calculations as to the loyalty of the citizens to 
 the State, or of the slaves to their masters, lessen the crime of these mur- 
 derers, and they have justly paid the forfeit of their lives. But such a 
 forfeit cannot expiate the blood of peaceful citizens, nor restore the feel- 
 ing of tranquil security to the families which they have disturbed. The 
 outraged soil of Virginia stands a witness of the wrong, and the unquiet 
 homes which remain agitated along her borders, still call for protection ; 
 and as an affectionate mother, the State feels for her children, and is pro- 
 viding for that protection. The people of South Carolina cordially sym- 
 pathize in all these feelings. They regard this outrage as perpetrated on 
 themselves. The blow that has struck you, was aimed equally at them, 
 and they would gladly share in all its consequences, and, most of all, in 
 the effort to prevent its recurrence in the future. 
 
 In this desire, they are influenced not only by a sense of common dan- 
 ger, but by the remembrance of former kindness, exhibited toward South 
 Carolina by the State of Virginia, in a day of trial. 
 
 Virginia's sympathy with south Carolina in her nullification 
 
 struggles. 
 
 In the year 1833, when South Carolina had nullified an unconstitutional 
 tariff, imposed by the federal government, and was taking measures to 
 maintain her position at every hazard, the State of Virginia, actuated by 
 the kindliest and most honorable feelings, adopted the following resolutions : 
 
 '^Resolved, Bj the General Assembly, in the name and on behalf of the people of 
 Virginia, that the competent authorities of South Carolina be and they are hereby ear- 
 nestly and respectfully requested and entreated to rescind the ordinance of the late 
 convention of that State, entitled 'An Ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress 
 of the United States, purporting to be laws, laying duties and imposts on the impor- 
 tation of foreign commodities;' or, at least, to suspend its operation until the close of 
 the first session of the next Congress. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That the Congress of the United Stales be and they are hereby earnestly 
 and respectfully requested and entreated so to modify the acts laying duties and imposts 
 on the importation of foreign commodities, commonly called the tariff acts, as to effect 
 algradual but speedy reduction of the resulting revenue of the general government, to 
 the standard of the necessary and proper expenditures for the support thereof. 
 
 "Resolved, That this House will, by a joint vote with the vSenate, proceed, on this 
 day, to elect a Commissioner, whose duty it shall be to proceed immediately to South 
 Carolina, and communicate the foregoing preamble and resolutions to the Governor of 
 that State, with a request that they be communicated to the Legislature of that State, 
 or any convention of its citizens, or give them such other direction as in his judgment 
 may be best calculated to promote the objects which this Commonwealth has in view ; 
 and that the said Commissioner be authorized to express to the public authorities and 
 people of our sister State, in such manner as he may deem most expedient, our sincere 
 
good ■will to our sister State, and our anxious solicitude that the kind and respectful 
 recommendations we have addressed her, may lead to an accommodation of all the 
 differences between that State and the general government." 
 
 Mr. Leigh repaired to South Carolina, and on presenting his creden- 
 tials, was informed by the governor that the ordinary authorities of the 
 government had no jurisdiction of the subject of his mission, inasmuch 
 as the ordinance of nullification had been passed by a convention of the 
 people. The following extracts from the correspondence will exhibit what 
 took place : 
 
 Extract from a letter of lion. B. W. Leigh, Commissioner of Virginia, to his Excellencg 
 Robert Y. Ilayne, Governor of South Carolina. 
 
 "CiiARLESTOX, February oth, 183.3. 
 "I have now, therefore, to request your Excellency to communicate the resolutions of 
 the General Assembly of Virginia, and this letter also, to the President of the Conven- 
 tion, confident! V ho]iin'j; that that otticcr will not refuse or hesitate to re-assemble the 
 convention, in «")rdcr that the resolutions of the General Assembly mav be submitted 
 to it, and that the Cuiuention may consider whether, and how far, the earnest and 
 respectful request and entreaty of the General Assembly shall and ought to be com- 
 plied with.'" 
 
 Extract from a letter of James Hamilton, Jr., to his Excellency Robert Y. Hayne, Gov- 
 ernor of South Carolina. 
 
 "Charleston, February Gth, 1833. 
 
 "In reply to the reference which you have made to me, as President of the Conven- 
 tion of the people of South Carolina, consequent on the ai)plication on the part of that 
 gentleman for the meeting of that body, I beg leave to communicate to him, through 
 vour Excellency, that apjjreciating very highly the kind disposition and the patriotic 
 solicitude which have induced the highly respectable commonwealth Miiich he repre- 
 sents to interpose her friendly and mediatorial offices in the unhappy controversy sub- 
 sisting between the federal government and the State of South Carolina, I should do 
 great iniustice to those dispositions on her part, and, I am quite sure, to the feelings of 
 the people of South Carolina, if I did not promptly comply with his wishes in reference 
 to the proposed call." 
 
 In compliance with Mr. Leigh's request, the Convention was re-assem- 
 bled. The mediation and request of Virginia was communicated. Her 
 interference with the federal government, the other party to the controversy, 
 had led to a modification of the tariff, and the result with South Carolina 
 was a repeal of the ordinance of nullification, and the adoption by the 
 Convention of the following resolutions : 
 
 "Resolveel, unanimously, That the President of this Convention do communicate to 
 the (Jovernor of Virginia, with a copy of this report and these resolutions, our distin- 
 g\iished sense of the i)atriotic and friendly motives which actuated her General Assembly 
 hi tendering her mediation in the late controversy between the general government and 
 the State of South Carolina, with the ivssurance that her friendly counsels will at all times 
 command our respectful consideration. 
 
 ^^Resolred, unanimously, That the President of this Convention likewise convey to 
 the (Governor of Virginia our high appreciation of the able and conciliatory manner 
 in which Mr. Leigh has conducted his mission, during which he afforded the most grat- 
 ifying satisfaction to all parties, in sustaining toward us the kind and fraternal relations 
 of his own State." 
 
1 
 
 The other incident in the relations of the two States, to which I would 
 ask your attention, occurred in 1851. Four years before, both States 
 passed resolutions that they would not submit to the Wilraot Proviso. In 
 1849 Virginia had added to her declaration of 1847, that she would also 
 resist the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. South 
 Carolina concurred entirely in the sentiments of Virginia, and prepared 
 to defend the position which had been taken, and which she supposed was 
 the common position of the whole South. 
 
 The compromise measures adopted by Congress in 1850, so far from being 
 satisfactory, in her judgment aggravated the injury. She regarded the ad- 
 mission of California, with a constitution prohibiting slavery, as in eft'ect an 
 enactment of the Wilmot Proviso ; and the slave trade in the District of 
 Columbia had been expressly prohibited by one of the compromise acts 
 of Congress. With these views South Carolina proceeded to arm her 
 people, and made the requisite arrangements for calling a convention to 
 secede from the Union, or to adopt such other measures as the safety and 
 welfare of the State might require. 
 
 VIRGINIA RKGARDS THE COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1851 AS A FINAL SET- 
 TLEMENT. 
 
 In December, 1851, the Legislature of Virginia adopted the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 " Whereas, The Legislature of the State of South Carolina has passed an act to pro- 
 vide for the appointment of delegates to the Southern Congress, 'to be intrusted -with 
 full power and authority to deliberate with the view and intention of arresting further 
 aggression, and, if possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and, 
 if not, to recommend due provision for their future safety and independence,' which 
 act has been formally communicated to this Geijeral Assembly. 
 
 "1. Be it, therefore. Resolved, by the General Assembly of Virginia, that while this 
 State deeply sympathizes with South Carolina in the feelings excited by the unwarranta- 
 ble interference of certain of the non-slaveholding States with our common institutions ; 
 and v.hile diversity of opinion exists among the people of this Commonwealth in regard 
 to the wisdom, justice, and constitutionality of the measures of the late Congress of the 
 United States, taken as a whole, and commouly known as the compromise measures, 
 yet the Legislature of Virginia deems it a duty to declare to her sister State of South 
 Carolina, that the people of this State are unwilling to take any action in consequence 
 of the same, calculated to destroy the integrity of this Union. 
 
 "2. Resolved, That, regarding the said acts of the Congress of the United States, 
 taken together, as an adjustment of the exciting questions to which they relate, and 
 cherishing the hope that, if fairly executed, they will restore to the country that har- 
 mony and confidence which of late have been so unhappily disturbed, the State of Vir- 
 ginia deems it unwise, in the present condition of the country, to send delegates to the 
 proposed Southern Congress." 
 
 "3. Resolved, That Virginia earnestly and affectionately appeals to her sister State 
 of South Carolina, to desist from any meditated secession on her part, which cannot 
 but tend to the destruction of the Union, and the loss to all of the States of the benefits 
 that spring from it." 
 
I have introduced this history in no spirit of fault finding, and with no 
 intention to reflect in the least degree upon the action of Virginia. She 
 had a perfect right, as a sovereign State, to accept the Compromise of 
 1850; and, having accepted it, she was not bound to justify herself, 
 except at her own pleasure. South Carolina had an equal right to refuse 
 the compromise, and to take action to make good such refusal. But the 
 kindly feeling which existed between the two States induced Virginia to 
 pass the resolutions of 1S51. A reciprocal feeling influenced South Car- 
 olina; and many of her citizens, influenced by the action of Virginia, 
 proceeded to canvass the State, and persuaded the people to abandon the 
 idea of separate secession. The South Carolina Convention met in 1852; 
 and, although a majority had been elected of those who were in favor of 
 secession, that majority gave way to the popular will, and all parties united 
 in asserting the right, but desisting from the act of secession. 
 
 Thus, a second time did a convention of the people of South Carolina 
 accede to the request of Virginia. Seven years have since elapsed; and, 
 instead of that returning sense of justice among the Northern people, 
 which you doubtless expected, ' 'the assaults upon the institution of slavery, 
 and upon the rights and equality of the Southern States^ have unceasingly 
 continued with increasing violence, and in new and more alarming forms," 
 until now, at length, the voice of a brother's blood cries to us from the 
 ground ; and South Carolina, moved like yourselves by that cry, offers her 
 sympathy and proposes a conference ; and ' 'earnestly requests of Virginia 
 that she will appoint deputies and adopt such measures as in her judgment 
 will promote the said meeting." 
 
 South Carolina, however, does not expect, neither would she desire you 
 to do what your judgments do not approve. She feels well assured that, 
 under existing circumstances, such a conference is the best step which can 
 be taken ; and I cannot better discharge the duty intrusted to me, than in 
 presenting to your consideration the reasons which lead to this conclusion. 
 To an audience so intelligent as that which now honors me with its atten- 
 tion, I can scarcely advance anything new ; but it will lead to a just con- 
 clusion, if we refresh our memories as to some material incidents of the 
 past. 
 
 THE NOKTH AND THE SOUTH STAND IN UOSTILE ARRAY. 
 
 The great question which underlies all action on this subject is, whether 
 the existing relations between the North and the South are temporary or 
 permanent ; whether they result from accidental derangement of the body 
 
politic, or are indications of a normal condition ? In the one case, tem- 
 porary expedients may restore soundness ; in the other, the remedy is 
 either hopeless, or it must be fundamental and thorough. 
 
 In these aspects the invasion at Harper's Ferry is a valuable exponent. 
 It furnishes many indications by which we may ascertain the actual con- 
 dition of things. It is a sort of nilometer, by which we can measure the 
 heights of the flood which is bursting over the land. By the providence 
 of that God who preserved your people from the knife of the assassin, you 
 were enabled, not only to defeat and capture your enemies, but to get pos- 
 session of arms and documents which expose the design and plan of the 
 assailants. You find that months must have elapsed in maturing their 
 plans : that arms were manufactured, the design of which could not be 
 mistaken; that large sums of money must have been collected. It is 
 certain, therefore, that many persons must have known that such a blow 
 was intended ; and yet, who spoke '! Who gave a single friendly warning 
 to Virginia? One voice, indeed, distinctly uttered to the federal govern- 
 ment a warning, but that voice was disregarded ; and the catastrophe 
 burst upon us as a thunder-storm in mid-winter. 
 
 The loyal sons of Virginia rushed to her defence, and the military arm 
 bows to the majesty of law, and delivers the murderer to a just and impar- 
 tial trial. A new incident in the history of crime is developed. Learned 
 counsel from a distant city, once styled the Athens of America, proceed 
 to a distant village to offer their services to defend the midnight assassin. 
 Political offences have sometimes found voluntary defenders, but the moral 
 sense must be absolutely perverted, when it is deemed a virtue to screen 
 the murderer from punishment. The excitement grows, and your courts 
 of justice cannot proceed as in ordinary cases of crime. You are com- 
 pelled to surround them with military power ; and when the law has pro- 
 nounced its sentence, you are compelled to guard the prison-house and 
 the scaffold, to keep at bay the confederates and sympathizers with crimes 
 heretofore execrated by every civilized people upon earth. 
 
 The indications of this implacable condition of Northern opinion do not 
 stop here. The sentence of death upon the criminals and their execution 
 are bewailed Avith sounds of lamentation, such as would now follow a Ridley 
 or a Latimer to the stake, and public demonstrations of sympathy exhibit 
 themselves throughout the entire North. To the great discredit of our 
 institutions and of our country, motions are entertained in bodies exer- 
 cising political power to honor the memory of a wretched fanatic and 
 
10 
 
 assassin; and, hi one body, the motion failed only for the want of three 
 votes. These are indications which you cannot disregard. They tell of 
 a state of puldic opinion which cannot fail to produce further evil. Every 
 village bell which tolled its solemn note at the execution of Brown, pro- 
 claims to the South the approbation of that village of insurrection and 
 servile war; and the ease with which some of the confederates escaped 
 to Canada, proves that much of the population around are willing to abet 
 the actors in these incendiary attempts. 
 
 To view this matter in its just proportions, we must set it at a little 
 distance from us. Familiarity accustoms us so much to things near, that 
 we lose the perception of their magnitude. A daily observer of the Falls 
 of Niagara may be brought to look upon them as the ordinary descent of 
 water down a river. Let us, therefore, suppose that the attempted assas- 
 sination of Louis Napoleon at the opera-house in Paris had been followed 
 by developments showing the contribution of arms and money in England; 
 that, upon the arrest of the detected assassins, learned coun.«el had crossed 
 the Channel to volunteer a defence before the French courts ; that, upon 
 his condemnation, threats of sympathy compelled the government to sur- 
 round the scaffold with arms; and, upon his execution, bells were tolled 
 in many English villages; and, as a consummation of the whole, amotion 
 was entertained to adjourn the Parliament in honor of the memory of the 
 assassin, and that this motion had failed in one House only by three votes. 
 Does any man suppose that, under these circumstances, the peace of 
 Europe could have been preserved for a day ? Unless prompt disavowal 
 and punishment had been offered, every Frenchman would have been ready 
 to cross the Channel as an enemy, and the civilized world would have 
 regarded the English people as a nation of outlaws. 
 
 In niir country, so far from there being any proper indication of disa- 
 vowal, the indications are the other way. Elections have taken place at 
 the North since the Harper's Ferry invasion, in which the public senti- 
 ment has been exhibited. Those who maintain the abolition views have 
 proved stronger than they ever were before. In New York they have 
 triumphed over the other parties combined together; and in Boston, not- 
 withstanding an attempt to stay the tide, the same result has followed. In 
 Congress, the same lamentable exhibition is afforded. More than one hun- 
 dred members prefer to keep the government disorganized, rather than 
 abandon a candidate whose recommendation of a book inviting a combined 
 effort to introduce anarchy and servile war at the South, makes him obnox- 
 
11 
 
 ious to the South : and of these, some sixty have signed a recommendation 
 of the same book ; and there they stand, and have stood for more than six 
 weeks, with unbroken front, refusing any kind of concession to the out- 
 raged feelings of the South. Can any Southern man believe that these 
 Representatives do not represent the feelings of their constituents ; and 
 that they would venture upon the measure of keeping the goverment dis- 
 organized, against the public opinion that is behind them. 
 
 Here, then, we have before us the North and the South, standing face 
 to face — not yet as avowed and open enemies; but with deep-seated feel- 
 ings of enmity rankling in their bosoms, which at any moment may burst 
 forth into action. Is it wise, when we see flame shining through every 
 crevice, and ready to leap from every open window — is it wise to close the 
 window, and fill up every gap, and shut our eyes to the fact that the fire 
 is raging within the building V It is not wise. We must examine the 
 premises, and determine whether the building can be saved, or whether it 
 must be abandoned. 
 
 We have now reached this point in our inquiry. The Harper's Ferry 
 invasion, with the developments following it, and the now existing condition 
 of the country, prove that the North and the South are standing in hostile 
 array- — the one with an absolute majority, sustaining those who meditate 
 our destruction, and refusing to us any concession or guaranty — and the 
 other baffled in every attempt at compromise or security. 
 
 CAUSES AVHICH HAVE OPERATED TO PRODUCE THE RESULT, AND W^HETHER 
 PERMANENT OR NOT. 
 
 The inquiry which must naturally follow would be into the causes which 
 have led to this result, and whether these causes are transient in character, 
 or must continue to operate until they result in a final overthrow of our 
 institutions. 
 
 To determine this question, it becomes necessary to review a portion of 
 the history of our country. 
 
 At the termination of the Revolutionary war, there were six slavehold- 
 ing States and seven non-slaveholding. The Northern section had no 
 territory but that from which has since been formed the States of Vermont 
 and Maine. The Southern owned the Northwest and the Southwest, and had 
 in its possession the means of expanding itself into the numerous States 
 which have since been formed out of this territory. The local law of 
 slavery in the parent State would have followed in the offspring, and the 
 
12 
 
 esult must Lave been that the power of the South would have had the 
 vast preponderance. At that time, too, the commerce of the South was 
 e(|ual to that of the North ; and, occupying a more favorable position, 
 both as to soil and climate, there was every reasonable prospect that she 
 would be in the advance of all the elements of national strength. 
 
 How different a result do we this day realize I The North has grown 
 to a degree of power and grandeur unequalled in the history of the world. 
 They have taken possession of the magnificent inheritance of the South, 
 and on the fertile plains which should have been ours they gather their thou- 
 sands, and utter voices of denunciation against those who bestowed upon 
 them the power and wealth which they enjoy. What are the causes of these 
 results? How has it come to pass that the South, having in its hands the 
 means of unlimited progress and certain preponderance, has been reduced 
 almost to the condition of a suppliant, while the North has grown into 
 such proportions that it assumes to give law as a master? 
 
 The more perfect union of the States was an object of great interest to 
 the Revolutionary patriots. In 1784, Virginia led the way by ceding to 
 the United States her magnificent domain north of the Ohio river. The 
 terms of Virginia's act of cession required that the States to be formed 
 from this territory shall be "admitted members of the Federal Union, 
 having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence, as the 
 other States." Shortly after the cession, a committee of the Congress of 
 the Confederation was raised to frame an ordinance for the establishment 
 of the territory. This committee, of whom Mr. Jefferson was one, 
 reported an ordinance excluding slavery after the year 1800. This 
 restriction on slavery, however, was struck out by the Congress on motion 
 of North Carolina — every Southern State and every Southern delegate, 
 except Mr. Jefferson, voting for striking out; and the ordinance was 
 adopted without the restriction. During the several subsequent sessions 
 of Congress, other propositions were moved : and finally, on the 13th of 
 July, 1787, just two months before the adoption of our present Constitu- 
 tion, the ordinance was adopted with the restriction clause, as follows: 
 
 _ "Akt. (j. There sliall be neither shivery nor irivohiutary .servitude in the said ter- 
 ritory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been 
 duly convicted ; Provided ahvays, that any person escaping' into the same, from whom 
 labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may 
 be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the jierson claiming his or her labor or service 
 as aforesaid." 
 
 Three things are apparent from this statement : the first is, that Vir- 
 ginia and the South made this great concession for the sake of the Federal 
 
13 
 
 Union ; the second is, that the concession was made upon the express 
 condition that fugitive slaves escaping into the territory should be restored 
 to their owners; and the third is, that at this early period, long before 
 fanaticism had mingled in this controversy, and before the South had any 
 apprehensions as to her equal rights, the North, with far-reaching crafti- 
 ness, secured to itself a predominance of eventual power in the Union. 
 The generous and confiding character of the South overlooked these con- 
 siderations. Her statesmen were then in possession of the government. 
 General Washington was at the head, surrounded by generous and noble 
 spirits; and the slaveholder and the non-slaveholder had so often stood 
 side by side in conflict with their enemy, that they still deemed each other 
 brethren. 
 
 But what has been the eifect of these cessions upon the relative con- 
 dition of the North and the South V From this ceded territory nine States 
 have grown — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. These States, added to the six 
 original slave States, would have increased their number to fifteen. The 
 Northern States, having but two new States to add to their original seven, 
 would have numbered nine in all Hence, it would have followed that 
 the South would now have had 30 Senators and 122 Representatives in 
 Congress, while the North would have had only 18 Senators and 92 Rep- 
 resentatives. The eff'ect of the cessions, however, has been to give to the 
 North five out of these nine States, while the South retained but four. 
 The Northern States have, therefore, added these five to their original 
 seven ; which twelve being added to Vermont and Maine, made their num- 
 ber fourteen, against ten Southern States; and the distribution of power, 
 according to the present basis, gives to the North, as the efi'ect of these 
 cessions, 28 Senators and 140 Representatives in Congress, while the South 
 has only 20 Senators and 74 Representatives. 
 
 History does not afford a parallel for so magnanimous and voluntary a 
 surrender. Virginia, which contributed the largest portion, was perhaps, 
 more independent than any of her sisters. With a climate and soil the 
 most favored by nature^ — with an extended commerce— with fine ports and 
 noble rivers — with somewhat of a navy, and with a well-tried militia, she 
 was quite able to stand alone. But she gave up all for the sake of union. 
 Nay, more — the whole produce of the sales of all the land ceded by the 
 South amounting to some one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, was 
 thrown into the coff'er of the Union— while the sales in the Northern por- 
 
14 
 
 tion of the Union were reserved to themselves. Surely, if there could be 
 created a sentiment of gratitude and brotherly love in States, that senti- 
 ment should have existed in the Northern States toward the people of the 
 South. 
 
 The next event of importance in this history, was the purchase of 
 Louisiana. This acquisition was made in April, 1803, under the treaty 
 with France, and was approved by the whole Union. The territory acquired 
 was all slaveholding. The rights of the inhabitants were expressly guar- 
 anteed to them by treaty ; and the local law being that of a slaveholding 
 country, of course attached throughout its entire extent. Ten States have 
 been, or are about to be, formed from this purchase. At the date of the 
 treaty, there were eight slaveholding and nine non-slaveholding States: 
 and from the territory then belonging to the Union, the slave States could 
 add to their number but two, to wit: Alabama and Mississippi — while five 
 remained to be added to the North, namely, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, and Elaine. When these should all have been admitted, the 
 North was to have fourteen States — the South but ten. The purchase of 
 Louisiana, by extending the local law of slavery over all its territory, 
 added to the South this whole area, making in all twenty States; and the 
 ac(|uisition of Florida, under the treaty of Spain, added one more State, 
 making twenty-one Southern States, against fourteen Northern. 
 
 Such was the condition and prospects of the Union when Missouri 
 applied for admission. Maine had just been admitted without objection, 
 and the Union stood at its old position— the North having one more State 
 than the South. The admission of Missouri would only have made them 
 equal for the time. The opposition, therefore, to the admission of Missouri 
 was induced not by any existing preponderance of the South, but by one 
 that was inticipated. Just as they did in 1787, the North made use of 
 the attachment of the South to the Union to effect their scheme, and insisted 
 that all the territory west of the Mississippi should be given up by the 
 South. It is highly instructive to us, in our present circumstances to 
 notice that the only motive to this refusal to admit Missouri, must have 
 been to secure power to the North. Fanaticism had yet exercised no con- 
 trolling power. Hatred had not yet been excited. The many bonds, 
 social, commercial, and religious, which bound the country together, were 
 yet in full vigor. 
 
 Again the adoration of the South for union prevailed. A voice from 
 its midst, in an evil hour, proposed what is called a compromise, and the 
 
15 
 
 North eagerly seized and urged it forward. The Missouri Compromise 
 took its place on the statute-book, and graved in the soil of the Union a 
 geographical line between the North and the South. It was called a com- 
 promise ; but unfortunately it differed from the usual acceptation of the 
 term, in that it gave all on one side of the line to the North, and secured 
 nothing on the other side to the South. By it the North gained territory 
 for six additional States, namely: Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 Oregon, and Washington. The South reserved but two — Missouri and 
 Arkansas— with the chances of a third from the Indian territory. The 
 disastrous consequences of this compromise are portrayed with the pen of 
 a prophet, by Mr. Jeflferson ; and I respectfully ask to have his words read 
 in your hearing: 
 
 Extract fro/H a Idter of Mr. Jefferson to Jolin Jlolntfx. 
 
 "MoNTiCELLO, April 22, 1830. 
 
 "I thank you, dear sir, for the <io\y\ you liave been so kind as to send me of the let- 
 ter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is a perfect justification to them. 
 I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or pay any attention to ptililic 
 afl'airs, confident that they were in good hands, and content to he a passenger in our bark 
 to the shore, tVoni which I am not far distant. But this momentous question, like a 
 fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as 
 the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve 
 only, not the final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, 
 moral and political, once conceived and held uj) to the angry passions of men, will 
 never be obliterated, and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. * * 
 
 "I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves 
 by the generation of 1T70, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, 
 is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my 
 only consolation is to be, that I shall not live to weep over it.'' 
 
 ACTION OF THE .\B0LITI0NISTS IN CONGRESS. 
 
 We will now pass down to the period when a new element was brought 
 into this unfortunate controversy. In 1835, petitions for the abolition of 
 slavery in places subject to the authority of the general government, began 
 to be presented to Congress. This form of proceeding was adopted merely 
 to adjust a lever which might reach the institution of slavery within the 
 States ; and it is hazarding little to affirm, that such was distinctly under- 
 stood to be the design of the movement. Such an attempt should have 
 been met by the prompt and stern rebuke of the common government of 
 all the States; for it would seem to be an axiomatic truth, that where sev- 
 eral States had entered into an alliance, there was an obligation on each to 
 respect the institutions of the other ; and that any attempt to use the 
 alliance for the purpose of assailing the institutions of any one of the par- 
 ties, was a breach of faith, and must ensue in a dissolution of the alliance. 
 
16 
 
 Stern rebuke, and unyielding resistance, should have been ofiered by 
 Congress to all these attempts ; and such was the course advised by 
 Southern statesmen. As far back as 1838, the dangers which are now 
 around us were clearly foretold by Mr. Calhoun, and it may serve to con- 
 vince us that the final result is not far in the future, if we see before us 
 the antecedents which had been distinctly traced. I ask leave, therefore, 
 to have read an extract from a speech made in 1838 : 
 
 "Tliis was the only question of sufficient magnitude and potency to divide tliis Union ; 
 and divide it, it would, or drench the country in lilood, if not arrested. He knew how 
 much the sentiment he had uttered would be misconstrued and misrepresented. There 
 were tliose who saw no danger to the Union in the violation of all its fundamental 
 l)rinciples, but who were full of apprehension when danger was foretold or resisted, 
 and who held not the authors of the danger, but those who forewarned or opposed it, 
 responsible for consequences. But the cry of disunion, by the weak or designing had 
 no terror for him. If his attachment to the Union was less, he might tamper with the 
 deep disease which now afflicts the body politic, and keep silent until the patient was 
 ready to sink under its mortal blows. It is a cheap, and he must say, but too certain 
 a mode of acquiring the character of devoted attachment to the Union. But seeing the 
 danger as he did, he would be a traitor to the Union, and those he represented, to keep 
 silence. The assaults daily made on the institutions of nearly one-half of the States 
 of this Union by the other — institutions interwoven from the Ijeginning with their 
 political and social existence, and which cannot be other than they are, without their 
 inevitable destruction, will, and must, if continued, make two jjeojiJe of one, by destroy- 
 ing every sympathy between the two great sections, obliterating from their hearts the 
 recollections of their common danger and glory, and implanting in their place a mutual 
 hatred, more deadlj' than ever existed between two neighboring people, since the com- 
 mencement of the human race. He feared not the circulation of the tliousands of in- 
 cendiary and slanderous publications, which wei'c daily issued from an organized and 
 powerful press, among those intended to be villified. They cannot penetrate our sec- 
 tion ; that was not the danger ; it lay in a different direction. Their circulation in the 
 non-slaveholding States was what was to be dreaded. It was infusing a deadly poison 
 into the minds of the rising generation, implanting in them feelings of hatred, the most 
 deadly hatred, instead of altection and love, for one-half of this Union, to be returned 
 on their part with equal detestation. The fatal, immutable consequences, if not arrested, 
 and that without delay, were such as he had presented. 
 
 ''The abolitionists tell you, in so many words, that their object is to abolish slavery 
 in the District of Columbia, as but one step toward final abolition in the States. With this 
 object, avowed by the abolitionists, what do duty and policy demand on our part ? We 
 see the end ; and that, if it can be effected, it would be our destruction. Shall we yield 
 or stand fast'.' That is the question. H" we yield an inch, we are gone. The very 
 ground on which we are asked to make the first concession, will be urged on us with 
 equal force to make the second, the third, and ever}- intermediate one, till the last is 
 consummated. * * * '•■■■ -^ At every step they would become stronger, and we 
 weaker, if we should be so infatuated as to make the first concession. ■•■• ••'■" ■•■" * * 
 There never was a question agitated, where the most unyielding opposition was so 
 necessary for success. 
 
 "He ought not, perhaps, to be surprised that Senators should differ so widely from 
 him on this subject. They did view the disease as he did. He saw working at the 
 bottom of these movements the same spirit Avhich, two centuries ago, convulsed the 
 Christian world, aiul deluged it in blood — that fierce and cruel spirit of persecution 
 which originated in assumed superiority and mistaken principles of duty, that made 
 one man l)clicve that he was accountalile for the sins of another, and that he was the 
 judge of what belonged to his temporal and eternal welfare, and was bound, at the 
 peril of his own soul, to interfere to rescue him from perdition. Against this fell and 
 tiloody spirit it was in vain to interpose this amendment. ••• * * •••" •■-" "*' An 
 infiexible adherence to our ])rinciples and our rights, and a decided and emphatic tone, 
 equally remote from violence or concession, onl}' can save us. The deluded agitators 
 
11 
 
 must be plainly told that it is no toiiceni of theirs what is the character of our lusti- 
 tutions, and that they must not be touched here, or in the territories or the States, by 
 theni or the government ; that they were under the guardian protection of the Consti- 
 tution, and that we stood prepared to repel all interference or disconnection, be the 
 consequence what it might."' 
 
 Unfortunately for the Soutli, concession became again its policy. It 
 was virtually admitted that the North had a right to assail the institution 
 of slavery when Congress agreed to receive their petitions. Logically, 
 this admission demanded a consideration of the matter of the petition. 
 But, with singular inconsistency, a rule was made that the petitions should 
 be laid upon the table, without further action. So violent a separation of 
 premises and conclusions satisfied no one ; and the result was, that the 
 agitation continued with unabated zeal. The political parties into whicli 
 the country was divided, made their court to this fanatical clement, added 
 to its strength, and gave direction to its blindness. 
 
 Its first fruits were developed in the severance of Christian fellowship in 
 the churches. Inflamed with zeal, by imaginary wrong, and assuming as 
 an article of the faith, that slavery was a sin, they denounced their brethren 
 of the South as unworthy of meeting with them at the table of their com- 
 mon Master. The professed followers of that meek and gentle Saviour, 
 who, from the hills of Galilee, and from the mountains of Judea, had 
 looked down without censure upon thousands of dwellings, inhabited by 
 slaveholders — of that Saviour, one of whose first miracles was the healing, 
 and restoring to a Roman master, his slave, sick with the palsy, and com- 
 mending that master, by declaring that he had not found faith like his in 
 all Israel — these Northern professors of a new Christianity cannot hold 
 communion with slave-owners. 
 
 The great apostle of the Gentiles could compass the Roman world, and 
 preach to the thousands, and tens of thousands of slaveholders around him, 
 without one word of reproach. He could convert to the faith the fugitive 
 slave of one of his friends, and send back to him that slave, without the 
 smallest imputation upon his faith or practice. Nay, more — as though 
 the spirit of God had prepared, beforehand, the means to enlighten every 
 Christian upon this very subject — the church of God is inspired to place 
 in the canon of scripture, the noble and respectful letter written by St. 
 Paul to this slaveholding master. The whole Roman world — from the 
 Euphrates to the Pillars of Hercules — from the Danube to Mount Atlas — 
 Goths and Ostrogoths, Vandals, Huns, Gauls and Rritons, all can hold 
 communion with each other, through the common Lord, when professing 
 the common faith ; yet here, in the same nation, under the same constitu- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 tioii, with the same Bible, professing one faith, the North cannot hold fel- 
 lowship with the South. The great leading denominations- — Methodist 
 and Baptist — have entirely severed their connection with each other. The 
 Presbyterian and Episcopalian still meet together, and are yet preserved 
 from this fanaticism. But in one portion even of Presbyterian, and in 
 many of the smaller denominations, the cords are chafed and worn so, as 
 to be incapable of further stress : and so it results that the North acknow- 
 ledges no fellowship with the South. They practically have added a new 
 article to the Christian creed, and in all these cases the tidal wave of per- 
 secution has set in from the North, and at each flow it surges higher and 
 higher upon the ^'outh, without any interval of ebb. 
 
 ADMISSION OF TEXAS AND ITS FRUITS. 
 
 The next step in our history, to which I must allude, is the admission 
 of Texas into the Union. At this period, there were twenty-six States in 
 the Union, evenly divided between the North and the South. Southern 
 development had been exhausted ; but in the territory remaining, five 
 States were yet to be added to the North. The World's Convention, 
 which met at London in 1843, had taken into its consideration the aboli- 
 tion of slavery in Texas. In this convention were delegates from New 
 England; and it is a matter of history that the convention waited on the 
 British minister, and urged upon him a government loan to Texas to be 
 applied toward the abolition of slavery. What took place in the secret 
 conclave of the minister, can easily be conjectiYred, from the following 
 outline of a debate in the British Parliament, extracted from the London 
 "Times:" 
 
 "Tkxas. — In the House of Lords on Friday, the 18th of August, Lord Brougham 
 introduced the subject of Te.xas and Texan slavery, in the following manner : 
 
 "Lord Brougham said that, seeing his noble friend at the head of the foreign depart- 
 ment in his place, he wislied to obtain some information from him relative to a State of 
 great interest at the present time, namely Texas. That country was in a state of inde- 
 pendence, de fdcUi, but its independence had never been acknowledged by i\lexico, the 
 State from which it was torn by the events of the revolution. He was aware tliat its inde- 
 pendence had been so far acknowledged ))y this country, that we had a treaty with it. 
 
 "The importance of Texas could not be underrated. It was a country of the greatest 
 capabilities, and was in extent fully as large as France. It possessed a soil of the finest 
 and UKist fertile character, and it was capable of producing nearly all tropical produce, 
 and its climate was of a most healthy character. It had access to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 through the river .Mississippi, with \\\w\\ it communicated by means of the Red river. 
 
 * -;■:- ;;:■ •;•:■ The markets whence they obtained their supply of slaves were Georgia, 
 the Garolinas, and Virginia; which States constantly sent their surplus slave popula- 
 tion, which would otherwise be a burden to them, to the Texan market. No doubt it 
 was true, as has been stated, that they treated their slaves tolerably well, because they 
 knew it was for their interest to rear them, as they had such a profitable market for 
 them in Texas. This made him irresistildy anxious for the abolition of slavery in 
 Texas : for if it were abolished there, not only viould that country be cultivated bv 
 
19 
 
 free and white labor, but it would put a stop to the habit of breeding slaves for the 
 Texan market. The consequence would be, that they would solve this great question 
 in the history of the United States, for it must ultimately end in the abolition of 
 slavery in America. lie therefore looked forward most anxiously to the abolition of 
 slavery in Texas, as he was convinced that it would ultimatelv end in the abolition of 
 slavery throughout the whole of America, lie knew that the Texans would do much, 
 as regarded the abolition of slavery, if :Mexico could l)e induced to recognize their 
 independence. 
 
 "If, therefore, by our good offices, we could get the .Mexican government to acknow- 
 ledge the indei)endence of Texas, he would suggest a hope that it might terminate in 
 the abolition of slavery in Texas, and ultimately the -w hole of the Southern Sttites of 
 America." 
 
 The Earl of Aberdeen, in his reply, stated that — 
 
 "He need hardly say that every effort on the part of her majesty's government would 
 lead to that result which was contemplated by his noble friend. He was sure that he 
 need hardly say that no one was more anxious than himself to see the abolition of sla- 
 very in Texas ; and if he could not consent to produce papers, or to give further infor- 
 mation, it did not arise from indifi'erence, but from (juile a contrary reason. In the 
 present state of the negotiations lietweeu the two countries in <(U(^s"tion, it would not 
 contribute to the end they had in view if he then expressed any oi)inion as to the state 
 of those negotiations ; but he could assure his noble friend that, by means of urging 
 the negotiations, as well as by every other means in their power, her majesty's minis- 
 ters would i)ress this matter." 
 
 Lord Brougham observed that nothing could be more satisfactory than 
 the statement of his noble friend, which would be received with joy by all 
 who were favorable to the object of the anti-slavery societies. 
 
 At this important period, the providence of that God, who holdeth in 
 his hand the destinies of nations, set aside the powers which man had 
 placed in authority over us, and raised up two Virginia patriots in their 
 stead. John Tyler, and Abel P. Upshur, men of sterling character, and 
 far-seeing statesmanship, were put in charge of the ship of state. They 
 saw through the schemes of England. With consummate skill, and ear- 
 nest zeal, they undertook to rescue Texas, and had so far succeeded, that 
 a treaty was ready for signature between Texas and the United States, 
 when the explosion on board the Princeton deprived the country of the 
 valued life of Judge Upsher. Mr. Calhoun was then put in requisition 
 by Mr. Tyler, and the unanimous vote of the Senate called him to th§ post 
 of Secretary of State. In a fortnight the treaty was completed, and 
 once more equality between the North and South was on the eve of being 
 restored . 
 
 But here intervened one of those unfortunate canvassings for the Pres- 
 idency, which are the bane of the South. Mr. Van Buren, and Mr. Clay, 
 the candidates of the two great parties, each fearing to offend the Abolition 
 party, or to throw it into the scale of his antagonist, simultaneously pub- 
 lished letters against annexation, and at the ensuing session of Congress 
 the treaty with Texas was defeated. The good sense of the country, how- 
 
20 
 
 ever, assisted by that appetite for territory which seeius to belong to the 
 Anglo-Saxon raee, put aside the trammels of political machinery, and 
 declared in favor of annexation. The unfortunate managers were over- 
 whelmed in the catastrophe, and the Southern patriots had the satisfaction 
 of consummating the admission of Texas three days before they surrendered 
 the reins of government to their successors. 
 
 The conditions upon which Texas was admitted into the Union, provided 
 that from her territory five States might be created in the future. Inas- 
 much as at least five remained to ba admitted for the Northern section, 
 the admission of Texas gave to the South merely an equilibrium in the 
 Senate. The majority in the House was already gone from the South for- 
 ever. The electoral colleges, if arranged sectionally, would give a majority 
 also to the North. So that all the South acquired by the admission of 
 Texas was the power to check — a negative power. Positive power had 
 already departed from them. 
 
 TIIK MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 At this era the Mexican war occurred. The country rushed into it with 
 an eagerness which blinded it to all consequences. North and South 
 freely contributed its blood and treasure, and freely shared its glories and 
 its dangers. But before the pasans of victory had yet subsided- — before the 
 lamentations for the dead had yet ceased — before the country could yet 
 see through the clouds of the future — the North summoned together its 
 forces to seize for themselves the entire spoils of the war. The Wilmot 
 proviso was brought forward during the war, in August, 1846, and so far 
 as the House of Representatives in Congress was concerned, was adopted. 
 By this proviso, it was declared that slavery should be excluded from all 
 territory to be acquired from Mexico. The Southern States were informed 
 that, although their blood and treasure had contributed to the result — 
 although the bones of their slain lay entombed before the fortresses, and 
 among the mountains of Mexico — although Monterey, and Churubusco, 
 and Buena Vista, and Chapultepec, were names sacred to the glories of 
 North or South, yet no Southern man should stand upon the conquered 
 territory upon the same footing with the Northern. The institutions of 
 the North, whether Mormon or infidel, might attend them — the Chinaman, 
 or the Lascar, or the Sandwich-Islander, or the Zambo — all might have 
 equal protection and right, but the most valuable property of the Southern 
 man must be left behind. ' 
 
21 
 
 It is not surprising that the Southern States should have been fired with 
 indignation at this attack. But what availed that? Although in 1846 
 the Senate checked the proviso by a manoeuvre, yet in 1847 it was renewed, 
 upon the expanded basis of excluding the South from all territory on this 
 continent. This also passed the House of Representatives and was again 
 defeated by the management of the Senate. 
 
 Forbearance could sustain no more. The legislatures of the Southern 
 States began to speak their deep and settled indignation. 
 Virginia, in March, 1847, thus announced her purpose. 
 Extract fr 07)1 Virginia Resolutions of 1847. 
 ,, "?; R/^otred unanimouslii, That all territory which may be acqiiireil by the arms of 
 Iv . <^ 1 • tt""^-' °'' y'^^^^'^'^ ^^y tre-it.v with any foreign power, belongs to the several 
 btates ot this Lnion, as Iheir joint and common property, in ^vhich each and all have 
 equal rights and that the enactment by the federal govern'ment of any law which should 
 directly, or by its ettects, prevent the citizens of any State from cm'igratino- with their 
 property, of whatever description, into such territory, would make a discrimination 
 unwarranted by, and in violation of, the Constitution, and the rights of the States 
 trom which such citizens emigrated, and in derogation of that perfect e(iuality which 
 belongs to the several States as members of this Union, and would lend directly to 
 subvert the Union itself. 
 
 "3. Ecsolccd, That if, in disregard alike of the spirit and principles of the act of 
 Congress on the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union, generally known 
 as the Missouri compromise, and of every consideration of justice, of constitutional 
 right and of fraternal feeling, the fearful issue shall be forced upon the country, which 
 must result from the adoption and attempted enforcement of the proviso aforesaid as an 
 act of the general government, the people of Virginia can have nodithculty in choosing 
 between the only alternatives that will then remain, of abject submission "to aggression 
 and outrage on the one hand, or determined resistance on the other, at all hazards, and 
 to the last extremity. 
 
 "4. Resolved unanimouslii^ That the general assembly holds it to be the duty of every 
 man in every section of this confederacy, if the Union is dear to him, to oppose the 
 jjassage of any law, for whatever purpose, by which territory to be acquired may be 
 subject to such a restriction. 
 
 "5. Resolved unanimouslii. That the passage of the above-mentioned proviso makes 
 it the duty of every slaveholding State, and of all the citizens thereof, as they value 
 their dearest privileges, their sovereignty, their independence, their rights of ]iro[)erty, 
 to take firm, united and concerted action in this emergency." 
 
 South Carolina uttered the same language in December of the same 
 year; and the other Southern States responded, in such a manner as to 
 produce a pause. The treaty with Mexico was signed in May, 1848, and 
 an attempt was then made in Congress to arrange the territory acquired, 
 to the satisfaction of the North and the South. The South asked no more 
 than that their rights and property, as guaranteed by the Constitution, 
 should be respected. The North, on the other hand, demanded the total 
 exclusion of Southern institutions. With a view to some proper adjust- 
 ment, a committee was raised in the Senate, consisting of an equal num- 
 ber of Northern and Southern men. The chairman was Mr. Clayton, 
 from the nearly neutral State of Delaware. Hear his account of the pro- 
 ceedings of that committee : 
 
22 
 
 "As soon as we assembled, a proposition was made by a member from tbe South to 
 extend tbe Missouri compromise line to tbe Pacific. The vote upon it stood, fo»ir 
 .Southern members for it, and/c^?/r Northern members ar/ainst it. We renewed the prt)- 
 position in crery conceivable form : but our Northern friends rejected it as often as it 
 was proposed. We discussed it — we entreated them to adopt it. We did not pretend 
 that it was a constitutional measure, Init that it had been held by many as a compact 
 lietwcen the North and the South, and was justified as a measure of peace. We argued 
 to show the justice of extendinc^ the line to the Pacific. I obtained a statement from 
 tbe land office, showing that by sucii an extension of this line, the North would have 
 tlic exclusive occujjation of one million and six hundred thousand square miles, in the 
 territories outside the States, and the South but two hundred and sixty-two thousand 
 S(|uare miles, in which observe, slavery could only lie tolerated in case the people resid- 
 m<r, there should allow it. The prcjposition beiny rejected by the North, there was, 
 indeed, as the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) has described it, 'a solemn 
 ])ause in the committee.' All hojie of amicable settlement for the moment vanished, 
 and unnatural contention seemed likely to preval among us. It was then proposed to 
 rest the present hope of settlement on the Supreme Court, as the ark of our safety. We 
 came into the Senate with three-fourths of the committee in favor of it, and tbe other 
 fourth not fixed against it. An apjieal was provided in the bill from all decisions of 
 the territorial judges in case of writs of habeas corpus^ or other cases, where the issue 
 of personal freedom should be presented. The South agreed in the Senate, with extra- 
 ordinary unanimity, to submit the validity of their claims to the Supreme Court; but 
 the North were by no means unanimous. There was, however, a majority in favor of 
 the bill embracing this princi})le. Having passed the Senate, it was sent to the House, 
 where, on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1848, it Avas defeated by a vote of one hundred 
 and twelve to ninety-seven — five-sixths of the opposition lo it being from the North." 
 
 The failure of this scheme left the territory without government, and in 
 August, 1848, the Oregon territorial bill was passed ; by the 26th section 
 of which, it was enacted that the inhabitants of the said territory shall be 
 entitled to all the privileges granted by the ordinance of 1787, and shall 
 be subject to all the conditions, and restrictions, and prohibitions, in said 
 articles of compact imposed upon the people of said territory." Here, 
 then, was an enactment of the Wilmot proviso; but as it only covered 
 territory north of 8G degrees, 30 minutes, the President approved it on 
 that ground, and the South acquiesced again. 
 
 The conflict was still continued as to the remaining territory ; and in 
 1849 Virginia repeated, and confirmed her resolutions of 1847, and added 
 another as to the slave trade in tlic District of Columbia. The following 
 are the resolutions: 
 
 Extract from RcsohUions of 1 he General Assemhlij ef Virginia, adopted Jan.2<.), 184;>. 
 
 •'1. Resolved u)ianimoitsli/, That the passage of the above-mentioned proviso makes 
 it tbe duty of every slaveholding State, and of all citizens thereof, as they value their 
 dearest privileges, their sovereignty, their independence, and their rights of property, 
 to take firm, united, and concerted action, in this emergency. 
 
 "2. Resolved, Tliat Ave regard the piissage of a law by the Congress of the United 
 States, abolishing slavery, or the slave-trade, in the District of Columbia, as a direct 
 attack upon the institutions of the Southern States, to be resisted at every hazard. 
 
 ".'5. Resolved, That in the event of the passage by Congress of the Wilmot proviso, 
 or any law abolishing slavery or the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, the gov- 
 ernor of this commonwealth is requested immediately to convene the legislature of this 
 State (if it shall have ndjourned) to consider of the mode and means of redress." 
 
23 
 
 South Carolina again responded, in December, 1849, and declared that 
 the time for action had come : and she was not mistaken, for, immediately 
 thereafter, the President of the United States sent out his military gov- 
 ernor to organize the territory of California. At his word election dis- 
 tricts are formed, and electoral rights conferred; and the promiscuous 
 horde, whom war, and the spirit of adventure, had collected in California, 
 are invested with authority to make a constitution, and by it exclude the 
 entire South from any particpation in the wealth of that whole region. 
 
 In 1850, this Constitution came before Congress, and was adopted with 
 the other measures known as the compromise of 1850. South Carolina 
 regarded these measures as a mere aggravation of the injuries before 
 heaped upon the South. She considered the constitution of California, 
 when sanctioned by Congress, to be a virtual enactment of the Wilmot 
 proviso. Even the Missoui-i compromise line had been disregarded by 
 that constitution : and the entire Pacific coast had now, by the operation 
 of the Oregon bill, and this constitution of California, been closed to 
 Southern emigration. One of these compromise measures enacted as 
 follows : 
 
 ••It shall not lie la^^i'ul to liriiig into the District of Columliia, any slave whatever, 
 for the purpose of being placed in depot, to be subsequently transferred to any other State, 
 or place, to be sold as merchandise ; and if such slave be brought into the said district 
 by its owner, or by the authority or consent of its owner, contrary to the provisions 
 of this act, such slave shall thereupon become liberated and free.'" 
 
 This law raised the issue upon which Virginia had pledged herself to 
 act; and South Carolina, in going forward, considered herself merely as 
 the front rank of the advancing column of her sisters. I refer again to 
 these incidents merely as facts, with no intention to censure or impute 
 wrong. They must be mentioned to explain and justify the course of 
 South Carolina, and they show that in each stage of her progress she had, 
 as she thought, the concurrence of her sister States. 
 
 In her judgment, the other compromise measure of 1850, which changed 
 the boundary of Texas, was e(|ually exceptionable. It withdrew territory 
 from the State of Texas, for no other apparent purpose than to convert 
 that territory into free soil, and brought close upon the flank of the Southern 
 States the very instrument for their destruction which Lord Brougham had 
 sought in 1843 ; and for all this, the equivalent ofiered to the South was 
 a fugitive slave law, which we believed would be as persistently eluded by 
 the Northern States, as the obligation which the Constitution and the pre- 
 vious laws of Congress had already imposed upon them. 
 
24 
 
 Entertainiug these opiuions, South Carolina proceeded to arm lier peo- 
 ple. Desiring to act in concert with the South, she first sent delegates 
 to a Southern Congress, and next prepared herself to secede from 
 the Union. At this stage of her progress she was met by your resolutions 
 of 1851, in which you declared your acceptance of the compromise of 
 1850, and your request to us to desist from our purpose of secession. We 
 did desist. We restrained our gallant coursers, although with great 
 straining upon the reins of State. We have stood still from that day, and 
 almost mute. We have waited as you desired — and what have since been 
 the results 't 
 
 THE KANSAS CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Kansas next came ujDon the stage of action. A strong effort is made 
 in Congress by those who yet believed in the virtue of reasoning with 
 fanaticism, and of persuading the demagogue to remove the whole subject 
 of slavery from the halls of Congress. The Kansas-Nebraska act is 
 passed; the Missouri Compromise is repealed. At the same time the 
 Supreme Court lends its aid, by the Dred Scott decision, and the South is 
 congratulated that now she is to have that peace for which so many sac- 
 rifices have been made. 
 
 No sooner is this done, but the contest assumes a new and more alarm- 
 ing character. Thi-oughout the North societies are organized for taking 
 possession of Kansas. Emigrants are sent out, armed to the teeth — and 
 the arms are furnished by the pulpit and the press. The South can do no 
 less than defend itself — and thus civil war is waged in the territory between 
 the North and the South ; and nothing but its distance in the far West 
 prevented it from involving the entire country. That war was crushed 
 out by the forces of the federal government ; but the bloodhounds whom 
 it trained were kept in leash to break forth upon Harper's Ferry. It has 
 ended in the complete delivery of Kansas to the North ; and now the two 
 sections stand front to front — the North elate with victory, in possession 
 of both Houses of Congress, and only awaiting the Presidential election 
 to seize upon the purse and the sword of the nation. 
 
 Heretofore each section of the Union was represented in either camp. 
 But now both camps are sifted, and no familiar voice from either section 
 is lifted to stay the sounds of angry vituperation. A broad geographical 
 line is ploughed into the soil, and none may cross it but with sword and 
 buckler. Compare this state of things with the period when a few fan- 
 
25 
 
 atical followers rallied around Birney as their leader. Look at the struggle 
 made at the last Presidential election, and consider how nearly we had 
 reached the crisis. The Delilah of the North had already cried out, ' 'The 
 Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And although, on that occasion, 
 he burst asunder the withes and gave us respite for four years, yet now 
 again are new bonds in preparation; and this time we have reason to fear 
 that the locks of our strength have been shorn— and, made blind before- 
 hand, we are about to be driven to the millstones to grind meal for our 
 enemies. 
 
 We stand now in the Union fifteen States to eighteen ; and of these 
 fifteen we must consider at least one as neutral. The constitutional bar- 
 rier which we have always had in the Senate is, therefore, gone, and with 
 it all power to check the appointments to office. The House of Fiepre- 
 sentatives has been lost to us for years. The Electoral College, when 
 combined sectionally, must, of course, elect a sectional President ; and, 
 in a few years, even the judicial arm, with its slender protection, must 
 follow the appointing power. As matters stand, we are virtually excluded 
 from all the territory of the Union ; and even the territorial legislature of 
 Nebraska has ventured to pass an act excluding slavery from that territory. 
 At every point, therefore, w^e are fairly at bay. 
 
 And what is the prospect before us ? Is it likely that the torrent which 
 is in motion will be stayed in its course ? A few moments' consideration 
 of its causes will inform us. The generation which now has possession of 
 the political power of the North has been regularly trained from child- 
 hood to the course which they are now pursuing. At their mother's knee 
 they were taught that slavery was a sin. The school then surrounded 
 them with pictures and books, in which the lash was represented in every 
 Southern hand, and the groans of the slave as the music of every house- 
 hold. Horrid spectacles of mothers separated from their children — descrip- 
 tions of brutal violence and savage disregard of the kindliest feelings of 
 humanity have been set before them, and the generous sympathies of youth 
 have been turned against their brethren of the same blood, as oppressors 
 of the weak and ignorant African. 
 
 To these teachings the pulpit adds its religious sanction. The utterance 
 of anathemas from the minister clothes the sentiment with the solemnity 
 of religious truth. Slavery is denounced as a sin, and the conscience is 
 mislead to assume jurisdiction over Southern conduct. The press then 
 advances with its thousand tongues, and nothing is heard but the contin- 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 uou.s cry of wrong, and the earnest appeal for means and votes to extin- 
 guish that wrong. And here, the party leader, with his political craft 
 and skill, intervenes, and gives direction to the one-sided energy which, 
 without him, would soon exhaust itself. Thus wo have every element of 
 opinion and every power which operates on mind, brought into requisition 
 to effect one result. That result is as certain as that efi'ect follows cause ; 
 and that efi'ect must remain permanent, for the reason that the causes are 
 permanent and ever acting. 
 
 THE SOUTH STANDS IN THi-: UNION WITHOUT ANY PROTECTION FROM THK 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 We are brought, then, to this conclusion: The South stands in the 
 Union without any protection from the Constitution, subject to the govern- 
 ment of a sectional party who regard our institutions as sinful, and whose 
 leaders already declare that the destruction of these institutions is only a 
 question of time. The power of this party must increase from the con- 
 tinued operation of the causes which have given them their present 
 strength. Thus, with the forms of the Constitution around us, we are 
 deprived of all the benefits to secure which the Union was formed. 
 
 The preamble of that Constitution sets forth these objects in the follow- 
 ing terms : 
 
 "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect uuiou, estal)- 
 lish justice, insure domestic tranciuillity, provide for the common defence, promote the 
 general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do 
 ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.'' 
 
 Where is that more perfect union V The answer is given by the shout 
 which hailed as a hero the murderer and the assassin. As the ancient 
 Greeks had no name for the parricide, and imposed no punishment for an 
 unknown crime- — so the Fathers of the Constitution provided no means 
 for repressing the unimagined invasion of a sister State. Nay, they ac- 
 tually disarmed each State, giving up to the federal government the army 
 and navy, and making no provision for protection of a State from invasion 
 by a neighboring State. This gave rise to the anomaly exhibited at Har- 
 per's Ferry, in the laws of the federal government affording no aid to the 
 government of Virginia to protect her from invasion. This more perfect 
 union is more strikingly illustrated in the spactacle now exhibited in the 
 array of one half the Union against the other, urged on (as one of the 
 speakers at a meeting in Boston most truthfully declares) by a "religion 
 of hate," which is ready "to break down all laws, human and divine." 
 
27 
 
 But the Constitution was also made to establish justice. The establish- 
 ment of justice is evinced in the protection and security of life and prop- 
 erty. The blood that cries from the ground at Harper's Ferry is witness 
 to the security of life ; and, doubtless, the spotted regions on Brown's map 
 would, in due time, have added their solemn voices, but for the utter fail- 
 ure in Virginia. And if these voices do not convince, let the ease with 
 which some of the confederates escaped through sister States into Canada 
 add its testimony. Nay, more. Suppose jurisdiction of the crime had 
 been surrendered to the federal government, and judgment had been de- 
 layed until the 4th of March next, how think you that the culprits would 
 have fared witli a Black Republican President intrusted with pardoning 
 power ? 
 
 And what protection has the Union afforded to the most valuable prop- 
 erty of the South— that which was chiefly in view when the Constitution 
 was made ? ' 'Thou shalt not steal," s^ys the word of God. ' 'Thou shalt 
 not covet thy neighbor's slave," says the same authority. The Constitu- 
 tion and the "higher law" were, therefore, in agreement when it recognized 
 property in a slave, and stipulated to return him to his owner. But what 
 is the condition of things in this union ? Eight, at least, of the States, 
 and, I am told, as many as sixteen, have enacted laws to defeat the ren- 
 dition of the slave to his master ; and at this moment a controversy is 
 pending in which even the transit of the slave with his master through a 
 free State is declared unlawful. Associations are openly formed for the 
 purpose of stealing and receiving the slave when stolen ; and in one State 
 the owner reclaiming his slave does so on peril of an indictment for felony. 
 The high priest of this new religion, occupying a high place in the gov- 
 ernment, and a probable successor to the Presidency, announces to his fol- 
 lowers that they must defend these fugitive slaves as they would their 
 "household gods." 
 
 And how does the Union insure domestic tranquillity? Let the necessity 
 under which this State now is to arm her people — let that necessity answer. 
 Let the sounds of war which are yet resounding through the streets of this 
 capital answer. Let the restless and uneasy feeling throughout the South 
 answer. But against whom are we compelled to arm? Who are they that 
 threaten us with coercion and violence? Is it they who are called our 
 brethren— they who are our rulers — they who formed with us a Constitu- 
 tion for common defence. They organize in their midst societies to destroy 
 our peace, and to arm the slave against the master ; they preach a crusade 
 
28 
 
 against our institution.s ; they train up their children to hate and distrust ; 
 they abuse to our destruction the power whicli the government has confided 
 to them. We have surrendered to that government our arms and our 
 fortresses — our army and our navy — our sword and our purse — and soon 
 we may find, to our cost, that they are in the hands of an open enemy. 
 
 Time docs not permit the further elucidation of this portion of our in- 
 quiry. Enough, however, has been said to prove that we have a Union 
 without a Constitution. The Union indeed stands, but it has ceased to 
 effect for us at the South the great objects for which it was formed. It is 
 but the carcase of its former self — the body without the soul. The bless- 
 ings which it once conferred have departed — the glories which once sur- 
 rounded it have been dimmed, and its burdens remain, pressing down upon 
 the South without compensation. History is not without its illustrations 
 upon this subject to teach us wisdom. Republics have, before ours, been 
 enslaved under all the forms of free institutions. It was in the Roman 
 Senate that Sylla sat while his soldiers were butchering the citizens of the 
 republic. It was in the Roman Forum that Antony thrice offered unto 
 Caesar the kingly crown, which in deference to the forms of the Constitu- 
 tion, he thrice refused; and it was in a vain effort to restore that Consti- 
 tution that Brutus and his confederates put Caesar to death. Long after 
 the extinction of all liberty, the edicts of the senate professed to be in the 
 name of the Roman people, and the emperor himself exercised his absolute 
 authority under the republiean names of consul and imperator. 
 
 Are we, then, to be misled in the same manner by deceptive appear- 
 a,nces? Is it not clear to the Southern people, that when the North have 
 banded themselves together, and are in possession of the government, 
 the South has become a province of the North ? Are they not really in 
 a worse condition ihau they were in 1775 V Then, as now, a sectional 
 line (wider indeed in extent, but not more so in effect,) separated the 
 rulers from their subjects ; then, as now, the government was in the hands 
 of one section, the other having a choice only between submission and 
 resistance. But now, the Southern colonies must bear these additional 
 aggravations : 
 
 DEGRADING CONDITIONS OF FURTHER UNION BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE 
 
 SOUTH. 
 
 1. Our rulers have been educated from childhood to denounce us and 
 our institutions; so that, instead of the kindly sympathy with which a 
 government should respond to the feelings of those whom it governs, our 
 government is our enemy. 
 
29 
 
 2. That govermnent being composed of a sectional party, it is the in- 
 terest of Its leaders to keep alive all the elements of sectional strife; and 
 the future, therefore, offers to us no prospect of relief. 
 
 3. The immense patronage and spoils of the government, and the large 
 interests involved in the public expenditures, and in discriminating tariffs, 
 bring to the aid of the dominant party every selfish interest, and enable 
 It to rivet its fetters upon the South ; -while the hope held out to Southern 
 aspirants for office is used to corrupt our leaders and confound our people. 
 
 4. The Southern States are degraded from their position of equality by 
 the open announcement that they shall have no further expansion ; while 
 the North, flushed with victory, are seizing the whole territory of the 
 Union, and give us plainly to understand that our institutions are already 
 doomed, and merely await execution of the sentence. 
 
 0. And, finally, we are graciously informed that the arrangements of 
 Southern capital and labor do not please our masters ; and that an irre- 
 pressible conflict has commenced, which must end in the overtlirow of 
 Southern civilization. 
 
 Even the autocrat of Russia feels a sympathy with his Siberian serfs, 
 and would never allow his government to be regarded as the instrument 
 of their ruin. If we are to be provinces, better— a thousand times 
 better— to have in our rulers, at least the prestige of an illustrious line of 
 noble ancestry ; to be governed by nature's noblemen, instead of the scum 
 which the surges of party roll up on its surface. 
 
 But we are told that we are not in so hopeless a condition — that there 
 are good men and true at the North who will break down this sectional 
 tyranny — and we are i-eferred to the meetings lately held in some of our 
 Northern cities. I honor the magnanimity and courage of those noble 
 spirits who have ventured to stem the torrent of prejudice and fanaticism. 
 But their efibrts have proved vain. They cannot fail to be vain because 
 they give up the citadel to the enemy. Even the president of the Boston 
 meeting declares that not an inch more is to be yielded to the extension of 
 slavery. Every speaker, save one (and that one I honor for his patriotic 
 firmness and sagacity — Mr. O'Conor of New York,) admits the justness 
 of the Northern condemnation of slavery. This germ contains the logical 
 sequences which the North have followed out into action. There can be 
 no peace until they either change their opinions, or cease from taking any 
 cognizance whatsoever of slavery. They must respect it as they would 
 marriage, parential authority, or any other legitimate institution of a sister 
 State; and, until our defenders take this position, they build upon the sands. 
 
30 
 
 But wliy waste our time in surmise, when realities are thrust openly 
 before us ? Can any one mistake the roaring of the storm at Washington V 
 Has the column of the Republican party there shown any sign of waver- 
 ing ? Was ever such a spectacle presented to this country before V There, 
 are plainly exhibited the dire results of this array of sections- — and there, 
 in that conflict for the mastery, is foreshadowed that real conflict between 
 the States to which we are soon to be summoned. 
 
 Will you undertake that conflict singly, or shall we act in concert? That 
 is the great question which I am commissioned to ask. In 1S47, and 
 again in 1849, your judgment pronouuced in favor of "concerted action." 
 We have adopted your judgment^ — and we come now to propose the con- 
 ference. From the federal government, as it stands, we can expect noth- 
 ing. From the Northern States we have been repelled with denunciation. 
 Our only resource, then, is in ourselves; and among ourselves union is 
 strength. 
 
 A SOUTHERN CONFEUENCE DEMAXDKD BY THE EXIGENCIES OF THE TIMES. 
 
 The great and leading argument in favor of a conference is, that it is 
 the proper step in any contingency. It is a measure which will preserve 
 the Union, if it can constitutionally be preserved; and, if it cannot, it is 
 the proper preparatory step for Southern defence. Those who desire the 
 maintenance of the Union must perceive that nothing is more likely to 
 drive back the aggressions of the North, and to restore to us our rights, 
 than the exhibition of a united and determined purpose of resistance. 
 And those who believe that the Union cannot be preserved, will equally 
 perceive that a Southern conference is a necessary step to efi'ective Southern 
 defence. This measure ought, therefore, to unite all parties, excepting 
 alone that (if there be any such) which favors unconditional submission. 
 
 And what shall be the advice which may reasonably be expected from 
 such a conference ? Certainly they will require a restoration of the Con- 
 stitution and the perfect equality of the Southern States. Could any 
 measure be more likely to eficct this result than the united demand of the 
 whole South? Say to the North, "Repeal at once all your enactments 
 against the just rendition of our slaves; break up your underground rail 
 roads ; perform toward us your constitutional obligations ; and restore to 
 us all those rights which the comity of nations as well as the Federal 
 Constitution guarantee to us. We insist that nations, bound to each 
 other as we are, cannot agitate and form societies to impair the institutions 
 recognized by the laws of either ; and we demand the immediate suppres- 
 
31 
 
 sion of such societies, aud the return of tranquillity to our borders. If 
 we are to remain united, we must no longer have our property stolen from 
 us, and the thieves and stolen property protected by your laws ; neither 
 will we hear ourselves denounced as criminals and evil-doers while obey- 
 ing our own laws." Surely the South may unite in declaring anew her 
 bill of rights ; and it is not yet treasonable to add that she must have 
 equality in the Union, or she will seek independence out of it. 
 
 It is obvious to every one, that if it be possible to procure these demands, 
 and to remain in the Union, the united voice of the whole South is the 
 only likely mode of effecting it ; and if there be a more forbearing party 
 still, who desire to try in the Union measures of retaliation and non-inter- 
 course, or others who hope to prevail upon the North to give us new guar- 
 antees by amendments of the Constitution of the United States, a conference 
 of the South offers the best mode of carrying out their plans. The wisest 
 and best men of the South will bo brought together to consider them, and 
 the wisest and best measures may reasonably be expected. 
 
 I would be wanting in the frankness and candor due io this august assem- 
 blage, if I did not plainly declare the opinions which we entertain in South 
 Carolina. We have no confidence in any paper guarantees — neither do 
 we believe that any measures of restriction or retaliation within the present 
 Union will avail. But, with equal frankness we declare, that when 
 we propose a conference, we do so with the full understanding that we are 
 but one of the States in that conference, entitled like all the others to 
 express our opinions, but willing to respect and abide by the united judg- 
 ment of the whole. If our pace be too fast for some, we are content to 
 walk slower ; our earnest wish is that all may keep together. We cannot 
 consent to stand still, but would gladly make common cause with all. We 
 are far from expecting or desiring to dictate or lead. 
 
 There are, indeed, material guarantees which Southern statesmen have 
 proposed, and which, if added to the Constitution, might restore to the 
 South its equality in the Union. Among these may be mentioned Mr. 
 Calhoun's suggestion of a dual executive ; aud although attempts have 
 been made to detract from this suggestion as impracticable, it may be 
 answered that the Roman republic, with its two consuls, so far from prov- 
 ing an impracticable government, lasted live hundred years, and under this 
 dual executive conquered the world. 
 
 Another suggestion has been offered, of dividing the Senate into two 
 sectional classes, and requiring a concurrence upon all sectional questions 
 
32 
 
 somewhat after the phm established in the couventions of the Episcopal 
 church in America. This plan has the advantage of actual existence in 
 our midst. 
 
 The Governor of this State has proposed that a convention of the United 
 States should be called to determine whether amendments may not be made 
 to the Constitution to save the Union ; and, if they cannot, then that 
 such division be made of the government property as would tend to a 
 peaceful and just arrangement. Such a measure would most naturally 
 and properly be preceded by a Southern conference, to agree beforehand 
 upon such amendments as should be proposed, and such demands as should 
 be made by the South. If such a body should ever meet, it would be 
 indeed unfortunate for the South to enter it with divided counsels. 
 
 Unquestionably, the South is entitled to demand, as already stated, an 
 equal share of the territory of the Union, and the repeal of all laws ob- 
 structing the return of fugitive slaves ; and it would seem to be equally 
 unquestionable that she has a right to demand the disbanding of every 
 society which is agitating the Northern mind against Southern institutions. 
 These, with a surrender of tiie power to amend the Constitution of the 
 United States in regard to slavery, would be proper subjects for the con- 
 sideration of a Southern conference, and would all come within the pur- 
 view of the measure recommended by his excellency. If any of them 
 should be demanded of the proposed convention of the United States, 
 they would at least serve to test the sincerity of the professions of Northern 
 Unionists. 
 
 On the other hand, those who believe in the efficiency of measures of 
 restriction and commercial independence must perceive that such measures 
 would be far more effective if taken in concert. What benefit would result 
 from non-importation into Richmond and Norfolk, if Eden ton and New- 
 born and Beaufort received Northern goods as before V And what good 
 effect v>ould restrictions at Charleston serve, if Savannah should decline 
 concurrence V The commercial independence of the South is certainly an 
 object greatly to be desired. Is it possible to advance it more effectually 
 than by the concerted action of the whole South ? 
 
 And if a conference should do no more than to turn the eyes of the 
 South from presidential elections and federal office, and stir up our lead- 
 ing men to seek position at the South, and to advance and develop the 
 resources of our own country, we shall have made a great advance toward 
 the solution of our difficulties. And, finally, if the worst must come, and 
 
we must take our destinies into our own hands, a Southern conference is 
 the necessary step to such arrangements as are requisite to take our place 
 among the nations of the earth. 
 
 It is this last consideration that doubtless retards many from yielding to 
 it their support. Such a meeting, in 1775, led to the Revolution ; and 
 it is objected that the meeting of 18G0 may lead to the same result. To 
 this objection I answer that a similar meeting in 1765 led to the repeal of 
 the Stamp Act; and if the mother country had acted with justice and mod- 
 eration, they might have preserved to this day their union with the colonies. 
 The meeting of 1775 led to revolution, because tyranny and oppression 
 could no longer be borne, and they only can object to this result who will 
 maintain that the Revolution was wrong, and that America should have 
 crouched beneath the paw of the British lion. So, also, now, if just and 
 moderate counsels shall prevail over fanaticism and tyranny— if the North 
 shall follow the wise and sagacious advice of Pitt and Camden, then the 
 same results will follow as in 17G5. But if they move forward to their 
 unholy purposes with the rancorous blindness of Lord North and his 
 associates, then the precedent of 1775 is the fitting example for tJie South ; 
 and the same catastrophe will be the fitting end of the drama. If such 
 a result were right then, it would be right now; and if it be certain that 
 the North will insist upon ruling us as subjects, when they have extin- 
 guished our constitutional guarantees, and refused our equal rights, then, 
 it is true, we should at once seek our Washington to guide us through the 
 new conflict that awaits us. 
 
 Unquestionably there is risk ; but that risk is from the perseverance of 
 our enemies in wrong. If they will do right, all will be well. Must we 
 then accept the alternative of unconditional submission, because there is 
 risk of revolution ? "Was there ever a prize to be attained without risk V 
 It is the law of God, that everything valuable must be attained by eifort. 
 "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ;" and this sentence is 
 inwrought in all human possessions. Free institutions are among the most 
 valuable of these, and they can only be maintained by constant and untir- 
 ing effort. 
 
 •'Oh, Freedom ! thou art not, as poets dream, 
 A fair j'oiing girl, with light and delicate limbs. 
 And wav}^ tresses gushing from her cap. 
 
 "A bearded man, 
 Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand 
 Grasps the broad shield, and one tlie sword ;'' 
 
 "Thy brow, 
 Glorious in beauty though it be. is scarred 
 With tokens of old war." 
 
34 
 
 3Ir. Speaker iind gentlemen : I Iiavc done. I have executed my com- 
 mission. I have discharged, as faithfully as I can, the high trust confided 
 to me by South Carolina. I have delivered into the keeping of Virginia 
 the cause of the Sontli. You, who occupy the seats of Washington and of 
 Henry, cannot decide this as an ordinary ((uestion of legislative duty. In 
 your keeping is the glory of those noble spirits who have consecrated the 
 •soil upon which we stand. Y"ou cannot, you will not dim the lustre which 
 surrounds this capitol, by extinguishing any of the lights which they have 
 kindled ; and may that God, whose blessing we invoked at the beginning, 
 on this deliberation, now attend you to the end, and guide 3'ou to such a 
 conclusion a.s will secure the welfare and happine.^s of our Southern country 
 
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