BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 < 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
SPEECH 
 
 j , 
 
 OF 
 
 MB. FOOTE, OF MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, AUGUST 1, 1850. 
 
 The Senate having under consideration bill No. 169, for the admission 
 of California as a State into the Union, Mr. FOOTE said : 
 
 I cannot say that I am at all distressed at having so plausible an ex 
 cuse for declaring my views upon the pending question this morning to 
 the Senate as has been supplied by certain honorable gentlemen who 
 have been pleased to refer in a manner calling for special notice from me, 
 to the attitude and avowed policy of the State which I have the honor in 
 part to represent here, touching the secession movements which appear to 
 have been resolved upon by certain persons in the State of South Carolina. 
 Sir, the State of Mississippi has been occasionally given credit for the 
 avowal of doctrines and designs as abhorrent to her whole people as such 
 accursed doctrines and designs could possibly be to the citizens of any 
 State in this Confederacy. The honorable gentlemen from Virginia (Mr. 
 MASON) has chosen to give us something of a discourse, just now, upon 
 what he calls the Missouri Compromise. I think, by this time, we ought 
 to be able to understand what the old Missouri Compromise meant, and 
 that we can hardly stand in need of such incessant lectures upon its 
 history and general merits. But, sir, let me ask, Does not the honorable 
 Senator from Virginia know that the Nashville Convention has not re 
 commended the adoption of the old Missouri Compromise ? He enlarges 
 upon the force and dignity of precedent. He speaks of the sanction of 
 time. He informs us that the Southern States have repeatedly hereto 
 fore manifested their disposition to observe the Missouri Compromise 
 the old Missouri Compromise. I ask again, emphatically, of the honor 
 able Senator from Virginia (who has doubtless watched the move 
 ments of the day very closely, and is quite familiar with the proceed 
 ings of that body called the Nashville Convention) has he not yet as 
 certained the fact, that, according to the political doctors of South Caro 
 lina, the old Missouri Compromise was repudiated by that body, and 
 that they only proposed to run the line of 36 deg. 30 min. to the Pacific 
 for the purpose of dividing the territory between the North and the South, 
 as property? Such is the fact. I challenge denial. Now, sir, I, as a 
 true Missouri Compromise man, must say that the mere line of 36 deg. 
 30 min., as a line for the purpose of dividing the supposed landed estates 
 of the North and the South respectively, is to me a great and ridiculous 
 absurdity ; and I call upon those who have heretofore united with me 
 in supporting the Missouri Compromise, according to its ancient mean 
 ing, to join me once more in sustaining and enforcing it against all the 
 false teachers of the present hour, who, whilst professing to respect it, 
 are openly exhibiting towards it the most signal contempt. I emphatically 
 assert that if the reputed author of the Nashville address is to be be- 
 
 TOWJ5R9, PKIJfT. 
 
lieved on this subject, the honorable Senator from Virginia is totally, in 
 error in supposing that the Nashville Convention attached its sanction, 
 in the least possible degree, to the old Missouri Compromise. Therefore, 
 what the honorable Senator from Virginia has said on this subject is 
 entirely alien to the question before us. 
 
 Permit me to offer one or two additional remarks in regard to mv own 
 position touching the Missouri Compromise. It is known that I have 
 always voted for it whenever it has been proposed here; that I have la 
 bored strenuously for years past to procure its adoption, and I have, seve* 
 ral weeks ago, given a minute history of my exertions in this behalf, 
 which will leave no doubt upon the mind of any unprejudiced man in 
 regard to my zeal and sincerity in urging the Missouri Compromise upon 
 the Senate and the country. I shall not now recapitulate statements 
 formerly made, and which, I hope, honorable Senators have not yet for 
 gotten, showing the extraordinary efforts which I have thought it my 
 duty to make for the purpose of obtaining the sanction of Congress for 
 the Missouri Compromise. I will not again expatiate upon the fact, which 
 is, however, undisputable, that until within a few months past I found 
 myself almost entirely unaided from the South in my efforts to bring 
 about the re-enactment of the Compromise. I beg leave, Mr. President, 
 though, to remind you of what you can, indeed, never forget, that about 
 the beginning of this session you were written to by a distinguished 
 Pennsylvania statesman, (Mr. Buchanan,) for the purpose of ascertain 
 ing whether or not the Southern members of Congress would be content 
 with the Missouri Compromise as a plan of adjusting the vexed territo 
 rial question. I had written to him repeatedly before, urging him to 
 throw before the country his views upon the subject, hoping that thus 
 recommended, the ancient popularity of this time-honored measure might 
 be restored. You recollect, sir, that you were directed to consult with 
 me upon the subject, and to report our joint opinion as to the possibility 
 of any good arising from such a publication as I had urged, and to report 
 our joint opinion also as to whether the Missouri Compromise was then 
 likely to prove acceptable to the Southern members of Congress. Well, 
 sir, we did consult. We did scrutinize the two Houses of Congress. We 
 did both come to the conclusion reluctantly and painfully that the 
 Missouri Compromise had lost favor in the eyes of Southern men ; and 
 you wrote in reply, giving our united opinion that a mere declaration 
 by Mr. Buchanan of his known views upon the subject would prove em 
 barrassing to him, and injurious to his standing in the South, without 
 at all benefiting the country. Sir, this state of things continued, as you 
 well know, for some time. Nobody mentioned the Missouri Compromise, 
 either here or in the other branch of Congress, (except with certain se 
 rious modifications,) until that Adjustment bill, the defeat of which has 
 now occurred, had been brought forward, was apparently growing quite 
 popular, and was likely, by its adoption, once more to restore quiet and 
 concord to the country; when suddenly certain distinguished gentlemen, 
 (led on by the honorable Senator from Florida, Mr. YULEE, who has 
 been an open opponent of the Missouri Compromise whenever it was 
 presented here heretofore, who has denounced it in his place at all times,) 
 I say, certain distinguished gentlemen, following the lead of the very dis 
 tinguished gentleman from Florida, who sometimes rises in our midst and 
 delivers solemn lectures upon political consistency, resolved to unite with 
 him as they have done most heartily and most fiercely, in urging upon Con- 
 
gress and the country the Missouri Compromise no, not the Missouri 
 Compromise, but the Missouri Compromise line, as an ultimatum. This 
 is all history, sir, and history, too, that cannot be disputed. So much 
 for the Missouri Compromise, its former opponents, and present friends ! 
 Now, sir, I will notice as concisely as practicable, the doctrinal por 
 tions of the speeches with which we have been favored by the honora 
 ble Senators to whom I am specially responding. One of them the Sena 
 tor from South Carolina (Mr. BUTLER) seems to regard the whole South, 
 or at least a majority of the Southern States of the Union, pledged to sus 
 tain the principles for which he has contended in our hearing on this occa 
 sion. The other of them the honorable Senator from Virginia, (Mr. 
 MASON) particularizes certain States by name, and declares that they 
 all stand committed to the disorganizing notions which he has so for 
 mally paraded before us. It would have given me great pleasure, Mr. 
 President, to have found it in my power to harmonize with these gentle 
 men, both in opinion and in action, at this momentous crisis in our na 
 tional affairs. But I find it impossible to do so. And I beg leave to 
 assure these gentlemen that they have grossly mistaken the attitude of 
 the State of Mississippi in the contest now pending. Sir, the State of 
 Mississippi did not unite with South Carolina formerly in supporting the 
 doctrines of nullification. We had but a small body of avowed nulli- 
 fiers in our whole State ; and nearly all of them have since, either tacitly 
 or by open declaration, acknowledge their former error in asserting the 
 right of a single State to invalidate a law of the whole Union. At this 
 moment the State of Mississippi occupies the precise ground which was 
 occupied by our convention last autumn, over the deliberations of which 
 body a worthy gentleman presided who is most probably at the present 
 moment in hearing of all that I am now saying. Sir, our State last 
 autumn, as she now does, protested most solemnly against the enactment 
 of the Wilmot proviso, and other kindred measures, the adoption of which 
 was then so seriously menaced. She recommended a resort to all con 
 stitutional measures of redress, and proposed the scheme of a Southern 
 Convention. The proceedings of our convention did not look to the de 
 struction of the Union, but the preservation of it, by maintaining the 
 Constitution inviolate to which that Union owed its existence. We de 
 manded the maintenance of the Union, as established by the Constitu 
 tion; and our avowed object in proposing the Nashville Convention 
 was to bring about the adoption of such measures of redress and con 
 ciliation as might vindicate the integrity of the Constitution, and rescue 
 the Union itself from impending ruin. Such has been the declaration 
 which I have constantly made here in regard to the character and ob 
 jects of our Mississippi Convention. Nor have I yet been contradicted 
 on this subject in any quarter. 1 assure you, sir, that Mississippi did not 
 send one delegate to the Nashville Convention who was a disunionist 
 per se. No delegate from the State of Mississippi entertained any such 
 views as those which have been recently promulgated by Mr. Rhett, of" 
 South Carolina, Judge Tucker, of Virginia/and their illustrious com 
 peers, some of whom 1 intend to notice presently in a very special man 
 ner. I am speaking, as all will perceive, with proper coolness and cir 
 cumspection ; and as Chief Justice Sharkey is himself in our midst, it 
 will be quite easy for honorable gentlemen who at all doubt the accu 
 racy of my statements on this head, to subject me to refutation by bring 
 ing him forward to testify against me, if, indeed, I am at all in error in 
 
supposing him, and those who, with him, represented the State of Mis-* 
 sissippi in the Nashville Convention, as utterly opposed to the dangerous 
 and, as I think, treasonable doctrines which have been recently promul 
 gated by certain disunion doctors in and out of South Carolina. Yes, 
 sir, I will go further, and say to honorable gentlemen that if, upon con 
 sulting Judge Sharkey and other gentlemen, now also present, who occu 
 pied seats in the Nashville Convention, they do not find them all full of 
 indignation and disgust at the course pursued since the adjournment of 
 the convention by Mr. Rhett and his allies, then I will resign my seat 
 here, and give way to some one more sagacious than myself, and more 
 capable of ascertaining the opinions of those with whom I am allowed 
 to con verse freely and unreservedly upon the public questions of the day. 
 Now, sir, what is the precise doctrine which honorable gentlemen un 
 dertake to assert here to-day? Why, if I understand them, they insist- 
 that, whenever a State of this Union, with or without just cause, chooses 
 to resist the authority of the General Government, and secede from the 
 Union, her right so to proceed must be at once recognised by the Govern 
 ment, and is, indeed, a matter beyond reasonable question. Yes, sir, this is 
 the position taken here to-day, and which honorable gentlemen conceive 
 the whole South, inclusive of the State of Mississippi, pledged to main 
 tain, even by arms if necessary. Now, sir, I wish to be understood as 
 never having been one of those who supposed that a State would in no 
 case be justifiable in seceding from the Union. On the contrary, I have 
 repeatedly declared here in my place, that I did not all doubt the right 
 of a State thus to act, ufcder certain circumstances. Never have I held 
 that a State of the Union, or any portion of our free people, are bound 
 to submit to intolerable oppression. The Union is, indeed, in my esti 
 mation, of inappreciable value ; but the Union itself would be worthless 
 without that liberty and happiness which it was intended to secure. 
 Describe to me a case of intolerable oppression, and I will at once ac 
 knowledge that, in such a case, secession would be justifiable. I will 
 go further, and say, as I have often declared here and elsewhere, that 
 any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to interfere seriously 
 with the rights of the South, in connexion with' the subject of domestic 
 slavery, if consummated, would justify a resort to secession ; for this 
 would be, in my judgment, the most grievous and intolerable wrong 
 which could be perpetrated upon the Southern States. Thus far am I 
 a secessionist. I will not take it upon myself to say that secession in 
 such a case as the one just described would be a constitutional remedy. 
 Great statesmen have differed on this point, and will perhaps never 
 agree. Whether it be, though, a constitutional or a revolutionary 
 remedy, it is, perhaps, of no practical importance to determine. The 
 remedy certainty exists in some form, and may be justifiably resorted to 
 in case of real and ruinous oppression, when all other remedies fail. I 
 confess that I have been always inclined to agree with General Jackson 
 in supposing it to be a revolutionory remedy. Certain it is that its suc 
 cessful enforcement would have the effect of overturning the Govern 
 ment, and I have been in the habit of regarding that as a revolutionary 
 in its character which must be necessarily productive of this result. 
 Perhaps Philip P. Barbour was correct in describing secession as " the 
 political arsenic of our system, never to be resorted to except when all 
 other remedies prove inefficient." Surely, sir, it cannot be successfully 
 contended that there is a right, strictly constitutional in its character, pos- 
 
5 
 
 sessed by each one of the sovereign States of this Union to secede from 
 the Union at pleasure. Such a proposition really seems almost too ab 
 surd to deserve serious consideration. Let us see how it would work in 
 practice. Suppose the State of Delaware to-morrow to secede from the 
 Union without the allegation of any special reason, and without any ex 
 isting ground of complaint in regara to the oppressive action of the 
 Government. The President of the United States is bound to maintain 
 the Constitution inviolate, and to see that the laws of the Republic are 
 duly enforced. One of the objects of the Constitution, as declared in its 
 own preamble, was " to form a more perfect Union" than existed under 
 the confederation. The Union provided for in the articles of contedera- 
 tion was a " perpetual Union." Will any one doubt that in the case of 
 attempted secession just specified, it would be the duty of the President 
 to preseve the Union, to prevent secession, by the employment of all, the 
 constitutional power intrusted to him, and, by doing so "to the best of 
 his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" itself? 
 But if this would be the President's duty in such a case, will any man 
 insist, notwithstanding, that the right of secession, as a constitutional 
 right, could be justifiably exercised on the part of the seceding State? 
 Could Delaware have a right to secede, and the President also be autho 
 rized at the same time to prevent her from seceding ? See how these 
 repugnant constitutional principles would conflict with each other. 
 Delaware, in the exercise of a constitutional ri^Lt, withdraws from the 
 Union ; the President, co-operating with Congress, brings her back into 
 the Union. In a month or two she takes another disunion fit, and dashes 
 out of the Union a second time : again she is brought back. And so this 
 action and counteraction may go on forever, according to honorable gen 
 tlemen, without the Constitution itself being in the least degree violated 
 on either side. But suppose the State of Louisiana to secede from the 
 Union without just cause ; each of the sovereign States of the Confede 
 racy has a right, under the Constitution, as is now urged upon us, to 
 separate from her sister States at her own pleasure. Suppose Louisi 
 ana, after such secession, to establish a tariff of duties grossly injurious 
 to the States and Territories situated upon the banks of the Mississppi 
 and its tributaries ; or suppose her, on seceding, to open the port of New 
 Orleans to the commerce of all nations, free of duty, thus destroying at 
 once the whole revenue system of the Republic: would it be the consti 
 tutional duty of all the States thus subjected to injury, and of the Union 
 itself, petiently to submit to all the consequences growing out of such 
 an act of secession ? If not, they would have a right, and would doubt 
 less exercise it, of employing preventive means adequate to avert such 
 a ruinous state of things. And, then, would arise the same conflict of 
 repugnant constitutional principles already described as arising in the 
 case of Delaware. I will not detain the Senate wkh a tedious argu 
 ment on this point, but will bring to the notice of honorable gentlemen 
 the teachings of two illustrious Democratic statesmen, whose opinions 
 have always commanded the most profound respect of their countrymen. 
 I refer to Thom,is Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, in the year 1825, in a letter to William B. Giles, thus 
 expressed himself: 
 
 " Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrine of the President, and the mis 
 constructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and 
 it is but too evident that the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip 
 their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves 
 All functions, foreign and domestic M 
 
He continues : 
 
 "And what is our resource for the preservation of the Constitution ? Reason and argument t 
 You might as well reason and argue with the marble columns encircling them. The represen 
 tatives chosen by ourselves? They are joined in the combination some from incorrect views of 
 government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together, to outnumber the sound parts, 
 and, with majorities only of one, two, or three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we, 
 then, to stand to our arms with the hot-headed Georgian? No, that must be the last resource, 
 not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of a compact 
 of so many parties is to be resisted at once as a dissolution of it, none can be formed which would 
 last one year. We must have patience and longer endurance, then, with our brethren white 
 under delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences; keep ourselves in 
 a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the 
 sole alternatives left are the dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government 
 without limitation of powers. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can 
 be no hesitation. But, in the meanwhile, the States should be watchful to note every material 
 usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to pro 
 test against them as wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as acknowl 
 edgments or precedents of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their accu 
 mulation shall overweigh that of separation." 
 
 When this doctrine of secession, now so strenuously urged here, was 
 first broached in South Carolina, nearly twenty years ago, Gen. Jackson 
 declared his opinion of it in his famous proclamation, a few extracts 
 from which I propose to read ; premising that whilst, as a political move 
 ment, I have ever approved the issuance of the proclamation, and whilst 
 I have always given ^ny sanction to most of the doctrines contained 
 threin, there are yet mher portions of that document to which I have 
 never given my full assent, and which were objected to very strongly, 
 as I recollect, by the venerable editor of the Richmond Enquirer of that 
 period, whom I am glad to see personally present. What I am about to 
 read I desire to be understood as endorsing most fully: 
 
 " t The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league; and whether 
 it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. 
 It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people 
 individually not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each 
 State, having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, 
 a sinale nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does 
 not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation; and any injury to that unity is not only a 
 breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offence against the 
 whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the 
 United States are not a nation; because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation 
 might dissolve its connexion with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any 
 offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity 
 of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms, and can 
 only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would 
 pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on a failure. 
 
 ** Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties to that compact may, when 
 they feel themselves aggrieved, depart from it; but it is precisely because it is a compact that they 
 cannot. A compact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may, by its terms, have a sanc 
 tion or penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with 
 no other consequence than moral guilt; if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the desig 
 nated or implied penalty. A league between independent nations, generally, has no sanction 
 other than a moral one; or, if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, it 
 cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary, always has a sanction, expressed or im 
 plied; and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and expressly given. An attempt by force 
 of arms to destroy a government is an offence, by whatever means the constitutional compact may 
 have been formed; and such government has the right, by the law of self-defence, to pass acts for 
 punishing the offender, unless that right is modified, restrained, or resumed by the constitutional 
 act. In our system, although it is modified in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly given 
 to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under this grant provision has been 
 made for punishing acts which obstruct the due administration of the laws. 
 
 " It would seem superfluous to add anything to show the nature of that union which connects 
 us; but as erroneous opinions on this subject are the foundation of doctrines the most destructive 
 
. 
 
 to our peace, I must give some further development to my views on this subject. No one, fellow- 
 citizens, has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of the States than the magistrate who how 
 addresses you. No one would make greater personal sacrifices, or official exertions to defend 
 them from violation; but equal care must be taken to prevent, on their part an improper interfer 
 ence with, or resumption of, the rights they have vested in the nation. The line has not been so 
 distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the best in 
 tentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts of the Constitution; 
 but there are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears 
 to be the assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged undivided sove 
 reignty of the States, and on their having formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called 
 the Constitution, from which, because they made it, they have the right to secede. Both of these 
 positions are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them so have been anticipated." 
 
 General Jackson, it will be recollected, was a native of South Caro 
 lina a fact which I commend to the consideration of the honorable 
 Senator from South Carolina, (Mr. BUTLER,) who has, with so much ap 
 parent exultation, cited the conduct of Bernadotte in refusing to enter 
 the confines of France in hostile array, on a memorable occasion, on 
 account of his being a Frenchman by birth. It would seem that General 
 Jackson, though born in the Waxaw settlement in South Carolina, did 
 not at all doubt what his duty would be as President of the United 
 States, in the event of an armed resistance to the laws occurring in that 
 State. Doubtless his feelings were deeply pained at being thrown into 
 conflict with his native State, and he would gladly have avoided the 
 emplo}'ment even of ungracious language towards her, could he have 
 done so without incurring his own self-condenmation. Listen to his 
 pathetic and solemn words : 
 
 " Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish you, as the first magistrate of our 
 common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would 
 over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that 
 paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either 
 deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you. Mark under what pretences you have been led 
 to the brink of insurrection and treason on which you stand!" 
 
 Again, he says : 
 
 " Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your State pride, to your native courage, to your sense 
 of real injury, were used to prepare' you for the period when the mask which concealed the hideous 
 features of DISUNION should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with complacency 
 on objects which, not long since, you would have regarded with horror. Look back at the arts 
 which have brought you to this state look forward to the consequences to which it must inevi 
 tably lead? Look back to what was first told you as an inducement to enter into this dangerous 
 course. The great political truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolutionary right of 
 resisting all laws that were palpably unconstitutional and intolerably oppressive: it was added that 
 the right to nullify a law rested on the same principle, but that it was a peaceable remedy' 
 This character which was given to it made you receive, with too much confidence, the assertions 
 that were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its oppressive effects." 
 
 I will now read the concluding paragraphs of the proclamation, and 
 invoke from honorable Senators their most serious attention thereto : 
 
 " The laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary power on the sub 
 ject; my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Those who told you that you 
 might peaceably prevent their execution deceived you; they could not have been deceived them 
 selves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and 
 they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived 
 by names: disunion, by armed force, is TREASON. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If 
 you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences; on their heads 
 be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment; on your unhappy State will inevitably 
 fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the Government of your country. It cannot accede 
 to the mad project of disunion, of which you would be the first victims; its first magistrate can 
 not, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty; the consequences must be fearful for you, 
 distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to the friends of good government throughout the 
 world. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation they could not conceal; it was a 
 standing refutation of their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the triumph 
 
I 
 
 of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that 
 the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Samplers, the Rutledges, and of the thousand other names 
 which adorn the pages of your revolutionary history, will not abandon that Union, to support 
 which so many of them fought, and bled, and died. I adjure you, as you honor their memory 
 as you love the cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives as you prize the peace of 
 your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch 
 from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its convention; bid its members to re 
 assemble, and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone 
 can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and honor; tell them that, compared to disunion, all other 
 ^vils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all; declare that you will never take 
 the field unless the star spangled banner of your country shall float over you that you will not 
 be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first 
 attack on the Constitution of your country. Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its 
 peace you may interrupt the course of its prosperity you may cloud its reputation for stability 
 but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national charac 
 ter will be transferred, and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder. 
 
 ' ' Fellow-citizens of the United States. The threat of unhallowed disunion the names of 
 those, once respected, by whom it is uttered the array of military force to support it denote 
 the approach of a crisis in our affairs, on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our 
 political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments, may depend. The conjuncture de 
 manded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of 
 action; and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and 
 even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to the origin and 
 form of our Government, and the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created, 
 seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional 
 opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided 
 support in my determination to execute the laws ; to preserve the Union by all constitutional 
 means; to arrest, if possible, by moderate, but firm measures, the necessity of a reeourse to force; 
 and if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding 
 of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on 
 the part of the United States. 
 
 "Fellow-citizens! The momentous case is before you. On your undivided support of your 
 Government depends the decision of the great question it involves whether your sacred Union 
 will be preserved, and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one 
 can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed will be such as to inspire 
 new confidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage 
 which it will bring to their defence will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. 
 
 " May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which He has favored 
 ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost ! And may 
 His wise providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly before they feel the 
 misery of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for ttfat Union which, if we may dare to 
 penetrate His designs, He has chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which 
 we may reasonably aspire!" 
 
 I hope that I shall not be understood as advising force to be employed 
 in any particular case. I should profoundly regret that any necessity 
 for its employment should arise. Indeed, for my own part, if the State 
 of South Carolina is determined to secede, as her geographical location 
 is such as to allow the movement to take place with comparatively lit 
 tle injury to the rest of the States, I should be rather in favor of per 
 mitting her to make the experiment. 1 am confident that when she 
 shall have tested the advantages of a separate nationality for a year or 
 two, she will ask to be readmitted again into the Union, and will never 
 afterwards resort to her favorite remedy of secession. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, having declared my own views touching this 
 contested doctrine of secession, and having, as I think, strongly fortified 
 myself by authority, I shall proceed to show the real nature of the move 
 ments commenced by certain persons in South Carolina, from the crim 
 inality of whose conduct I cheerfully exempt the State herself, as one 
 of the sovereign members of the Confederacy, who I hope will never 
 consent to be deluded by the mad teachers who are now endeavoring to 
 seduce her citizens into the perpetration of high treason ; for treason it 
 
9 
 
 will certainly be, as I shall show most conclusively, whenever they at 
 tempt to act out their present fiery resolves. Thank God ! the " mask', 
 as General Jackson calls it in his proclamation, which, a short time since, 
 " concealed the hideous features of DISUNION," has now been taken off. 
 Since the sittings of the Nashville Convention terminated, that mask 
 has fallen from the faces of Messrs. Rhett and others who went to 
 Nashville with the language of patriotism upon their lips ; but who, 
 I fear, concealed treasonable intents in their bosoms ; and now the whole 
 South will look with just and salutary horror upon the conduct of those 
 who have aimed to involve the Republic in ruin. 
 
 Mr. President, it could scarcely be expected of one who rises, as I 
 have now done, altogether unexpectedly, and upon the spur of the mo 
 ment, to deliver his views in a very connected manner, or, as the Senator 
 from Florida (Mr. YULEE) would say, " in strict logical sequence." At any 
 rate, in what I have further to say, I beg leave to be recognised as inten 
 tionally disregarding all the nicer rules of method and arrangement. 
 Hoping that no one will now expect from me an exemplification of the 
 lucidus ordo, I proceed to enter upon a miscellaneous field of observa 
 tion, that I hope will not prove altogether barren and unfruitful. 
 
 Sir, the honorable Senator from Virginia (Mr. MASON) has talked a 
 great deal about Southern sentiment, &c. Now, I do not by any means 
 profess to be better acquainted than everybody else in the world with 
 the present condition of the public mind in the South ; but I feel au 
 thorized to declare most confidently that in my own State, always a 
 loyal and patriotic State, at least ninety-nine hundredths of the people, 
 without regard to party, are in favor of that plan of adjustment which 
 has been so unhappily defeated by a strange and unnatural combination 
 between the abolitionists of the North and the Southern ultras. This 
 will be ascertained more perfectly hereafter, when an opportunity shall 
 be accorded to me of meeting my honored constituents face to face, and 
 challenging my calumniators to regular controversy. The small num 
 ber of shallow-minded, factious, and aspiring demagogues who have 
 combined against this measure for the most selfih and dishonest pur 
 poses of selfish ambition, I intend to reduce to their proper grade and 
 condition when I shall once more be allowed to leave this field of ardu 
 ous labor, and enjoy an opportunity of talking to my honest and manly 
 constituency in the language of patriotic and unreserved freedom. 
 Meanwhile, I beg leave to say to the Senator from Virginia that I have 
 not been by any means un unmindful observer of public movements in 
 my native State, of which he is a worthy representative in this body ; 
 and accident, or some other cause, has brought me into very special ac 
 quaintanceship with the state of popular sentiment, in regard to the 
 bill which he yesterday aided in defeating, in his own particular vicin 
 age. I believe that the county of Shenandoah was part of the honora 
 ble gentleman's district when a member of the other House. [Here 
 Mr. MASON nodded assent.] Now, sir, it so happens that I was invited 
 the other day to attend a public meeting in that county, for the purpose 
 of discussing this same Adjustment Bill I regretted most profoundly 
 that my engagements here prevented my compliance with the invita 
 tion received. But I have been more than recompensed for any cha 
 grin which arose from this source by the fact that I have since been 
 placed in possession of the proceedings of the meeting which assembled 
 on that occasion, from which it would seem to be inferrible that the im- 
 
10 
 
 mortal Tenth Legion of Virginia is at least to be- relied upon to a 
 man, at this crisis, for the preservation of the Union. The neighboring 
 counties seem to harmonize admirably with Shenandoah ; and I feel 
 peculiar pride in announcing to the Senate, that my own native county 
 of Fauquier is almost as unanimous on this subject as Shenandoah 
 some evidence of which is supplied by the fact that the humble indi 
 vidual now addressing the Senate has been recently invited, by gentle 
 men of both the great national parties, to a public dinner in that coun 
 ty, simply on account of his zealous and persevering activity in support 
 of the bill of adjustment. But to return to the county of Shenandoah. 
 Let me read from the newspaper which I hold in my hand an account 
 of the meeting referred to ; for what I am about to read will enable the 
 Senator from Virginia to learn at least the condition of public senti 
 ment in his own vicinage. To commence : 
 
 " The chairman explained the object of the meeting at considerable length, touching upon the 
 various subjects that had any bearing on the question which had brought us to the present crisis, 
 and which caused the people to assemble here to day to give an expression of their views as to 
 the best measure which would be likely to settle the question of slavery, about which the North 
 and the South have been contending for some years. Upon the conclusion of his remarks, on 
 motion of Major J. S. Calvert, a committee of thirteen was appointed [they have so much re 
 spect for us that they take our number of a committee 1 3] to report a preamble and resolutions, 
 which was accordingly done, and a copy of these resolutions I will forward to you in a few days. 
 
 " A number of letters were read to the meeting from distingutehed gentlemen, which I pre 
 sume will hereafter be published. Resolutions were passed in favor of the Compromise Bill, 
 or any other practicable measure, having for its object the adjustment of this vexed question, 
 which now threatens the stability of the Union ; also denouncing the recent proceedings in 
 South Carolina, having for their object the dissolution of the Union ; and also denouncing all 
 ultraism and fanaticism, North and South. The spirit of compromise, conciliation, and mutual 
 concession was the ruling spirit which animated the minds of men throughout the whole meet. 
 ing. The preamble and resolutions were all adopted by a unanimous vote. All was harmony 
 and union. It was truly, and in every sense of the word, a 'Union mass meeting.' Huzzah 
 for the Tenth Legion." ' 
 
 I have received those resolutions ; and I undertake to say that they 
 are just as orthodox resolutions as ever were adopted by a public 
 meeting. I will read them to the Senate. Here they are : 
 
 " Whereas there are subjects of the most grave and serious character at present unsettling opin 
 ion and dividing the public councils. And whereas it is not only the privilege but the imperious 
 duty of every good citizen to watch with anxious concern, the slightest movement which tends to 
 impair, to change, or to subvert principles which he deems immutable, and institutions which he 
 has learned to reverence. While we believe that the blind enthsiasm arrayed against the interests 
 and the institutions of the South has neither been dictated by humanity nor kindled at the altar 
 of patriotism while we greatly applaud the invincible spirit which still guards with the sword of 
 reason and eloquence that frontier of reserved rights defined with so much perspicuity in our 
 federal compact on the other hand we are deeply penetrated with a rational conviction that the 
 spirit of moderation, of mutual concession and compromise, is the true and eternal philosophy of 
 social prosperity and happiness. While we would denounce every wild and premature innova 
 tion, every encroachment on the established usages of society, so pregnant with pernicious conse 
 quences, yet, in an age of unparalleled progress, when all the elements of active enterprise are 
 advancing with a rapidity unexampled in former times, we are prepared to admit that ardent 
 minds will naturally indulge the most sanguine anticipations ; and with their Utopian schemes of 
 universal freedom and equality, will strive to subvert the salutary systems of experience. Until 
 quite recently the ereat chaner of our Confederation has ever been revered and appealed to with pro 
 found respect anclveneration. It has been hallowed as the living testimony of national emanci 
 pation the sacred shrine and perpetual record of the accumulated wisdom of ages. But the time 
 has come, we are pained to discover, when men of eminent abilities and extensive influence hurl 
 at each other, in moments of exasperated feeling, the most fearful menaces and denunciations. 
 We deprecate these reckless menaces. We shudder at their frequency and violence. We believe 
 their is not a district in our country so humble or so remote from the scenes of these unfortunate 
 collisions as not to have been thrilled with painful anxiety for the event. And your committee, 
 in the privacy of their humble homes, have not been exempt from these alarming apprehensions. 
 We therefore respectfully recommend to your serious consideration the following resolutions : 
 
11 
 
 " 1. Resolved, That our devotion to that sacred compact which confers weight, character, and 
 stability upon all our domestic institutions is too fervent and too pure to be prostituted to mere 
 local partialities, abstract questions, or territorial difficulties. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That we have witnessed with feelings of deep regret that ultra and fanatical 
 spirit which reigns in our national legislature on the subject of slavery ; that it tends to subvert 
 our free institutions ; that it is hostile to the principles of constitutional liberty ; and that it is an un 
 holy crusade against the immutable laws of political equality, and worthy of the execration of 
 every enlightened freeman. 
 
 " 3. Resolved, That a spirit ot conciliation and compromise should pervade our national coun 
 cils on subjects which involve the peace and permanency of the Union ; and as our Union was the 
 glorious result of mutual concession on the part of our revolutionary fathers, we would invoke 
 Congress to settle, in a spirit equally generous, the delicate questions which are now threatening 
 the existence of our national liberties. 
 
 "4. Retolved, That we are willing that the Compromise bill now before the United States 
 Senate, or any other practicable measure, be adopted, to give repose to this confederacy of States, 
 on principles of equality and justice. 
 
 " 5. Resolved, That we maintain the broad platform of NON-INTERVENTION, the only indubita 
 ble ground recognised on this subject by the Constitution, and that the establishment by Congress 
 of a boundary line of slavery is utterly adverse to the spirit of our Confederacy. 
 
 " 6. Resolved, Thai those eminent men who have nobly asserted and maintained in the coun 
 cils of the nation our inviolable rights and privileges with fearless and eloquent fidelity, do most 
 richly merit the approbation and gratitude of this meeting. 
 
 " 7. Resolved, That a copy of the preamble and resolutions and other proceedings be trans 
 mitted by the presiding officers to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. 
 
 " Hon. Green B. Samuels then addressed the meeting in an interesting and appropriate speech, 
 and concluded by offerering the following additional resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved, That we are determined to adhere to the Union of these States so long as it shall 
 be a Union of equality and justice. 
 
 " Resolved, That we denounce the proceedings in Charleston, South Carolina, which have for 
 their purpose tte dissolution of the Union, as treasonable, and as such, deserving the execration 
 of every patriot in America. 
 
 " The question upon the passage of the resolutions, offered by the Committee of Thirteen was 
 called ; when they were again read, and submitted to vote, passed unanimously. 
 
 " The resolutions of Mr. Samuels were then submitted, and passed without a dissenting voice." 
 
 Now, sir, I have only one remark to make upon this meeting in 
 Shenandoah, and that is this : I feel perfectly assured that no such 
 meeting, so large, and yet so unanimous, has yet been held in Virginia 
 in opposition to our plan of adjustment. Indeed, I feel that there is good 
 reason for believing that public sentiment in the Old Dominion in regard 
 to this measure is very nearly everywhere correspondent with this move 
 ment of the Tenth Legion ; and I would politely and kindly admonish 
 the Senator from Virginia (until he shall become better informed of 
 what that portion of the people who inhabit his own region think of the 
 measure under consideration) that he will not venture again to speak so 
 confidently for the whole South, and especially for my own State, to 
 whose borders, I believe, he has never yet travelled. 
 
 But, sir, let me pass under review, for a moment, some of the pro 
 ceedings of public meetings recently held in South Carolina. They are, 
 indeed, peculiar and striking in several respects. I beg, whilst I speak 
 of the action of these meetings, and "of the movements of certain indi 
 viduals in South Carolina, that I may not again be charged as I have 
 been once heretofore charged with assailing a sovereign State. Well, 
 sir, those who have at all observed the proceedings of public meetings 
 in South Carolina could not have failed to notice that, amidst the bold 
 and high-spirited people who therein abide, (a portion of whom seem to 
 imagine that there is no intellect, no patriotism, no eloquence, no any 
 thing of a nature to impart dignity to man, as a moral and social being, 
 beyond the territorial boundaries of the sacred Palmetto State,) there 
 are comparatively but few persons who content themselves with taking 
 the ground that a sovereign State may secede from the Union in the event 
 of the Wilmot proviso being adopted, or other kindred measures. 
 
12 
 
 Nearly the whole population go much further I might almost say in 
 finitely further. They contend that a single State may, whenever she 
 chooses to do so, put an end to the union, concord, and happiness of twenty 
 millions of people, whether there are aggressions to complain of or not. 
 This is undeniably a new phase of the disunion doctrine which the ex 
 citing circumstances of the present times have served to develop, and 
 which inflamed sensibilities and weak heads can alone account for. 
 Mr. Barn well Rhett, well known here at one time as a self-sufficient, 
 but very uninfluential member of the House of Representatives, avows 
 himself a disunionist per se, and seems to imagine himself capable of 
 wielding all the physical and moral power of South Carolina against 
 the Union. This may be so, or may not be so ; but whether this gen 
 tleman has over-estimated his capability of public mischief or not, I 
 rather think that the solid fabric of the Union will be apt to stand in 
 spite of all assaults which he may make upon it. 
 
 This is to me quite an interesting topic, and I hope will prove neither 
 uninteresting nor unentertaining to the Senate. Let me read to you a 
 few extracts from the newspapers of that State, which I fear express 
 the public sentiment reigning there at this unhappy period. First, I will 
 read an article from the Charleston Mercury, the leading organ of a cer 
 tain faction in South Carolina, of which paper I feel authorized to say, 
 that in my judgment a more flagitious, unprincipled, and treasonable paper 
 has never been printed anywhere in Chistendom. The article which I 
 am about to read is a communication, but is apparently sanctioned by 
 the editor. Here it is : 
 
 "THE REMEDY. Ought, Messrs. Editors, the South to accept the extension of the Miseour 1 
 Compromise line to the Pacific as a settlement of the slavery question? I think not. The com 
 promise adopted on the admission of Missouri has failed to secure us against the encroachments of 
 the Northern States. It has already been tried, and has proved ineffectual. Why try it again? 
 Why should we again suffer ourselves to be lulled into a fatal slumber, to awaken after a time, and 
 find ourselves weaker and our enemies stronger? It is my opinion that the North will consent to 
 no compromise which the South ought to accept. Let us open our eyes to the truth. If the 
 institution of slavery is to be maintained and strengthened, instead of beintr gradually weakened 
 and finally abolished, the union between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States must be 
 dissolved/ Let us, then, assume the attitude and speak the language of freemen conscious of 
 their strength. Let us require an amendment to the Constitution. " 
 
 And yet I was denounced some time ago because I said some South 
 erners demanded certain amendments to the Constitution, and that, if 
 they could not obtain them, they would be in favor of disunion. But 
 sequent events have proved that what I said was true. 
 
 The article then goes on to say : 
 
 "If that cannot be obtained, let the Southern States give notice to the Northern, that they 
 " resume the powers granted under the Constitution, since they have been perverted to their in 
 jury and oppression," and proceed at once to elect delegates to frame a constitution for the 
 "Southern United States of North America." 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. From what paper did the gentleman read ? 
 Mr. FOOTE. From the Charleston Mercury. 
 Mr. BUTLER. Is that " South Carolina ?" 
 Mr. FOOTE. It is in South Carolina. 
 Mr. BUTLER. Is that " South Carolina ?" 
 Mr. FOOTE. Not at all. 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. What is the signature to that article ? 
 Mr. FOOTE. "Anti-Compromise" 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. Ah ! I thought the Senator was speaking of the anony 
 mous writer " South Carolina." 
 
13 
 
 Mr. FOOTE. The honorable gentleman is mistaken. I did not say any 
 such thing. I did not say that the Charleston Mercury was South Carolina* 
 I said it was the leading organ of a treasonable faction in South Carolina. 
 And I now say that the columns of that paper furnish evidence in proof 
 of what I have now stated. Does the gentleman repudiate the paper ? 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. Not at all. 
 
 Mr. FOOTE. If the gentleman did, the paper would repudiate him in 
 turn, and he might lose as much as he would gain by the proceeding. 
 [ Laughter.] Then, the paper, not standing repudiated, stands tacitly sanc 
 tioned now. Where is the gentleman at this moment ? Has he gained 
 any advantage worth boasting of by his unseasonable interrogations? 
 
 I now propose to read one or two toasts drunk at public meetings in 
 South Carolina, which may be looked upon as more or less indicative of 
 public sentiment there. These toasts need defence very much, in my 
 judgment ; and I must be allowed to say, that when my absent friends 
 are assailed in my presence as I intend to assail the drinkers of these 
 toasts, I would defend them, or acknowledge them frankly to have been 
 guilty of conduct indefensible, just as I would defend the honorable 
 Senator from South Carolina, as he well knows, if he should happen to 
 be unjustly assailed in my hearing. 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. I wish to say now, at the beginning, that I do not in 
 tend to be the defender, advocate, and eulogist of everybody in South 
 Carolina. I shall stand up for South Carolina. So far as her sentiments 
 are expressed, I am, in some measure, responsible for them. If I were to 
 take newspaper testimony, I might very easily read freely from some in 
 Mississippi ; and discount, in law, is always considered a pretty good plea, 
 
 Mr. FOOTE. Very well, sir. There is no paper in the State of Mis 
 sissippi that has ever published such sentiments. An editor could not 
 live in the State that would publish such sentiments. I hope never to 
 see a man who would offer such sentiments to a public meeting on the 
 Fourth of July. Here is one of the toasts I was about to read : 
 
 "By Sergeant [remember he is a sergeant] B. F. Boyce. The Union: The time is fully 
 come. Let us cut asunder the accursed knots which bind us to northern fanaticism and oppres 
 sion, and spurn their fragments." 
 
 " Sidney," in the Macon '(South Carolina) Telegraph, hails Mr. Rhett's 
 speech with delight, and exclaims, " Let us dissolve the Union and be 
 done with it." Who dare say that here ? The same writer continues : 
 
 "To the able and fearless statesman who has spoken to us in the language of patriotic truth, 
 and has called upon his fellow-citizens of his State, and of the whole South, to join him in en 
 forcing the only remedy for all our crushing wrongs now within our reach a d'tsolution of the 
 Union I say, "Advance! My hand is feeble, but whatever of strength it has is his!" 
 
 Sir, let me next allude to a speech of a gentleman whose eloquence 
 is very much commended. The very particular mention he made of me 
 seems to render it necessary that I should say something of the speech 
 of Colonel Maxcy Gregg, of Columbia, South Carolina. After talking 
 some time about the Nashville Convention, he goes on to say : 
 
 "Perhaps, however, California by itself might be admitted. In that event, we ought to 
 secede and take it by force*" 
 
 Yes, sir, this gentleman proposes that if California should be admit 
 ted, South Carolina should secede and take it by force. (Laughter.) 
 He then says : 
 
 "If nothing is done at the present Congress, we ought to pursue the ame course." 
 
 Yes, if nothing at all is done, he tells them they ought to pursue the same 
 course. [Laughter.] This is the imposing menace of one of the " chiv- 
 
14 
 
 airy" of South Carolina. I have really wished, since I saw this outbreak 
 of heroism, that the author of " Don Quixote" could be revived from the 
 tomb, for the purpose of giving us another delicious romance on Knight 
 Errantry, or rather American chivalry, or, if the gentleman will allow 
 me, " South Carolina Chivalry" I do not know whether or not the 
 speaker from whom I have quoted actually belongs to the " chivalry" 
 himself; but he seems to use brave words, and would doubtless make 
 them good upon any equal field. Colonel Gregg goes on to say : 
 
 " Other modes of resistance might be proposed and adopted,- but, in the event of their incf- 
 , other and more decisive steps would be taken.'" 1 
 
 How very valorous ! How alarmingly menacing ! 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. If the honorable Senator wishes to know who Colonel 
 Gregg is, I will tell him. 
 
 Mr. FOOTE. I think I know him very well from this speech. [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. BUTLER. Colonel Gregg is a man of high character. He would 
 make tiue his word on any field. He was an officer in Mexico. I know 
 of no man of more remarkable purity of character than Col. Gregg. 
 He may have these warm sentiments ; but there is no man that has a 
 purer character. 
 
 Mr. FOOTE. Undoubtedly. I would not have noticed him if I had not 
 supposed that he was a distinguished man. (Laughter.) I am adduc 
 ing testimony. The gentleman's course of defence is more than judi 
 cious ; it is exceedingly generous. Instead of endeavoring to call in 
 question or weaken the testimony brought forward against him, he 
 comes forward voluntarily for the purpose of bolstering up testimony 
 which is strong enough to accomplish its purpose without his aid. I 
 certainly do not doubt in the least that Col. Gregg is an eminent man, 
 an accomplished gentleman, and possessed of all the high qualities of 
 head and heart which his friends may attribute to him. I only say that 
 his views, acted out, however conscientiously entertained, would, in my 
 judgment, amount to treason. It is not my intention to use language of 
 personal decrial or insult. By no means. My respect for the honorable 
 Senator from South Carolina, if no other motives, would preclude me 
 from the use of language which would convey a personal affront. I am 
 speaking of public acts, though, and must be allowed to speak with 
 becoming freedom. And I say, further, that such high testimony as is 
 furnished by Col. Gregg appears to be well entitled to regard, when we 
 are inquiring into the actual condition of public sentiment in the State 
 of South Carolina. Can the honorable gentleman from Virginia defend 
 the language which this gentleman uses ? Would any man in the Old 
 Dominion use or justify such treasonable language? But Col. Gregg 
 then went on to say: 
 
 " We had no need to fear a war springing out of the formation of a new government; that 
 we had the right to secede; and if it were necessary and advisable, it did not become MEN to be 
 deterred from exercising it." 
 
 Colonel Gregg goes on to say : 
 
 "Besides, if a war should come, it must terminate favorably to the South. It must do so, 
 because we were a more warlike people than our opponents, and would have that decided advan 
 tage attendant upon superior spirit and valor. (!) Moreover we were an agricultural people, 
 while our opponents were engaged in manufactures and commerce; and the former always have 
 the advantage over the latter in a protracted struggle. This he illustrated by a reference to the 
 Carthagenian war. [Very classical.] Besides this, we have the mouth of the Mississippi river. 
 y[They have got the mouth of the Mississippi river in South Carolina! (Laughter.) I did not 
 suppose tint two hundred men in South Carolina had ever seen the mouth of that noble river 
 at all."] 
 
15 
 
 To repeat, he says : 
 
 " Besides this, we have the mouth of the Mississippi river, (/) and by this means can block' 
 ade the whole Northwestern States." (.') 
 
 Yes, gentlemen of the Northwest, you are in imminent danger of an 
 armed blockade, to be set on foot by a South Carolina major or colonel, 
 (I do not know exactly which,) and you ought at once to prepare your 
 selves for the process of having your egress to the ocean hermetically 
 obstructed by the chivalry of South Carolina ! (Great laughter.) 
 
 This is really, Mr. President, about the most laughable speech I ever 
 read ; and its power of awakening ludicrous emotion is greatly enhanc 
 ed by the fact that the orator is one of the remaining great men of 
 South Carolina. Mr. Gregg talks as flippantly about seizing the mouth 
 of the Mississippi river, and blockading the Northwestern States, as 
 some urchin would of spinning his top, or a miss in her teens of hem 
 ming her sampler. Why, sir, this thing of seizing upon and holding the 
 mouth of the majestic Mississippi is more than all the nations of Europe 
 could do by conjunctive action; and I would like to advertise our good 
 friends of South Carolina, that those who dwell upon the Mississippi 
 and its tributaries are connected by indissoluble bonds. Those whom 
 God has joined together duunionists cannot rend asunder. Mr. Gregg 
 says that " the issue might come sooner than the adjournment of Con 
 gress, and be decided with the controversy between New Mexico and 
 Texas." This sagacious suggestion should enforce upon us the import 
 ance of an immediate adjustment of this delicate and dangerous boun 
 dary question. Let us at once remove the only remaining pretext of the 
 least plausibility for the perpetration of treason. But Mr. Gregg continues: 
 
 "The struggle would then become a general one, and we would be justified in seizing upon any 
 part of the public territory ; and it was easy to say where the people of South Carolina and the 
 Kershaw district would be at that day, since the exhibition given during the war with Mexico." 
 
 It seems that a Colonel Chesnut then addressed the meeting ; and a 
 more flatulent, bombastic speech was never delivered, even in the Ker 
 shaw district, South Carolina. The gentleman is really all bounce, and 
 bravado, and bellowing audacity. He raves like a bedlamite, squeaks 
 like a luckless pig caught between two sturdy fence rails, and pops like a 
 very chestnut when thrown into the fire without a previous splitting of the 
 hull. On reading this speech of Mr. Chesnut, it really distressed me to 
 think that I had never heard of him before, nor had even ever conjec 
 tured that there might be some gentleman somewhere to be found of his 
 precise cognomen. This gentleman seems to be a military personage, too, 
 and is undoubtedly one of the real chit-airy. Listen, if you please, to the 
 account given of him and his speech : 
 
 "Colonel Chesnut then followed in a speech of great interest and much brilliancy, defending 
 the convention from the charge of being a treasonable meeting; which charge had been made at 
 the North, while the people there were allowed to meet at any place, in any way, and for any 
 purpose, wilheut being liable to any such charge. He then spoke of the causes which had ren 
 dered a convention of the Southern States necessary 5 how the Northern States had proved recre 
 ant to the truest reposed in them by the South, and passed law?, energetic and effective, to defeat 
 the binding obligations of a solemn treaty, made and ratified voluntarily between them; how they 
 had by this means robbed us of our property- -were destroying our peace and jeoparding our lives; 
 how the United States Government had been violently and fraudulently wrested from its legiti 
 mate purposes and objects, and made a mere machine in their own hands to advance and subserve 
 : these purposes; how, by the fiscal action of the Government, large amounts of money were un 
 justly abstracted from the South, and profusely lavished on the North, by which means she was 
 ! robed in borrowed magnificence; that the North had been encouraged in this mode of procedure 
 by the divisions prevailing at the South and among the Southern Representatives in Congress; 
 
16 
 
 that the South had looked long and vainly looked to the solemn guaranties of that Constitution^ 
 revered and held sacred by her, for protection from these aggressions; but that these, though strong 
 were insufficient to defend her against the fanatical spirit of the North, encouraged as she was by 
 the desertions of Benton t Foote & Co., &c., &c." 
 
 I surely ought to be very grateful (?) to Col.Chesnut for enabling me 
 to ascertain my precise standing in South Carolina. I, who aided the 
 Senator from Virginia (Mr. HUNTER) in getting up the Southern meeting 
 eighteen months ago-^1, who have assailed in my own feeble way, but 
 zealously and fearlessly, every champion of Abolition on this floor, whe 
 ther potential or feeble, to the best of my strength- I, who have been 
 formerly commended even here by J. C. Calhoun himself for good inten 
 tions and extreme devotion to Southern interests I, who have incurred 
 more obloquy and malignant ridicule than any Southern man ever did, 
 on account of my fierce and fervid vindication of the rights of the South 
 from assailment, with whomsoever originating I, who, for undertaking 
 to vindicate the character of South Carolina's greatest statesman, after 
 he had passed from the stage of earthly action, have been thrown for 
 four months past into a sort of parliamentary Coventry. I am now as 
 sociated in South Carolina with one for whom South Carolina cherishes 
 more hatred and contempt than for any man living or dead ! Well, this 
 is the sort of reward that human justice commonly bestows, and I am 
 content with it. I will only say that some of the good people of South 
 Carolina as much misunderstand me as they do the questions now before 
 the country for decision. 
 
 Mr. President, gentlemen now speak of the Missouri Compromise as 
 an ultimatum. So the honorable Senator from Virginia says to-day. 
 Why, I made it my business to consult the honorable Senator from South 
 Carolina who sits nearest to me, (Mr. BARN WELL,) who was a member 
 of the Nashville Convention, when he first came here, (I regret that he 
 is not now in his place,) as to whether the Nashville Convention looked 
 upon the Missouri Compromise line as an ultimatum. He said promptly 
 that it was not so recognised by him. I consulted with the President of 
 the Convention, (Chief Justice Sharkey,) who gave me a similar re 
 sponse. So have responded all the delegates to the Convention who 
 have yet reached this city, with whom I have had an opportunity of 
 conversing. And yet honorable gentlemen here, and champions of se 
 dition elsewhere, insist that the Missouri Compromise line, as adopted 
 at Nashville, is an ultimatum, and that there is no alternative to its 
 adoption by us, save a dissolution of the Union. Well, sir, though I have 
 always voted for the line of 36 deg. 30 min., when I have had an oppor 
 tunity, I confess that I never yet in my life thought for a single instant 
 of making it an ultimatum ; nor can I easily perceive how any person, 
 being possessed of the ordinary quantum of reasoning power, could think 
 of such a thing as a practical proposition. The truth is, it is chiefly in 
 sisted on with a view todwMmow,and that the whole country will shortly 
 understand ; and when the disunion plot, which I have known to be on 
 foot for several months past, shall be once plainly laid open to the peo 
 ple of the South, both plot and plotters will be consigned to undying in 
 famy, or I have read the pages of republican history in vain, and the 
 enligthened freemen of America will prove themselves wholly incapable 
 of that self-government upon which they have heretofore so much prided 
 themselves. May God, in his mercy, save our beloved country from the 
 ruin and degradation in which ambitious and unprincipled demagogues 
 have striven to involve us ! , , fr 
 
 i. : J Jfa <TtrcrU* 
 
 ^xr^~*^afi*- r^^ si *'