The Union. Speech of William H. Seward, in the Senate of the United States, January 12, 1861

THE UNION.

r/

SPEECH

OF

WILLIAM H. SEWAPiD

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
JANUARY 12, 1861.

The Senate having resumed the consideration of the
special message of the President of the United States,
comniunicated on llie 9lh of January, in reference to the
state of the Union —

Mr. SEWARD said:

Mr. President: Congress adjourned last sum-
mer amid auspices of national abundance, con-
tentment, tranquillity, and happiness. It has
reassembled this winter in tiie presence of de-
rangement of business and disturbance of puljlic
as well as private credit, and in the face of sedi-
tious combinations to overthrow the Union. The
alarm is a|ipalliiig; for Union is not more the
body than liberty is the soul of the nation. Tlie
American citizi'ii has been accustomed to believe
the Republic immortal. He shrinks from the sight
of convulsions indicative of its sudden death.
The report of our condition has gone over the
seas; and we who have so long and with much
complacency studied the endless agitations of
society in the Old World, believing ourselves ex- ;
empt from such disturbances, now, in our turn, '
seem to be falling into a momentous and disas-
trous revolution.

I know how difficult it is to decide, amid so \
many and so various counsels, wiiat ought to be
and even what can be done. Certainly, however,
it is lime for every Senator to declare himself. 1
therefore, following the example of the noldc Sen- !
ator from Tennessee, [Mr. Johnson,] avow my
adherence to the Union in its integrity and with
all its parts, with my friends, with my party, with
my State, with my country, or without either, as
they may determine, in every event, whether oi j
peace or of war, with every consequence of honor :
or dishonor, of life or death. Although I lament '
the occasion, I hail with cheerfulness the duty of'
lifting up my voice among distracted debates, for i
my whole country and its inestimable Union. i

Hitherto the exhibitions of spirit and > resolu-
tion here, as elsewhere, have been chiefly made |
on the side of disunion. I do not regret this. Dis-
union is so unexpected and unnatural that it must
plainly reveal itself before its presence can be [
realized. I like best, also, the courage that rises
slowly under the pressure of severe provocation. !

If it be a Christian duty to forgive to the stranger
even seventy times seven offenses, it is the highest
patriotism to endure without complaint the pas-
sionate way wardness of political brethren so long
as there is hope that they may come to a better
mind.

I think it is easy to pronounce what measures
or conduct will not save the Union. 1 agree with
the honorable Senator from North Carolina [Mr.
Ci^ingman] that mere eulogiums will not save it.
Yet I think that as prayer brings us nearer to God,
though it cannot move Him toward us, so there
is healing and saving virtue in every word of de-
votion to the Union that is spoken, and in every
sigh that its danger draws forth. I know, at
least, that, like truth, it derives strength from
every irreverent act that is committed and every
blasphemous phrase that is uttered against it.

The Union cannot be saved by mutual crimi-
nations concerning our respective shares of re-
sponsibility for the present evils. He whose con-
science acquits him will naturally be slow to
accuse others whose cooperation he needs. His-
tory only can atljust the great account.

A continuance of the debate on the constitu-
tional power of Congress over the subject of sla-
very in the Territories will not save the Union.
The opinions of parties and sections on that ques-
tion have become dogmatical, and it is this cir-
cumstance that has produced the existing alien-
ation. A truce, at least during the debate on the
Union, is essential to reconciliation.

The Union cannot be saved by proving that
secession is illegal or unconstitutional. Persons
bent on that fearful step will not stand long enough
on forms of law to be dislodged; and loyal men do
not nwed such narrow ground to stantl iqion.

I fear that little more will be gained from dis-
cussing the right of the Federal Government to
coerce seceding States into obedience. If dis-
union is to go on, this question will give place to
the more practical one, whether many seceding
States have a right to coerce the remaining mem-
bers to acquiesce in a dissolution. •

I dread, as in my imiermost soul I abhor, civil
war. I do not know what the Union would be

worth if saved by the use of the sword. Yet, for
all this, I do not agree with those who, with a
desire to ixvert that great calamity, advise a con-
ventional or unopposed separation, with a view
to what thejr call a recotistruction. It is enough
for me, first, that in this plan, destruction goes
before reconstruction; and secondly, tiiat the
strei;gth of the vase in which the hopes of the
nation are held consists chiefly in its remaining
unbroken.

Congressional compromises are not likely to
save the Union. I know, indeed, that tradition
favors this form of remedy. But it is essential
to its success, in any case, that tiiere be found a
preponderating mass of citizens, so far neutral on
the issue whicli separates parties, that they can
intervene, sti-ikc down clashing weapons, and
compclanaccoinmodation. Moderate concessions
are not customarily asked by a force with its guns
in battery; nor arc liberal concessions apt to be
given by an opposing force not less confident of
its own right and its own strength. I think, also,
that there is a prevailing conviction that legislative
compromises which sacrifice honestly cherished
principles, while they anticipate future exigencies,
even if they do not assume extra-constitutional
powers, are less sure to avert imminent evils than
they are certain to produce ultimately even greater
dangers.

Indeed, Mr. President, I think it will be wise
to discard two prevalent ideas or prejudices,
namely: first, that the Union is to be saved by
somebody in particular; and secondly, that it is
to be saved by some cunning and insincere com-
pact of pacification. If I remember rightly, I said
something like this here so long ago as 1850, and
afterwards in 1854.

The present danger discloses itself in this form.
Discontented citizens liave obtained political
power in certain States, and they are using this
authority to overthrow the Federal Government.
They delude themselves with a belief that the
State power they have acquired enables them to
discharge themselves of allegiance to the whole
Ilepublic. The President says that no State
has a right to secede, but we have no consti-
tutional power to make war against a State.
The dilemma results from an assumption that
those who, in such a case, act against the Federal
Government, act lawfully as a State; although
manifestly they have perverted the power of the
State to an unconstitutional purpose. A class of
politicians in New England set up this theory
and attempted to practice upon it in our war with
Great Britain. Mr. Jefferson did not hesitate to
say that States must be kept within their consti-
tutional sphere by impulsion, if they could not be
held there by attraction. Secession was then
held to be inadmissible in the face of a public ene-
my. But if it is untenable in one case, it is neces-
sarily so in all others. I fully admit the origin-
ality, the sovereignty, and the independence of the
several States within their sphere. But I hold
the Federal Government to be equally original,
sovereign, and independent within its sphere.
And the government of the State can no more
absolve the people residing within its limits from
allegiance to the Union, than the Government of

I the Union can absolve them from allegiance to
the State. The Constitution of the United States,
and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are the
' supreme law of the land, paramount to all legis-
lation of the States, whether made under the Con-
stitution, or by even their organic conventions.
, The Union can be dissolved, not by secession,
I with or without armed force, but only by the vol-
untary consent of the people of the United States,
[collected in the manner prescribed by the Consti-
j tution of the United States.

Congress, in the present case, ought not to be
I impassive. It ought, if it can, to redress any
real grievances of the offended States, and then it
ought to supply the President with all the means
t necessary to maintain the Union in the full exhi-
bition and discreet exercise of its authority. Be-
yond this, with the proper activity on the part of
the Executive, the responsibility of saving the
Union belongs to the people, and they are abun-
dantly competent to discharge it.

1 propose, therefore, with great deference, to
address myself to the country upon the moment-
ous subject, asking a hearing, not less from the
people within what are called the seceding, than
from those who reside within the adhering States.

Union isan old, fixed, settled habit of the Amer-
ican people, resulting from convictions of its
necessity, and 'therefore not likely to be hastily
discarded. The early States, while existing as colo-
nies, were combined, though imperfectly, through
acommon allegiance to the British Crown. When
that allegiance ceased, no one was so presumptu-
ous as to suppose political existence compatible
with disunion; and, therefore, on the same day
that they declared themselves independent, they
proclaimed themselves also confederated States.
Experience in war and in peace, from 177G until
1787, only convinced them of the necessity of con-
verting that loose Confederacy into a more perfect
and a perpetual Union. They acted with a cool-
ness very different from the intemperate conduct
of those who now on one side threaten, and those
who on the other rashly defy disunion. They con-
sidered the continuance of the Union as a subject
comprehending nothing lesjs than the safety and
welfare of all the parts of wliich the country was
composed, and the fate of an empire in many re-
spects the most interesting in the world. I enter
upon the subject of continuing the Union now,
deeply impressed with the same generous and
loyal conviction. How could it be otherwise,
when, instead of only thirteen, the country is now
composed of thirty-three parts; and the empire
embraces, instead of only four million, no less
than thirty million inhabitants.

The founders of the Constitution moreover
regarded the Union as no mere national or Amer-
ican interest. On the contrary, they confessed
with deep sensibility tliat it seemed to them to
have been reserved for the people of this country
to decide whether societies of men are really capa-
ble of establishing good government upon reflec-
tion and choice, or whether they are forever des-
tined to depend for their political constitutions on
accident and force. They feared, therefore, that
their failure to continue and perfect the Union
would be a misfortune to the nations. How much

more, sir, would its overthrow now be a calamity
to mankind !

Some form of g^ovcrnment is indispensable here
as elsewherf". Whatever form we have, every
individual citizen and every State must cede to it
some natural rights, to invest the Government
with tiio requisite power. The simple question,
therefore, for us now to decide, while laying aside
all pique, passion, and prejudice, is: whether it
conduces more to the interests of the people of
this country to remain, for the general purposes
of peace and war, commerce inland and foreign,
postal communications at home and abroad, the
care and disposition of the public domain, coloni-
xation, the organization and admission of new
States, and, generally, the enlargement of empire,
one nation under our present Constitution, than it
would to divide themselves into separate Confed-
eracies or States.

Our country remains now as it was in 1787 —
composed not of detached and distant Territories,
but of one whole well-connected and fertile region
lying within the temperate zone, with climates
and soils hardlymorevarioustlianthoseof France
or of Italy. This slight divWsity quickens and
amplifies manufacture and commerce. Our rivers
and valleys, as improved by art, furnish us a sys-
tem of highways unequaled in the world. The
different forms of labor, if slavery were not per-
verted to purposes of political ambition, need not
constitute an element of strife in the Confederacy.

Notwithstanding recent vehement expressions
and manifestations ofintolerance in some quarters,
produced by in tense partisan excitement, we are, in
fact, a homogeneous people, chiefly of one stock,
with accessions well assimilated. We have, prac-
tically, only one language, one religion, one sys-
tem of Government, and manners and customs
common to all. Why, then, shall we not remain
henceforth, as hitherto, one people.'

The first object of every human society is safety
or security, for which, if need be, they will, and
they must, sacrifice every other. This security
is of two kinds: one, exemption from foreign
aggression and influence; the other, exemption
from domestic tyranny and sedition.

Foreign wars come from either violations of
treaties or domestic violence. The Union has,
thus far, proved itself an almost perfect shield
against such wars. The United States, continu-
ally enlarging their diplomatic acquaintance, have j
now treaties with France, the Netherlands, Great
Britain, Sweden, Prussia, Spain, Russia, Den-!
mark, Mexico, Brazil, Austria, Turkey, Chili,'
Siam, Muscat, Venezuela, Peru, Greece, Sar-
dinia, Ecuador, Hanover, Portugal, New Gran-
ada, Hesse Cassel, Wurtcmburg, China, Bava-
ria, Saxony, Nassau, Switzerland, Mecklenburg-
Schwerin, Guatemala, the Hawaian Islands,
San Salvador, Borneo, Costa Rica, Bremen,
the Argentine Confederation, Loo Choo, Japan,
Brunswick, Persia, Baden, Belgium, and Para-
guay. Nevertheless, the United States, within
their entire existence under the Federal Constitu-
tion, have had flagrant wars with only four States,
two of which were insignificant Powers, on the
coast of Barbary, and have had direct hostilities,
amounting to reprisals, against only two or three

more; and they are now at peace with the whole
world. If the Union should be divided into only
two Confederacies, each of them would need to
make as many treaties as we have now; and, of
course, would be liable to give as many causes
of war as we now do. But we know, from the
sad experience of other nations, that disintegra-
tion, once begun, inevitably continues until even
the greatest empire crumbles into many parts.
Each Confederation that shall ultimately arise out
of the ruin of the Union will have necessity for
as many treaties as we now have, and will incur
liabilities for war as often as we now do, by
breaking them. It is the multiplication of treaties,
and the want of confederation, that makes war
the normal condition of society in Western
Europe and in Spanish America. It is union
that, notwithstandingour world-wide intercourse,
makes peace the habit of the American people.

I will not descend so low as to ask whether new
confederacies would be able or willing to bear
the grievous expense of maintaining the diplo-
matic relations which cannot be dispensed with
except by withdrawing from foreign commerce.

Our Federal Government is better able to avoid
giving just causes of war than several confedera-
cies, because it can conform the action of all the
States to compacts. It can have only one con-
struction, and only one tribunal to pronounce that
construction, of every treaty. Local and tempo-
rary interests and passions, or personal cupidity
and ambition, can drive small confederacies or
States more easily than a great Republic into in-
discreet violations of treaties.

The United States being a great and formidable
Power, can always secure favorable and satisfac-
tory treaties. Indeed, every treaty we have was
voluntarily made. Small confederacies or States
must take such treaties as they can got, and give
whatever treaties are exacted. A humiliating, or
even an unsatisfactory treaty, is a chronic cause
of foreign war.

The chapter of wars resulting from unjustifi-
able causes would, in case of division, amplify
itself in proportion to the number of new con-
federacies and their irritability. Our disputes
with Great Britain about Oregon, the boundary
of Maine, the patriot insurrection in Canada, and
the Island of San Juan; the border strifes be-
tween Texas and Mexico, the incursions of the
late William Walker into Mexico and Central
America; all these were cases in which war was
prevented only by the imperturbability of the
Federal Government.

This Government not only gives fewer causes
of war, whether just or unjust, than smaller con-
federacies would; but it always has a greater
ability to accommodate them by the exercise of
more coolness and courage, the use of more vari-
ous and more liberal means, and the display, if
need be, of greater force. Every one knows how
placable we ourselves are in controversies with
Great Britain, France, and Spain; and yet how
exacting we have been in our intercourse with
New Granada, Paraguay, and San Juan de Nic-
aragua.

Mr. President, no one will dispute our fore-
fathers' maxim, that the common safety of all is

the safety of each of the States. While they re- ,
main unitt>d, the Federal Government combines
all the materials a)id all the forces of the several
States; organizes their defenses on one general
principle; harmonizes and assimilates them with
one system; watches for them with a single eye,
which it turns in all directions, and moves all
agents under the control of one executive head.
A nation so constituted is safe against assault or j
even insult. I

War produces always a speedy exhaustion of
money and a severe strain upon credit. The
treasuries and credits of small confederacies would
often prove inadequate. Those of the Union are
always ample.

I have thus far kept out of view the relations
which must arise between the confederacies them-
selves. They would be small and inconsiderable
nations bordering on each other, and therefore,
according to all political philosophy, natural ene-
mies. In addition to the many treaties which each
must make with foreign Powers, and the causes
of war which they would give by violating them,
each of the confederacies must also maintain
treaties with all ^he others, and so be liable to give
them frequent offense. They would necessarily
havedilierent interests resulting from their estab-
lishment of different policies of revenue, of min-
ing, manufactures, and navigation, of immigra-
tion, and perhaps the slave trade. Each would
stipulate with foreign nations for advantages
peculiar to itself and injurious to its rivals.

If, indeed, it were necessaiy that the Union
should be broken up, it would be in the last de-
gree important that the new confederacies to be
formed should bo as nearly as possible equal in
strength and power, that mutual fear and mutual
respect might inspire them with caution against
mutual offense. But such equality could not long
be maintained; one confederacy would rise in
the scale of political importance, and the others
would view it thenceforward with envy and ap-
prehension. Jealousies would bring on frequent
and retaliatory wars, and all these wars, from
the peculiar circumstances of the confederacies,
would have the nature and character of civil
war. Dissolution, therefore, is, for the people of
this country, perpetual civil war. To mitigate it,
and obtain occasional rest, what else could they
accept but the system of adjusting the balance of
power which has obtained in Europe, in which
the few strong nations dictate the very terms on
which all the others shall be content to live.
When this hateful system should fail at last, for-
eign nations would intervene, now in favor of one
and then in aid of another; and thus our country,
having expelled all European Powers tVom the
continent, would relapse into an aggravated form
of its colonial experience, and, like Italy, Turkey,
India, and China, become the theater of transat-
lantic intervention and rapacity.

If, however, we grant to the new confederacies
an exemption from complications among each
other and with foreign States, still there is too
much reason to believe that not one of them could
long maintain a republican form of government.
Universal suffrage and the absence of a stand-
ing army are essential to the republican system.

The world has yet to see a single self-sustaining

I State of that kind, or even any confederation of
such States, except our own. Canada leans on
Great IJritain not unwillingly, and Switzerland is
guarantied by interested monarchical States. Our
own experiment has thus far been successful; be-
cause, by the continual addition of new States, the
influence of each of the members of the Union is
constantly restrained and reduced. No one, of
course, can foretell the way and manner of travel;
but history indicates with unerring cei'tainty the
end which the several confederacies would reach.
Licentiousness would render life intolerable; and
they would sooner or later purchase tranquillity
and domestic safety by the surrender of liberty,

! and yield themselves up to the protection of mil-

I itary despotism.

} Indulge me, sir, in one or tv/o details under this
head. First, it is only sixty days since this dis-
union movement began; already those who are
engaged in it have canvassed with portentous free-
dom the possible recombinations of the Stales when
dissevered, and the feasible alliances of those re-
combinations with European nations; alliances as
unnatural, and whimi would prove ultimately as
pestilential to society here as that of the Tlasca-
lans with the Spaniard, who promised them re-
venge upon their ancient enemies, the Aztecs.

Secondly. The disunion movementarises partly
out of a dispute over the common domain of the
United States. Hitherto the Union has confined
this controversy within the bounds of political
debate by referring it, with all other national ones,
to the arbitrament of the ballot-box. Does any
one suppose that disunion would transfer the
whole domain to either party, or that any other

[ umpire than war would, after dissolution, be

i invoked?

Thirdly. This movement arises, in another
view, out of the relation of African slaves to the
domestic population of the country. Freedom is
to them, as to all mankind, the chief object of

' desire. Hitherto, under the operation of the
Union, they have practically remained ignorant

j of the controversy, especially of its bearing on

I themselves. Can we hope that flagrant civil war
shall rage among ourselves in theirvery presence,
and yet that they will remain stupid and idle spec-

I tators ? Does history furnish us any satisfactory
instruction upon the horrors of civil war among
a people so brave, so skilled in arms, so earnest
in conviction, and sointentin purpose, as we are.'
Is it a mere chimera which suggests an aggrava-
tion of those horror^ beyond endurance when, on
either side, there shall occur the intervention of
an uprising ferocious African slave population of
four, or six, perhaps twenty million?

t The opinions of mankind change, andwith them
the policies of nations. One hundred years ago
all the commercial European States were engaged
in transferring negro slaves from Africa to this
hemisphere. To-day all those States are firmly
set in hostility to the extension and even to the
practice of slavery. Opposition to it takes two
forms: one European, which is simple, direct ab-
olition, effected, if need be, by compulsion; the

I other American, which seeks to arrest the African

t slave trade, and resist the entrance of domestic

slavpry into Territories where it is yet unknown,
while it leaves the disposition of existing slavery
to the considerate aition of the States by which
it is retained. It is the Union that restricts the
opposition to slavery in this country within these
limits. If dissolution prevail, what guarantee shall
there be against the full development here of the
fearful and uncompromising hostility to slavery
which elsewhere pervades tiie world, and of which
the recent invasion of Virginia was an illustra-
tion, and John Brown was the hero.'

Mr. President, 1 have designedly dwelt solong
on the probable effocis of disunion upon the safety
of the American people as to leave me little time
to consider the other evils wiiich must follow in
its train. But practically, the loss of safety in-
volves every other form of public calamity. When
once the guardian angel has taken flight, every-
thing is lost.

Dissolution would not only arrest, but cxtin-
guisli the greatness of our country. Even if sep-
arate confederacies could exist and endure, they
could severally preserve no share of the common
prestige of the Union. If the constellation is to
be broken up, the stars, whether scattered widely
apart or grouped in smaller clusters, will thence-
forth shed forth feeble, glimmering, and lurid
lights. Nor will great achievements be possible
for the new confederacies. Dissolution would
signalize its triumph by acts of wantonness which
would shock and astound the world. It would
provincialize Mount Vernon and give this Capi-
tol over to desolation at the very moment when
the dome-is rising over our heads that was to be
crowned with the statue of Liberty. After this
there would remain for disunion no act of stupen-
dous infamy to be committed. No petty confed-
eracy that shall follow the United States can pro-
long,oreven renew, the majestic drama of national
progress. Perhaps it is to be arrested because its
sublimity is incapable of continuance. Let it be
so, if we have indeed become degenerate. After
Washington, and the inflexible Adams, Henry,
and the peerless Hamilton, Jefferson, and the ma-
jestic Clay, Webster, and the acute Calhoun,
Jackson, the modestTaylor, and Scott, who rises
in greatness under the burden of years, and Frank-
lin, and Fulton, and Whitney, and Morse, have
all performed their parts, let the curtain fall!

While listening to these debates, I have some-
times forgotten myself in marking their contrasted
effects upon the page who customarily stands on
the dais before me, and the venerable Secretary
who sits behind him. The youth exhibits in-
tense but pleased emotion in the excitement, while
at every irreverent word that is uttered against
the Union the eyes of the aged man are sutfused
with tears. Let him weep no more. Rather
rejoice, for yours has been a lot of rare felicity.
You have seen and been a part of all the great-
ness of your country, the towering national great-
ness of all the world. Weep only you, and weep
with all the bitterness of anguish, who are just
ste]5ping on the threshold of life; for that great-
ness perishes prematurely and exists not for you,
nor for me, nor for any that shall come after
us.

The public prosperity ! how could it survive

the storm? Its elements are industry in the cul-
ture of every fruit; miningof all the metals; com-
merce at home and on every sea; material im-
provement that knows no obstacle and has no
end; invention that ranges throughout the domain
of nature; increase of knowledge as broad as the
! human mind can explore; perfection of art as
high as human genius can reach; and social re-
finement working for the renovation of the world.
How could our successors prosecute these noble
objects in the midst of brutalizing civil conflict?
What guarantees will capital invested for such
purposes have, that will outweigh the premium
oflTered by political and military ambition? What
I leisure will the citizen find for study, or invention,
or art, under the reign of conscription; nay, what
interest in them will society t'eel when fear and
hate shall have taken possession of the national
mind? Let the miner in California take heed; for
its golden wealth will become the prize of the na-
i tion that can command the most iron. Let the
' borderer take care; for the Indian will again lurk
I around his dwelling. Let the pioneer come back
I into our denser settlements; for the railroad, the
I post road, and the telegraph, advance not one fur-
long farther into the wilderness. With standing
I armies consuming the substance of our people on
: the land, and our Navy and our postal steamers
'Withdrawn from the ocean, who will protect or
I respect, or who will even know by name our petty
confederacies? The American man-of-war is a
noble spectacle. I have seen it enter an ancient
port in the Mediterranean. All the world won-
dered at it, and talked of it. Salvos of artillery,
; from forts and shipping in the harbor, saluted its
; flag. Princes and princesses and merchants paid
I it homage, and all the peo]jle blessed it as a har-
'. binger of hope for their own ultimate freedom. I
I imagine now the same noble vessel again enter-
; ing the same haven. The flag of thirty-three stars
and thirteen stripes has been hauled down, and
in its place a signal is run up, which flaunts the
device of a lone star or a palmetto tree. Men ask,
: "Who is the stranger that thus steals into our
waters?" The answer contemptously given is,
" She comes from one of the obscure republics of
Nortli America. Let her pass on."

Lastly, public liberty, our own peculiar liberty,
must languish for a time, and then cease to live.
And such a liberty ! free movement everywhere
through our own land and throughout the world;
free speech, free pfess, free suflVage; the freedom
of every subject to vote on every law, and for or
against every agent who expounds, administers,
or executes. Unstable and jealous confederacies,
constantly apprehending assaults without and
treason within, formidable only to eachotherand
contemptible to all beside: how long will it be be-
fore, on the plea of public safety, they will sur-
render all this inestimable and unoqualcd liberty,
and accept the hateful and intolerable espionage
of military despotism?

And now, Mr. President, what is the cause for
this sudden and eternal sacrifice of so much safety,
greatness, happiness, and freedom ? Have foreign
nations combined, and arc they coming in rage
upon us? No. So far from being enemies, there
is not a nation on earth that is not an interested,

6

admiring friend. Even the London Times, by no
means partial to us, says:

" It is quite possible that tin; problem of ;i deinoeratic
republic may bi; solved by its overlluow in a few days in a
spirit of folly, selli^hiiess, and short siglitedness." [

Has the FederalGovernment become tyrannical
or oppressive, or even rigorous or unsocial ? Has
the Constitution lost its spirit, and all at once
collapsed into a lifeless letter? No; the Federal
Government smiles more benigiiant!y,and works
to day more beneficently tlian ever. The Consti-
tution is even the chosen model for the organiza-
tion of the newly rising confederacies.

The occasion is the election of a President of'
the United States, who is unacceptable to apor-|
tion of the people. I state the case accurately.
There was no movement of disunion before the
ballots which expressed that choice were cast.
Disunion began as soon as the result was an-
nounced. The justification it assigned was that
Abraham Lincoln had been elected , while the sus-
cess of either one of three other candidates would
have been acquiesced in. Was the election ille-
gal.' No; it is unimpeachable. Is the candidate
personally offensive ? No; he is a man of unblem-
ished virtue and amiable manners. Is an election
of President an unfrequent or extraordinary trans-
action? No; we never had a Chief Magistrate
otherwise designated than by such election, and
that form of choice is renewed every four years.
Does any one even propose to change the mode
of appointing the Chief Magistrate? No; election
by universal suffrage, as modified by the Consti-
tution, is the one crowning franchise of the Ameri-
can people. To save it they would defy the world.
Is it apprehended thatthenewPresidentwillu^irp
despotic powers'" No; while he is of all men the
most unambitious, he is, by the partial success of
those who opposetl his election, subjected to such
restraints that he cannot, without their consent,
appoint a minister or even a police agent, nego-
tiate a treaty, or procure the passage of a law, and
can hardly draw a musket from the public arse-
nals to defend his own person.

What, then, is the ground of discontent? It is
that the disunionists did not accept as conclusive
the arguments which were urged in behalf of the
successful candidate in the canvass. This is all.
Were their own arguments against him more sat-
isfactory to his supporters ? Of course they were
not; they could not be. Does the Constitution,
in letter or spirit, require or imply that the argu-
ments of one party shall be satisfactory to the
other? No; that is impossible. What is the con-
stitutional remedy for this inevitable dissatisfac-
tion ? Renewed debate and ultimate rehearing in
a subsequent election. Have the now successful
majority perverted power to purposes of oppres-
sion ? No; they have never before held power.
Alas! how prone we are to undervalue privileges
and blessings. How gladly, iiow proudly, would
the people of any nation in Europe accept, on
such terms as we enjoy it, tiie boon of electing a
Chief Magistrate every four years by free, equal,
and universal suffrage! How thankfully would
they cast aside all their own systems of govern-
ment, and accept this Republic of ours, with all
its shortcomings and its disappointments; maintain

it with their arms, and cherish it in their hearts.
Is it not the very boon for which they supplicate
God without ceasing, and efen wage war, with
intermissions only resulting from exhaustion?
How strange are the times in which we live ! The
coming spring season, on one side of the Atlantic,
will open on a general conflict, waged to obtain,
through whatever indii'ection, just such a system
as ours; and on this side of the Atlantic, within
the same parallels of latitude, it will open on
fraternal war, waged in a moment of frenzied
discontent to overthrow and annihilate the same
institutions. Do men, indeed, live only for them-
selves, to revenge their own wrongs, or to gratify
their own ambition? Rather do not men live
least of all for themselves, and chiefly for pos-
terity and tor their fellow-men ? Have the Amer-
ican people, then, become all of a sudden unnat-
ural, as well as unpatriotic? and will they disinherit
their children of the precious estate held only in
trust for them, and deprive the world of the best
hopes it has enjoyed since the human race began
its slow and painful, yet needful and wisely-
appointed progress?

Here I might close my plea for the American
Union; but it is necessary, if not to exhaust the
argument, at least to exhibit the whole case. The
disunionists, consciously unable to stand on their
mere disappointment in the recent election, have
attempted to enlarge their ground. More than
thirty years there has existed a considerable —
though not heretofore a formidable — mass of citi-
: zcns in certain States situate near or around the
delta of the Mississippi, who believe that the
: Union is less conducive to the welfare and great-
ness of those Slates than a smaller confederacy,
embracing only slave Slates, would be. This
I class has availed itself of the discontents result-
ing from the election to put into operation the
] machinery of dissolution long ago prepared and
j waiting only for occasion. In other Slates there
1 is a soreness because of the want of sympathy
in the free States with the efforts of slaveholders
for the recapture of fugitives from service. In all
I the slave States there is a restiveness resulting
from the resistance which has been so determ-
inedly made within the last few years, in the free
Slates, to the extension of slavery in the common
! Territories of the United States. The Republican
! party, which cast its votes for the successful pres-
idential candidate on the ground of that policy,
has been allowed, practically, no representation,
no utterance by speech or through the press, in
1 the slave States; while its policy, principles, and
sentiments, and even its temper, have been so
[ misrepresented as to excite apprehensions that it
i denies important constitutional obligations, and
j aims even at interference with slavery and its over-
throw by State authorities or intervention of the
; Federiil Government. Considerable masses even
in the free States, interested in the success of these
misrepresentations as a means of partisan strat-
egy, have lent their sympathy to the party claim-
ing to be aggrieved. While the result of the
election brings the Republican parly necessarily
into the foreground in resistingdisunion, the preju-
dices against them which I have described have
deprived them of the cooperation of many good

and patriotic citizens. On a complex issue be-
tween tlie Republican party and the disunionists,
although it involves the direst national calannities,
the result might be doubtful; for the Republican
party is weak in a large part of the Union. But
on a direct issue, with all who cherish the Union
on one side, and all who desire its dissolution by
force on the other, the verdict would be prompt
and almost unanimous. I desire thus to simplify
the issue, and for that purpose to separate from
it all collateral questions, and relieve it of all par-
tisan passions and prejudices.

I consider the idea of the withdrawal of the
Gulf States, and their permanent reorganization
with or without others in a distinct Confederacy
as a means of advantage to themselves, so cer-
tainly unwise and so obviously impossible of ex-
ecution, when the purpose is understood, that I
dismiss it with the discussion I have already
incidentally bestowed upon it.

The case is different, however, in regard to the
other subjects which I have brought in this con-
nection before the Senate..

Beyond a doubt. Union is vitally important to
the Republican citizens of the United States; but
it is just as imjiortant to the whole people. Re-
publicanism and Union are, therefore, not con-
vertible terms. Republicanism is subordinate to
Union, as everything else is and ought to be —
Republicanism, Democracy, every other politi-
cal name and thing; all are subordinate — and
they ought to disappear in the presence of the
great question of Union. So for as I am con-
cerned, it shall be so; it should be so if the
question were sure to be tried as it ought only
to be determined, by the peaceful ordeal of the
ballot. It shall be so all the more since there
is on one side preparedness to refer it to the arbi-
trament of civil war. I have such faith in this
republican system of ours, that there is no polit-
ical good which I desire that I am not content to
seek' through its peaceful forms of administration
without invoking revolutionary action. If others
shall invoke that form of action to oppose and
overthrow Government, they shall not, so far as
it depends on me, have the excuse that I obsti-
nately left myself to be misunderstood. In such
a case I can afford to meet prejudice with concil-
iation, exaction with concession which surren-
ders no principle, and violence with the right hand
of peace. Therefore, sir, so far as the abstract
question whether, by the Constitution of the Uni-
ted States, the bondsman, v/ho is made such by
the laws of a State, is still a man or only prop-
erty, I answer that, within that State, its laws on
that subject are supreme; that when he has es-
caped from that State into another, the Constitu-
tion regards him as a bondsman who may not, by
any law or regulation of that State, be discharged
from his service, but shall be delivered up, on clarni,
to the party to whom his service is due. While
prudence and justice would combine in persuad-
ing you to modify the acts of Congress on that
subject, so as not to oblige private persons to as-
sistin their execution, and to protect freemen from
being, by abuse of the laws, carried into slavery,
I agree that all laws of the States, whether free
States or slave States, which relate to this class

of persons, or any others recently coming from
or resident in other States, and which laws con-
travene the Constitution of the United States, or
any law of Congress passed in conformity thereto,
ought to be repealed.

Secondly. Experience in publicaffairs has con-
firmed my opinion, that domestic slavery, exist-
ing in any State, is wisely left by the Constitu-
tion of the United States exclusively to the care,
management, and disposition of that State; and
if it were in my power, I would not alter the Con-
stitution in that respect. If misapprehension of
my position needs so strong a remedy, I am will-
ing to vote for an amendment of the Constitution,
declaring that it shall not, by any future amend-
ment, be so altered as to confer on Congress a
power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any
State.

Thirdly. While I think that Congress has
exclusive and sovereign authority to legislate on
all subjects whatever, in the common Territories
of the United States; and while 1 certainly shall
never, directly or indirectly, give my vote to es-
tablish or sanction slavery in such Territories,
or anywhere else in the world, yet the ques-
tion what constitutional laws shall at any time be
passed in regard to the Territories, is, like every
other question, to be determined on practical
grounds. I voted for enabling acts in the cases
of Oregon, Minnesota, and Kansas, without
being able to secure in them such provisions as
I would have preferred; and yet I voted wisely.
So now, I am well satisfied that, under existing
circumstances, a happy and satisfactory solu-
tion of the difficulties in the remaining Territo-
ries would be obtnined by similar laws, pro-

! viding for their organization, if such organiza-

I tion were otherwise practicable. If, therefore,

' Kansas were admitted as a State, under the Wy-
andotte constitution, as I think she ought to be,
and if the organic laws of all the other Territo-
ries could be repealed, I could vote to authorize
the organization and admission of two new States

; which should include them, reserving the right to
effect subdivisions of them whenever necessary
into several convenient States; but I do not find

I that such reservations could be constitutionally
made. Without them, the ulterior embarrass-
ments which would result from the hasty incor-
poration of States of such vast extent and various

{interests and character would outweigh all the
immediate advantages of such a measure. But

I if the measure were practicable, I should prefer
a different course, namely: when the eccentric

1 movements of secession and disunion shall have
ended, in whatever form that end may come, and
the angry excitements of the hour shall have sub-
sided, and calmness once more shall have resumed
its accustomed sway over the public mind, then,
and not until then — one, two, or three years hence

— I should cheerfully advise a convention of the
people, to be assembled in pursuance of the Con-
stitution, to consider and decide whether any and

I what amendments of the organic national law
ought to be made. A Republican now — as I have
heretofore been a member of other parties exist-
ing in my day — I nevertheless hold and cherish,
as I have always done, the principle that this

8

Government exists in its present form only by
the consent of the governed, and that it is as ne-
cessary as it is wise, to resort to the people for re-
visions of the organic law when the troubles and
flani^ers of the State certainly transcend the pow-
ers delegated by it to the public authorities. Nor
ought tlie suggestion to excite surprise. Govern-
ni'Mit in any form is a machine; this is the most
complex one that tin; mind of man has ever in-
vented, or the hand of man has ever framed. Per-
fect as It is, it ought to be expected that it will,
at least as often as once in a century, require
some modification to adapt it to the changes of
society nntl alternations of empire.

Fourthly. I hold mys'^lf ready now, as always
heretot'ore, to vote for any properly-guarded laws
which shall be deemed necessary to prevent mu-
tual invasions of States by citizens of other States,
and putiish those who shall aid and abet them.

Fifthly. Notwithstanding the arguments of the
gallant Senator from Oregon, [General Lane,]
I remain of the opinion that physical bonds, such
as highway.s., railroads, rivers, and canals, are
vastly more powerful for holding civil commu-
nities together than any mere covenants, though
written on parchment or engraved upon iron. 1
remain, therefore, constant to my purpose to se-
cure, if possible, the construction of two Pacific
raihvays, one of which shall connect the ports
around the mouths of the Mississippi, and the
other the towns on tiic Missouri and the Lakes,
with the harbors on our western coast.

If, in the expression of these views, I have not
pi'oposed what is desired or expected by many
others, they will do me the justice to believe that
I am as far from having sugg(-sted what in many
respects would have been in harmony with cher-
ished convictions of my own. I learned early
from Jeffin-son, that in political affairs we cannot
always do what seems to us absolutely best.
Those with whom we must necessarily act, enter-
taining different views, have the power and the
right of carrying them into practice. We must
be content to lead when we can, and to follow
when we cannot lead; and if we cannot at any
time do for our country all the good that we
would wish, we must be satisfied with doing for
lier all the good that we can.

I Having submitted my own opinions on this
great crisis, it remains only to say that I shall
cheerfully lend to the Government my best sup-
port in whatever prudent yet energetic efforts
It shall make to preserve the public peace, and
I to maintain and preserve the Union; advisuig,
; only, that it practice as far as possible the
utmost moderation, forbearance, and concilia-
tion.

And now, Mr. President, what are the auspices
of the country? i know that we are in the midst
of alarms, and somewhat exposed to accidents
unavoidable in seasons of tempestuous passions.
Wealready have disorder; and violence has begun.
I know not to what extent it may go. Still my
I faith in the Constitution and in the Union abides,
1 because my faith in the wisdom and virtue of the
American people remains unshaken. Coolness,
calmness, and resolution, arc elements of their
character. They have been temporarily displaced;
but they are reappearing. Soon enough, 1 trust,
i for safety, it will be seen that sedition and vio-
; lence are only local and temporary, and that loy-
i alty and affection to the Union aie the natural
sentiments of the whole country. Whatever dan-
gers there shall be, there will be the determina-
tion to meet them; whatever sacrifices, private or
public, shall be needful for the Union, they will be
made. I feel sure that the hour has not come for
this great nation to fall. This people, which has
' been studying to become wiser and better as it
I has grown older, is not perverse or wicked enough
I to deserve so dreadful and severe a punishment
as dissolution. This Union has not yet accom-
plished what £^oi)d for mankind was manifestly
designed by Him who appoints the seasons and
, prescribes the duties of States and empires. No,
sir; if it were cast down by faction to-day, it
would rise again and reappear in all its majestic
proportions to-morrow. It isiheonly Government
that can stand here. Woo ! Woe ! to tln^ man that
madly lifts his hand against it. It shall continue
and endure; and men, in after times, shall declare
that this generation, which saved the Union from
such sudden and unlooked-for dangers, surpassed
in magnanimity even that one which laid its
foundations ni the eternal principles of liberty,
justice, and humanity.

Printed at the office of the Congressional Globe