Southern shield., 1850-05-04
Peroration to Mr. Clay's Great Speech.

IlOuS II ullS WlflC1 dIG HOW threatened Wlth subversion and destruction. Well sir the first question which naturally arises is, SUD- posing the Union to be dissolved for any off the causes or grievances which are com plained of, how far will dissolution furnish remedy for those grievances? If the Union is to be dissolved for any existing cause it will be because slavery is nterdict- ed or not allowed to be introduced into the ceded territories; or because slavery is threatened to be abolished in the District of Columbia; or because fugitive slaves are not restored, as in my opinion they ought to be to their masters. These believe would be the causes, if there be any causes which can lead to the dreadful event to which have referred. Let Us suppose the Union dissolved, what remedy does it, in severed state, furnish for the grievances complained of in its united condition? Will you be able at the South to push slavery into the
 ceded territory! How are you to do it, supposing the North, or all the states North
 of the Potomac, in possession of the navy
 and army of the United States? Can you
 expect, say, under these circumstances
 that if there is dissolution of the Union,
 you can carry slavery into California and il New Mexico! Sir, you cannot dream of such an occurrence. If it were abolished
 in the District of Columbia and the Union
 were dissolved, would the dissolution of the
 Union restore slavery in the District of Co., | lumbia! Is your chance for recovery of your fugitive slaves safer in a state of dis solution or of severance of the Union than
 when in the Union itself? Why, sir, what is the state of the fact! In the Union you lose some slaves and recover others; but
 here let me revert 10 fact which ought to have noticed before, because it is highly creditable to the courts and jures of the | free States. In every instance. as far as my information extends, in which an appeal has been made 10 the courts of justice to recover penalties from those who have as- sisted in decoying slaves from their mas
 ters-in every instance, as far as 1 have
 heard, the courts have asserted the rights of the owner, and the jury has promptly
 returned an adequate verdict on his behalf.
 Well, sir, there is then some remedy whilst 1 you are part of the Union for the recove- ry ot your slaves, and some indemnifcation for their loss. What would you have if the Union was severed! Why, then the sever- al parts would be independent of each other-foreign countries-and slaves escap- ing from one to the other would be like slaves escaping from the United States to Canada. There would be no right of ex- tradition, no right to demand your slaves; no right to the courts of justice to indem-
 nify you for the loss of your slaves. Where one slave escapes now by running away from his master, hundreds and thousands would escape if the Union were discovered Il care not how or where you run the line, or whether independent soveregnties be established. Well, sir finally, will you, in case of a dissolution of the Union, be safer with your slaves within the separated portions of the States than you are now! Mir. President, that they will escape much more frequently from the border States no one will deny.
 And, sir must take occasion to say that, in my opinion, there is no right on the part ot any one or more of the States to Secede from the Union. War and dissolution of the Union ale identical and inevitable, in my opinion. There can be dissolution of the Union only by consent or by war. Con- sent no one can anticipate, from any exist ing state of things, is likely to be given, and war is the only alternative by which dis solution could be accomplished. If consent be given-if it were possible that we were to be separated by one great line-n less than sixty days after such consent was given, war would break out between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding portions, of this Union-between the two indepen- dent parts into which it would be erected in virtue of the act of separation. In less than sixty days, believe, our slaves from Kentucky, fiocking over in numbers to the other side of the river, would be pursued by their owners. Ourhot and ardent spirits would be restrained by no sense of the right which appertains to the independence of the other side of the river, should that be the line of separation. They would pursue their slaves into the adjacent free States; they would be repelIed, and the consequence would be that, in less than sixty days, war would be blazing in every part of this now happy and peaceful land.
 And, sir, how are you going to separate the States of this contederacy? In my humble opinion, Mir. President, we should begin with at least three separate Confedera- cies. There would be a Confectionery of the North, Confederacy of the Southern Atlantic slaveholdng States, and Con- federacy of the Valley of the Mississippi. My life upon if, that the vast population which has already concentrated and will concentrate on the head-waters and the tributaries of the Mississippi, will never give their consent that the mouth of that river shall be held subject to the power of any foreign State or community whatever.