Southern shield., 1850-05-04

VT ''S L@ohCo, JClld pSs tIlC OoiIlCuCIdC ol New England or of the Middle States. An, sir, the veil which covers these sad and disastrous events, that lie beyond it, is too thick to be penetrated or lifted by any mor- tai eye or hand
 Mr. President, 1 am directly opposed to any purpose of succession or separation. am for staying within the Union and defy any portion of this Confederacy to expel me or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying with the Union and fighting for my rights, lf necessary, with the sword, within the bounds and under the safeguard of the
 Union. am for vindicating those rights, not by being driven out of the Union harshIv and unceremoniously y by any portion of this contederacy. Here am within it, and
 here mean to stand and die, as far as my
 individual wishes or purposes can go- within It to protect my property and defend myself, defying all the power on earth to expeI me or drive me from the situation in which l am placed. And would there not be more safety in fighting within the Union than out ot it! Suppose our rights to be violated, suppose wrong to be done you, aggreSsions to be perpetrated upon you, can you not better yndlcate them-if you have occasion to resort to the last necessity, the sword, for restoration of those rights
 within, and with the sympathes of large portion ot the population of the Union,
 than by being without the Union when
 large portion of the population have sympa-
 thies adverse to your own! You can vim
 dicate your rights within the Union better
 than if expelled from the Union, and driven from 1t without ceremony and with
 out authority.
 Sir, have said that thought there was
 no right on the part of one or more States
 to secede from the Union. think so. The constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then ex-
 lSted, but for poSterity-unmited undefn-
 ed, endless, perpetual posterity And every State that then came into the Union, and every State that has since come into the
 Union, came intoit binding itself by indisso- luble bonds to remain within the Union it. self, and to remain within it by its posterity
 forever Like another of the sacred con- neXions in private life, it is a marriage
 which no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties from. And if ..~y oeI allowed to refer tu some examples in private
 life, let me say to the North and to the South, what husband and wife say to each other. We have mutual faults, neither of us is perfect; nothing in the form of humani- ty is perfect; let us, then, be kind to each other-iorbearing, forgving each others taults-and, above all, let us live in happi- ness and peace together.
 Mir. President, have said, what solemn
 y believe, that dissolution of the Union and war are identical and inevitable; that they are convertible terms; and such a warI as 1t would be, following a dissolution off the Union! Sir, we may search the pages ot history, and none so ferocious, so bloody, so implacable, so extermnatng-not evenI the wars of Greece, including those of Eng land and the revolutions of France-none.I none ot them all would rage with such vio- lence, or to be characterised with sucbI bloodshed and enormities as would the warI which must succeed, if that event everI happens, the dissolution of the Union. And what would be its termination? StandinpI armies and navies, 10 an extent stretching the revenues of each portion of the dis severed members, would take place. An eXterminating war would folloW-not, sir, war of two or three years duration, but a ] war of interminable duration--an exter- minating war would ensue, until after the struggles and exhaustion of both parties, some Phillip or Alexander, some Caesar orI Napoleon, would arise and cut the Gordian knot, and solve the problem of the capacity of man for selfgovernment, and crush the liberties of both the severed portions of this common empire. Can you doubt it!
 Look at all history-consult her pages, ancient or modern--look at human nature; look at the character of the contest in which you would be engaged in the supposition of war following upon the dissolution of the Union, such as have suggested; and ask you if it is possible for you to doubt that the final disposition of the whole would be some despot treading down the liberties of the people-!the final result would be the extinction of this last and glorious light which is leading all mankind, who are gazing upon it, in the hope and anxious ex- pectation that the liberty which prevails here will sooner or later be diffused through out the whole of the civilized world. Sir can you lightly contemplate these conse- | quences! Can you yield yourself to the 2 tyranny of passion, amidst dangers which z l have depicted in colors far too tame, of . what the result would be if that direful :, event to which have referred should ever . occur! Sir, implore gentlemen, adjme . them whether from the South or from the l. North, by all that they hold dear in this z world, by all their love of liberty-by all \ their veneration for their ancestors--by all their gratitude to Him who has bestowed | on them such unnumbered and countless r