The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-05
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. @, JANUARY S, 1860

settled purpose and design, that if you win you
will take all the honors and the emoluments and
offices of the Government into your own clutches;
but 1T we win, you win break up the establish
ment and turn your backs on us? Is that the
fair dealing to which we are invited7 / am
happy to know that you propose to make that
contingency turn upon event that will make
It impossible to be consummated. The Govern
ment, to-day, is all in your hands; it has been
in your hands for years you are partaking of
all its emoluments, all its measures you. have
moulded, and you have designated the q who
receive Its honors. Year after year you have done
this, and men have come here from the free
States, men holding our opinions; we have sat
here patiently, but we have been deprived of all
the honors and emoluments that flow from this
Government, as though we were its enemies
out dld we ever complaint Not at all. We did
not expect that we should share any of those
fayors, unless it should be so that our glorious
principles should commend themselves to a ma
Jority OF the people of these United States
But, sir, if it should turn out so-and Heaven
only knows whether it will or not-I give gen.
tiemen now to understand, this Union will not
easily be disrupted. Gentlemen talk about it in
very ousiness-hke way, as though it were a
magazine to be blown up whenever you touch.
the fire to it; as if, on given day, at moments
warning, at your own election, at any time and
In any event. you can dissolve the bonds of this
n,
great fabric has been more than eighty years in
building, and do you believe you can destroy it
in day2 tell you, nay.
Dir when you talk so cooly about dissolving
this Union, do you know the difficulties through
which you will have to wade before that end can
be consummated2 Have you reflected that be-
tween the North and the South there are no
mountain ranges that are impossible and no
desert wastes which commonly divide great ma
tons one from another2 Do you not know that
whether we love one another or not, we are from
the same stock, speaking the same language; and
although institutions have made considerable
difference between us, the great Anglo-Saxon
type pcrvades the whole. We are bound to-
gether by great navigable rivers, interlaeing and
| linking together all the States of this Union.
lnnumerable railroads also connect u.s. and an
immense amount of commerce binds all the parts.
besides domestic relations in thousand ways.
And do you believe that you can rend all this
asunder without a struggle / tell YOU sir YOU
will search history in vain for precedent; there
has been no such Government as this that was
| ever rent asunder by any internal commotion.
| know that Poland was broken up and divided,
but it was by external force We are found in
the same ship; we are married forever, for better
or for worse. We may make our condition very
uncomfortable by chickering's if we will, but new
ertheless there can be no enforcement between
us. There is no way by which either one Sec
ton or the other can get out of the Union do
not say whether it is desirable or not There is
no way by which it can be effected but least of
all on the contingency that you have spoken of.
tell the Senator from Georgia, if you wait until
a Republican President is elected, you will wait
day too late. Why not do it now, when, say
again, you have the Government in your own
hands n Why tell us that it is to be done
when our candidate is elected? / say to you,
Mr.. President, he would be but a sorry Republi-
can who, elected by majority of the votes of the
American people, and consequently backed by
them, should fail to vindicate his right to the
Presidential chair. He will do it.
No man at the North is to be intimidated by
these threats of dissolution that are thrown into
our teeth daily, and l ask Senators on the other
side, why do you do it2 / know not what mo-
tive you can have in preaching the dissolution of
this Union day by day. If you are going to do
it, is it necessary to give us notice it2 There
is no law requiring that you should serve notice
on us that you are going to dissolve the Union !;
laughter; and / should think it would be bet
ter to do it at once, and to do it without alarm
ing our vigilance. 1t CRATES harshly on my ears !;
and | say to gentlemen, that if Republican
President shall be constitutionally elected to
preside for the next four years over this people
my word for it, preside he will. Do not Sena-
tors know that an attempt to dissolve this Union
implies civil war, with all its attendant horrors
the marching and countermarching of vast
armies; battles to be fought, and oceans of blood
to be spilled, with all the vndctve malice and i'll
will that civil war never fails to bring2 And do
gentlemen believe the wild tumult of such a
struggle peculiarly favorable to the growth and
perpetuity of this delicate institution Why, sir
if it cannot stand the mild arguments of Helpers
book, how can it abide the ultimate shock of
arms2 But, Mr.. President, such things shall
never be. The souls and bodies of traitors may
dissolve on the gibbet, but this Union shall
stand forever.
Mr.. President, have said all and more than
l intended, and ] regret that it has become
necessary for me to say anything on account of
what has been said on the other side l regret
that at this early period of the session we should
get interlocked with this old controversy. 1
wish it might have been postponed. shall vote
for this resolution most cheerfully, and will give
it the furthest and most extended sweep that you
may desire, because it is my wish, if there is
any misunderstanding with regard to the par
Elephants in this affair, that you should have the
greatest latitude that you can desire to ferret
them out, and make them known to the public.