Litchfield enquirer., 1860-01-19
SENATOR WADE ON DISSOLUTION

Mr.. President Il have heard the NUT
tering thunder of disunion greeting my ears
through all the soutEren hemisphere. All
your principal papers have already fixed upon
contingency when the Union shall end. In
some Of the southern states, if read Alright,
proceedings are pending now, having for
their object an overturning Of this govern
ment, and the erection upon its ruins South
ern Confederacy; and this idea is brought
into the halls of Congress, and we are COM
PEELED to listen by the hour to speeches filled
with denunciations Of our party, telling us
that the Union is to be dissolved if the peo-
pie elect as President an honorable man, of
a great predominant party, holding to pri.l-
government held The Republican platform
is no more nor less than the old Republican
platform, marking the landmarks of the
government as laid down by them; we claim
no more; we claim to live up to those doc
trineS; we claim not to harm the hair of the
head Of any section Of this Union: and yet
we are to be told, by the hour, that if we
succeed in wrestling this government from
yonr hands, and placing a constitutional man
III tHdV Sichu olheG, docOl1ihS " Iho III hlo
of the constitution, you will nevertheless
make this contingency on which you will
disrupt and destroy the government.
/ say to gentlemen on the other side, these
are very harsh doctrines to preach in our
ears. What, sir are you going 20 play this
game with us? Will you go into the cleo
ton with US, with a settled purpose and de-
sign, that if you win you will take all the
honors and emouments and Offices of the
government into your own clutches but if
we win, You will break up the establishment
and turn your backs on us :? Is that the
fair dealing to which we are invited l am
happy to know that you make that contin-
gency turn upon an event that will make it
impossible to be consummated. The gov
eminent, to-day. is all in your hands; it has
been in your hands for years, you are par
taking Of all its emolumcnts, all its measures
you have moulded, and you have designated
the men who receive it's 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 the enemies; but did we
ever complain ? Not at all. We did not
expect that we should share any of those
favors, unless it should be that our glorious
principles should commend themselves to- ma
jority of the people of these United States:
But, sir, if it should turn out so--and
Heaven only knows whether 1t Will OF not
| give gentlemen now to understand, this
Union will not easily be disrupted. Gentle
men talk about it in very business-like way,
as though it were magazine to be blown
nm 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
great Union. Do you know, sir, that this
great fabric has been more than eighty years
in building, and do you believe you can des
troy it in day I tell you, nay.
Sir, when you talk so cooly about dissolV
ing this Union, do you know the difficulties
through which you will have to wade before
that end can be consummatedY Have you
reflected that between the North and TIN
South there are no mountain ranges tina
are impossible, and no desert wastes which
commonly divide great nations one from an
other? Do you not know that, whether w
lloye one another or not, we are from tn
same stock, speaking the same language
and although institutions have made cOnsid
cradle difference between us, the great Ar
!. glo-Saxon type perEades the whole? W
are bound together by great navigable river
lintcrlaciDg and linking together all the state