Year: 1860

IS tai States. I am no assaiiant of States Al
:. of the States are parcels of my own country
+ the best of them not so wise and great as ! an
:, sure it will hereafter be the State least dc
: veloped and perfected among them, all is wise
e and better than any foreign State I know.
i it then in any, and in which of the States
2 have named, that negro equality offends th
: white mans pride? Throughout the wid
5 world, where is the State where class and castt
/ are so utterly extinguished as they are in eacl
: and every ole Of them2 Let the European
/, immigrant, who avoids the African as if his


skin exhaled contagion, answer. You find


him always in the State where labor is ever


free. Did Washington, Jefferson and Henry
when they implored you to relinquish youl


system and accept the one we have adopted
propose to sink yoa down 10 the level of the


African. or WAS it tlIcr desire to cxalt all
: white men to q common political eevatieng


But we do not seek to force, or even to in


trude our system on you. We are excluded
) justly, wisely and conenedy from all polite
al power and responsibility in your capital
States 1ou are sovereigns on the subject OF
Slavery within your own borders, as we are on
the same subject within cur borders. 1t is
} well and wisely so arranged. Use your au-
thority to maintain what system you please
We are not distrustful of the result. We
have wisely. as we think, exercised ours to pro-
tect and perfect the manhood Of the members
Of the State. The whole sovereignty up-
on domestic concerns within the Union
is divided between US nv unmistakable
boundaries. You have your fifteen dis
tinct parts we eighteen parts, equally dis
tinct. Each must be maintained in order that
the whole may be preserved. If ours shall be
assailed, within or without, by any enemy, or
for any cause, and we shall have Iced, we shall
expect you TO defend it. If yours shall be so
assailed, in the emergency, no matter what the
cause or the pretext, or who the foe, we shall
defend your sovereignty as the equivalent of
our own. We cannot, indeed, accept your
system of capital or lis ethics. That would be
| to surrender and subvert our own, which We
esteem to be better. Besides, if we could


what need for any division into States at all
You are equally at liberty to reject our system
and its ethics and TO maintain the superiority
Of your own by all the forces of persuasion and
argument. We must, indeed, mutually discuss
! both systems All the world discusses all sys-
tens. Especially must we discuss them since
we have to decide as a patton which of the two
we ought to ingraft on the new and future
States growing up in the great public domain.
Discussion, then, being unavoidable, what could
be more wise than to conduct it with mutual
liberation and in flaternal spirit?


You complain that Republicans discourse too
boldly and directly, when they express with
/ confidence their belief that the system of labor
will in The end, be universally accepted by the
capital States, acting for themselves, and in
conformity with their own Constitutions, while
they sanction too unreservediy books designed
to advocate emancipation. But surely you
can hardly expect the Federal Government OF
the political parties of the nation to maintain
a censorship of the Press or of debate. The
theory Of our system is, that error of 0piu.on
may in all cases safely be tolerated where
son is left free to combat it. Will it be claim
ed that more of modera tion and tenderness III
debate are exhibited on your side Of the great
argument than our own? We all learned our
polemics, as well as oul principles, from COM
mon mas er. We are sure that we do pot, on
our side, exceed his lessons and example,
| Thomas Jefferson addressed DIR. Price an Eng
lishman, concerning his treatise on emancipa-
| tion i'll America, in this fashion:


"Southward of the Chesapeake, your book
will find but few readers coneurrng with it in
sentiment on the subject of Slavery. From
the mouth to the head of the Chesapeake, the
! buk Of the people will approve it in theory
and ii will find a respectable minority ready to
adopt it in practice minority, which, for
weight, and worth of character, preponderateS
against the greater number who have not the
courage to divest their families Of property
which, however, keeps their consciences unquiet.
Northward of the Chesapeake you may find
here and there an opponent to your doctrine,
as You may find here and there robber or a


murderer but in no great number


This Virginia is the next State to
Which we may turn our eyes for the interesting
| spectacle of justice in conflict with ayar,cc and
oppr2ssOn-a conflict where the s,;urod side is
gaining daily new recruits from the influx into
office Of young men, grown and growing up.


"Be not then discouraged
| What you have written will de great deal of
good; and could you still trouble yourself
bout our welfare, no man is more able 10 help
the aboring side"


You see Sir, that whether we 60 for or
against Slavery, anywhere, we must follow
| OpultlCIn SulucS. L Ou your pIlONS
with the winds or the currents but we, whose


latvity, reckoned under the North Star, has
rendered US somewhat sapcrstitous, must be
excused for constancy in following the guild
ance of those who framed the national ship and
gave us the chart for its noble voyage.


A profound respect and friendly regard for
the Vice President of the United States has
induced me to weigh carefully the testimony
he has given on the subject of the hostility
against the South imputed to the Republican
party, as derived from the relations of the rep
resentatives Of the two parties at this capital.
He says that he has seen here in the repreSen-
tatives of the lower Southern States, a most
resolute and earnest spirit of resistance to the
! Republican party; that he perccives sensible
loss of that spirit of brotherhood and that feel
ing of loyalty, together with that love for a
common country, which are at last the surest
cement Of the Union so that, in the present
unhappy condition OF affairs, he is almost temp
| ted to exciaim that we are dissoving week by
week, and month by month that the threads
are gradually freting themselves assunder
and stranger might suppose shat the Execu-
tive of the United States was the President of
two hostile Republics. 1t is not for me to
raise doubt upon the correctness of this dark
! picture, so far as the Southern groups upon
| the canvass are concerned but | must be in
duged in the opinion that can pronounce rs
accurately concerning the Northern or Repub


ican representatives here as any one. know
their public haunts mud their private ways
We are not hostile Republic, or representa-
tives of one. We confer together, but only as
the organs of every party do, and must do in a
political system which obliges us to act some


times as partzans while it requires us always
to be patriots and statesmen. Differences of