Year: 1860

After several Southern Senators had
declared favor of Disunion in case a
Republican President were elected in
1860, John p. Hale on Tuesday week.
gave his opinions on the subject in a
brief speech, which commanded much
attention at Washington. Mr.. Gwin,
of California, had just taken his seat
after proclaiming that the South was
ready to go out of the Union, and glor-
flying her greatness and Independent
strength. Mr.. Hale said that if Gwin's
position were the true one, we had been
living under an utter delusion:


We are not a union of States; the
free States are subject provinces, and
our people do not choose President.
They but perform an idle ceremony.
You sit there, according to the enun-
citation made this morning, the repre-
sentatives of fifteen States, and you
proclaim to the majority of this Union
that if they dare to exercise their pre-
rogative and choose President repre-
senting the views which they entertain,
land the supposition presupposes that
they are the views of majority of the
people of these United States, or else
they could not elect President,) you
will dissolve the Union. You substan
TALLY, by this declaration, declare that
this is an idle mockery, delusion, and
deception. 1t is no choice; you peo-
pie of the free States or of the nom
slaveholding States-if that is phrase
ology suiting any ear better = you
are not part of the sovereign power
of this Confederacy; you occupy to us
the position that the old French parlia-
ment did to their monarch. He made
the DEGREES, the prerogative of the par
lament was to register them-that was
all. They call that government of
law. The Senator from California
speaks to us as if there had been an
appeal made to us. / do not consider
it so. / rather consider it as fore
warning of a state of facts which, if it
exists, ought to be known and cannot
be known too soon.


This is the remedy, sir. / am glad
to hear it. The remedy is that ma
jority of these United States must sur
render, give up their convictions, for
bear, in the exercise of the highest
functions, with which God ever en-
dowed freemen to let their ballots speak
the sentiments of their understanding
and of their hearts stifle everything
that is manly in them, if by chance
they ever got anything of that sort
there, and 60 to the polls next fall to
60 through the idle ceremony of voting
when it is already a foregone conclu-
sion, and ifthey do not register your de-
crees, the Union is to be dissolved.
Sir, it is dissolved now, if that is the
state of the case; it is not Union
we are not co-States, we are not here
the representatives of sovereign States
or of States having any political rights
we are here simply to register your
decrees-no sir, not that, but our peo-
pie are to come together in the fall OF
1860 and register the solemn DEGREES
that shall be made for them by the
slaveholding States of this Union.


/ recollect an eastern tale which may
serve as an illustration, and l trust tn.
story is not below the dignity of th'
occasion. 1t is said that an eastern


monarch, distrusting his physician, hat


determined to put him to death. Th,


physician begged hard for his life, bu


it was of no avail. At last he said


eff you insist upon putting me t.


death, l have only one request to make


and that is that my discovered heat
!, may be put in a basin of water, an(


then it will answer any question yol
may put to it." The monarch replied
eff had any doubt about taking you
life before, have none now, for wan
to try that experiment" Sir, want t.
F try that experiment, and | want to se


whether / am the representative on thi
floor of such craven slaves that the,
can be driven from their convictions
and the exercise of their high fran
chise, by the annunciation that if the
do it this Union is to be dissolved
Sir, it is no Union to them this Gov
E ernment is nothing but badge of or


preston and degradation and of humi


iation, if such be the tenure by whicl
,, we hold our places in this confederacy
Is this an appeal that is made to us
/ 1t is not an appeal to us as freemer


not as the representatives of free State!
, not as men. If you respected us G
! our constituents, you could not max
' such an appeal. 1t is not an appeal
be made to men, or to freemen. ]
y does not address itself to our reason
, but to our fears. / know it has bee
said, sometimes reproachfully, that tn
! only way to appeal to us is either to ad
y. dress our fears or our pockets. Thi
!. declaration to-day, made upon the foe
! of the Senate, is based upon the ide
7 that there is nothing manly, nothin
i patriotic, nothing that spurns degred
! ton in ourselves or in the people whol
!. we represent.


: Sir, if Senators think that that is tn
d way this difficulty is to be solved, it
! not for me to complain. fthank thel
# for the warning; and 1 ask them


they feel any sort of interest to kno'
i how it is received by the people of th


Free States, to read the returns th:


will come from the next election


and ascertain how many are scare,