Year: 1861




OF NEW YORK.


Delivered i'm the q. s. senate, Saturday, Jan


uary 18th, 1851.


Mr.. PREsIDENr:-Congress adjourne'
last summer amid auspices of natlona
abundance, contentment, tranquility an'
happiness. 1t was re-assembled this win


ter in the presence of arrangement of bust
ness and disturbance of public as well a
private credit, and in the face of seditlou
combinations to overthrow the Union.-
The alarm is appalling: for the Un on i
not more the body than Liberty is the sou
of the nation. The American citizen la
been accustomed to believe the Repbuii
immortal. He shrinks from the sight o
commissions indicative of its sudden death
The report of our condition has gone ove
the seas, and we who have so long ano
with so much complaceucy studied the
endless agitations of society in the Old
World, believing ourselves exempt from
such disturbances, now, in our turn, seem
to be falling into momentious and disas-
trous revolution.


Ikuow how difficult it is to decide, amid
so many, and such various counsels, what
ought to be and even what can be done.
Certainly, however it is time for every
Senator to declare himself. /, therefore,
following the example of the noble Sena
tor from Tennessee, (Mr. Johnson) avow
my adherence to the Union in its integrity
and with all its parts, with my friends,
with my party, with my State, with my
country, or without either, as they may
determine, in every event, whether of peace
or of war, with every consequence of hon
or or dishonor, of life or death. Although
lament the occasion, l hail with cheer
fulness the duty of lifting up my voice
among distracted debates for my whole
country and its inestimable Union.


Hitherto the exhibitions of spirit and
resolution here, as elsewhere, have been
chiefly made On the side of disunion. /
do not regret this. Disunisn is so unex-
pected and unnatural that it must plainly
reveal itself before its presence can be re-
allied. l like best, also, the courage that
rises slowly under the pressure of severe
provocation. If it be Christian duty to
forgive to the stranger even seventy times
seven offenses, it is the highest patriotism
to endure without complaint the passion
ate waywardness of political brethren so
long as there is hope that they may come
to better mind.


l think it is easy to pronounce what mea-
sures or conduct will not save the Union.
I agree with the honorable Senator from
North Carolina Mr.. Clingman) that mere
eulogiums will not save il. Yet l think
that as prayer brings us nearer to God,
though it cannot move him toward us, so
there is healing and saving virtue in every
word of devotion 10 the Union that is
spoken, and in every sigh that its danger
draws forth. l know, at least, that like
virtue, it derives strength from every irrev-
erent act that is committed and every plas-
phemous phrase that is uttered against it.


The Union cannot be saved by mutual
climinations concerning our respective
share of responsibility for the present evils.
He whose conscience acquils him will nat
urally be slow to accuse Others whose CO.
operation he needs. History only can ad
just the great account. -F


A continuance of the debate on the con-
stituiional power of Congress over the
subject of the Territories will not save the
Union. The opinions of parties and sec
tions on that question have become dog
maiical, and it is this circumstance that
has produced the existing alienation. A
truce, at least during the debate on the
Union, is essential to reconciliation.


The Union cannot be saved by proving
that secession is illegal or unconstitutional.
Persons bent on that fearful step will not
stand loEg enough on forms Of law to be
dislodged; and loyal men do not need
such narrow ground to stand upon.


/ fear that little more will be gained
from discussing the right Of the Federal
to coerce seeding States into
obedience. If disunion is to go on, this
question will give place 10 the more prac-
tical one, whether many seeding States
AoNO W CoSiCc ti'C
bers to acquise in dissolution.


/ dread, as in my inermost soul abhor,
civil war. do not know what the Union
would be worth if saved by the use of the
sword. Yet, for all this, do not agree
with those who, with desire to avert that
great calamity, advise conventional or
unopposed separation with view to what
they call reconstruction. 1t is enough
for me, frsi, that in this plan, destruction
goes before reconstruction; and secondly,
that the strength of the vase in which the
hopes of the nation are held consists chief
ly in its remaing unbroken.


Congressional compromise are not likely
10 save the Union. know, indeed, that
tradition favors this form ofremedy. But it
is essential 10 its success, in any case that
there be found a preponderating mass
Of citizens, so far neutral on the issue
which separates parties, that they can in
tervene, strike down clashing weapons, and
an accommodation. Moderate con-
cessions are not customarily asked by a
force with its guns in battery, nor are lib
eral concessions apt 10 be given by an op-
posing force not less confident of its own
right and its own strength. think, also,
there is prevailing conviction that legis-
lative compromise which sacrifice honestly
cherished principles, while they do not as
sumo extra constitntionl powers, are less
sure to avert imminent evils than they are
certain to produce ultimately even greater