Year: 1861




is uuwse and unnatural II is wise that all


the Republican States Of this continent should


be confederated, 1t is unwise that any OF


them should attempt to separate, Applause, I


and yet il ought not to have taken us by sur


Prise. Whoever could have imagined that a


machine so complicated, so vast, so new, so


untricd as this confederated system Of Repub.


lican States, should be exempt from the com.
mon lot Of States which have figured in
the history of the world ? A more
complex system of political govern
meut was never devised never conceived,


among men. How strange il is, how unrea-
sonable it is, that we should be surprised that


a pin may drop out of this machinery, and that


the wheels should drag, or that the gudgeon
shall be worn, until the wheels themselves
shall cease to play with their regular activity.


What human society, for more than period


of seventy years, was ever exempted from


the experience of a necessity of repairing its


political system of government We have


tried it in our State, Every State in this


Union is Just like the Federal Government.


NO State Is more thar seventy years old, and


there is not any one State of this Union with


a Constitution which is moro than twent, FIVE
years od-every Safe has repaired and re.


modelled its constitution once in every TWEEN
ty-hye years, and il is not certain that any one
State can adopt a Constitution which will last
more than twenty-five years without being
repaired and understood. But in our own
State the Constitution adopted about twenty
hive years ago, contains provision, that next
year. without any appeal to the people hat
| ever, q convention shall come together in the
State of New York, to make a new Consti,u-
tion. Is it strange, then. that this complex
system of our government should be found to
work after the lapse OF 10 years little rough
ly, and that it refuses that the engineer
should look into the various parts of the en-
gine, and see where the gudgeon is worn out


and wateh that the main wheel is kept in
motion. A child can draw pin from the
mightiest engine and arrest its motion, and
the engineer cannot see it when it is being
done, but if the engine be rightly devised and
strongly constructed, he has only to see where
the pin has been withdrawn and replace it,
and the engine will go on more strongly and
more vigorously than ever We are fami-
ly of thirty three States, and next Monday
hope we are to be family of thirty-four


Applause- Would it not be strange if in a
family of thirty four members there should be
once in the course of u few years, one or two,
or three, or four of the members of the fami-


y who would become discontented and wish
to withdraw a while to see how much better
they can manage their own fortunes alone.
think nothing strange of that. l only wonder
that nobody has Withdrawn before, to see how
much better they could get along on their
own hook, than TO go along in this plain old


fashioned way under the direction of Uncle
Sam. Massachusetts, and some of the New
England States they say, when was boy,
got the same idea of contumacy towards the
common parent and want of affection for the
whole family. and they got up the " Hartford
Convention" hope you don't onsder that
personal. (Laugter.) Well, they say that
somebody in Massachusetts, don't know
who, tried it. All that know is, that for
the first twenty years of my political life,
some how or other. Twas held responsible for
the Hartford Convention. I have made this
singular discovery, that whereas, when Mas
sachusetts, or any other New En- gland State
threatens 10 go out of the Union, the demo
cratic party all insist that it is high treason,
aud ought to be punished by coercion ; while,
when one Of the Southern States gets hold of
the same idea, the same party think 1t excus-
able, and that it is very doubtful they ought
not to be helped ont of the Union, and be
given a good dowry besides. Now, gentle
men, | believe among all the truths, that
whether il is Massachusetts and South Caro-
lima, or whether il is New York or Louisiana,
ii will turn out exactly the same way in eve
ry case--that there is no such thing in the
han al in oh
in philosophy--no such thing in nature, as
any State existing on the continent OF North
America, long out of the United States of
America, (Applause.) Don't believe a word
of i'll don't believe it for many reasons
some have named-and for one don't see
any reason given for it. The best reason that
hear is that the people Of some of the South
ern States hate us of the Free States very
badlyl and they say We hate them, and that
all love is lost between us / do not believe
a word of it. On the otner hand, do know
for myself and for you, that batting some diff
ferences Of opinion about advantage, and
about prescription, anc about freedom and
slavery, and all that, they are merely family
differences to which we do not take any out !
siiers, in any part of the world, into our coun-
sci on either side. That there is not State |
outside of the American Union that | like
half SO well as do the State of South Caro-
applause neither England
nor Ireland, nor Scotland, ncr France, nor
even Turkey, although from Turkey they
have sent me some Arabian horses, while
ir)m South Carolina they have sent me moth
ng but curses, still like South Carolina bet
ter than any of them l do not know but
nave presumption about it, to believe il there
was anybody to overhesr South Carolina when
she is talking 10 herself, that she would con-
Tess that she liked me tolerably well /; and !
am very sure that if any body were to make
1 descent upon New York o-morrow-wheth-
,r Louis Napoleon or the Prince of Wales, or
lis mother, or the Emperor OF Russia, or
Austria-if either OF them were to make
lescent upon the City of New York to-mor-
.oSU 7 haliave all the hiIls of South Carolina