Year: 1861

hair upon the head of any State. What the
| Constitution guarantees to each State, we


guarantee. | would have Pennsylvania affirm


the right of any southern State to regulate
| her own constitutional institutions-her right
! to act as sovereign State. 1t the people OF
! South Carolina for instance, affirm that two
| hundred and seventy five thousand whites may
| and shall hold as goods and chattelS, three
| hundred thousand human beings-buying, sell
ing, mortgaging and crushing them-and if


this political right be guaranteed by the Con-
stitution-then they may hold them account
able alone, as they must be to the eternal prin-
ciples of Truth, Justice and Equity aud to the
Great God If there is to be any shame, any
disgrace any ignominy in connection with that
institution, they must have it all on their own
shouderS-I share none of it ; and if there
comes down upon them an avalanche of &C


countability before ChriStendom, before the
universe and before eternity, that avalanche


must settle on their heads and not on mine |
am understood, am L sir =? If the COnsttu-
ton gives them the right 10 hold human be-
ings as chattelS | say gentlemen, they have
the disgrace Of it, and | would like them to
have the expense Of it, too, if that could be.
Y You may have the shame of 1.-THE profit Of
! it-all to yourselves. Then there is another
principal germane in relation to this question.
While | concede that they shall have their
Constitutional rights, | wish the resolutions
for which | vote, to claim for me my Consti-
tutionaI rights. Why, sir, it has come opasS
that white men are lost sight of in the con-
temptation of the sable c0untenancc of Afri-
cans-aud | think as much of them as of white
men-but it has come to pass, that negrO in
Virginia or in Dauphin county, is couf3ssedly
of more Importance, than either YOU or |
would be in South Carolina. A great hula
baloo is raised if we do not turn out posse c9n,-
HatUS to catch fugitive slaves from South Car
olina, but 1t is considered all the same if you
or are tarred and feathered in that State. Vet
would stop here, by way Of episode.


We would say to the South, gentlemen,
when a few months ago there was conference
of clergvmcn in the State of Texas, you went
into that church, walked up to the pnlpt, and
commanded Bishop Ames to stop in the re-
marks being made by that reverend gentle
man. it was for no other reason nndcr Heaven
but that they did not subscribe to the opinion
of the South | would say to them in such
language as our constitutional right would
warrant, you shall not kick me out of Char
lesion. | would say to them that if citizen
of Pennsylvania wishes to travel in Virginia
he shall be allowed to travel there


Here is an article of the Constitution which


| will read, though the reading Of it he super
aUous since we have become familiar with it,
10y having it so often thrown in our teeth:


NO person held to service or labor in one State under


the laws thereof. escaping into another. s1a! in coSe-


from such service labor, but shall be delivered up


the claim OF the party To whom such service OF labor
may Uc due


An well, sir, bu: in close proximity to this


article is another, OF yet greater Significance


and force, one that every man Shouid read. d.Oue


that shon.d be engraved in golden capitals and


hung in our national halls. Hear it, and let


the country read it


.Ihe citizens Of each state shall be entitled to all the


privileges and immuuites Of citizens in the several
State"


/ While the citizens of one State shall be al,
/ lowed all the privileges and immuuites OF
citizen in all States | demand that after l
/ have given them their Constitutional rights
I they shall give me mine | want a resolution


that embodies the priucipe claiming our Con
/ stitutiouaI rights.


Again, | want the resolutions to contain


this principle that we affirm the unity, the


iudysibility aud the perpetuity Of this Union.


! should blush if | attempted to explain to
you, Nh Speaker, or to this body, Constitu-
/ tonal question, for DO we not all know that
when this government was formed the people,
by their representative convention, ceded to
the hands of Congress certain Of their rights
you may call it a compact. or confederacy.
| would rather call it a coalesCence, conglo-


meralion, a running together, in certain re-
sDects for the people conceded to Congress
certain of their rights. And what were those
rights The right to issue letters of marque
to suppress inSurrec:ion, etc. For how long
time? They were surrendered into the hands
of the Government Of this COnfederacy for all
coming time The Fathers who laid the cor
ner stone there, contemplated that the great
building of which that was the foundation,
would rise up from age to age. | would have
no declaration 90 out from this Senate that it
is our belief that those principles are surren-
dered only during the pleasure of any State.
We have fallen upon troublous times. Seas
are stirred the storms and whirlwinds Of DO
litical fury are rushing by US and dashing over
us, and the great question is how are we to
get ont of them | see but three ways in
which we can. The first is not by taking the
position that if all OF the slaveholding States
want to 90 out of the Union, to let them 60,
in the language of Senator on this floor, the
amount of which was this that he had such
a christian feeling for his Southern brethren
that if they wanted to go ont Of the Union
they might 90 out, and go clear to HI" If
we take that position, what is the result The
moment we adopt it we acknowledge that we
never had any government, and that for
seventy-fve years the people have been follow,
ing an illusion supposng they were governed
by Constitution, whereas it was nothing but