Year: 1861

Extracts from Milton s. Lntham's Speech
In Reply to Brcckinridgc.


Mr.. President: A great deal has been said
throughout the whole of this contest against
the power of your Government to enforce its
laws by the use of the strong arm; great
deal about it being in contravention to the
spirit of the fathers to the Republic to seek
to coerce these States into obedience of the
laws of the country, and to force restoration
OF the public property which they have seized
Last winter, in common with many of my po-
lltical associates, / also advocated the doctrine
as question of policy, that this Government
should not attempt coercion against these
States; that it was better to wait for reason
and judgment to reassert their sway, rather
than use the power, which l never once denied
was really possessed, of asserting its authority
by the strong military arm. Further it was
the settled, fixed policy of our Government,
up to certain period, to pursue this course,
until it was definitely ascertained that it would
only result in what we were trying, with ali
our ability and might, to prevent.


After the election of Mr.. Lincoln, on the
9th day of November last, South Carolina
Senators never appeared upon this floor. Her
Convention met on the 18th Of that month,
and on the 20th-long before Mr.. Lincoln was
to be inaugurated, long anterior to the time
when this party, to whose principles they were
so much opposed, was to be vested with the
power of your Government that
they no longer owed allegiance to the United
States. They seized at once upon the arsenal
in the city of Charleston, and forts Moutrie
and Pickney were taken possession of. Did
the Government of the United States attempt
to retake this property, to reassert its title
over these respective forts and this arsena
which had been thus uulawfully, illegally and
unconstitutionally seized upon? South Caro-
lina by that act, had done what the world ir
arms could not have done with impunity
The Government quietly and tacitly submitted
to it, trusting to the restoration Of cooler
judgment to this excited and misguided people


This very act of unwillingness to exercise
the strong power of the Government against
South Carolina, in the assertion of her right
to property thus unlawfuly seized, was bu
the signal for oil of those States which have
since followed her footsteps, one after the other
to pursue the same line of conduct In Geor
gia your forts were seized upon in Alabama
the same thing in Louisiana your arsenal al
Baton Rouge, your mint in the city of New
Orleans, and what other property lay in theil
territory; and no act on the part of youl
Government was attempted to protect or de
fend this property. To Texas-where you hat
troops, troops who had seen service, men WHIT
had gallantly defended the flag of our countr,
in many hard fought battle upon the plain
of Mexico; when the Texans demanded q sur
render of the forts held by them, rather thar
precipitate the country in civil war, quietly
folded the flag of their country about its staff
leaving the State to its complete possession
an agreement made by the officers that they
should be allowed to depart in peace was open
ly violated, and the troops are now held al
prisoners. State after State passed laws pre-
venting Northern creditors from collecting
their debts within their limits, thus repudiatine
millions of dollars due people of the North
adding thereby State injustice and dishonor tc
their national turpitude.


When Congress adjourned, in the month o.
March last, it was the belief, at separation
that between the time of adjournment and oul
regular meeting in the month of December
there would be restoration to good sense
and that in spirit eff compromise they woulc
come forward to settle the disturbances by
which the country was agtated. Such, how
ever, has not been the case. Magnanimity
was construed into pusillanimity, and forbear
ance shown into conclusive evidence to theil
minds that the Government was too weak, toe
cowardy or supine, to assert its power or dig
nifty. A fort in the harbor of Charleston, il
the possession of handful of soldiers, com
manded by brave officer, was bebeId by this
Government, and the civilized world, day after
day, and week after week, to be girdled and
bemmed in by Notifications totally impregna
BILE in their character. Its commander on the
one hand menaced and really besieged by the
dire necessity of hunger; they, on their side
anxious to enlist in the common cause the
wavering border States, an assault was com
menced with the very guns of the nation upon
the already conquered fort Not content, as
the Senator from Texas Mr.. WigfalD said
upon this floor, with slapping the Govern
ment of the United States in the face al
luding to the firing upon the Star of the West
they found it necessary for their purpose tc
trample the flag of our country under their
feet in humiliation and disgrace. Then it was
that the people of the United States at once
responded as one man 1--WE will assert the
dignity of our Government and show to the
civilized world that we belong, as we have
been classified, among the first powers Of The
universe"


Mr.. President this is not war of the Re
publican party against the Southern States
The fact that it has the cordial support of ons
Al l. e L.. Il