Year: 1861

on the I'D JAM, the Report of the Commit


Tee OF Ihirty-three being under consideration


In the U. s. House of Representatives,


Mr.. CLEMENS, (Democrat,) of Virginia, said


he thanked God that he was permitted, after a


long sickness, to take his stand upon that floor


IN renovated health, at a time when his servi-


ces might prove most valuable to his constit-


uents. He would not now speak in passion.


1t would not beft the solemn and portentous


Issues OF the hour. We are in the midst of


great events. 1t might be that we are in the


dying days of the Republic, and he would not


therefore utter, even in a whisper, one word


which might tend to bring down the impend-


ing avalanche upon the quiet homes of the


people. He would, at the same time, speak as


Southern man, identified with all the inter.


ests of the South. He would speak as West


ern VirginiaD, and as the custodian of those


who were not old enough to know the perils to


which they were exposed, by those who were


now riding on the crest of the popular wave,


but who were, nevertheless, destined to sink


into the very trough of the sea to depth so


unfathomabe that not bubble would ever rise


to mark the spot where they went so ignomini-


ously down. Well might those who had inau.


gurated the revolution which is now stalking


over the land, cry out with uplfted hands for


peace, and deprecate the effuson of blood. 1t


was the inventor of the guillotine who was the


hrst victim, and the day was not far off when


they would find among their own people those


who would have TO rely upon the magnanimity


OF that population whom they had most cruel


ly outraged and deceived. He had not the


heart to enter into detail of the arguments,


or to express the indignant emotions, which


rose to his lips for utterance. But before God,


and in his inmost conscience, he believed that


Slavery would be crucIfied should this unhap-


py controversy end in dismemberment of the


Union. If not cruciied, it will carry the death


rattle in its throat. 1t remained to be seen


whether treason could be carried out with the


same facility with which it had been plotted.


There is a holy courage among the minority of
every State, that might for a time be over


whelmed. Lazarus was not dead, but slept ;


and ere long the stone would be rolled away


from the mouth of the tomb, and they would
witness all the glories of a resurrection. 1t
would not be forgotten that among the clans
of Scotland beacon fires used to be lit by con-
certed signals from crag to crag, in living vol
umes of flame, yet expiring even in its own


ferceness and sinking into ashes as the faggots
which fed them were consumed. To such a
picture as that might be likened rebellion
such as political leaders sometimes excite for
brief hour; but the fires of rebellion burnt
out with the faggots, and all was cold and dark
again. There was striking contrast between
such movement, between such rebellion as
he alluded to, and the uprising of the masses
of the people in vindication of violated rights
-as great difference as there was between
Snug, the joiner, and Bottom, the weaver, who
scouid roar you as fierce as lion, or coo you
as gently as a sucking dove.'' One was the
stage trick of political harlequin, the other
was living reality-the one was livid and
fitful flame, the other was prairie on fire,
finding in every step of its progress food for
its all-ravening NAV. In the present emergen-
cy, before this political conspiracy. it might


be that he would stand alone with his col
league MI. .Mison.) Let it be so. He sought
no office. His political race was nearly yolun-
tarily run. History would record the proceed
ings of this turbulent period, and time-the
gentle but infallible arbiter of all things earth
ly-would decide the truth. Upon that he
would take his stand. We live in an age of
political paradoxes. Broad, expansive love of
country has become a diseased sentmentality.
Patriotism has become a starving birding,
clinging with unfedged wings around the nest
of twigs where it was born. A statesman must
now not only narrow his mind and give up to
party what was meant for mankind, but he
must recede as submssively as blind horse
in bark-mill to every perverted opinion that
sits, whip in hand, on the revolving shaft. at
the end of which he is harnessed. To be
diamond of the first water he must stand inthe
Senate House of his country, and in the face
of forbearng people, glory Hike Toombs] in
being traitor and a rebel. He must solemn
ly proclaim the death of the nation to which
he had sworn allegiance, and with the grave
stolidity Of an undertaken invite its citizens to
their own funeral. He must dwarf and pro-
his patriotism to the State on whose
local passions he thrives, to the county where
he practices at court, or to the city where he
faunts in all the meretriclous dignity of
Doge of Venice. He can not only take an oath
10 support the Constitution of the United
States, but he can enter with honor into a con-
To fhro = l1A ,,v,14 kt1I
sanctty of the same oath, advise the seizure |
Of forts and arsenals, dockyards and ships, and
money. belonging to the Union, whose officer |
ne is, and find a most loyal and convenient re- |
reat in State authority and State allegiance. |
He was ready to laugh in their faces if they |
)nly told him that, before the time when he |
vas .'muling and puking in his nurses arms" |
here lived very obscure person named |
George Washington who, before he died, be- |
came eminent by perpetrating the immortal |
oke OF advising the people of the United |
States that it was of infinite moment that they |
should properly estimate the immense value of |
heir national Union-that they should cherish |
cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment |
% it-that they should watch its preservation |
With jealous anxiety, discountenance whatever |
night suggest suspicion that it could in any |
event be abandoned, and Indignantly frown |
Town the first dawning attempt to ALLEVIATE any |
portion of the country from the rest, or to en- |
eeble the sacred ties which linked together its |
'arious parts. Washington saw into the fu-


ure, and discovered that disastrous period in
,ur history against which he warned his coun-
rymen when he told them to "beware of geo.
graphical parties." These extreme parties |
North and South have at last met. Their diff
erences have been created and carried on by


SYSTEMATIC perversions of each others aims


md objects. In the North it had been repre-


ented that the South desired and intended to
nonopolize with slave labor all the public
ands, and to drive therefrom free labor; to
'onyent every Free State into common ground
or the recapture of colored persons as slaves