Year: 1860

/


ries. You have fifteen distinct parts we


eighteen parts, equally distinct Each


must be maintained in order that the whoIe


may be preserved. If odrs shall be assail-


ed within or without BY any enemy, or for


any cause, and we shall have need, we shall


expect you to defend IT, If yours shall be


so assalied, in the emergency, no matter


what the cause or the pretext, or who the


foe, we shall defend your sovereignty as


the equivalent of our own. We cannot.


indeed, accept your system of capital or its


ethics. That would be to surrender and
subvert our own, which we esteem 70 he


better Besides, if we could, what need


for any division into States at all? You


are equally at liberty to reject our system


and It's ethics, and to maintain the snperi.
orty OF your own by all the forces Of per-


suasion and argument. We must, indeed.


mutually discuss both systems. Especially


must we discuss them since we have to ds


eide as a nation which Of the two we ought


TO ingraft on the new and future States


growing up in the great public domain


Discussion, then, being unavoidable, what


could be more wise than to conduct it with


mutual toleration and in fraternal spirit.


You complain that Republicans discourse
too boldly and directly, when they express
with confidence their belief that the system
OF labor will, in the end, be universally &C.
cepted by the capital States acting for


themselves, and in conformity with their


own Constitutions. while they sanction too


unroservedly books designed to advocate


emancipation. But surely you can hardly


expect the Federal Government or the pos


litieal parties of the nation to maintaii d


censorship of the Press or of debate


The theory Of our system is, that error of


opinion may in all cases safely be tolerated


where reason is left free to combat it. VIII
it be claimed that more of moderation and
tenderness in debate are exhibited on YOUR
side of the great argument than our own Z


we all learned our polemics, as well as our
principles, from a common master. We
are sure that we do not, on our side, ex-
coed his lessons and examples Thomas
Jefferson addressed DR.. Price, an English
man, concerning his treatise on emancipa-
tion in America, in this fashion


"Southward of the Chesapeake, yoUr book
will find but few readers concurring with it in
sentiment on the subject Of Slavery. From
the mouth to the head Of the Chesapeake, the
bulk of the people will approve it in theory,
and it will find respectable minority ready
to adopt it in practice a minority which,
for weight, and worth Of character preponder.
ates against the greater number who have not
the courage to divest their families of a proper
ty which, however, keeps their consciences uu-
quiet Northward of the Chesapeake you NAV
find here and there an opponent to your doc
trine as you may find here and there robber
or murderer but in no great number"
"This Virginia. is the next State
to which we may turn our eyes for the interest
ing spectacle of justice in conflict with ayarice
and oppresson-a conflict, where the sacred
side is gaining daily new recruits from the influx
into Office OF young men, grown and growing
up" abe not, then, disceurag-
ed. What you have written will do great
deal OF good and could you still trouble your
self about our welfare, no man is more ableto
help the labOring side"


You see, Sir, that whether we go for or
against slavery anywhere, we mast follow
Southern guides. You may change your
pilots with the winds or the currents but
we, whose nativity, reckoned under the
North Star, has rendered us somewhat su-
perstitions, must be excused for constancy
in following the guidance of those who
framed the national ship and give us the
chart for its noble voyage.


A profound respect and friendly regard
for the Vice-President Of the United States
has induced me to weigh carefully the tes-
tlmony he has given or the subject of the
hostility against the South imputed to the
Republican party, as derived from the rela-
tions of the representatives of the two par
ties at this capital. He says that he has
seen here in the representatives of the low
er Southern States most resolute and car
nest spirit Of resistance to the Republican
Iarty /; that he perceiyes sensible loss Of
hat spirit of brotherhood and that feeling
If loyalty, together with that love for a.
common country, which are at last the SUR
.st cement of the Union so that ih9 the
present unhappy condition of affairs, he Is
almost tempted to exclaim, that we are dis
solving week by week, and month by month:
hat the threads are gradually fretting
themselves asunder and stranger might
suppose that the Executive of the United
States was the President of two hostile
Republics. 1t is not for me to raise doubt
upon the correctness of this dark picture,
so far as the Southern groups upon the can
vas are concerned, but must be INDUCED
in the opinion that l can pronounce as ac-
curately concerning the Northern or Re
publican representatives here as any one. I
know their public haunts and their private
ways. We are not hostile Republic, or
Of one We confer togeth-
er but only as the organs Of every party
1o and must do in a political system which
oblges us to act sometimes as partisans,
while it requires us always to be patriots
md statesmen. Differences of opinion,
wen on the subject of Slavery, with us
ire political, not social or personal dffsren-
,es. There is not one disunionists or dis
oyalst among US ALL We are altogether
of any process Of dissolution
going on among or around u.s. We have
not been more patient, and never loved the
of other sections more, than
now. We bear the same testimony for
the people around us here, who, though in
the very centre where the bolt Of disunion
must fall first aud be most fearful In its ef-
fects, seem never less disturbed than now.
We bear the same testimony for all the
districts and States we represent. The
,aoola a fha Nortk ora nnt otht.,t.s l..f