Year: 1860

SPEECH OF MIR. HICKMAN,


Mr. Hickman next called out, and said:


GENTLEMEN | really do not know why you
should have called me out on this occasion, for
of rebels Cries of Good and cheers Your,
friends will stand by you, but have never been
able to understand exactly in what my rebellion
consists. 1t is perhaps owing to the fact that I
have declared an unfatering attachment to the union
of these States. [Cries Of Good and cheers for
the union l have declared more than one
casion that this Union shall be destroyed cries of
s'Good," and cheers that there is conservative
feeling that will always preserve it ferries of ''thats
so''-and that if any portion of the people shall at
tempt at any time to destoy the union of these
States there will be large majority of the people
opposed to that determination, which will preserve
it. cries of "Good" and cheers A remark of
mine in the House of Representatives which assure
you not premedtated at the time, but which,
upon mature reflection would not subtract single
word or syllable from, repeat to night, THAT if
at any time hereafter any portion of the people in
the South shall attempt to sever the Union which
exists and which is conservative and preserva-
tive of the rights and liberties of the whole people,
there eighteen millions of people in the Northern
Free States that are determined to preserve it
Cheers, and cries of every time And say to you
tonight, my fellowctizens, that if it will require
the State of Nirg nla in arms to take Old John
Brown and seventeen men and [cries of
"Good."] it will at least require more than the
fifteen feeble States of the South to successfully
compete with the eighteen mighty States of the
North. [Cheer. preach but one doctrine-it is
the doctrine that preach all times. and in all
places and what l say in Pennsylvania 1 am not
afraid declare in the City of Washington Cheersl
-Is say that there is power in the combined State
of the South, when combined under the banner
OF disunon, to compete with the freemen of
the North f; and say now, once and for all,
this Union must and shall be preserved.
| [Cheers- We have seen my fellow-citizens,
that the election of Black Republican, as he
is called, to the Speakership of the House Of
Representatives at least has not produced a
disruption, aud we shall see hereafter even if
a Black Republican President shall be eeva-
ted into he White House, that the Union will
: still be saved. Cheers. If, however, large
parties may be devided in the North by name,
there is no division in sentiment regards the
maintenance of the Constitution and the Union


Cries of 80 ood," and cheers Nor is there
a divided South, for | tel! you, whether parties
in that section be called American or Demo-
cratic they all fight under the same banner
and are enlstedsfbr the maintenance Of a sin
gle policy Cres of "Thats So 1 So i'm the


North when the time comes, you will find the
divisions have disappeared, and if there be a
single man there who shall descend from the


policy which it will then become our duty to


pursue, We will first hang him as a trator, and


then attend to the traitors South. Cheers.
[ do not wish anybody to be deceived with re


gard to the state of sentiment there. | know


that there few men there whose princi


piles you cannot discover, and Others again who


plofess to be upon the Southern side, ard te
join them in this cry which is now raised against


the preservation of the Union but tell you
, when the day of trial comes ahese men will
= disappear as the fog before the northern blast
, Cheers There will be no division then.
tell you, my friends when >you go home to
night, rest securely upon your pillows under
, the conviction that there never time il
the history of this country when the union o
these States was more firmly secured than it is
} this present moment !; and if it shall ever be il
danger, l will tell you how it isthen to be pre-
served-it is sending up here a united delega
= tion from the North into the House Of Repre-
, sentatves, and then you will see that this CT,
of "disunon" will disappear forever. Cheers.
Gentlemen, thanking you for this compliment
[ bid you good night.