HAN(- I i: 1 uJ ^ h \\ iivPi. 1 ^^^^^TEI 1 TTON?^ ^^^^^^^^^^^K'l API 1 ■ (II, 1 1 * George Washington Flowers Memorial Collection DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ESTABLISHED BY THE FAMILY OF COLONEL FLOWERS SPEECH OP GEOEGE W. EICHARDSON, OF HANOVER, IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, ON THE KEI^ORT OP THE COMMITTEE ON FEDEEAL RELATIONS, IN THE CONVENTION OF VIRGINIA, APRIL A, 1861. RICHMOND: PRINTED AT THE WHIG BOOK AND JQB OFPICE. 1862. Cu^, SPEECH, Mr. CHAfKMAN, — I am not without hope that some member of the Conventible, but right t/itizens highest in rank, individuals and corporations, princes of the blood and even sovereigns participated in the tratfic. Ten judges of her highest courts, including Holt and Pollexfen, declared negroes to be merchandise, and she introduced and continued the trade amongst us against our earnest protest. The North, lynx-eyed as to everything which advances her interest, took up and carried on the trade with an avidity which shoAved her con- stitutional thirst for and keenness in the pursuit of gain. Im- maculate Massachusetts, as early as 1641, declared tlie lawful- ness of African slavery and of the slave trade. In the other Northern States, slavely was established, but the immutable laws of soil and climate, which, if let alone, will carry into every country the labor, M'hether slave or free, best adapted to it, ren- dering the institution unprofitable, these enterprising people took their part in the trade more in selling slaves to the South than in introducing them into their own country. Hence they rapidly disappeared from their territory into the Southern States, so as to make emancipation in the former no stretch of philanthropy. By the census of 1790, the number of slaves in the ohier and more floutishing colonies was only 40,370, while in the Southern and then more feeble colonies, there were, even exclusive of those in Virginia, 567,527; Vermont had only 17, Massachu- setts, though slavery never was abolished there by statute, none. New Hampshire, whose statutes were equally silent on the sub- ject, 158; Connecticut 2,759; Pennsylvania 3,737; New York 21,524; New Jersey 11,4'23, while Virginia alone had 293,427. These figures prove that in the Northern States the institution was not worth preserving, but the last four having the largest numbers, in order to avoid all loss, adopted a plan of prospective emancipation, before the arrival of the period for which there was a wonderful and nearly complete stampede of slaves to Southern States for Southern gold. To the influx of Africans, through the slave trade laws of Great Britain, the history of the Southern Colonies presented an unbroken series of earnest protests. Noble, glorious old Virgi- nia, who stands in reference to the slave trade like the Chevalier Bayard, ''above fear and above reproach," passed no less than twenty-three acts to suppress it; the other Southern States also endeavored to put an end to it, but veto after veto of royal Go- vernorg trampled upon, the ardent wishes of" the people. Not until the revolution had given freedom to these States were they enabled to end the traffic, and then , notwithstanding the mag- nificent vaunting of England of her love of freedom and hatred of slavery, they suppressed it twenty years in advance of her. I have glanced at these historical facts to show the injustice, the iniquity, the cruelty of tlie attacks on the South and her insti- tutions, and I ask if the world can furnish a parallel to an out- rage so atrocious. Not only are we assailed by that country which forced the institution upon us, and which still retains bitter recollections of our lost allegiance and their defeat by our gallant ancestors, but the honest, benevolent and immaculate saints of the perjured North, who sold us slaves for gold, pro- claim tliat a sin in which they were particeps criyhiiiis, is unpar- donable, and seek to destroy our institutions and cut our throats, because we will not surrender these slaves, which have become necessary to our civilization, and to liberate whom would be our moral and physical death. No philanthropy commends itself to these wicked meddlers, save that which is a deadly injury to their countrymen. In vast regions of the earth millions wear the chains of a servitude to which our slavery is freedom; but the lamb-like hearts of our pseudo brothers are cold— their sympathies dead as to them. To give their philanthropy spice and relish, it must have the seasoning of perjury — the stimulus of violated compacts, and comity with brethren, the fiendish thirst for the blood of noble men, and the dishonoring of lovely women. Mr. Chairman, there seems to be a disposition on the part of both real and imaginary wrong-doers, to make others re- sponsible for, and the scape-goats for their acts. Many a misera- ble old man who has had, during a long life, hundreds of slaves and reared a family to wliom these slaves have become a neces- sity, when tinie has shattered his health and weakened his nerves, is seized with a spurious remorse, and in an evil hour wills the liberation of his slaves and the immolation of his children's birth-right. This folly and wrong finds many a parallel in the, history of nations. France introduced slavery into her Colonies, and then, by abolishing it, gave them lo fire and sword. So did Britain. And now this sauie Britain, having forced the institution on us. seeks, fiand in hand with the un- natural North to act the same tragedy in the South. Sir, the immaculate God could, in the sublime benevolence and bound- less love, which are the attributes of divinity, offer up a sinless mortal life as an atonement for a lost world, but 1 utterly deny the right of any human p^wer to make a vicarious atonement, and 1 demand that the North shall bear the guilt ol' her own sins. I referred in the beginning to the great physical hnks and the hallowed memories which should have bound together the North and the South in bonds of fraternity as firm as the granite of the everlasting hills. But for ''bread" the North has given s us the '^stones" of immoveable and incessant oppression. For "fish," the serpents of ceaseless agitation and attack. They, not we, have forgotten that the bones of our ancestors lie side by side with the bones of their ancestors at Princeton and York- town. They, not we, have forgotten that we are brethren, and that when once the hand "is stained with brother's blood," nothing less "than the waters of the sweet Heavens can wash it white as snow." Sir, to almost every conceivable insult and injury have we beeil subjected. I will not weary the Conven- tion by reading the innumerable assaults upon us by the North. I could read page after page to show that our oft-repeated com- plaints are true. That from the press, the pulpit, the school- house, conventions, legislative bodies, the masses, whether in cities or rural districts, from the leader of Senates to the lowest cross-road politician, who, like a former Indiana Senator, plays steamboat for the amusement of rowdies and scoundrels at grog shops,* there is one wicked, common, deadly and deep-seated hatred to the South and her institutions. As early as 1790 the war upon us began in the shape of petitions to Congress ta in- terfere with our domestic institutions. These have been in every form — to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia — in the forts, dock-yards and other places, under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government — to exclude it from the Territories, the common property of both sections — to prohibit the slave trade between the States — to abolish it in the States — and to dissolve the Union because of slavery — many of these petitions being couched in terms of the grossest insult to the South and her in- stitutions. The platform on which the abolitionists went into the presidential contest in 1840, demanded the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia — in the Territories — of the slave trade between the States, and announced an opposition to slavery every where, " to the full extent of constitutional power." In 1848, that portion of the party which did not support the Buffalo nominees, went for abolishing slavery in the States by the General Government. The Buffalo and Utica platforms themselves (claiming to be Republican, not abolition,) took the strongest ground for what they call "freedom," in opposition to slavery. For the "relief," (as they called it,) of the Federal Government from all responsibility for slavery wherever that government had jurisdiction. For the absolute prohibition by act of Congress of slavery in the Territories, and of more slave States; and they flaunted in our faces the inscriptions on their banner of "free soil, free speech, free labor and free men," de- claring slavery to be "a great moral; social and political evil," * This dignified feat of the Senator is described to have been the rapid crawl- ing on the ground on ail-fours, with a large tin vessel on his back filled with water, from which a negro by thrusting in the water a heated poker, raised a great steam. and a relic of barbarism." In 1852 the independent Democratsf, (as they called themselves,) who supported John P. Hale for the presidency, declared that their organization was a Union ''of freedom against slavery" — '' slave Territory" — '^ slave States" — and any legislation for the reclamation of fugitive slaves; ''that slavery was a sin against (iod," "a crime against man," and that "no human power could make it right." In 1856, the Republican platform denied the right of Congress — of Territo- rial Legislatures — of any individual, or association of indivi- duals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States, and claimed that it was the duty of Congress to prohibit it. Added to all this, we have not the mere billingsgate of the Five Points, and the fish market eloquence with which we have been bespattered by strong-minded women and obscure male traitors, but countless declarations of loading n\e\\, politi- cians and divines, that republicanism is not only the ally, " but the progeny of abolitionism." That they are for the logic of Sharpe's rifles to oppose slavery — " higher law judges, an anti- slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, an anti-slavery God." That the time shall come when the sun shall not rise on a master or set cm a slave" — "slavery shall go out in fire and blood," and in its extinguishment the streets of our cities "shall run blood to the horses' bridles" — shall be abolished at the price "of the Constitution, the Union and the country" — because of its existence the Union is "a sham, a lie, an impostiire" — a "covenant with death, and an agreement with hell" — "insur- rections are justifiable" — "a fugitive slave is right to kill his master if he attempts to reclaim him" — "servile war or any- thing is better than the extension of slavery to the territories" — "and that jurors are justified in violating their oaths in acquit- ting persons who effect the escape of fugitive slaves," as are States in violating the law for iheir rendition. Their repeated legislative resolutions haA'e declared against any more slave States. Chase proclaims that the clause in the Constitution for the rendition of fugitive slaves is null and void, and forms no part of an oath when it is taken to support that instrument, Seward, besides his higher law and irrepressible conflict doc- trines, proclaims "that slavery has no constitutional guarantee which may not be released" — "its ultimate extinction is cer- tain." Sumner, besides holding sinular doctrines, declares the fugitive slave law should not be executed. Webb is for pre- venting the extension of slavery, sword in hand. Wade is not only in favor of abolishing it in the District of Coliunbia and excluding it from the territories, and everywhere, where the General Government has jurisdiction, but declares that agitation shall continue so long as the foot of a slave presses American soil. To the same purport are the declarations of Wilson, And the great splitter^ who now occupies the Presidential chair^ wha 2 10 seems as good at splitting the Union as ?ie formerly was at split- ting rails, who is as much out of place in his present position as a child or a monkey passing with a lighted match in the midst of open kegs of gunpoAvder, also proclaims the ''irrepressible con- flict." That the Federal Government has the power, and should exercise it, of prohibiting slavery in all the territories; is not even certain that the abolition of the slave trade between the States is unconstitutional, and declares that men who own slaves do not deserve to be free. Moreover, as far back as 1S58, there Avere twenty abolition United States Senators and one hundred abolition Representatives, since that time, sixty-eight members of Congress endorsed the work of Helper, an infamous incen- diary publication, recommending fire and sword for the South, and' the alarming spread of whose vile doctrines is shown by the boasting flaunting on its title page of the sale of one hundred thousand copies. The statutes of no less than lifieen States nullity the fugitive slave law. Myriads in the North claim the crown of martyrdom for the thieves, bandits and assassins who, under the lead of John Brown, invaded our soil and murdered our citizens. Last, though not least, a sectional party ha.s ''seized the government" with the avowed purpose of warring with its thousand weapons of patronage and power on our insti- tutions. Thus, through every channel of communication, speaks the stolid, relentless, moveless North. Thus are heard the de- nunciations and threatenings, not of a ibreign power without weight or influence in our govenmient, between which and its hoped for victim rolls the billoAvs of an ocean barrier, but of a vast and powerful column and cordon of free States of eighteen millions of inhabitants, Avhose sutfragans have an immense ma- jority in the election of our governmental officers — whose terri- tory is in immediate proximity to our oAvn, spanning and out- flanking our whole Northern, Northeastern and North-western frontier, Aviiich, before tlie secession of the Southern Confede- racy, Avere to the slave States in number as 19 to 15; in Avhile population as eighteen millions to eight millions; in representa- tion as 188 to 114; Avhicli to the slave States which now remain in the Northern Union, are naw in number as 19 to 8; in white population as eighteen millions to fiA^e millions, in representation as 188 to 53; which immense preponderance of Commonwealths and population is to be steadily increased by the addition of neAV States, Avliidi is in possession of the power and tlie patronage of the government, Avith the ability and the will forever to ex- clude from it Sontliern men, and the unlimited power of taxing and trampling upon the hopeless minority. And in this gathering of huge clouds, black as night — this rolling of the distant thunder, onu'nons of the approar"h of the storm — these shocks of the etirthquake, heralding an explosion whi h may shake to atoms the pillars of our social etiificu — this 11 roaring and surging of the mountain waves of the great deep, by the breaking up of whose finnitains we may at any moment be overwhelmed, my dislingnished friend from Angnsta. (Mr. Baldwin,) who I was happy to see receive from fair hands the orator's wreath, not because I agree with him in sentiment, but because I am always pleased to witness rewards to intellectual merit; sees little more than the raving of madmen, joined to the offerings of gallant persons to the toothless old maids of Yan- keedom — these poor old creatures who stalk with eyes dim as lamps living on a short allowance of oil — their cneeks blazing with the permanent blush of the brush — their heads decorated with a profane and alarming eruption of exq^tic of curls, and who make the welkin ring in his own facetious, but expressive language, with the singing of "psalms and /wwes." Sir, I hope my friend is what I say, \vith sorrow and humiliation, 1 am not, a member in good standing and fellowship of some ortliodox Christian Church; for Hear tha if he is not in now, the scepticism which sees no danger to the South from Northern aggression, will keep him out forever. Knowing the solemn responsibilities of our position here, I feel rather rebuked at venturing upon an anecdote, especially a trite one; but the gentleman really seems as hard of belief as the man who, having been refused a ])lace in the Ark, though the waters of the flood were rising in every direction around him, contemptuously told that distinguished old navigator, Noah, to get along with his old boat, for he did not believe " there would be much of a shower after all." Mr. Chairman, a fearful crisis is upon us — our agricultural, mercantile and connnercial interests are prostrate*-our finances are deranged — our once glorious Union is disrupted — seven stars have left our federative constellation, and others threaten to shoot from their spheres. Waiting in vain for sympathetic responses from the "blue mountains and monumental sea-shore of Virgi- nia," the Confederate Commonwealths have evinced the pru- dence of the traveller who stands on his guard, as he hears by the wayside, "the warning rattle of the serpent" — of the West- ern hunter, who raises his death-dealing lifle when there is a "rush in the jungle," and he beholds the large green eyes of the spotted tiger glaring upon him. The flower-decked fields of Louisiana; the beautiful savannahs of Georgia and fair Caro- lina, "from plain to mountain cave," resound with the din of preparation, and echo the stern notes of defiance. The Gulf States bristle with bayonets — column after column of the Hu- guenot and Cavalier chivalry deploy into line, and the brilliant casque and more briUiant eye, the sable plume, the "dancing crest" of many a noble leader, gleam along the ranks where flash the banners of a glittering army. Amid these raging elements, what should be the course of the border States and of Virginia? In my humble judgment they 12 should at once resume tht\^°,^^®''s formerly delegated by them to the General Government, ana '" ^o'id phalanx assert their inde- pendence. The time when they" could be accused of impru- dence for such a course has passed; lieces-sit v, not rashness, is now the word. Attempt after attempt at compr omise has resulted in failure, until longer asking looks like snpj. plication. States- man after statesman in the Senate has endeav ored, in vain, to calm the storm. Proposition after proposition fo r peace, which, though patriotically made, was regarded by the Southern men as in part a surrender of their rights, has been pel sistently voted down by the North. The voice of Virginia for pt 'ace, so poten- tial, so successful* heretofore with the nation, has been scorned; and having in vain attempted to secure the rights of the South by her separate action, when she again speaks, it shcHild be from the head of the Southern column. Without the ^Confederate States she would be as helpless as a child. What, if she re- mained with the Northern, or Northern and middle ConlJ^deracy, would become of her cherished doctrine of State-righ ts, the liturgy of her political prayer book? How would she resii.-it un- equal taxation — the plunder of the public treasury, insults and aggression, and the steady encroachments of a relentless Sv"!C- tional majority upon her institutions? Every reading man know's the wild theories of the North and North- West on the subject of government. Scornful derision is their only reply to the che- rished States-rights doctrines, to the perfection of which the great men of Virginia have devoted their lives. Trampling this hallowed creed in the dust, they favor the wildest and most par- tial schemes of internal improvement by the General Govern- ment. Rejecting both, an equal distribution of the public lands among the States, and the trust by which they are held, for the common benefit of all, they allow them to be seized by the States where they are situated; they hold that no system of tax- ation, by duties on imports, however excessive, is unequal or unconstitutional; and advocate dangerous agrarian schemes in the shape of homestead bills and other obnoxious measures for robbing the treasury and ruining the country. If, when the South was a unit, we were unable to stem the tide of injustice and oppression, how hopeless will our condition be now, with this resistless majority of Northern and North- Western States against us, and when seven of our sovereign allies have left the Confederacy? With these great political facts staring me in the face, I am forced to say that guarantees^ which, for the sake of peace, I would, at one time, have accepted, 1 would now consider myself unjust to my constituents to touch. Every mo- ment's delay on the part of Virginia has confirmed the wavering and strengthened the anti-Southern rights party, in the border slave States, while the Gulf States have become more and more exasperated against the North 3 and th§ hope of re-constructiou 13 grows fainter and fainter. As the breach between the Gulf States and Js^'orthern States widens, and the former become more determined to act with perfect independence, so diminishes our chance of having by our side our natural allies, and so increase the perils of Virginia and the necessity for greater demands and guarap.cees, and for the assertion of her absolute equality in the Confederacy. How are these guarantees to be obtained? By the fiat of Virginia acting singly? The futility of such a hope bas already been proved by the failure of the Peace Conference, inaugurated by herself If acting alone, she is too weak to couunand respect for her demands, she must seek more strength. Where is that to be obtained? The answer is plain: with the Southern Confederacy. Though there may be matters in which our interests may clash with those of that Confederacy (which I do not admit), yet it is impossible that that clash can be so fatal as that between the slaveholding interests of the South and the anti-slavery aggressions of the North. To the Southern Confe- deracy alone can we look for a community of interest, for strength, and for real sympathy in the maintenance of that most sensitive and vital of all our domestic institutions, slavery. We cannot be sure of the effeclive cooperation of the border Statps. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, notwithstanding the nation is in the throes of revolu- tion, have refused to call conventions. How far North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky have been influenced by the delay of Virginia in taking her position with the Confederate States, or what other causes have weighed with them, 1 have no means of knowing. But I fear there is too much reason to deplore the free soil proclivities of Delaware and Maryland; and Missouri, on the '^Oth of last month, by a vote of 09 to 23, actually refused to declare her willingness to unite with the South, even though the Northern States refuse to agree on a just settlement of the slavery question, and the Union is dissolved in consequence thereof Then we should not await the action of the border States. Delay and uncertainty are ruinous to our interests. The great objection to border State conferences, and all other measures for delay, is that business men are kept in a state of harrassing and ruinous uncertainty, as to where the State is to go and the country is to go — under what revenue system we are to live — as to what amount of protection — stability and safety is to be given to that domestic institution of ours, which is the foundation on which is reared the whole edifice of State pros- perity and civilization. Not only do commercial and manufac- turing men stand aghast at the doubts and difficulties of the State's future, but slaveholders prepare to weaken our strength by the withdrawal not only of their energy, virtue and ability, but of millions of property from our soil. The motives which impel the latter to leave the State are two foldj first, by our un- 14 settled policy they fear the reduction of the vahie of their slaves; and, secondly, they know that of all institutions on %irth slavery is the most sensitive, and the most dangerous to be meddled with by any but its friends and owners. They well know iliat the history of every outside interference with the institution is written in blood — hence they desire to place themselves and the institution in the keeping of its friends. Even tiiough the seces- sion of Virginia should in cons(^quence of her delay fail to give her the proud leadership, which all were ance willing to accord her, it would at least put her in a position where the slave inte- rest would be free from attack by legislation — i)i an alliance with Commonwealths by whom she will, not be trampled upon, and will be freed from insult, excessive taxation and ceaseless agitation. We might have supposed our enemies to have prudence if not principle — shrewdness, if not wisdom and honor; and that this miserable government at Washington, when straining every nerve to keep the border States in the Northern Confederacy, when Virginia was staying the tide which threatened to sweep them from place and power, would have had the tact, not to say the common decency to stay the hand of oppression and plunder. So far from it, at that very time. they seek to prostrate Southern prosperity. For, as the distinguished gentleman from Halifax, (Mr. Bruce,) who first addressed us has shown, at the very mo- ment this Convention was discussing the means of restoring union and fraternity, a Black Republican Congress passed, and a Black Republican President signed the odious Morrell Tariff, more unequal and oppressive to the South than that bill of abo- minations of 1832, which came near disrupting the government and destroying the confederacy. Go with the Southern Confe- deracy, sir, and no such oppression awaits us. We will then rest under the wise and statesman-like Constitution of the Con- federate States, formed by Southern slaveholders for the benefit of Southern slaveholders. This is the conclusive answer to gentlemen who ask what we are to get by going to the Southern Confederacy, and express doubts as to the security of our rights and interests in it. Is there a gentleman on this floor who is not perfectly satisfied with that Constitution, who sees any thing in it incompatible with the interests of Virginia, or which does not better secure them than the Constitution under which we live. Moreover, the construction of an instrument is secondary in importance only to the terms of the instrument itself. The Constitution of the Confisderate States will be administered by a Southern Congress, a Southern President, with a Southern Ca- binet, and construed by Southern Judges, all looking to the interest of Southern slaveholders; and not by a Northern free soil executive and abolition Congress, and a Supreme Court to 15 be aholitionized as rapidly as death shall remove the remainder of the venerable States-rights Judges w!io now grace its bench. The distinguished gentleman irom Fauquier, (Mr. Scott,) argued that in ranging herself with the Southern Confederacy, Virginia would go as a mendicant, ignorant of the manner in which she was to be received. As a mendicant, sir? Why, have not the States which led the secession movement, sent commissioners to Virginia, both before and since their with- drawal, not only inviting but imploring her to join the Southern Confederacy ? Again, sir, he has argued that the Government would not brook our withdrawal and it would be equivalent to war, and that the act would forever alienate the Northern States from us, so that there conid be no reconstruction of the Union. I do not see that the withdrawal of Virginia from the Confederacy, with- out aggression upon the Fedend Government, will produce war atiy more than the mere withdrawal of the Confederate States has produced war. I apprehend that if war springs up between the rival Confederacies, it will not be in consequence of the iso- lated act of secession, but in consequence of some controversy with regard to the foris, and the collection of the revenue. And if it be said that the Government has up to this time stayed its hostile hand to keep Virginia with the JN'orthem Confederacy I answer that if she secedes, the same policy will probably be pur- sued to keep in that Confederacy the remaining border slave States. And, with regard to the alienation of the Northern States from us by our alliance with the Southern Confederacy.. and the consequent lessening of the chances of reconstruction, all I have to say is, that if, after all the injuries, insults and in- dignities heaped upon us by the Northern people, they are so sensitive, so squeamish as to make our union with the Gulf Slates a mortal olft'nce,aU hope of reconstruction is gone for- ever. The distinguished gentleman, (Mr. Scott,) touched upon a subject which has already been alluded to more than ojice on this rioor. Jtwas started by the distinguished senior delegate from Bedfn-d, (Mr. (»oggin,) andTefers to the diffi'Uilty, in case of the secession of Virginia, and her alliance with the Southern Confederacy, which the State and the Confederacy would have in discharging their rer^iprocal obligations. 1 understood the ar- gument to" refer in the beginning to the difficulty of the transit of our Congressional representatives to Mcntgomery, and I thought it a strange position, when only a few days before Commissioners frou) the seceded States of Georgia, South Carolina and Missis- sippi had passed, without molestation and with welcome through unseceded States lying between us and the Southern Confede- racy. In the discharge of these reciprocal duties there would be little difficulty in time of peace; and if it be said that in dme of war it would be so great as to make secession for that reason 16 unwise, I submit with great deference that the argument proves too much — for it would show that we con Id not safely secede the State, even if every effort of compromise with the North and every proposition proposed in this body — border State proposi- tions and all — shall fail. In other \vords that we are helpless in the grasp of abolitionism. It is a difficuhy then which, as we may have to meet it, we should look in the face and be prepared for it. I hope that it will be found more imaginary than real. If Virginia should join the Southern Confederacy, I should hope there would be no difficuhy, in case of danger, in marching an army from one to the other through the Southern and friendly States still in the old Union, and that while those States would resist the march of a Federal army, the spirit of their people, of their institutions, the feeling of Southern fraternity, the principle of honor would prevent their opposing the march of Southern i\)Yres from Virginia to the Confederate States, or from tiie latter to the former. Besides, it is to be hoped that a Southern navy will start like magic into life, by which her troops can be trans- ported where they may be needed. Then let Virginia go with her Southern sisters, and in concert with them demand her rights of the North. We have already sufficient evidence of the inability of Virginia, acting singly, to obtain proper guaran- tees of the North and its-abohtion government, and of the in- disposition of the North to accede to the demands of a disunited South in the failure of the Peace Conference inaugurated by her, of the Crittenden propositions, and of varioiis other propo- sitions of peace offered by Southern men, all of wtiich were voted down and branded with scorn. Though we contend that the Peace Congress propositions were a virtual surrender of Southern rights, and point to their failure in Congress to show that the North is not willing even to give us a part of our rights, the distinguished gentleman from Augusta, (Mr. Baldwin,) says we are estopped m any reference to the subject because the Virginia Senators, Hunter and Mason, voted along with Seward against the propositions, but the answer- is plain. Seward voted against the report, because it gave the South more than he was willing it should have. Hunter and Mason voted against it because it gave the South less than its due. Does any human being suppose that Seward voted against it because it gave the South too little, or that the Virginia Senators opposed it because it gave the South too much? The bare statement of the proposition is its own best refutation, and there is an end of it. I confess, Mr. Chairman, that my hopes of a reconstruction of the old Union are slight indeed. 1 fear that a separation of the States is eternal, but 1 am convinced that if there is any hope of reconstruction, it must be froni the prompt secession of Virginia, and her union with the Southern Confederacy. Of one thing I 17 am certain, after the teiTible ordeal through which the country has been carried and is now passing, the Gulf States will never return without constitutional amendments, securing them tho- rough and absolute equality whh the North. It is vain for any man to tell me the Union can be reconstructed without an utter abandonment of those principles founded in inequality, injustice and wrong, but which are the very existence of the free soil party. That there will be such an abandonment, is almost hoping against hope; and almost equally futile is the hope that the Gulf States will return on any terms. But, if miraculously, almost, the free soil party, from a returning sense of justice, should be willing to accord us this equality, nothing but a union of Virginia with the States of the Southern Confederacy will bring them back. My distinguished friend from Halifax, who last addressed us, (iVlr. Flournoy,) referred to the proud position of Virginia. He told us in eloquent terms that at her command the government had stayed its hostile hand against the S'luth. My fieart responded to every sentence of his beautiful eulogy on the old Commonwealtli, for 1 am one of those who so reverence and love the Old l^ouiinion, that even when dissenting from Ijer line of pi licy, my tongue will utter nothing in regard to her, unless Couched in the most humble and respectful terms, such as a dutiful son imyht eui|)l y towards an ageiJ, venerated, adored mother. If, in the seiniment «>f my friend, her p >siiion was prou.l, noble, gl irious, when acting singl)-, what would be her attitude when, assuining !ier air leni ani naiiiial leadership which she has been iuiploieiJ to take, she marches at the head of the glorious Southern column.' S.is would tiieu be tntiileJ to address the seceded States, and re,u"n>rrare wiiii them in tUe spirit of an elder sister — 'she could say to them, sisters 1 have fell the house ff your enemies and are with you in the house of • Mirtiiiuti.v — I ask you n.-t lo at)andon a single right or a s«>li- laiy princi|>le u{ hoiinr — 1 wul re.->ist liie invasion ot either, with y'.ii, t.' the deaih. I am pr«'p.iie i wit.i you to l.iy iiuwn a plat- I'T.ii, an iJiiuiatiim ol uiiiencl.M t" tne ConsUnitioii-, givmu^ yi'ii peile -t equality wit i the i\ -rt,! and securing in all r<'.spe ;ts y4Ck Willi me, n con^iiM ;i a once glorious LJni'»ii, .ukI, furgetiing the biiit-r reci lle.'ti;'n> of the past, rest t^am wiin me under uie .>hadow of that flag, wnii-li ha.-, made our iia.ije so le- speciable, glorious and ren^iWneJ among tiie nations ot tie earth? For my own part, much as I have loved the old Unioii and would love it now, freed trom oppression and wnng, I think we have no safety in it unless these seceded Stale;> reiuui. Having ranged ourselves with them we would go back wnen they return; and if that is never to be, then we should remain under the wise Uonstitution of the Confederate States, with pow- 3 18 erful allies, and not be reduced to the weakness, the impotence of being alone. If all the slave Stales will not join the South- ern Confederacy, I would, at least, make it as strong as we can by the addition of Virginia. The Northern States will then see the result, if ihej cannot comprehend the guilt of their acts, that the subjugation of the South is hopeless; and, (harshly as it may grate on their haughty and gnilty pride,) that unless the war on our institutions is ended, and our equality admitted every where, and every where around our property as around theirs is thrown the protecting aegis of the law, the Union is gone forever. The eternal principles enunciated in three short words may re-construct the Union; they are truth, justice, equa- lity — none other ever will. Then, sir, I favor the prompt seces- sion of Virginia. This brings me to an examination of the re- port of the Committee on Federal Relations, which I shall make with great respect and regard for the gentlemen who compose the Committee. Looking, as it does, to other modes of redress, than the prompt resumption by Virginia of her delegated powers, I cannot give it my support— nor could I approve it, even if I was willing to live in the Northern Confederacy, without the Confederate States of the South. There are objections to the 2d resolution of the first partial report of the Committee, but T pass them by to the 4th resolution, the latter part of which says: "If the equal admission of slave labor and free labor into any Territory, excites unfriendly conflict between the systems, a fair partition of the Territories ought to be made between them, and each system ought to be protected within the limits assigned to it, by the laws necessary for its proper development." Sir, that resolution defers to what, in my opinion, is an un- justifiable, illegal and abominable prejudice of the North against the institutions of the South. It holds out the idea that there is a moral degradation attached to those institutions, and that Northern men are contaminated in being brought in contact with them, and therefore in the very teeth of the decision of the Su- preme Court, Southern men shall have no protection for their property in one-half of the Territory, while the property of Northern men is protected in all. 1 never will, willingly, give my vote for any resolution which sanctions such a principle. The time has come when, if we are to live with these Northern people, they must give up the idea that we are a degraded class. They must admit that this busy-body intermeddling of theirs, in which they undertake to brand us and our ancestors with being an inierior rare, in a moral point of view, shall cease. They must cease to insult us by telling us that our property in slaves is a claim so infamous^ so polluting, as to be put under the ban of Northern morality and excluded from its constitu- tional right to protection in the Territories, or there never can be jeace between us, and the sooner we separate the better. 19 The distinguished gentleman from Augusta, (Mr. Baldwin,) illustrated his views in favor of a division of Territory, and the exclusion of slavery from one-half, by this example: Suppose, said he, a Northern man moved into a territory belonging to the United States, he would have what he, (Mr. BaKJwin,) termed to be a v^erj natural prejudice, but what I conceive to be a most outrageous one, against the institution of slavery; he might consider that there was something degrading in slavery, and therefore be unwilling that his family should live in a commu- nity where such an institution was tolerated. Well, sir, what is the meaning of that? The plain English of it is, you gentlemen of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Lonisiana and Texas, and the other Southern States, hold an institution which is enervating and degrading, contrary to the spirit of the age, to freedom, chivalry, honor, justice and right. Now, sir, is not that an impertinent and most unjustifiable stigma upon our institutions, our social system. ^' Look upon this picture and then upon that." Suppose a Southern man chooses to go there and to say, "I don't like this system by which boys aire kept all day long learn- ing tricks of Yankeedom, in making wooden nutmegs and swindling clocks, which are '^no go," without any opportunity of cultivation or refinement. I do not intend that this Territory, to which I have brought my children, shall be without that pe- culiar institution to which the South owes so much of her civili- zation — virtue, refinement and chivalry, I demand that the Northern men be excluded and that the Southern institution be planted here." Now, sir, would it not be just as fair and right for him to ex- clude the Yankee; as for the Yankee to exclude him? Both being citizens of a free country, I say, in the language of the Supreme Court, "that the territory is acquired for their equal and common benefit, and, if open to any, it must be open to all upon equal and the same terms," and, that the Constitution, re- cognizing slaves as property, and pledging the Federal Govern- ment to protect it, is bound to redeem that pledge as to the Southern man's slaves, as well as to the Northern man's clocks or nutmegs. If Southern men go into the territory with their slaves in sufficient numbers to make it a slave State, then it ought to be a slave State. If Northern men have the ability to exclude the system, not by Emigrant Aid Societies and Sharp's rifles, but by superior industry in emigration, and consequently by suLperior numbers, let them exclude it, and let the matter be determined when a State Constitution is formed by a Conven- tion of trie people of the territory according to the true States- rights doctrine. So much as to that resolution, sir. Again, sir, there is the 8th resolution, which acknowledges the right of States to withdraw from the Federal Government, 20 and is so far right, and which says that, the people of Virginia "will nfver consent that the Federal power, which is in part their p "wer, shall he exercised for the purpose of suhjugating the people of such States to the Federal authority." The ob- jection to that resohition is that it is not stnnig enough. It does not re-^ gni/.o thefaft that Virginia n^t i nly ouyht not to consent th^it the Fciloral pow^r sliall In' excited f >r the purpose of sub- inuf'itiiiij t!ie pe'>ple of t'le s(""e(ied States. hi,i that she oui^ht to P'sist t'le snhiiignti'Mi <'f those St.iifs with all th 'inaterial power at her '^oniiii; n I, fir the simple reisoii that if the se^'eded States are subjngaied, we will fall an easy prey to the coininon eneiiy, the North. Bill, sir, ilie nnvst extraordinary resolution of all is the ele- venth, which, after so ne prcli niiiiry senten'^e-!, goes on ro siy — '' Virginia, therefore, recpie^^is fhe pe">ple of the severil States either by the popular vote, f>r in (Conventions similar to her own, to resp 'ud, at their earliest conveiiien'^e, to the positions assumed in the foregoing resolutions, and the proposed ametidmonts to the Constitution of the United States hereunto appended." Well, now sir, that gives the Northern people of this Con- federaf^y a corfc blanche to delay this matter if they please to all eternity. '^Fhere is no compulsion upon thetn even to call Con- ventions. They have under this resolution an absolute un- linnted right to respond to the action of Virgiiiia by their popu- lar vote. Now, sir, let ns see how that will work. I take it every body knows that the mere popular vote amounts to no- thing — that all the people can do by this popular vole is to in- fluence those who, as their representatives, are bound to carry it out as an indication of the will of the constituent body. * Now, mark you, the redress sought for the South is to be ef- fected by amendments to the Constitution. Well, how is the Constitution to be amended? The only two modes by which it can be done are set forth in its 5th article. One is that Con- grcvss by a two-thirds vote shall propose amendments, which, wher) ratified by three-f)urths of the States, by their Legisla- tures, or Conventions, shall become parts of the Constitution. The other is, by two-thirds of the States, by their Legislatures, uniting in the call to Congress for a National Convention; and the action of that Convention is also to be ratified by three- fourths of the States, by their Legislatures, or in Conventions, before it becomes valid. Well, sir, under this resolution the peo- ple are to respond. The popular will is to be brought to bear on Congress, so that by a two-thirds vote of both houses it will pro- pose the desired amendments' to the Constitution, or upon the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, inducing them to apply to Congress to call a National Convention for proposing amendments, which in either case shall become parts of the Constitution, when ratified by three-fourths of the seveisil States, 21 The popular voice then to be of any avail must be brought to bear upon Congress or the Legislatures — then again upon the Legislatures or Conventions, as the case may he. Do not gentlemen see that this is a round about process that will be interminable? " By the popular vote" — when? where? How expressed ? how arrived at? By whom demanded? Popn- 1 ir vote in the election of local officers, members of the Legisla- tures, Judges, Cot)gressmen, or President and Vice President? At which of these elections is this popular vote to be expressed? Under whose direction? Whose fiat is to be had in reference to the constitutional amendments proposed hy this Convention? Sir, it is made the business of nobody, and they tuay put off this response to all elernity; for, mark yon, they have the alter- native of ignoring everything else except a direct popular vote. Sir, we hear of some very remarkable names among these long, lank, lantern-jawed Puritans of the North, which, whether they have any real existence or not, are made sufficiently classic by the genius of Irving. If I recollect aright, he speaks in that delighthil emb<.(jiment of wit and humor, Knickerbocker, of certain selectmen of Yankeedom, rejoicing in the musical titles of ''Preserved Fish, Habakkuk Nutter, Return Strong, and De- termined Cock." Very similar to the names of these same Puritans in Cromwell's army and Parliament, such as ''Praise- God Barebones," "General Cry-aloud and-spare not," "Colo- nel Fight-the-good fight," and "Captain Sniite-them-hip-and- thigh." Well, sir, the actual workingof this proposition would be to request the people, to request Congress, to request the Le- gislature, to request Conventions, to respond to the action of Virginia. Very much like requesting Preserved Fish, to request Habakkuk Nutter, to request Return Strong, to request Deter- mined Cock, to request General Cryalond-and-spare-not, to re- quest Colonel Fight-the-good fight, to request Captain Smite- them-hip and-thigh, to request Praise-God Barebcmes to do the South justice. And if they do not do it some time between now and the day of judgment, we will play the very old Harry with them. [Laughter.] It seems to me, sir, that the South will get what she wants under this process when the archangel Gabriel blows his trump and frightens this crop-eared abolition crew into honest dealing with us, and not before. As well might Prince Rupert and the Royal Charles have asked their rights of the barebones Parliament. The twelfth resolution says that the people of Virginia will wait any reasonable time. Now, sir, I am utterly opposed to any such indefinite language as that, and, giving these men, who have always trifled with our rights, the liberty to wait as long as they please. Let us in- form them what we mean by a reasonable time — that if they do 22 not accede to our requests by a certain period, we will dissolve our connexion with them. The 14th resolution proposes a Border State Conference, and is objectionable because of the delay which it involves. Then comes the 2d report of the Committee. The first section says, that involuntary servitude is prohibited North of 36 degress 30 minutes, and that South of 36 degrees 30 minutes it is not prohibited. Well, now, Mr. Chairman, that is securing the Northern share to the labor of the North, and faihiig to secure the Southern share to the labor of the South. The Supreme Court has decided in the Dred Scott case that slavery is entitled to protection everywhere in the territories. Now, if we are to surrender a part of our rights under that de- cision, and to give to the North one-half of the territories, when the law adjudges us equal rights in all, and North of 36 degrees 30 minutes slavery is prohibited, in God's name. South of that line let it be protected. Let us not be satisfied with a mere declaration that it is not to be prohibited. Then, there is the fifth section, which my friend from Rich- mond, who first addressed us, (Mr. Randolph,) proved conclu- sively, looks strongly in its terms, (Avhatever may be its inten- tion,) to a prohibition of the introduction of slaves to this State from the Southern Confederacy. Then comes the sixth section, in which it is said that if the reclamation of a fugitive slave is prevented, by intimidation of, or violence against a Marshal, he shall be paid for out of the Treasury of the United States; thus saddlmg the South with one-half the burthen of paying for her stolen property. The distinguished gentleman from Prince George, (Mr. Rives,) who addressed the Convention the other evening, made an argument upon the subject, which seems to have brought down the House, but which struck me as a most remarkable one. He reduced the subject to mills in his calculation, and, with great respect, I thought the argument as small as the illustration. He went into a very interesting recital of a Southern mat) going North and bringing back, !iot his fugitive slave, but $1,000 from the pub- lic treasury, in his place, and then being laughed at by his wife when, on counting the cost, it was f)und to be only two mills. In the first plaice, it seems to me a very extraordinary thing, when a great principle is at stake, to measure it by the mere matter of dollars and cents. When our ancestors resisted the stamp act, was there any calculation as to the number of cents each man would have to pay? No, sir. It was the principle — the violation of their rights — that they resisted, without stopping to inquire whether it would cost them a copper ar not. Tfius it should always be with nations in establishing the institutions under which they are to live. Bat^ Mr. Chairman, the jirgu- 23 ment is a mistaken one as a matter of fart. If one or two slaves only are lost, then the cost will be small. But, suppose, unrler this process by whii^i the United States undertukes to pay for all the stampeded slaves, thousands of them are l^, ^^^^^ I^'^.''"*"' ^'^''' ment, nnd its .-tfeUs—rnoral, social, p .|iti';.;' ^"^J ?"'■ '^'"f^"^ upon the country, were belter nnderstoud at the '^""'* ^''^" ^^ be, ore. < , . , And the gentleman from Augusta, (Mr. Baldwin,) to" Ju'*! there were at this time more pmslavery men ill the iNo, ., !. there were ton years ng(^ in the whole world. Now, si \ i answer to all tliis is, that it is idle to talk of the great nuinbt pro-slavery men there, when they are out-voted in every ele. tion, and when, in their hails of legislation, they are defeated in every measure looking to Southern rights, and utterly powerleSvS to stay the vandal tide of sectionalism. While the distinguished gentleman from Kanawha is arguing to show the advancing en- lightenment of the Northern mind on the subject of our domes- tic institution, the logic of facts and figures, as State after State increases her abolition majority, is utterly demolishing his beau- tiful theory. What use do the Northern people make of their increased knowledge? Are they any better for understanding the arguments by which the able and eloquent statesmen and divines of all sections have demonstrated that slavery is riglit, morally, socially and politically? that in their assaults on the in- stitution they are invading our rights and trampling the Consti- tution in the dust? No, sir; their aggressions advance with their increase of light, in a sort of geometrical progression, until they threaten to overwhelm the South and destroy her institu- tions. This is the way in which they respond to the argument. In 1840, the Abilitionists cast 7,0lJ0 votes. By 1844, they showed that they had received great light upon the subject and were disposed to do perfect justice to the South, by increasing the vote of 7,000 up to 62,140. In 1848, they show that they are still further enlightened, still more benevolent, by increasing the last vote to 100,000. In 1852, they exhibit a still farther perception of our rights by polling 157,196 votes; and in 185G, by polling 341,812 votes; in 1860, by an overwhelming number of votes, they possess themselves of the Government and bring all its patronage and power to bear against our institutions. But it has been repeatedly argued here, that for all these things, the Federal Government is not responsible; that it has made no aggression on the w^onth; has taken no part in the pas- sage of personal liberty bills, and has reclaimed some fugitive slaves, Sir, I think it has been shown you, clearly and conclu- sively, that the Federal Government has trespassed upon the rights of the South by legislation. Thousands upon thousands of fugitive slaves have never been reclaimed. And, further, the argument resolves itself into this: The Federal Government has or has not power to secure the recapture of fugitive slaves. If it has the power, it has been faithless, because, in countless in- stances, it has not exercised it; if it has not the power, it is im- 4 potent, and powerless to protect us ; in either case the result is the same, and the Government, in default of a change for the better, is a nuisance, and ought to be abated. Sir, who can count tlie number of slaves which have not been reclaimed? Look at the report of the committee appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia, to investigate the Harper's Ferry invasion. It shows the escape of numerous fugitive slaves, and, in some cases, the murder of their masters endea- voring to reclaim them. The reclamation of the fugitive An- thony Burns, under one of the late administrations, required the entire military organization of a State, with a large force of the Federal troops; and though the slave was worth only some $700 or $800, he cost the treasury of the United States upwards of $100,000. Do you tell me, then, that this is a Government of which the South has no right to complain, and which secures protection to the South? Sir, if this is protection, God save us from injustice and wrong! I have been struck, sir, with the many attempts and ingenious arguments which have been made upon this floor to apologize for the North; to underrate the enormity of Northern aggressions upon us; to prove that these Northern people are — what they are not — just and true to their obligations to the South. The gentleman from Prince George (Mr. Rives,) read you the amounts of subscriptions in Northern cities to the towns of Norfolk and Portsmouth during the prevalence of yellow fever a few years ago. Well, sir, what does that show? Does it show anything but what everybody knows and what we all are willing to acknow- ledge, that there are some noble spirits and generous people in the North? Sir, when the British government was pushing our ancestors to the wall, depriving them of their rights and liber- ties, and driving them to revolution, how many generous spirits, private individuals and public orators were there in the mother country who protested against the whole system of o{)pression? But, though grateful for this sympathy, our noble ibrefaihers considered it no reason for submitting to oppression and wrong. Again, sir, it is argued that the claim of the South to equality of rights in the Territories is a mere abstraction, that slavery cannot and will not go into them. H this be so, it is a wanton exercise of power on the part of this Nortliern majority to ex- clude the Southern people from an equal right to carry their pro- perty into the Teriitories. But the truth is, it is not an abstrac- tion. No wonder that slavcny does not go into the Territories when the moment it enters it is met there by Emigrant Aid So- cieties and Sharp's rifles? Though Southern men could got the most fertile lands at the lowest price, they dare not carry slavery into the territory where it is so insecure. The eloquent gentleman from Kanawha, (Mr. Summers,) asked us if we were willing to make the Western section of the .27 .; " ' State the outside row of the Southern Confederacy — if we were willing to bring the Canada line down to the Border? Well, sir, I think the Canada Une has been bronght down practically to the border years ago. I scout the idea that (with a few ex- ceptions,) the gallant men of the West are not as true to the in- terests of Virginia as the men of any other section of the State. I cannot believe that Virginians are wanting in fidelity to the State. I have a great respect for a Virginian wherever I meet him. I am always inclined "to give him my hand and call him brother." And 1 have the most earnest desire to afford to these gallant gentlemen of Western Virghiia what I consider they need — protection for their property, their homes, and their families. Make them the '< outside row?" Why, sir, I ask if they are not already the "outside row?" Have they any protection there f )r their property? What prevents their slaves from being stampeded under the operation of the underground rail road? What has become of their slaves? I have taken the trouble to look a little into this matter, and a most re- markable state of facts presents itself to me upon this examina- tion. 1 find, sir, that the border counties, with the number of slaves in each one, are as follows: Monongalia 101 Wetzel 10 Marshall 29 Ohio 100 Brooke 18 Hancock 2 Tyler 18 Pleasants 15 Wood 176 Jackson 55 Mason 386 Cabell 305 Wayne 143 Now, compare these figures with those representing the slaves of other counties, with those showing the number in Hanover, where there are 10,000, or in Hahfax, where there are 14,000. Perhaps these gentlemen can inform me what has become of their slaves. I ask whether the abolitionists have not carried them away? Pressing thus upon the border and driving slavery from those counties, what, I ask, is to prevent them from press- ing on still farther and pushing it from the counties which come next in order, and so rolling on the wave of sectionalism till they sweep slavery away througli Virginia, through the Con- federate States, and into the far South? Now, sir, I want to stop this fearful wave — to roll it back from our Western brethren, their homes and families. To effect this, let the Southern States ia sohd colutnu leave the Northern Con-^ 28 federacy, and establish on our free State frontier a line w's heavenly; it strikes where it dotli love." It has been present to my mind that this great country was formed by the compact of indepen- dent sovereignties, not with the right, first, of libel, and then of destruction by one part of tlie institutions of the other, but with an endorsetnent of the institutions of the whole country, and an engagement of honor, and of law, in the very act of Union, to defend these institutions to the death. Sir, I am forced to re- member how these solemn covenants have been fraudulently and foully repudiated by tho North. How that PIvirisaical land of every ism which degrades rnan to a level with brutes, In^delity, Spiritualism, Mormonism, Free Soil — which nn-ans to rob a partner of all the partnership effects — Free Spc-ch, which, with them, is the right of rank and reeking l)lackguardism, and atrocious slander on the South; Free Love, which means to roll hack the tide of refinement and virtue, for the saturnalia, the hell of vileness and iniquity, has, in the blended spirit of avarice and fanaticism, not only assailed our fair fame abroad, but our very household gods at home. They, our pseudo brothers, have sought to direct upon us, in foreign lands, ''the slow moving finger of scorn." Great names adorn our Southern annals — Washington and Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Car- roll and Rutledge, and a host of others. Splendid mausoleums mark the resting places of these great men, and they have still nobler monuments in the hearts of their countiymen. But the sacrilegious effort is made to. blacken their sacred fame because they were slaveholders. Added to this, it is sought to outrage the reputation and pnjfane the sanctity of t!ie social circle. Our very ancestors are to be libelled because they were slaveholders. Sir, facts, stored in the memory of every gentleman in this hall, give the lie to these atrocious slanders. Who is there, reared in Virginia, whose memory, in reverting to the days of his childhood, does not give him a thousand pleasant memories of the patriarchal institution of the State — of the good will l;et\veen the servants and the fatnilies of their masters — of the many errands of kindness on which he lias been sent to old or sick domestics of the household, and of the scenes in which these domestics would bless with their latest breath the benevolence of their owners? Raise the curtain of the past, and, forgetting the stern and wasting duties of man- hood, he is carried back to the time when he was a happy mem- ber of a happy family circle. Before him, in memory, rises the aged and honored head and patriarch of the house, whose feeble steps, whose personal goodness, whose position of com- mon • ancestor, commanded for him the pious love and care of X 32 his descendants. He recalls the manly form of one whose kind words linger forever in his memory — who bnre. to him the sacred name of father. A soft yet bright eye sheds upon him its mild and beautiful light in pity and in love as his youthful mother walches him Avith teuderest devotion. As childhood fides in the past and boyhood puts on its free and joyous attributes, that mother's love still encircles him like the atmospliere of a holier and better clime. Her tears fall upon his head like the dews of Heaven, Her prayers ascend to God in fond and fervent aspi- rations for blessings upon him even beyond the lot of man; and in after years amid the stirring scenes of life, the memory of that mother's counsel and that mother's love will belter defend him from dishonor than a thousand bristling bayonets. Time rolls on, and these sacred forms depart, and he exclaims in bit- terness of heart, all, all gone to return no more forever. They have sought the sanctuary of the dead, where repose other ho- nored ones in whose veins once coursed the same life blood. Green grows the long grass and sweetly bloom the flowers planted on their graves by the hand of affection, and in the star- light and sun-light glimmers in palid lustre the monumental marble, with the simple inscriptions of departed worth. With throbbing brow the descendant of that house says these were mine, and though dead their pure and virtuous memories live. But Abolitionism, that fiendish libeller, says cursed be they for they were slaveholders. Sir, this is enough to make the blood of a Southern freeman not only boil, but dance through his veins 'Mike burning alcohol." Let ns say to these oppressors of the South, compromises with yon are as nought. " Thus far shalt thon go and no farther." We demand stern, full and exact justice; cease your assaults on our institutions; stop your agita- tion and give us peace, that peace to which your honor bound you in the compact of Union; bow to the decision of the Su- preme Court; sweep from the statutes of your States every en- actment warring on our property; cease your attacks on the laws which have established slavery in places under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government; confess that we came into the Union on terms of perfect equality with you, and that wherever, in the common territories, our flag floats, our property has the same right to protection that yours has; regard us, and let your legislation regard us as equals, not tributaries, and the seceded South may return. The Union may again stretch its grand proportions from Maine to California, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Deny us these, our rights, and our separation from you is eternal.