Brown 
 
 Remarks Made in N. C. Senate 
 Dec. 19th, 1860 
 
Cfje Hi&rarp 
 
 of t|>e 
 
 Onitoersitp of Ji3ortj) Carolina 
 
 Collection of jRottf) Caroiintana 
 ^i0 booft toag ptwttteo 
 
 Ja^wts c^ys^a-w^ lva^vi,sa.u 
 
 Cp9To.Tl | 
 
 S878r 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032721298 
 
 This book must n< 
 be taken from frh 
 Library building. 
 
REMARKS 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. BEDFORD BROWN, 
 
 OF CASWELL, 
 
 Made in the Senate of North Carolina, on Dec. 
 lQth, 1860, on the Resolutions of Mr. Hall, 
 of New Hanover, on Federal Relations. 
 
 Mr. Brown said, the time had arrived when it was not less 
 demanded by a sense of duty than of interest, safety and 
 lienor, that the Southern States should make a united demand 
 for a final settlement and definitive adjustment of the ques- 
 tions of difference which are now unhappily the sources of 
 discord between the North and South, and to forever exclude 
 them from the halls of Congress. To effect an object which 
 should be so dear to the bosom of every lover of his country 
 and her institutions, no terms could or would be received as 
 admissible, that did not fully go to the root of the evils of 
 which we had such undeniable cause of complaint. He 
 would ask, could this most devoutly wished for con 
 tion ever be effected, while the extremists of the Xort 
 the extremists of the South are fanning the flames 
 tional animosities by one-sided appeals, sketching t 
 side of the picture without giving the bright as wel 
 dark shades, which stern justice, as well rigid histori 
 require ? Mr. B. was certain that an immense — an 
 whelming majority of the people of the slave-holding Stipes, 
 desired most anxiously a safe and honorable settlement of 
 Vk these differences in the Union, if possible. He was almost 
 *Taa positively certain that a decided majority of the people 
 
 O 
 
 m 
 
2 
 
 of the Northern and North-western States now see the ne- 
 cessity, and are ready, by State legislation by repealing 
 their personal liberty bills and other hostile enactments, 
 together with adding amendments to the federal constitu- 
 tion, to yield such terms as would meet the requirements of 
 both our honor and security. How was it possible for the 
 majorities of national men in both sections who wish to 
 remedy these evils to act with effect, when the extremes of 
 the two sections were daily, in Congress and elsewhere, 
 plying and lashing popular sentiment with one-sided state- 
 ments and irritating denunciations? 
 
 Was this the manner of proceeding among the great and 
 revered statesmen of our revolution ? When sectional jeal- 
 ousies' sprung up during the revolution, and when the present 
 federal constitution was about to be framed, mark the dif- 
 ference, and behold with sorrow the lamentable descent in 
 statesmanship ! Men of higher resolve and nobler purpose 
 never lived than the statesmen of that day. With what 
 wonderful dignity, argument, and elevation of character,, 
 did the speeches and addresses of these almost inspired men 
 go forth to the world. Most of the present generation of 
 popular speakers and debaters in legislative halls, might, he 
 thought, find at least benefit in recurring to these purest and 
 best of models. They were the great men of a great age. 
 
 Mr. B. said he- had beheld with astonishment — with inex- 
 pressible amazement, the scenes which here, in the legisla- 
 tive halls for the last four weeks, had been enacted. It 
 appeared to him more like the vision of a disturbed imagi- 
 nation, than a sad reality. How suddenly — nay with what 
 had the scenes been shifted from those of cheerful 
 ity to those of dark sombre disunion, with the motto 
 ope impressed on its banner, and its followers invited 
 down the stars and stripes, and plant in its stead 
 mer! Was this the entertainment to which the peo- 
 North-Carolina were invited, in the elections for mem- 
 bers of the Legislature and President and Yice-President ? 
 When the honest voters of the State were asked for their 
 confidence, and asked to confiie their dearest rights in this 
 great crisis, did the scenes of the political drama give token 
 
 tftt 
 
 .i> 
 

 3 
 
 of any note of preparation to tear down the federal Union, 
 unless for aggression or refusal of justice? Did the actors 
 in the political drama, with rare exceptions, proclaim any such 
 purpose, grounded on the election of a President? On the 
 contraiy, did not the actors with rare and few exceptions 
 repel the charge of disunion in language indignant, and in 
 terms sometimss scarce fit for " ears polite \ " Strange 
 shifting of scenes ! Sudden re-cast of characters ! Unparal- 
 leled facing to the left about ! The proclaimed promises yet 
 from breath not long since uttered — the recorded declara- 
 tions made in ink not long since dry, are gainsayed in a few 
 moons, and it seemed to be the very " error of the moon." 
 The parties in this drama and actors could not claim even 
 the benefit of a three months statute of limitations, to protect 
 themselves against the charge of political tergiversation 
 and almost unexampled inconsistency. 
 
 Are we to be hurried on by the principal actors in this 
 great drama — he would say tragic drama— are we to be press- 
 ed headlong with no time to think, and told in effect, that we 
 are not free agents to act, and that circumstances and neces- 
 sity, the latter the tyrant's plea, leave no other alternative 
 than to follow blindly the lead of one or more States ? 
 
 41 My Author and Disposer, what thou bid'st. 
 Unargued, I obey." 
 
 They have spoken — we have no right to speak, but to echo 
 their will. They have acted — we have no right to act, only 
 to say we are to obey. Where is the professed devotion to 
 liberty when this language is uttered, and where the love of 
 States's rights so often spoken of, when this course with re- 
 spect to North-Carolina is urged ? The true English of it i 
 that the rights of States belong only to the States about 
 secede, which he wished them to exercise undisturbed, 
 that others are to be shorn of their own sovereignty — s| 
 of the attributes of sovereignty, the right to think and 
 right to act, and to wheel into line as attendants and satellite 
 by a law above their own control. In other words, we ar 
 to have a Southern " higher law" overruling the will of our 
 people, and overruling the very sovereignty of our* States^ — » 
 showing that Northern and Southern extremes meet in a 
 
4 
 
 " higher law" setting aside State rights and constitutional 
 obligation. 
 
 Mr. B. would not consent to surrender the rights and sover- 
 eignty of North-Carolina to any people on earth, foreign or do- 
 mestic. Let us deliberate as freemen in this great emergen- 
 cy, wisely, firroh', prudently, as becomes the intrepid men of 
 a Republic as to what is best for our safety and honor. Let 
 us yet, in the hope, even after States have seceded, that by 
 maintaining our position firmly in the Union, the border slave- 
 States and those adjacent may yet demand and receive terms- 
 to enable them to re-construct the constitution— about which 
 I have no doubt, and by which we shall be the greatest, hap- 
 piest, and most prosperous people on earth ; and that all the 
 sisterhood of States will again be numbered in one great con- 
 federated family with ample guaranties to protect all. Let 
 us act like the prudent Mariner, who, when his vessel is> 
 tempest-tossed, casts around, observes the weather, looks on 
 the broad ocean before him, and determines on what course 
 is best to save the vessel from the peril which surrounds it, 
 before he takes a new departure. And so with a bewildered 
 traveller when he comes to several forks leading in different 
 directions, a little delay in examining for the right road will of- 
 ten save him from being involved in difficulties — sometimes 
 in bogs and quicksands, and the trouble* of taking to the back 
 track to escape from the consequences of precipitation and 
 rash decision. 
 
 Mr. B. had heard with sorrow and profound regret, the 
 sadfrotes with which the Senator from New Hanover, (Mr. 
 Hall,) had pronounced the funeral knell of the federal Union 
 and consigned it to " the tomb of all the capulets." He re- 
 
 etted that while the Senator had paid such marked respect 
 
 nch names of evil omen as Sumner, Seward and others,. 
 
 ading their fanatical effusions to the Senate, that he had 
 
 paid like respect to such names as Franklin Pierce, Geo. 
 
 Dallas, Daniel S. Dickinson, Commodore Stockton, the 
 
 quent Vallandigham, and many other pure and intrepid 
 
 atriots of the North, whose noble sentiments in favor of the 
 
 constitutional rights of the South would be more refreshing 
 
 to us. He regretted that the Senator bad not dwelt more at 
 
large on the million and a half of undaunted patriots of the 
 North, who had stood by us and cast their votes against Lin- 
 coln. The Senator's speech was a sample of that kind of one- 
 sided speeches, by which extreme men North and South had 
 lashed up sectional feelings to their present height. Because 
 bad men in the North, taking advantage of the disruption of 
 the Democratic party had banded together — old whigs, freesoil 
 democrats and abolitionists — and for the first time in the his- 
 tory of onr government elected a President, is that any rea- 
 son for denouncing the whole North ? 
 
 Mr. E. said Southern ehivalry, Southern honor, severe his- 
 toric truth, all required that these illustrious names, and a 
 million and a half of men of the North, called by us in the 
 Breckinridge campaign our brothers and allies in a common 
 cause, should not be ignored. Is it, he would ask, in the true 
 spirit of knighthood, because they had fallen — and not by a 
 large majority of the popular vote — to abandon them? Their 
 defeat and that of the Democratic party was, he was confi- 
 dent, brought about by the conduct of the delegations of the 
 seven cotton States, which seceded at Charleston, and which 
 fatal movement, by a train of events, had compelled consti- 
 tution, Union-loving men to withdraw afterwards at Balti- 
 more. If the delegations of the seven cotton States had not 
 withdrawn at Charleston, there would have been a moral cer- 
 tainty of obtaining a platform of principles, substantially as 
 strong and with principles the same, as the platform required 
 by their State conventions. The resolution to which he re- 
 ferred, was adopted by a committee of the New York dele- 
 gation in conference with the seven slaveholding States 
 which remained in the Convention — was submitted to the 
 entire New York delegation, assented to by them in ful 
 meeting, and a pledge given by them to support it in Coi 
 ventio:\ The resolution is as follows, to be found in the ry| 
 ■ceedings of the Convention at Charleston : ' 
 
 " Resolved, That the citizens of the United States have an equal right 
 settle with their property in the Territories of the United States ; anj 
 that, under the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, whicbl 
 we recognize as the correct exposition of the constitution of the United 
 States, neither the right of persons or property can be destroyed or impaired 
 by congressional or territorial legislation." 
 
6 
 
 Here, then, was a resolution as explicit and as comprehen- 
 sive as language could make it, declaring the equal rights of 
 the citizens of the States to settle with their property in 
 the territories ; deelairing that the decision of the Supreme 
 Court is a correct exposition of the constitution of the Unit- 
 ed States, and that neither the right of persons or property 
 can be impaired or destroyed by Congressional or Territorial 
 legislation. The decision of the Supreme Court of the Unit- 
 ed States declares that slaves are not only property in the 
 Territories, hut that it is the duty of every department of the 
 government to protect them as property. The delegations of 
 the States which withdrew at Charleston, or most of them, 
 remained some days there, expressing a desire to return if 
 their platform of principles was complied with. The resolu- 
 tion referred to, as he knew, was shown to many of them 
 in private interviews, and known to all, yet they declined 
 doing so. By this course they prevented the passage of a 
 resolution — for by their votes it could have been carried — as 
 strong virtually as their own State conventions had adopted, 
 for the resolution b} r adopting the decision of the Supreme 
 Court, which asserted it to be the duty of the government to 
 protect property in the Territories, recognized fully the prin- 
 ciple of protection. The presence of these delegations would 
 not only, as he believed, have secured the passage of the res- 
 olution, but they could under the two-thirds rule have defeat- 
 ed Mr. Douglas, and in all probability have nominated and 
 elected some such national man as Daniel S. Dickinson ; and 
 a united nomination would no doubt have been victorious- 
 over Lincoln. Should those who brought this calamity on 
 the country, or at least, who are largely responsible for it, 
 now be followed in their precipitate course in overthrowing 
 
 le federal Union, without exhausting all proper means first 
 a settlement, just, safe and honorable to ourselves ? Let 
 
 [\the States interested in slave property act together in 
 iking their demands, and act as one, if proper terms are 
 Lot conceded. 
 
 The Senator from New Hanover, (Mr. Hall,) in his recital 
 of the'wrongs and injuries which the North had inflicted on 
 the South, had continued the same one-sided statement, and 
 
7 
 
 ignored, or seemed to ignore the great and essential aid Which 
 the true-hearted national men of the North had rendered us. 
 Mr. B. said there were no words of reproach, no epithet of de- 
 nunciation that the abolition traitors of the North, acting in 
 conjunction with British emissaries, did not merit. On the 
 other hand, there is no language of eulogy that the good 
 and true men there, who, rising above sectional feelings, and 
 standing with us on questions of peace and war, were not 
 entitled to from our hands. Let the anathema maranatha be 
 pronounced against the traitors who had nullified the laws 
 and constitution in the North. On the other hand, in the 
 spirit of Southern honor and Southern chivalry, let justice 
 be done though the heavens fall — give honor to whom honor 
 is due. 
 
 The Senator in charging grievances and injuries by the 
 North, again ignores the noble deeds of our friends there. — 
 By their aid Southern Presidents have been elected and di- 
 rected the policy of the government for two-thirds of the time 
 the government has been in operation ; and when Southern 
 men were not Presidents, with rare exceptions such men as 
 Pierce and Buchanan have governed with principles in har- 
 mony! with ours. History awarded to Robert P. Livingston, 
 of New York, more credit for the purchase and acquisition of 
 Louisiana than any other statesman next to Mr. Jefferson. — 
 He was the untiring negotiator, who, afterwards joined by 
 Mr. Monroe, effected the treaty with Napoleon. True-heart- 
 ed national men of the North voted with Southern men for 
 the fifteen millions to purchase it, and for the ratification of 
 the treaty. Its acquisition not only saved the federal Union 
 from the alarming spirit of discontent and disunion pervad- 
 ing the entire Western and South-western States — from the 
 fact that the free navigation of the Mississippi had been de- 
 nied them, and the great outlet to the Gulf of Mexico closed 
 — but it established the institution of -slavery on a greatly 
 firmer basis than before, by the incalculable resources which 
 it opened to slave labor, and the command which it gave to 
 the siave States of the Gulf of Mexico. The larger portions 
 of the States of Mississippi and Alabama, held then as terri- 
 tory of the State of Georgia, had been purchased of Georgia 
 
by the United States, and erected into great and flourishing 
 States by the aid of votes from Northern statesmen. Flori- 
 da had been purchased of Spain ; a Northern Secretary of 
 State having negotiated the treaty for its purchase. The In- 
 dian treaties, wars and removal of Indians from Florida had 
 cost the government of the United States, first and last, he 
 supposed, not less thirty millions of dollars. The same na- 
 tional men had contributed speeches and votes to effect these 
 objects. The Indians occupying a portion of the soil of 
 North-Carolina, Tennessee, near a fourth of the entire soil of 
 Georgia, a large portion of Alabama and Mississippi, were 
 treated with, the soil purchased and they removed, thus am- 
 plifying immensely the agricultural resources and population 
 of the South. These great measures were effected by the aid 
 of such men as Silas Wright, Franklin Pierce, and their com- 
 patriots. The acquisition of Texas was also made by the 
 game kind of patriotic aid. 
 
 While, therefore, he would again repeat, that no language 
 could express the contempt for the sectional traitors who had 
 made war on us, no language was too lofty, no eulog} 7 too 
 great, to commemorate the deeds of those who had stood by 
 ns in sunshine and in storm, and the million and a half of true 
 men who stand on the solid rock of the constitution. If they 
 and their services are to be ignored — if they are to be includ- 
 ed in the sweeping denunciation against the entire North — 
 this language, striking at friends as well as foes — he would 
 ask, where has good faith among men fled ? where is that 
 sentiment of brotherhood which was proclaimed in all the 
 highways a few months since? and where is nationality 
 gone? Is the plighted faith, which binds men together who 
 6tand together in a common cause — no matter in what lati- 
 tude — to be violated ? Are we, because defeat has perched 
 on our banner, and that brought on by the violent men of 
 our own party, with. Yankee calculation to cut loose from 
 one million and a half of true Northern friends, and cry save 
 himself who can ? If this is in the code of Southern honor 
 and Southern gallantry, I confess I have now for the first time 
 learned it. 
 
 Mr. B. said this million and a half of national men of the 
 
9 
 
 North are the only friends which the shareholding States 
 have, outside of those States, in the civilized world. We can- 
 not shut onr eyes to the fact that England — which has heen 
 the evil genius that has haunted us as colonies and independ- 
 ent States — is the deadly foe of our government and the slave 
 institution. The visit of her Prince and the nolle spies who 
 accompanied him to this country, shows their old rancor. — 
 Slave States were treated with no respect, while their visit to 
 Richmond gave an opportunity to their calumnious writers 
 and editors to libel us. That a deep design lurked beneath 
 this visit, he fully believed. The Canadas were the ostensible 
 objects of the visit, while the United States were the real ob- 
 jects of diplomatic attach. The Prince was the mere de- 
 coy duck to conceal more effectually the old crafty diplomat- 
 ic spies, who were cunuingl} T , under the guise of smiles and 
 friendship to our country, to look deeply into the affairs of 
 state here, and sound the union or disunion sentiment, and 
 to insinuate as much British influence as possible in North- 
 ern sentiment, to re-establish their ascendancy. It was a 
 remarkable incident in our history with England, that when 
 Jefferson from Paris joined Adams in London, soon after the 
 acknowledgment of our independence, to make a commercial 
 treaty, on being presented to George the Third, after a cold 
 reception, he turned his back on our Ministers. Our inde- 
 pendence had just been gained ; hatred followed its establish- 
 ment. It is another striking inci 'ent, that, for the first time 
 in eighty-four years, since our independence, a British Prince 
 makes a general tour through the Northern and Western 
 States jnst at the moment when the elements of sectional strife 
 were doing their work of destruction, in overthrowing our 
 federal system, and with it, paving the way to monarchy. A 
 profusion of smiles and a shower of noble and royal compli- 
 ments have suddenly, and for the first time, fallen upon us. 
 The British government and the British nation are notorious- 
 ly the most, selfish and heartless on earth. They move only 
 for a purpose ; when they smile on the masses, it is to betray. 
 They were pirates on the ocean for five hundred years, vio- 
 lating the flag of every nation and capturing their vessels, 
 until, in the war of 1812, we taught them some lessons as to 
 the law of nations. Their history is crimsoned with the blood 
 
10 
 
 of Ireland and the East Indies and other regions of the world, 
 where the iron hoof of British conquest has trodden. He 
 honored the Irish Regiment of New York for refusing to at- 
 tend at the ceremonies of receiving the representatives of a 
 government, which government was stained with the murder 
 of Robert Emmett and his compatriot United Irishmen. The 
 train which she had laid more than sixt} T years since, for the 
 dissolution of onr Union, was now in a rapid state of consum- 
 mation. Had her wily statesmen come at this period of our 
 national woe to look on, under the guise of friendship, and wit- 
 ness its too successful workings ? He feared the Greeks bring- 
 ing presents. It was Nero fiddling while Rome was hurning. 
 
 Mr. B. would say a word or two to the Senator from Jack- 
 son — a county, lie would say, bearing a very good name. — 
 The Senator (Mr. Thomas) has discovered that those who are 
 opposed to rash action are submissionists — an imported phrase 
 from some other States, where it has been used, for the w-mt 
 of a better argument, to enlist the weak and timid ; and that 
 the Tories of the revolution had counselled submission to 
 George the Third. The Tories were of that desponding class 
 of persons, said Mr. B., who had no hope, and doubtless if 
 there could be a resurrection of them, on this occasion, fhe 
 Senator from Jackson would receive their loudest applause 
 for aiding in the attempt to pull down the free government 
 which the patriots of the revolution won by their valor, and 
 which the Tories so hated. The privileged orders of 'Britain 
 would no doubt join in hosannas to those who were doing the 
 self-government of man so much injury, and that of crowned 
 heads so much benefit. 
 
 The Senator also had ridiculed the idea of delay in our ac- 
 tion. A wise delay was oftener right >than wrong. Precipi- 
 tate action was generally both unwise and wrong. Gen. 
 I Washington, at many periods of the revolution, and especial- 
 ly in his campaigns in New Jersey, was often reproached by 
 some of the hotspurs of that day with pursuing a Fabian 
 policy — sometimes charged with cowardice ; and if living 
 now would probably, by some of the young America's*, be 
 called an old fogy. Washington, unsurpassed in moral as lie 
 was in physical courage, spurned the reproaches of military 
 
11 
 
 fops, and when they rudely asked him how long he was go- 
 ing to retreat, replied that he would retreat, if necessary, to 
 the mountains of Virginia — plant the flag of the country 
 there, and rallv its brave inhabitants to its defence. What 
 was the result? Why Washington, by a little delay, gained 
 the splendid victory of Trenton, and made the glorious at- 
 tacks at Princeton and Monmouth, and ended the war of the 
 revolution in a blaze of glory at Yorktown. What, went with 
 his accusers, Generals Charles Lee and Horatio Gates, both 
 native Englishmen, and who had been trying to supplant him 
 as Commander-in-Chief? Why, in a short time after the con- 
 spiracy was formed, and Washington was accused of timidi- 
 ty and delay, Lee was disgraced in the battle of Monmouth; 
 and Gates having been sent South to take command of the 
 Southern army, in hot haste made an attack on the British 
 army at Camden, and was signally overthrown, and such was 
 his precipitate flight, with whip and spur, that it is said he 
 reached Hillsborough, from the field of his defeat, in a day 
 and night. The moral of this is, that rash precipitation is of- 
 ten great folly, and prudent delay, generally, great wisdom. 
 
 If, said Mr. B., the country should unfortunately become 
 involved in civil broils, he hoped the Senator from Jackson 
 would fly to the rescue — place himself at the head of the red 
 men, who yet linger in his region of country ; and, from his 
 gallantry, we may expect that he will not be found in the 
 rear, but wiil lead on the front in defending the country. 
 
 Mr. B. said, if he had not known so well, by actual per- 
 sonal observation in Congres many years since, how and 
 when this slavery agitation received aid and comfort, and 
 first began to assume any thing like size and proportion, and 
 narrowly watched its progress ever since, he might, too, be 
 for immediate disunion. The abolition party undoubtedly 
 laid the foundation of it. Their strength, however, did not, 
 in the last one or two years of General Jackson's administra- 
 tion, consist of more than eight or ten abolitionists proper in 
 the House of Representatives, and three or four in the Sen- 
 ate. The States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, 
 Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and all the North-west- 
 ern States, including the State of Ohio, had resolutions on 
 their statute books at that time almost as strong as respected 
 our constitutional rights regarding slavery, as North-Carolina 
 or Virginia. The debates in Congress of that period will 
 show that the miserable effusions of such miscreants as Gar- 
 rison, then in utter obscurity, and his paper of very limited 
 circulation at that time, even in Massachusetts, were brongbi 
 into the Houses of Congress, held up as Northern sentiment 
 
12 
 
 by exrteme men of the South who were then bitterly oppos- 
 ed to General Jackson and the Democracy, and whose names 
 were afterwards found recorded against him in the resolution 
 of censure which the Senate afterwards expunged, and which 
 he had the pleasure of voting to expunge. These extreme 
 men at the same time denounced the entire North as aboli- 
 tion, while at the very moment the Northern Democracy and 
 other conservative men were voting with us on all questions 
 of practical importance — on the slavery question, on the trea- 
 ties and appropriations to remove the Indians, to admit slave 
 States, and all others in which the South had essential inter- 
 ests. Thse speeches were eagerly republished and circulated 
 by the abolitionists among the people ot the North, with in- 
 snlting comments on those of the North who acted with the 
 South. At the same time, the contemptible effusions of the 
 few abolition members of Congress would be sent forth 
 among the people of the South by extreme men of the South 
 and its newspaper organ at "Washington, as Northern sentiment. 
 The newspaper organ at Washington of the extreme men of 
 the South, soon after the tariff question was settled by Mr. 
 Clay's compromise, declared that it was manifest that the 
 South could not he united on the tariff question, and that the 
 slave question was the only one that could unite them. Agi- 
 tation on the slave question, with this as the motto and rule 
 of action, then commenced between the extreme North and 
 South, thrown like a shuttle back and forth, by which the 
 monster of abolitionism was fed, and its size greatly increas- 
 ed. It had been a system of action and re-action, of opera- 
 tion and co-operation more or less ever since, the abolitionists 
 of the North abusing the slaveholder and his sentiments, and 
 his ravings, instead of the speeches of Pierce, Buchanan, and 
 such like men, sent forth in the South as Northern sentiment / 
 whilu the speeches of extreme Southern men in the Senate 
 of the United States, placing all the laboring classes, farmers 
 and all of the North on an equality with our slaves, were ea- 
 gerly and talsely seized on by the abolitionists, and circulated 
 with provoking comments as Southern sentiment. This sys- 
 tem had been kept up by demagogues and disunionists of 
 both sections for twenty-four years past, until it had enabled 
 the abolitionists to break down the noblest, and at one time 
 the most powerful political organization on the side of the 
 constitution, whether as to number or talents, that had ever 
 existed in this or any other country. Whatever difference of 
 opinion may have existed between these extremes as to the 
 institution of slavery, they were co-workers and allies in their 
 common purpose of destroying the Union. Andrew Jack- 
 
13 
 
 son, in the presence of hundreds now living, charged this 
 agitation at the time on the extreme men North and South. 
 and charged them with designs of breaking up the Union. 
 The newspaper organ at Washington at that day — known to 
 have spoken the sentiments of Andrew Jackson — is filled with 
 these charges, with the actors designated. He knew also 
 that that pure patriot, the late William R. King, of Alabama, 
 also beheld with decided disapprobation the agitation of the 
 slavery question at that time, by the extremes of the North 
 and South. Thus, by a system of extreme doctrines and ex- 
 treme measures — the latter sometimes yielding only the most 
 bitter fruits — had our noble Democratic, and other constitu- 
 tional allies of the North been borne down, and the aboli- 
 tionists and other political combinations who hated with a 
 deep hate the old Democracy, had been victorious; for which, 
 with the ca ises mentioned, they had been largely indebted 
 to the seceders at Charleston, for striking a blow at the De. 
 mocratic organization which rendered it powerless to con- 
 tend with the enemies of the constitution. 
 
 Was it, he would ask, generous, when our noble allies 
 were prostrated by these causes, in which extreme Southern 
 men had acted a conspicuous pari, to cut loose from them 
 and desert them because of temporary defeat? Was it 
 manly after such strong appeals to stand by us in the late 
 election, to fly whit precipitate haste out of the Union, and 
 make no common struggle Avith our allies to repair the losses 
 of the past and demand security for the future? No, said 
 Mr. B. let us for the present stand by our coloi'3, and not 
 retreat panic-stricken from the Union. Wellington had won 
 his great victory at Waterloo by standing firm in position — 
 precipitancy would have destroyed him in two hours. The 
 position of strength of the border States and others who do 
 not secede now, is to call State Conventions — lay down our 
 principles of action, call a general convention of all the slave- 
 holding States; let that Convention distinctly set forth the 
 terms on which we will alone consent to continue members 
 of the Confederacy. Let these terms be presented to the 
 Northern States, either in their capacity as separate States, 
 or in a National Convention of all the States, and he had 
 no doubt that we could obtain every guarantee demanded 
 by our safety and honor — co-operation and a united demand 
 by all the Southern States, would carry with it a weight 
 that could not fail to be respected and responded to favor- 
 ably. There is weakness in separate action, strength in 
 Union. Whether we make demands before or after Lincoln's 
 inauguration, we can, he had no doubt, get them complied 
 
14 
 
 with. The idea of resistance or disunion on account of Lin- 
 coln's election, if carried out in practice, is fraught with 
 destruction to Democratic principles and at war with all 
 social safety. If there is to be an appeal to arms by the de- 
 feated party in presidential elections, it opens up a more 
 horrid future than ever fell to the lot of any nation. We at 
 once fall to the level of Mexico and Mexicans, the most de- 
 graded and abject nation on earth. That nation has been 
 scourged for forty years by wars among themselves on ac- 
 count of defeated parties for the Presidency. It has become 
 a bye-word of reproach among the nations of the earth- — the 
 country impoverished, property destroyed, and no one safe 
 from the hand of violence and rapine. Miramon and Jaraz 
 ■ — one the candidate of the party claiming rightful election, 
 the other the leader of the opposite party, are the present 
 actors in the bloody tragedy in that country. If the sword 
 is to be substituted as the arbiter of elections instead of the 
 ballot box, the horrors of civil war would be more aggravated 
 here than almost in any other country, because of the daring 
 character of the American Anglo-Saxon race. When 
 " Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." 
 
 Is the glorious principle of self-government by the people 
 to go down in blood, civil war and darkness, asked Mr. B. ? 
 Are mankind again destined to be rode by desperate military 
 adventurers, with no safety for persons or property- — property 
 seized by the strong hand of power, and the liberty of the 
 citizen trampled under the bloody hoof of civil dissensions^ 
 These said Mr. B., are most solemn atid serious considera- 
 tions, addressing themselves with more than solemn emphasis 
 to those in every relation of life. 
 
 Let us then, said Mr. B., take no rash step. Let the slave- 
 holding States all act together; let them make a united 
 demand on the Northern States as States, not on the shuffling 
 politicians at Washington, who, so far as extreme men are 
 concerned are the political ephemera of the day, who were 
 generated in sectionalism, and could not politically survive 
 a month if the corrupt, atmosphere in which they live and 
 have their being, could be purified by the more healthy 
 tone of a true public sentiment. Let it be demanded that 
 the slavery question be forever taken from the halls of Con- 
 gress, where the slave institution has so long been made 
 the foot ball of sectional demagogues, and moved as men 
 are on a chess-board to win a game or answer a selfish 
 purpose. Justice to the slave-holder — the best interests of 
 the slave-holder, nay, the peace and harmony of the country 
 all require that it should at as early a period as practicable, 
 
15 
 
 by constitutional amendments, be taken otit of the hands of 
 trading politicians, forever settled, and forever taken from 
 the halls of Congress. 
 
 Mr. B. said, by the border and other States not now seced- 
 ing and remaining in the Union, these guaranties he most 
 sincerely believed, and did not doubt could be obtained, and 
 by amendments and a re-construction' of the federal govern- 
 ment — the reasons for secession being removed- — the States 
 that had seceded would joyfully be hailed on returning to the 
 Union, and the Southern and Northern States rejoiced at the 
 dangers which they had escaped, forgetting past dissensions, 
 remembering in a generous patriotism only glories and friend- 
 ship, would, like Brutus and Cassius, after an angry quarrel, 
 become the better friends. 
 
 Mi-. B. said that he had heard with pleasure mingled with 
 pain his friend, the Senator from Brunswick. While the 
 opinions declared by him in favor of separate State action and 
 despairing of the continuance of the present federal Union 
 gave him pain, he would say, that the Senator had, on his 
 part, conducted the debate with a dignity, an ability and par- 
 liamentary decorum that contributed to lessen the pain inci- 
 dent to such differences of opinion. He Mr. B., like the 
 Senator, admired the history of South Carolina — to one of 
 her lamented sons, Robt. Y. Hayne, he was more attached 
 than to any member of Congress with whom it had been his 
 fortune to form an acquaintance ; — he had lived in the same 
 house with him at Washington, had been honored with his 
 intimacy, had received acts of kindness from him, when him- 
 self comparatively a young man, that he could never forget. 
 He was the gentleman, the scholar, the statesman and soldier. 
 South Carolina had left the family of States. He had always 
 contended that she or any other State had that right, as a 
 last resort ; and while he|regretted that she had not, in con- 
 cert w T ith all the slaveholding States, united in a common de- 
 mand upon Northern States for a redress of our wrongs and 
 all acted together, if refused, yet he had no word of reproach 
 for her. While she acted on the defensive and confined her- 
 self to that line of action, he would say that she was entitled 
 to a common sympathy and a common resistance against 
 force, come from where it may. He could not permit him- 
 self to doubt that her own wisdom and patriotism, as well as 
 respect for her sister States of the South, would induce her to 
 pursue the course indicated. In secession, without all proper 
 efforts to settle difficulties with the North, he could not see 
 the benefits which the Senator from Brunswick saw 7 . He 
 could only see in it, at this time, an incalculable aggravation 
 
16 
 
 of present evils. There would probably be twenty fugitive 
 slaves in the border States for one at present, on a hostile 
 border line of fiteen hundred miles, with no law to recover 
 them, civil war in a few weeks would be inevitable — a stand- 
 ing army in North-Carolina alone of fifteen or twenty thous- 
 and men, with an annual expenditure for its support, with 
 some war steamers to defend our seacoast, amounting to at 
 least six millions per annum, besides coming in conflict with 
 the glorious principle of our Bill of Rights, that standing 
 armies are dangerous to liberty. 
 
 In entering on this movement of secession, he, Mr. 13., 
 would like, before taking the leap, to know what kind of gov- 
 ernment we are to come under? Before a family removes 
 from one house to another, a prudent head of the family al- 
 ways examines the new premises to be occupied. He would 
 go under no government that did not take great State right 
 and democratic principles as its fundamental doctrines. Any 
 constitution that does not acknowledge that all government, 
 to be just, is derived from the consent of the governed, is a 
 usurpation. He doubted not that the great mass of our coun- 
 trymen were right on this principle; yet, when standing 
 armies and military power are in the ascendant, all history 
 proves that they override the authority of the people and be- 
 come the government. 
 
 It may be said that he had been too frank in stating the 
 dangers of disunion. It required more moral courage to do 
 this, boldly, than to pass over and conceal the dangers. The 
 man of true moral courage, in every age, before entering on 
 an expedition or adventure, looks the difficulties squarely in 
 the face and candidly weighs and states them, to see if he is 
 justified in taking the proposed course of action. Tie would 
 now, in conclusion, say, that let all the slaveholding States 
 meet together, in convention, make a definite demand of the 
 North of such constitutional guarantees as are demanded by 
 our safety and honor, as equals in the Union — a-much more ef- 
 fectual plan than for fifteen separate States to make as many 
 different demands; and if those demands are refused, it will 
 then be conclusive evidence that wrong to us is intended, and 
 will justify us in the eyes of the whole world in standing to 
 onr arms and seeking safety in a separate form of govern- 
 ment.