your charge of destructiveness against us, are based on | ago, "it is still in our power to direct the process of emanthe most clear and stable foundations.

Again, you say we have made the Slavery question more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, your innovation; and thence comes the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that question reduced to its former proportions? Go back to that old policy. What has been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, re-adopt the precepts and policy of the old times. You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not designate the man, and prove the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and especially to persist in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply a malicious slander.

cipation, and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; and their places be, pari passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up."

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the slaveholding States only.

The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the institution-the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur on any American soil which is now free from Slavery. John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with many attempts related in history, at the assassination of Kings and Emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little else than in his own execution. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, and on New England in the other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things.

The

And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use of John Brown, Helper's book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling against Slavery in this You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling-that sentiment-by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire, but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot box, into some other channel? What would that other channel probably be? Would the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the operation?

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair; but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrine, and make no declarations, which were not held to and made by our fathers who framed the Government under which we live. You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important State elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that, by charg-nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes. ing the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those elections. The elections came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a Blander, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a continual protest against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in common with our fathers, who framed the Government under which we live, declare our belief that Slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know there is a Republican party. I believe they would not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrepresentations of us, in their hearing. In your political contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy with Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among the slaves.

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your constitutional rights.

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing.

When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of yours, to take slaves into the federal territories, and to hold them there as property. But no such right is Slave insurrections are no more common now than specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument they were before the Republican party was organized. is literally silent about any such right. We, on the conWhat induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-trary, deny that such a right has any existence in the Coneight years ago, in which, at least, three times as many stitution, even by implication. lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton was got up by Black Republicanism. In the present state of things in the United States, I do not think a general, or even a very extensive slave insurrection, is possible. The indispensable concert of action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid communication; nor can incendiary free men, black or white, supply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable connecting trains.

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty individuals before some one of them, to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave-revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar circumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, though not connected with slaves, was more in point. In that case, only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of Slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, will be alike disappointed.

Ir the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

This, plainly stated, is your language to us. Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has decided the disputed Constitutional question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving the lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision, the Courts have decided the question for you in a sort of way. The Courts have substantially said, it is your Constitutional right to take slaves into the federal territories, and to hold them there as property.

When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided Court by a bare majority of the Judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the reasons for making it; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree with one another about its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact-the statement in the opinion that "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution."

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in it. Bear in mind the Judges do not pledge their judicial opinion that such is right is impliedly af firmed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity that it is distinctly and expressly affirmed there--" distinctly," that is, not mingled with anything else-" expressly," that is, in wo ds meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning.

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that

MR. BRECKINRIDGE ON NATIONAL POLITICS.

SPEECH AT FRANKFORT, KY.

THE HON. JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE delivered | pealed, and we passed the act known as the Kansas-Nethe following speech on the general political the United States were constantly contending that it was braska bill. The Abolition, or quasi Abolition party of topics of the day before the Legislature of Ken- the right of Congress to prohibit Slavery in the common tucky at Frankfort in Dec. 1859. Mr. Breckin-Territories of the Union. The Democratic party, aided by ridge had been recently elected to the United States Senate, by the Kentucky Legislature; and after returning his thanks for the distinguished honor, and promising to serve the State to the best of his ability, he continued as follows:

sas and Nebraska?

most of the gentlemen from the South, took the opposite view of the case. Our object was, if possible, to withdraw that question from the Halls of Congress, and place it where it could no longer risk the public welfare and the public interest. In the Congress of the United States it South; accordingly (I have not a copy of the bill before had been agitated all the time, to the disadvantage of the me now, but I remember its leading provisions), a bill was The election took place on Monday. The day before passed, repealing the Missouri line, and leaving those TerI received a letter signed by a number of gentlemen in ritories upon the contract and the assertion that the bill the Legislature, asking my opinion in reference to the made. Did we intend by it to legislate Slavery into KanDRED SCOTT decision, in reference to Territorial Sover-the face of the bill itself. The settlement thus made, afWe denied that, and denied it upon eignty, and the power of Congress to protect the property of citizens within the Territories. I received that letter with profound respect, and only regret it did not come to my hands in time, that I might answer it before the election. But yet I am glad that I could not answer it before that day, for your choice is a sort of indorsement of my soundness upon those questions. somewhat gratified that the election took place before I had those questions to answer. It was utterly impossible for me to have returned an answer before the time fixed by your law for the election, but, I never intended to fail in this answer. I never should have failed. Had it been one who signed it, instead of twenty, the result would have been precisely the same.

I confess I was

Besides this, it would have been of but little consequence, be the answer before or after. I belong to that school of politics that believes in instruction, and whenever I am not ready to receive the instructions of the State, I stand ready to give back the trust confided in my hands.

THE DRED SCOTT DECISION.

Gentlemen, I bow to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States upon every question within its proper jurisdiction, whether it corresponds with my private opinion or not; only, I bow a trifle lower when it happens to do so, as the decision in the Dred Scott case does. I approve it in all its parts as a sound exposition of the law and constitutional rights of the States, and citizens that inhabit them. (Applause.) It may not be improper for me here to add that so great an interest did I take in that decision, and in its principles being sustained and understood in the commonwealth of Kentucky, that I took the trouble, at my own cost, to print or have printed a large edition of that decision to scatter it over the State, and unless the mails have miscarried, there is scarcely a member elected to the Legislature who has not received a copy with my frank.

To approve the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case would seem to settle the whole question of Territorial Sovereignty, as I think will presently appear; but, in order that no one may misunderstand my views on that question, I will, with your leave, detain you with a brief review of what was done as to the Slavery question up to the time of that decision, referring also to the duties imposed by it.

terward received the approval of the people of the whole country. The bill said within itself, not that we intend to legislate Slavery into the Territories, but to leave the people free to form their own domestic institutions, subject only to the Constitution of the United States. That was as much as we could agree upon. There was a point upon which we could not agree. A considerable portion of the Northern Democracy held that Slavery was in derogation of common right, and could only exist by force of positive law. They contended that the Constitution did not furnish that law, and that the slaveholder could not go into the Territories with his slaves with the Constitution to authorize him in holding his slaves as property, or to protect him. The South, generally, without distinction of party, held the opposite view. They held that the citizens of all the States may go with whatever was recognized by the Constitution as property, and enjoy it. That did not seem to be denied to any article of property except slaves. Accordingly, the bill contained the provision, that any question in reference to Slavery should be referred to the court of the United States, and the understanding was, that whatever the judicial decision should be, it would be binding upon all parties, not only by virtue of the agreement, but under the obligation of the citizens to respect the authority of the legally constituted courts of the country.

WHAT HE SAID IN 1856.

It was under these circumstances, while the Territory of Kansas was in a state of commotion, and when that question had not been determined by the courts, that the canvass of 1856 came on. It became my duty, by the request of my friends, to visit the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In all those States I made speeches. In all those States I uttered the same opinions and declared the same principles that I have ever done in the commonwealth of Kentucky, and am ready to do again. None other!

It has been charged that the Democratic party of the country, and particularly of the South, desired to employ the Federal Government for the purpose of propagating Slavery and slave legislation in the Territories. I denied that the Democratic party desired to use the Federal Government for the propagation of Slavery, and I never conceded what we believed to be our constitutional right to its protection, and what the decision of the Supreme Court has allowed to be our right, I said yes! I did say that the Democratic party of this country, in its federal aspect, was neither a Pro-Slavery nor an Anti-Slavery party, but I was in the Congress of the United States when that a constitutional party, and I repeat it here to-night. (ApMissouri line was repealed. I never would have voted for plause.) I do not believe it is. I do not believe that the any bill organizing the Territory of Kansas as long as that Federal Government was organized for either purpose, but All odious stigma upon our institutions remained upon the to protect the rights adjudicated by the courts. statute-book. I voted cheerfully for its repeal, and in do- these belong to the States themselves. ing that I cast no reflection upon the wise patriots who These were the declarations that I made, of which someacquiesced in it at the time it was established. It was re-thing has been heard in all the States. I made the

THE MISSOURI LINE.

declarations that I am willing to make before my own "And whatever the political department of the Government constituents; I made the declarations that I am willing shall recognize as within the limits of the United States, the to stand here and repeat. (Applause.) We had confi- Judicial Department is also bound to recognize, and to administer in it the laws of the United States, so far as they apply, dence in our own view of our own rights. Our northern and to maintain in the territory the authority and rights of the friends had their views. It was a paradoxical question, Government, and also the political right and rights of property and we gave it to the Courts. of individual citizens as secured by the Constitution. All we Well, the Courts did decide the very question, which mean to say on this point is. that as there is no express reguhad been submitted to them, not upon a case from Kan-lation in the Constitution defining the power which the Generat sas, but in another case. Without going into the argu- citizen in a territory thus acquired. the Court must necessarily Government may exercise over the person or property of a ment, for time does not permit of that, let me give you look to the provisions and principles of the Constitution and it the conclusion. In the opinion of the Court in the case distribution of powers, for the rules and principles by which of Dred Scott, it is said: its decision must be governed."

"Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the Court' So that in regard to slave property, as in regard to any that the act of Congress which prohibits a citizen from holding other property recognized and guarded by the Constitu and owning property of this kind in the Territory of the tion, it is the duty, according to the Supreme Court, of al United States, north of the line herein mentioned, is not the Courts of the country to protect and guard it by their warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void; and that decision, whenever the question is brought before them neither Dred Scott himself nor any of his family were made To which I will only add this, that the judicial decisions free by being carried into this Territory, even if they had in our favor must be maintained-these judicial decisions been carried there by the owner, with the intention of becom-in our favor must be sustained. (Applause.) ing a permanent resident."

Again:

"The powers over person and property of which we speak, are not only not granted to Congress, but are in express terms denied, and they are forbidden to exercise them. And this prohibition is not confined to the States, but the words are general, and extend to the whole territory over which the Constitution gives it power to legislate, including those portions of it remaining under Territorial government, as well as that covered by States. It is a total absence of power everywhere within the dominion of the United States, and places the citizen of a Territory, so far as those rights are concerned, on the same footing with citizens of the States, and guards them as firmly and plainly against any inroads which the General Government might attempt, under the plea of implied or incidental power. And if Congress itself cannot do thisif it is beyond the powers conferred on the Federal Government-it will be admitted, we presume, that it could not authorize a Territorial government to exercise them. It could confer no power on any local government, established by its authority, to violate the provisions of the Constitution." Thus the highest court in the United States settled the very question referred to it as the disputed point, not legislative in its character, on which Congress could not agree when the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed. The view that we in the Southern States took of it was sustained, that in the Territories, the common property of the Union, pending their Territorial condition, Congress itself nor the Territorial Government had the power to confiscate any description of property recognized in the States of the Union. The Court drew no distinction between slaves and other property. It is true some foreign philanthropists and some foreign writers do undertake to draw this distinction, but these distinctions have nothing to do with our system of Government. Our Government rests not upon the speculations of philanthropic writers, but upon the plain understanding of a written constitution which determines it, and upon that alone. It is the result of positive law; therefore we are not to look to the analogy of the supposed law of nations, but to regard the Constitution itself, which is the written expression of the respective powers of the Government and the rights of the States.

UNFRIENDLY LEGISLATION.

Well, that being the case, and it having been authoritatively determined by the very tribunal to which it was referred that Congress had no power to exclude slave property from the Territory, and judiciously determined that the Territorial Legislatures, authorities created by Congress, had not the power to exclude or confiscate slave property, I confess that I had not anticipated that the doctrines of unfriendly legislation would be set up. Hence, I need not say to you that I do not believe in the doctrine of unfriendly legislation; that I do not believe in the authority of Territorial Legislatures to do by indirec tion what they cannot do directly. I repose upon the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, as to the point that neither Congress nor the Territorial Legislature has the right to obstruct or confiscate the of any citizen, slaves included, pending the territorial condition. (Applause.)

property

I do not see any escape from that decision, if you admit that the question was a judicial one; if you admit the decision of the Supreme Court, and if you stand by the decision of the highest Court of the country.

The Supreme Court seems to have recognized it as the duty-as the duty of the Courts of this Union in their proper sphere to execute this constitutional right, thus adjudicated by the Supreme Court, in the following lan guage. In speaking of the acquisition of territory, they pronounce it a political question for Congress to determine what territory they acquire and how many. Now mark the words of the Court:

SLAVE CODE.

If present remedies are adequate to sustain these decisions, I would have nothing more done. I, with many other public men in the country, believe they are able If they are not-if they cannot be enforced for want of the proper legislation to enforce them, sufficient legisla tion must be passed, or our Government is a failure. (Applause.) Gentlemen, I see no escape from that conclusion.

At the same time, fellow-citizens, I make no hesitatica in saying to you that I trust the time will never comeI trust the time will never come when it may be deemed necessary for the Congress of the United States in any form to interfere with this question in the Territories. So far it has been only productive of evil to us, and it would portend only evil in the future. At present there is no question before Congress. No Southern Representative or Senator proposes legislation on that point-no complaint comes from any territory-there is no evidence that the existing laws and decisions of the Courts are not adequate to protect every description of property recognized by the several States. None whatever. Therefore, in my opinion, and I submit it humbly and with deference, our true policy is not to anticipate trouble, but to let the matter rest upon the Executive, upon the existing laws, and upon the decisions of the Courts. (Applause.) I will add this: we must never give up the principle, we must never give up the question that has been judiciously decided, that this constitutional right exists. We must stand by that decision. We must hold to our constitutional rights, but I would never prematurely raise the question to distract the country, when there is no voice calling for it, North, East, South or West. (Applause.) I say we must hold to the principle-we must stand by it. We stand in a good position. We have the Executive, we have the laws, we have the decisions of the Courts, and that is a great advance from where we stood ten years ago.

I am glad-although we did not succeed as we desired in Kansas-I am glad that the territorial question is nearly fought out. It is nearly fought out. I know of no existing Territory where this question can arise. As to the territory south of the line, where slave labor is really profitable, I have not a doubt but that the climate and interest, and the proximity of slaveholders, and the Constitution and laws, and the decision of the Court, will sustain and protect us there in the full enjoyment of our rights, and in making Southern territory out of Southern soil. While I would not give up the principle, I never have believed, and I do not believe now, in the possibility of Slavery planting itself in a territory against the determined opposition of the inhabitants, any more than I believe the institution of Slavery could continue in existence in Kentucky for three years against the desire of the voters of the Commonwealth, even with the constitutional restictions that are here thrown around it.

Still, I would save the question and the principle, and never let go the constitutional right, because our protection in the Union consists in a strict adherence to the When we allow an infracprovisions of the Constitution. tion of the Constitution on any one point, we lose our claim to the observance of the whole. We should insist to the last that the Constitution of the country shall be sustained in every particular. (A voice-"Good.")

THE PERIL OF THE COUNTRY.

Fellow-citizens, if you will allow me, I will offer you some observations upon another aspect of public affairs. We have been talking of things that concern us no more than they concern others, but we have questions to determine that come nearer home-questions that come to our

resides. According to my humble judgment, the condition of our country was never so perilous as it is at this hour; and if things go drifting on as they have of 'ate, we shall have to determine questions of far nearer vitality than the territorial question.

I hope I do not speak in the spirit of an alarmist or a jemagogue, but since I have been acquainted with public affairs (and men older and wiser than myself say the same thing) there never was a time when the interests of this Union were in so much peril, and when the feelings of our people were so much alienated as at this hour. Certainly if the aspect of affairs at Washington is in the slightest degree indicative of the feeling elsewhere, that remark is truth.

ITS CAUSE.

have, dominance in the Northern States of the Union, se say of an institution of their Southern relatives they are harboring a relic of barbarism? That shows you, fellow citizens, their indomitable purpose, their deep-seated hate. I am sorry that it exists, but it is true. How can you expect a great political organization that obtains power, to fail to exercise that power when in its opinion this Union is stained or defiled as to one-half, perhaps, of its inhabitants, by a relic of barbarism, which it classes with the crime of polygamy.

SEWARD QUOTED

Fellow-citizens, the danger arises, in the opinion of our wisest and best men, from the character and purpose and aim of an organization in the country called the Re-leaders. I beg you, fellow-citizens, though they may be publican party.

I do not think we fully realize what are the objects, purposes and aims of the Republican party, what it intends, and what would be the consequences to us of their success and dominion in the United States. If you will allow me, therefore, I have gathered together three or four facts-mere expressions-mere illustrations or examples, from many thousands of kindred characters, for the purpose of showing what its objects are-to show what we may expect to follow their success.

HIS VIEWS OF REPUBLICANISM.

First is their platform, made three years ago, but beyond which they have far advanced. Like all aggressive organizations, the rear rank of the Republican party marches up and comes upon the ground that the advanced guard occupied months before, while the advanced guard is going ahead. The Republicans are far in advance of their platform, but we have there enough to put us on our guard.

What are our rights? Have we not a right to have our fugitives returned? If there is a plainer provision than that in the instrument, what is it? Have we not a right to live in peace in this Union? What was the Constitution formed for? When the Constitution was made, was it not made by brethren? Was it not made that this political organization should be carried on in peace and harmony? Have we not a right to demand of our sister States, that we may live together in peace with our respective State institutions, with our whole domestic policy? And is it not a gross violation of the Constitution not to allow us to live in peace, as to refuse to return our fugitives from labor that have escaped into other States? Do they intend to do it? No, they do not. They begin by declaring the Declaration of Independence is a rule of our political action. Here is the declaration of the Republican platform, adopted three years ago, beyond which they have now far advanced:

"Resolved, That with our Republican fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons under Its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished Slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty and property, without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing Slavery in the Territories of the United States by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein.

with the white man.

This is a positive pledge, that as soon as that party obtains power, it will recognize the equality of the negro Its object will be to give him those rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To maintain that equality what follows? Everybody knows that when they obtain the power in the District of Columbia, they will abolish Slavery there; when they obtain the power, they will undertake to abolish it in the forts, arsenals, and dock-yards of the United States throughout the South; they will undertake to abolish the internal slave-trade. Already they declare that not another Slave State shall be admitted into the Union, and they will go beyond that. How can we expect to live in peace and harmony, when declarations of this sort are uttered:

"Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that, in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress, to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and Slavery."

Is that in the spirit of our revolutionary ancestors? Is it in the spirit of our revolutionary ancestors for a great and growing party, that now claims, and perhaps

This is not all. I could have brought here the declar ations of its representative and leading men from a parts of the Northern States, going infinitely further thar is contained there. Allow me, however, to read one or two of the most striking from the most eminent of ther familiar, not to weary with a few extracts, for these us terances are the rallying cry of millions of men. I hold in my hand a speech delivered by a Senator of the State of New-York, who is to-day the most influential publie man in this Union, on whose words millions hang, and by whose direction millions move. Is this the Constitu tion and Union that our fathers founded?

Last year, in a speech delivered at Rochester, that gentleman uttered the following language:

"Our country is a theatre which exhibits, in full operation two radically different political systems; the one resting o the basis of servile or slave labor, the other on the basis of voluntary labor of freemen.

But they are more than incongruous. They are incompat"The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous. íble. They never have permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.

"Hitherto the two systems have existed in different States, but side by side within the American Union. This has hap pened because the Union is a confederation of States. But on another aspect the United States constitute only one nation. very borders, together with a new and extended net-work of Increase of population which is filling the States out to their railroads and other avenues, and an internal commerce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly bringing the States into a higher and more perfect social unity or consolidation. Thus these antagonistic systems are constitutionally coming into close contact and collision results."

Yes, "collision ensues," and his prophecy was fulfilled in less than twelve months after it was made.

"Shall I tell you what this collision means? It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces; and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, become entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New-Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise alone; or else the rye-fields and surrendered by their farmers to slave culture, and to the prowheat-fields of Massachusetts and New-York must again be duction of slaves, and Boston and New-York become once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men. It is the failure to apprehend this great truth that induces so many and Free States, and it is the existence of this great fact that unsuccessful attempts at final compromise between the Slave renders all such pretended compromises, when made, vain

and ephemeral."

These things would have no consequence if they were the individual opinions of their author, but they are the opinions of a large and formidable and growing party in this Union; of a party that now claims a majority in the House of Representatives, and which looks, at no very distant day, to have a majority in the Senate. I ask you if that was the Union formed by our fathers? Did they anticipate such a political party would arise to declare that there "is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces" in the United States?

It is not my purpose to characterize or stigmatize this doctrine now, but to set forth what we are to expect and what we are to meet.

At a later period, in the Senate of the United States, that same distinguished Senator uttered the following language, (I well remember the occasion and the speech:)

"A free Republican Government like this, notwithstanding all its constitutional checks, cannot long resist and counteract the progress of society."

They don't expect the provisions of the Constitution and its checks to prevent them from taking their onward Indeed, they have a facility of construing progress that instrument, which makes it as dust in the balance. They construe it to authorize them not to return fugitive slaves; to authorize them to make a war upon one half of the nation. There is no provision of the Constitution which has stood in their way as to any right of ours that we have claimed upon this great question. Not only did he announce in the Senate of the United States,