25 Hear Pugh : “As my State of Alabama intends following South Carolina out of the Union by the 10th of January next, I pay no attention to any action taken by this body.” Now, I take it, these men knew then, abotit as much concerning what the South wanted as the sympathizing traitors of the North now do. They were the representatives from the Southern States, and they all declared that they wanted no compromise *, a southern confederacy was the only thing they did want, and that they intended to have. Mr. Speaker, I think I have shown conclusively that compromise with the South was out of the question; they would not compromise with their own party friends at Charleston or Baltimore, and, after that, could it be expected they would in Washington? Sir, it is charged that Mr. Lincoln was the first President who had ever been elected on a sectional platform, opposed to the institutions peculiar to nearly one half of the States.” Is there any truth in this statement ? Not one word ; all false, sir, absolutely false. The Republican platform, which was adopted by the party at Chicago, declared : “That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially of the right of a State to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend.” Where is the authority for saying that Mr. Lincoln was elected on a platform of avowed hostility to the institiitions of any Stale ? Sir$ no such authority can be found, for the very good reason that none such exists. No such authority was afforded by Mr. Lincoln in his numerous speeches, in all of which he repeated, in substance, what he said in his Inaugural: “ I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” Will it be said, such authority is afforded by the Republican party opposing the extension of slavery into the Territories ? Sir, in doing this, that party was endeavoring to carry out the principles and policy of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic party, as it existed in the earlier days of the Republic, when the name of democracy was not used by demagogues to cover up treason. Who dare charge the Republican party with seeking to destroy the sovereign rights of the States of the Union, by prohibiting slavery, a local institution, from spreading over all the territories of the United States? The Democratic party in every free State,Through its legislature, and the State of Delaware) through its legislature, passed resolutions either in form or substance like the following which was passed by the Democratic Legislature of New Hampshire in 1848 : “We are firmly and unalterably opposed to the extension of slavery over any portion of American soil now free." This was the uniform language of every Democratic legislature in the North and West in 1848. The Democratic party of the State of Ohio, not only expressed itself against the extension of slavery, but denounced the institution itself. At the Democratic Convention held in Columbus, January 8lh, 1848, the following resolutions were passed; “Resolved, That the people of Ohio now, as they always have done, look
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