4 citizen, who holds all the rights of citizenship as dear as the most wealthy. His stake in society is the same; his hope is the same ; his interest in good government is the same. He is none of your prostrate mud sills, deprived of those rights which God Almighty has given him, trampled under foot, and made to minister to the interests of another man. There is no such system as that with us. ALLIES OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS. But the Senator spoke about a degraded class in our great commercial cities. I have to confess that there is some truth in that. We have a degraded class in the cities. They are the offscourings generally of the Old World—men who come here reduced to beggary by their ignorance ; reduced to beggary by their vice; ignorant, vicious, dangerous. I do not deny it. They are incident to all large cities; but the Senator should not complain of them. They are the chief corner-stone of your political strength in the North. Find me the vicious ward of any city that does not uphold your system of Slavery, vote for its candidates, support its measures, and labor for its men. No, sir ; you should not complain of this vicious population. In truth and in fact, they are about the only stay and support you have there now, and you ought not to traduce them From their very natures, they attach themselves to you, and I do not think by any treatment you will be able to drive' them off. They are naturally with you ; they were slaves in their own countries ; they do not know anything else than to be the understrappers of somebody; and when they hear that here are slaveholders contending with freemen, you find them with the former all the time. UNION AND DISUNION. Mr. President, I think this shows the antag- onisim between the institutions of the North and the South. We have not made them so. Nobody here is particularly to blame for the state of things that exists. It has grown imperceptibly with our growth. Our lot has been cast either on one side of the line or the other. Our habits and our education have' conformed to that state of things existing where our lot has been cast. I can appreciate and make allowances for that, but I cannot be biased as to the right of the matter. I know where that is. Now, what is the remedy for this ? If you bring us into collision, your system of despotism encountering our system of freedom here on this floor, do you suppose there will be no excitement ? Is any one so superficial as to believe that it will depend on the temper and disposition of a man how this great controversy shall be settled? Net at all, sir. You may preach harmony, you may preach forbearance till doomsday ; but a violent conflict will take place every time these principles meet on this floor or elsewhere, because they are naturally antagonistic. God Almighty has made them so, and man cannot reconcile them. What, then, is our safety ? It is to stand upon the principles you once professed, rigid State rights, yielding to the General Government j ust as little power as is possible to cement it together so far as to provide for the common defence ; for the moment won ' g these things into the Ger assure you that you m; till doomsday, and concii I u. , what is to be the result of this controversy I know some cf you threaten to leave the Union unless you are gratified every time a Collision takes place between us; and that Texas of ours, with which I opened this debate, stands in a singular attitude towards us to-day. I have in my drawer three resolutions of her Legislature, presented to us at this session, asking for men for her protection, and for sums of money to indemnify her for expenses incurred, as she claims, in protecting herself, and urging upon the General G )vernment to make further provision for that State, which has already cost us so much. Her Legislature has sent to us a fourth resolution. I have not got it here, but I heard it read at the table; and, if I understood it aright, she has given us fair notice that she is about to go out of this Union. At all events, I do not think that was in good taste. I do not think it was politic; because we may say to her, “if you are ready going to leave us, perhaps it is best for us to make no further appropriation for you.” Why beg of us protection, and turn right around and tell us “ we are going to put you at defiance; we are going to hold a Hartford Convention cf the South, to deliberate whether we shall leave the Union?” Before I vote for the supplies she asks, I think I shall want to hear an explanation of this. I may want to know whether they are to inure to the benefit of the Union, or to furnish powder to blow out our own brains. Let me say here, Mr. President, that I have no apprehensions about the Union. The people I represent have got bravely over any qualms about your dissolving the Union. You may preach about it, and howl about it, until your lungs are sore; it will not move a muscle of my constituents or cf myself. I know that our destinies are cast together; and whether it is beneficial or not—and I do not know whether it is or not—-you can obtain no divorce. We are wedded for better or for worse, and forever ; and we had better make the best of our lot. You cannot go out. The Senator from Alabama [Mr. Clay] asked the Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Doolittle,] in the course of his remarks, whether, if they undertook to go out cf the Union, we were going to forcibly interpose to prevent it ? I do not remember exactly what the answer was, but I wanted to ask another question, f jr it has taxed my ingenuity to know how it is you can get a State out of this Union. If the most violent resolution, if the most flaming declaration, could have
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