13 our wishes. I believe nobody at this day denies the right ■ but they that undertake it, undertake it with this hazard • if they are successful, then all is right, and they are heroes ; if they are defeated, they are rebels. That is the character of all revolution : if successful, of course it is well; if unsuccessful, then the Government from which they havl rebelled treats them as traitors. I do not say this because I apprehend that any party intends to make war upon a seceding State. I only assert their right from the nature of the act, if they see fit to do so; but I would not advise nor counsel it. I should be very tender of the rights of a people, if I had full power over them, who are about to4 destroy a Government which they deliberately come to the conclusion they cannot live under ; but I am persuaded that the necessities of our position compel us to take a more austere ground, and hold that if a State secedes, although we will not make war upon her, we cannot recognize her right to be out of the Union, and she is not out until she gains the consent of the Union itself; and that the Chief Magistrate of the nation, be he who he may, will find'under the Constitution of the United States that it is his sworn duty to execute the law in every part and parcel of this Government; that he cannot be released from that obligation; for there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that would warrant him in saying that a single star has fallen from this galaxy of stars in the Confederacy. He is sworn not to know that a State has seceded, or pay the least respect to their resolutions that claim they have. What follows? Not that we would make war upon her, but we should have to exercise every Federal right over her if we had the power; and the most important of these would be^the collection of the revenues. There are many rights that the Federal Government exercises over the States for the peculiar benefit of the people there, which, if they did not want, they could dispense with. If they did not want the mails carried there, the President might abolish the offices, and cease to carry their mails. They might forego any such duty peculiarly for the benefit of the people. They might not elect their officers and send them here. It is a privilege they have; but we cannot force them to do it. They have the right under the Constitution to be represented upon equal terms with any other State; but if they see fit to forego that right; and do not claim it, it is not incumbent upon the President to endeavor to force them to do an act of that kind. But when you come to those duties which impose obligations upon them, in common with the other members of the Confederacy, he cannot be released from his duty. Therefore, it will be incumbent on the Chief Magistrate to proceed to collect the revenue of ships entering their ports, precisely in the same way and to the same extent that he does now in every other State of the Union. We cannot release him from that obligation. The Constitution, in thunder tones, demands that he shall do it alike in the ports of every State. What follows? Why, sir, if he shuts up the ports of entry so that a ship cannot discharge her cargo there or get papers for^nother voyage, then ships will cease to trade; or, if he undertakes to blockade her, and thus collect it, she has not gained her independence by seces sion. What must she do? If she is contented to live in this equivocal state all would be well, perhaps ; but she could not live there. No people in th'e world could live in that condition. What will they do ? They must take the initiative and declare war upon the United States ; and the moment that they levy war force must be met by force ; and they must, therefore, hew out their independence by violence and war. There is no other way under the Constitution, that I know of, whereby a Chief Magistrate of any polities could be released from this duty. If this State, though seceding, should declare war against th'e United States, I do not suppose there is a lawyer in this body but what would say that the act of levying wav is treason against the United States. That is where.it results. We might just as well look the matter right in the face. The Senator from .Texas says — it is not exactly his language — we will force you to an ignominious treaty up in Faneuil Hall. Well, sir, you may. We know you are brave j^we understand your prowess; we want no fight with you; but, nevertheless, if you drive us to that necessity, we must use all the powers of this Government to maintain it intact in its integrity. If we are overthrown, we but share the fate of a thousand other Governments that have been subverted. If you are the weakest, then you must go to the wall; and that ia all there is about it.
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