peachments of treason and perjury, to reach another, namely, an impeachment of coward- jce_ an impeachment which I confess grated more harshly on my ear than all the other vituperations in which he indulged. The Senator from Georgia said that we, the Republican Senators here, “and the untold millions we represent, have fallen so low, that we have not only lost our virtue, but with it we have lost our courage, so that we have not the spirit to resent an injury.” Did the Senator believe the declaration which he made ? If he did believe it, and I have no doubt he did, from the tenor of his language, he believed that on this side of the Chamber we were all non-combatants. I will not suppose that he intended to earn a cheap reputation for valor, by insulting those who he supposed would never accept a challenge. Mr. President, the whole world knows, and therefore the Senator from Georgia must know, that the people of the free States of this Union have utterly condemned, repudiated, and abolished, the old and barbarous practice of duelling; every intelligent man knows, and therefore the Senator from Georgia knows, that if a Senator here from either of these States should engage in a duel, he would, for that cause alone, whatever might be his excuse, be deserted and proscribed; that he would be treated as an outcast; while, if he should kill his adversary, he would be subjected to indictment and trial for murder, and would forever be excluded from all public trust of honor or profit. This tone of high moral sentiment is just and righteous in itself, and I do not mean to gainsay it now; but I do feel that k has placed me at a disadvantage here. I feel it frequently, I feel that it often places all of us here at the mercy of those who, not having adopted the same j ust sentiments, act towards us as if they construed our constrained forbearance into a want of courage. Our Northern people have no reason to distrust the courage of any portion of their fellow-citizens. Physical courage, with our Northern people,, is a sentiment so general, that I must say that it is cheapened by its universality. No man suspects another to be a coward ; for it would be an exception to almost a universal rule. Who ever has seen the Northern people called into the field of combat to maintain their rights, and not known that braver men never stepped upon the quarter-deck, braver men never entered the perilous breach ? Who ever heard of a coward among them all, where duty calls? Sir, we on this side, if I understand the Senator from Georgia, and the untold millions whom we represent, have not the courage to maintain our honor. Even if I thought that----- Mr. TOOMBS. I refer the honorable Senator to my speech. I made no such allegation against the people of the North. I said that people who did not maintain their obligations, (and I was alluding especially to the Republican party,) people who would violate their compacts, were not to be dreaded when they threatened to march down their millions upon us. The speech is in print. There is no such allegation against the people of the North; but the gentlemen seem to consider themselves the people of the North, and Ido not. That is the difference between us. Mr. WADE. Here is precisely what the Senator did say: I may construe it differently from him, perhaps. Let us see what was his language: 44 I doubt if there be five, out of all the mem- ‘ bers of the Republican party on this floor, ‘ who will stand up here to-day, and say they 4 are willing, either by State or Federal legisla- 1 tion, or in any other manner, to uphold and ‘ comply with this provision of the Constitution. 1 I do not believe there are enough to meet 4 God’s final requisition to save Sodom. No, 4 sir; they mock at constitutional obligations, 4 jeer at oaths.” A little further on he said: 44 They place great reliance on this arm of 4 the Black Republican phalanx, [alluding to 1 the slaves, I suppose.] When they get ready 4 for this brotherly work, in the name and be- ‘ half of my constituents I extend to them a 1 cordial invitation to come down to see us. ‘ But it is due to candor to say that their repu- 4 tation needs some building up among my 4 constituents. We do not think those men 4 the most dangerous who are the most faith- 4 less to their compacts; and, in very truth, we 4 have but small fear of men, even as leaders of 4 untold millions, who have not manhood enough 4 to maintain and defend their own honors.” I supposed that the leader was as courageous, at all events, as those he led. That was the construction that I put upon it. I supposed that it was a declaration that we, and those whom we represent, lacked that courage which is necessary to maintain our own honor when it is impeached. If the gentleman says that was not----- Mr. TOOMBS. I call the Senator’s attention to this: I said that those persons who were faithless to their eompacts, who passed personal liberty bills, were not to be dreaded; and there is no other construction, I think, to be put on the language- fairly, though the Senator can give it- what construction he pleases. Mr. WADE. I accept the gentleman’s construction of it. I put a much larger construction on it than that; but I am very glad to hear the Senator’s explanation, because I see that it is no particular merit to bs, nor to the gentlemen on that side, that we generally have physical courage. We inherit it from our heroic ancestors, who, when occasion required it, dragged guilty kings from their thrones, and deprived them of their crowns, because they undertook to trample upon the rights of the people; and we, their descendants, I trust in God, are as ready to vindicate, not only our
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