24 tarn loathing away from its waters, although our thirst may be almost unto death itself? Sir, the laws and the Constitution and the ordinances of our country, to have efficient force and life and being, must be engraved upon the hearts of the people. Once erase or obliterate that inscription, and it will not be-long before the lawgiver himself, in some fit of exasperation, will shiver into fragments the tablets u pon which they are written, as mere unspeaking stone. In view of all these circumstances, docs it not behoove us to do something to appease this strife, to settle these difficulties, to allay this bitterness? Who could have the heart, at such a moment as this, to engage in the work of crimination and recrimination amongst the States of the Confederacy ? We all belong to the same family, and the character of tlm whole family is disparaged if we injure the reputation of one of its members. What pleasure or what profit should I derive by injuring the reputation-of Massachusetts? by dimming the luster of her revolutionary glory ? by taking a leaf from tliat chaplet of immortal flowers with which she is crowned? Sir, so far as I am concerned, instead of taking one stone from the Bunker Hill monument, I would add another to it. Let it tower to the skies, bearing upwards from earth to heaven whatever message of love and admiration may be transmitted from the living to the dead. Let it stand through the flight of ages, and carry down the story of those men and their deeds to the last syllable of recorded time. J will raise tio sacrilegious hand against a single stone on that altar; and if there beany who has a heart for such a deed, he can find no sympathy from me. Who can have the disposition to disparage the reputation and the military glory of any of the Old Thirteen ? If there be any man who can have a heart for such a work, he can have but little feeling in common with me. I will ipt aid in such a work. What materials are these that we are collecting for history? *What weapons are we placing in the hands of those who wish us ill, and who delight in every opportunity to disparage ourselves and our institutions? Mr. President, it has been said by wise and good men, “ give us peace abroad.” I sympathize with them in that wish; but it may not always be in our power to secure that peace. It may require the will of another as well as of ourselves; but I say, give us what-we can secure if we choose—give us peace at home. We want its opportunities to work out our destiny, and to crown with the glory of success the mos t wonderful experiment in human happiness that has ever been attempted in the history of man. We must have peace at home if we would wish to. inspire either fear or respect abroad. Is there nothing in the condition of things around us—is there nothing in the condition of things abroad, to induce us to do something to compose these differences, to allay this excitement, to settle those feuds? Can arfy man reconcile it to his conscience to feed high the hot fires of sectional strife on such an occasion as this? Are the doors of our Chamber, are the doors of the Congress of the United States, like those of the temple of Janus, to be opened only for war, for civil war, for domestic strife ? or may | we not rather close them upon such scenes, or i else open them to send forth once more the message of peace and good will, and to proclaim | throughout the land a vow to devote ourselves to i the common good of a common country, and to bury, as far as we can, the recollection of the so unhappy disputes? Mr'. President, 1 do believe that the time has- arrived when we should look at the state of i circumstances around us, coolly and dispassion- iately, and when every man should come to the .settlement of these differences with the will to sacrifice much of feeling, anything of the pride of i opinion, everything that he can, consistently with 'duty and conscience, to settle and quiet them, i Senators, I say to you that you hold in your hands the issues of life and death, to this mighty Republic, to this great Union. On your souls,! charge you to take heed how you deal with them. Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe.
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