..
"How absurd it is to suppose that, when different parties enter
into a compact for certain purposes, either can disregard any
one provision, and expect, nevertheless, the other to observe
the rest!...
"I have not hesitated to say, and I repeat, that, if the
Northern States refuse, willfully and deliberately, to carry
into effect that part of the Constitution which respects the
restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress provide no remedy,
the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A
bargain can not be broken on one side, and still bind the other
side."[87]
The principles which have been set forth in the foregoing chapters,
although they had come to be considered as peculiarly Southern, were not
sectional in their origin. In the beginning and earlier years of our
history they were cherished as faithfully and guarded as jealously in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire as in Virginia or South Carolina. It was
in these principles that I was nurtured. I have frankly proclaimed them
during my whole life, always contending in the Senate of the United
States against what I believed to be the mistaken construction of the
Constitution taught by Mr. Webster and his adherents. While I honored
the genius of that great man, and held friendly personal relations with
him, I considered his doctrines on these points--or rather the doctrines
advocated by him during the most conspicuous and influential portions of
his public career--to be mischievous, and the more dangerous to the
welfare of the country and the liberties of mankind on account of the
signal ability and magnificent eloquence with which they were argued.
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