Note.--In the course of the debate in the Senate on these grave
propositions, a manly and eloquent speech was made on the 2d of March,
1861, by the Hon. Joseph Lane, a Senator from Oregon, who had been the
candidate of the Democratic State-rights party for the Vice-Presidency
of the United States, in the canvass of 1860. Some passages of this
speech seem peculiarly appropriate for insertion here. General Lane was
replying to a speech of Mr. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, afterward
President of the United States:
"Mr. President, the Senator from Tennessee complains of my
remarks on his speech. He complains of the tone and temper of
what I said. He complains that I replied at all, as I was a
Northern Senator. Mr. President, I am a citizen of this Union
and a Senator of the United States. My residence is in the
North, but I have never seen the day, and I never shall, when I
will refuse justice as readily to the South as to the North. I
know nothing but my country, the whole country, the
Constitution, and the equality of the States--the equal right of
every man in the common territory of the whole country; and by
that I shall stand.
"The Senator complains that I replied at all, as I was a
Northern Senator, and a Democrat whom he had supported at the
last election for a high office. Now, I was, as I stated at the
time, surprised at the Senator's speech, because I understood it
to be for coercion, as I think it was understood by almost
everybody else, except, as we are now told, by the Senator
himself; and I still think it amounted to a coercion speech,
notwithstanding the soft and plausible phrases by which he
describes it--a speech for the execution of the laws and the
protection of the Federal property.
Pages:
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405