Seward) may regret it, to bring
about a result which every man should, from his own sense of honor,
feel, when he takes his seat in this Chamber, that he is morally bound
to avoid as long as he retains possession of his seat.
To express myself more distinctly: I hold that a Senator, while he sits
here as the representative of a State in the Federal Government, is in
the relation of a minister to a friendly court, and that the moment he
sees this Government in hostility to his own, the day he resolves to
make war on this Government, his honor and the honor of his State compel
him to vacate the seat he holds.
It is a poor evasion for any man to say: "I make war on the rights of
one whole section; I make war on the principles of the Constitution; and
yet, I uphold the Union, and I desire to see it protected." Undermine
the foundation, and still pretend that he desires the fabric to stand!
Common sense rejects it. No one will believe the man who makes the
assertion, unless he believes him under the charitable supposition that
he knows not what he is doing.
Sir, we are arraigned, day after day, as the aggressive power. What
Southern Senator, during this whole session, has attacked any portion,
or any interest, of the North? In what have we now, or ever, back to the
earliest period of our history, sought to deprive the North of any
advantage it possessed? The whole charge is, and has been, that we seek
to extend our own institutions into the common territory of the United
States.
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