Are we invaded? Is there an insurrection? Are there two
Senators here who would not be willing to go forth as a file, and put
down any resistance which showed itself in this District against the
Government of the United States? Is the reproach meant against these, my
friends from the South, who advocate Southern rights and State rights?
If so, it is a base slander. We claim our rights under the Constitution;
we claim our rights reserved to the States; and we seek by no brute
force to gain any advantage which the law and the Constitution do not
give us. We have never appealed to mobs. We have never asked for the
army and the navy to protect us. On the soil of Mississippi, not the
foot of a Federal soldier has been impressed since 1819, when, flying
from the yellow fever, they sought refuge within the limits of our
State; and on the soil of Mississippi there breathes not a man who asks
for any other protection than that which our Constitution gives us, that
which our strong arms afford, and the brave hearts of our people will
insure in every contingency.
Senators, we are rapidly drifting into a position in which this is to
become a government of the army and navy; in which the authority of the
United States is to be maintained, not by law, not by constitutional
agreement between the States, but by physical force; and will you stand
still and see this policy consummated? Will you fold your arms, the
degenerate descendants of those men who proclaimed the eternal principle
that government rests on the consent of the governed; and that every
people have a right to change, modify, or abolish a government when it
ceases to answer the ends for which it was established, and permit this
Government imperceptibly to slide from the moorings where it was
originally anchored, and become a military despotism? It was well said
by the Senator from New York [Mr.
Pages:
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969