A 1

not till then, will I have a right, and will it be my duty, and no doubt my pleasure, to maintain and support Southern principles and Southern institutions. Then, sir, I am not a Southern man, either-although, in this unholy and most unconstitutional crusade against the South, in the midst of the invasion, arson, insurrection, and murder, to which she has been subject, and with which she is still threatened-with the torch of the incendiary and the dagger of the assassin suspended over her-my most cordial sympathies are wholly with her.

Mr. Clerk, I have heard a good deal said, here and elsewhere, about "Southern rights." Sir, I have no respect-none-none-for Southern rights merely because they are Southern rights. They are yours, gentlemen-not mine. Maintain them here, within the Union, firmly, fearlessly, boldly, quietly-do it like men. Defend them here and everywhere, and with all the means in your power, as I know you will and as I know you can. Yorktown and New Orleans-the end of the Revolution and the end of the War of 1812-are both yours, and there is no power on earth that can subdue or conquer you.

But, while I have no respect for Southern rights simply because they are Southern rights, I have a very tender and most profound and penetrating regard for my own obligations. Your rights impose upon me corresponding obligations, which shall be fulfilled in their spirit and to the very letter-three-fifths rule, fugitive slave law, equal rights in the Territories, and whatsoever else the Constitution gives you. (Applause.) Our fathers made that compact, and I will yield a cordial, ready, and not grudging, obedience to every part of it.

I have heard it sometimes said it was said here two years ago, not on this floor, certainly, but elsewhere-that there is no man from the free States, North or West, who is "true to the South." Well, gentlemen, that depends upon what you mean by being true to the South. If you mean that we, the Representatives of the free States of this Union, North and West, shall sit here within this Chamher, uttering Southern sentiments, consulting Southern interests, sustaining Southern institutions, and giving Southern votes, reckless of our own identity and our own self-respect, then I never was, am not now, and never will, while the Representative of a free State, be "true to the South;" and I thank God for it. If that be what is meant by "rottenness," in the other end of the capitol, commend me to rottenness all the days of my life.

But if you mean-and I know that a large majority of you do mean -true to the Constitution, without which there can not be, and ought not to be, any Union-true to our own obligations--ready and sedulous to fulfill every article of the compact which our fathers made, to the extremest inch of possibility, and yielding, gracefully and willingly, as in the earlier and better days of the Republic, every thing which comity and good fellowship, not only as between foreign states, but among brethren, demands at our hands, then, I tell you, and I tell the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. Nelson,) that the great mass of the Democratic party in the free States, and especially in the West, and thousands and tens of thousands of others, not members of that party, are now, and, I trust, ever will be, true to the South.

Allow me to illustrate my proposition. There are in this Hall, as elsewhere, three classes of men. The Republican or anti-slavery man-and you, gentlemen, have, or have had, not a few of that number in the South-asks, whenever a measure is proposed here, Will it tend to injure and hem in the institution of slavery, or rather will it weaken or offend the South, because it is the South? and he subordinates every other consideration to the great object of suppressing slavery, and of warring on the South. Upon the other hand, the merely Southern man, and especially the Southern extremist, asks, How will this measure advance the interests of slavery, or, rather, how will it aggrandize the South as South? and his vote is determined or insensibly influenced by this consideration. There is yet another, a third class, who ask none of these questions, and are moved by none of these considerations; political Gallios, perhaps, the gentlemen from Ohio (Mr. Corwin) would call them, who care for none of these things. To that class, Mr. Clerk, I am glad to belong. Outside of my own State, and of her constitution, I am neither pro-slavery nor anti-slavery; but maintain, as was said upon a memorable occasion, indifference on this subject between these two sections. And here I stand upon the ancient, safe, constitutional, peaceable ground of our fathers. For many years after the foundation of this Republic were laid by wiser and better men-pardon me, gentlemen-than I see around me, no man ever thought of testing any measure here by its effects upon the institution of slavery. Never till the fell "Missouri question" reared its horrid front, begotten in New England, and brought forth in New York, was slavery made the subject of partizan and sectional controversy within this capitol. And we had peace in the land in those days, and patriotism and humanity and religion and benevolence; faith and good works. We neither had, nor demanded then, an anti-slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, nor an anti-slavery God; but the Constitution of the land, the Bible of our fathers, and that great and tremendous Being, who, from eternity, has ruled in the armies of heaven, and among the children of men.

66
a serene

Then, sir, I am not a Northern man, nor yet a Southern man; but I am a WESTERN MAN, by birth, in habit, by education; and although still a United States man with United States principles, yet within, and subordinate to the Constitution, am wholly devoted to Western interests. Sir, this is no new enunciation of mine here. I proclaimed it upon this floor one year ago, and now congratulate myself and the West in having found so able and eloquent a coadjutor in the person of the distinguished gentleman from the seventh district of Ohio (Mr. Corwin). Sir, I am of and from the West; the great valley of the Mississippi; of the free States of that valley, seated in queenly majesty at the head of the basin of that mighty river; yet one interest, and one by the bonds of nature, stronger than hooks of steel, with every other State in that valley, full as it is, of population and riches, and exultant now in the hour of her approaching dominion. Seat yourself, denizen of the sterile and narrow, but beautiful hills and valleys of New England, and you, too, of the great cities of the North, whose geography and travel are circumscribed by the limits of

a street railroad; seat yourselves upon the summit of the Alleghanies, and behold spread out before you a country stretching from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains-from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canada frontier-with limitless plains, boundless forests, fifteen States, a hundred rivers, ten thousand cities, towns, and villages, and twelve millions of people. Such a vision no man ever saw; no, not even Adam, when, in the newness and grandeur of God-made manhood, he stood upon the topmost hill of Paradise, and looked down upon a whole hemisphere of the yet unpeopled world. That, sir, is my country; if I may speak it without profanity, God's own country; yet, in this war of sections, I am of the free States of that valley.

Mr. Clerk, when I came to this city, two years ago, I brought with me an intense nationality; but I had been here only a little while till I learned that a man without a section to cling to, was reckoned but as a mere cipher in the account; and from that hour, subordinate always to the Constitution, I became and am a WESTERN SECTIONALIST, and so shall continue to the day of my death. I, too, propose, with the Leather Stocking of the "Prairie," to fight fire with fire. I learned here, Mr. Clerk, that while there was a North and a South, there was no West. I found her individuality sunk in the North. I saw that you of New York and New England entertained a profound respect for the citizen of South Carolina or Georgia, slaveholder though he might be, because he was east of the Alleghanies; and that you of Georgia and South Carolina reciprocated the good opinion, abolition aside, because the New Yorker and the Yankee lived very near to the rising of the sun; while the Western man was held to be a sort of outside barbarian, very useful to count in a trial of numerical strength, but of no value for any other purpose. We of the great valley of the Mississippi are perpetually ignored. Sir, if all this were done of studied purpose, it would at least be tolerable; but not so; there is no design in it. It is a cool, silent, persistent, unobtrusive, but most offensive disparagement. Gentlemen, you do not know us. It is but a few months ago that a great paper in the city of New York spoke of Judge Douglas as attempting—and it was in the very capital of the State-to impose his absurd theories upon -the honest foresters of Ohio." And about the same time another great paper in the North referred to Governor Chase as a public man of merely "provincial reputation."

Let not the gentleman from the Mansfield district (Mr. Sherman) flatter himself that he is to be an exception. No, sir; he sees the parting rays of the setting sun too late in the day. A distinguished predecessor of his attained once the same point of greatness, but only to be let down gently in favor of Cape Cod. Do not deceive yourself. You were only put forward to be killed off; you were merely detailed as a forlorn hope, to be shot down in front of that Malakoff which you never will capture. Oh no! though two thousand miles east of the Rocky Mountains, you are quite too far West. Your distinguished colleague from the seventh district (Mr. Corwin) is gazing now wistfully through a spy-glass in the direction whither your eyes are turned; but he, alas, any more than you, will never wake up

from that delicious reverie in which he now sits buried, to realize that

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,

And robes the Speaker's tribune in its radiant hue.

We did, indeed, gentlemen, once elect a Western President; but him you killed in a month-and a South-western President, too, and he survived you but fifteen months.

But, gentlemen of the West, the day-spring of our deliverance begins to dawn. Let us rejoice. The long period of our minority is about to terminate. Within the Union, after the next census, we of the Mississippi Valley will hold in our own hands the political power and the destinies of this country, and we will administer them for the benefit of the whole country. The day of our political independence is right now, while I speak. If you of the North and South-east will conspire, as for the last seventy years, to control the power and patronage of this Government for your own benefit, we of the Mississippi Valley will combine to rescue them from your hands. If you of the whole North will continue your sectional warfare upon the whole South, know ye that we of the North-west hold the political balance of power between you, and that we will use it to crush out and annihilate forever the fanaticism and treason which are threatening now to overspread the whole North, and very speedily to destroy this Republic. We will be ignored no longer. And here let me warn the Republican representatives from the West, that they have loaned themselves too long already to this proud and domineering North. You permit yourselves to be identified with the North, and to make common cause with her against slavery. Cui bono? Not yours; ah, no! You help to win the fight; you make good soldiers-excellent food for powder-but your Northern officers and Northern masters will divide the spoils. When William H. Seward threatens the South with the power and domination of the North, he means you; but when he would distribute office and patronage, he will know no West. Some of you dream that your Governor Chase will be the candidate of the Republican party for the next Presidency. Miserable infatuation! Cease, then, I beseech you, this unmanly vassalage to the -North. If you will not hearken to the voice of patriotism, listen, at least, to the demands of independence and self-respect. If you will be sectionalists, lay aside this pestilent fanaticism on the subject of slavery, which you borrow servilely from the clergy, lecturers, and other demagogues of the North, and which they use for the purpose of their own aggrandizement-lay it aside, and be Western sectionalists. Talk not to me about humanity and benevolence. I have as profound and delicate an appreciation of them as you can have, but I will not be insulted with the miserable pretense. Are there no objects of charity in your own midst-no poor, no sick, no lame, no halt, no blind, no widows and orphans-to whose necessities you may administer, and thus find vent for that abounding river of humanity. which wells up and flows out from the fountain of your hearts? Pardon me, but I despise and contemn your vassalage to the North as much as you can contemn and despise any man's servility to the South

And now, one word to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Hickman,) who took refuge, the other day, in the "engine-room" of the left side of this Chamber, whence, through new and rudely-constructed port-holes, to send his missiles whistling into the camp which he so lately deserted. I admire his discretion-the better part of valor. Sir, he spoke about precipitating eighteen millions of people upon eight millions. Whence does he propose to get his eighteen millions? Did he mean to include us of the North-west? Does he imagine that we are militiamen to be drafted, or conscripts to be enrolled, and march forth at the sound of his drum, or to the notes of his bugle? I tell him that, if he means to raise the black standard of internecine war upon the South, he must find his recruits nearer home.

Mr. FLORENCE (in his seat.) He will not find them there. (Applause in the galleries.)

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I rejoice to hear it. But I tell the gentleman further, that, if the Territories of this Union are to become the subject of controversy after dissolution, we of the Mississippi Valley propose to keep them ourselves, and then to make fair and honest partition with each other,

I approach now, Mr. Clerk, a painful and most difficult subject-periculosa plenum opus alea. A word which, for very many years after the organization of this Government, no man ever dared to breathe within this capitol, has now become as familiar as the most ordinary words of salutation. Not a day nor an hour passes, but the hoarse croaking of this raven is heard, piercing the fearful hollow of our ears, with moaning and dirge-like wail, the "NEVER MORE" of the Union of these States. Sir, in this war of sections, standing here between the living and the dead, we, the Democratic representatives of the West, and I, as one of that number, have a duty to perform, which, in all humbleness, but in all faithfulness, shall be fulfilled. But too many of you of the North are striving with might and main to force the South out of this Union; and too many of you of the South are most anxious to be forced out. Do not deny it, either of you. I know it. Sir, if any member should rise here and tell me that there are no disunionists in the South, could I believe it? And when the gentleman from New York, (Mr. Clark,) or any one else, would persuade the South that there are no Abolitionists, or disunionists, in the North or the West, he only insults the intelligence of the men upon whom he would impose. Sir, if any colleague of mine, or any other gentleman from the free States, upon this floor, will so far forget the solemn responsibilities of his office, in the midst of the great and most alarming dangers wherewith we are at this moment ✦ encompassed, and unintentionally, of course, misrepresent the true state of public sentiment and public action in the North and the northern portions of the West, I, at least, will not consent to be a party to the deception. I tell gentlemen of the South that the doctrines of Hale, Banks, Seward, Giddings, Chase, Lincoln, and, above all, of the New York Tribune, are the doctrines of a large majority of the people of the North, and of a powerful and, for all