Gentlemen, I believe--yes, I know--that the people of the North are as
true to the government and the Union of the States now as our fathers
were when they stood shoulder to shoulder upon the field, fighting for
the principles upon which that Union rests. If I thought the time had
come when it would be fit or proper to consider amendments to the
Constitution at all, I believe that we should have no trouble with you,
except upon this question of slavery in the Territories. You cannot
demand of us at the North anything that we will not grant, unless it
involves a sacrifice of our principles. These we shall not sacrifice;
these you must not ask us to abandon. I believe, further,--and I
speak in all frankness, for I wish to delude no one,--if the
Constitution and the Union cannot be preserved and effectually
maintained without these new guarantees for slavery, then the Union is
not worth preserving.
The people of the North have always submitted to the decisions of the
properly constituted powers. This obedience has been unpleasant
enough when they thought those powers were exercised for sectional
purposes; but it has always been implicitly yielded. I am ready, even
now, to go home and say that, by the decision of the Supreme Court,
slavery exists in all the Territories of the United States. We submit
to the decision, and accept its consequences.
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