against this, then I am for standing where Georgia planted herself in 1850. These were plain propositions, which were then laid down in her celebrated platform as sufficient for the disruption of the Union if the occasion should ever come. On these Georgia has declared that she will go out of the Union; and for these she would be justified by the nations of the earth in so doing.

ever passed through, this is the most perilous, and requires to be met with the greatest calmness and deliberation. There were many among us in 1850 zealous to go at once out of the Union, to disrupt every tie that binds us together. Now, do you believe, had that policy been carried out at that time, we would have been the same great people that we are today? It may be that we would, but have you any assurance of that fact? Would you have made the I say the same; I said it then; I say it now-if Mr. Linsame advancement, improvement, and progress in all that coln's policy should be carried out. I have told you that I constitutes material wealth and prosperity that we have? do not think his bare election sufficient cause: but if his I notice, in the Comptroller-General's report, that the policy should be carried out in violation of any of the printaxable property of Georgia is $670,000,000 and upward, an ciples set forth in the Georgia platform, that would be such amount not far from double what it was in 1850. I think I an act of aggression which ought to be met as therein promay venture to say that for the last ten years the material vided for. If his policy shall be carried out in repealing wealth of the people of Georgia has been nearly if not quite or modifying the fugitive slave law so as to weaken its doubled. The same may be said of our advance in educa-efficacy, Georgia has declared that she will, in the last retion and every thing that marks our civilization. Have we sort, disrupt the ties of the Union-and I say so too. I any assurance that, had we regarded the earnest but mis- stand upon the Georgia platform, and upon every plank, guided patriotic advice, as I think, of some of that day, and and say, if these aggressions therein provided for take disrupted the ties which bind us to the Union, we would place-I say to you and to the people of Georgia, keep your bave advanced as we have? I think not. Well, then, let powder dry, and let your assailants then have lead, if need us be careful now before we attempt any rash experiment be I would wait for an act of aggression. This is my of this sort. I know that there are friends-whose patri- | position. otism I do not intend to question-who think this Union a curse and that we would be better off without it. I do not so think, if we can bring about a correction of those evils which threaten-and I am not without hope that this may yet be done. This appeal to go out, with all the provisions for good that accompany it, I look upon it as a great and I fear a fatal temptation.

Now upon another point, and that the most difficult, and deserving your most serious consideration, I will speak. That is the course which this State should pursue towards those Northern States, which by their legislative acts have attempted to nullify the fugitive slave law. I know that in some of these States their acts pretend to be based upon the principles set forth in the case of PRIGG against Pennsylvania. That decision did proclaim the doctrine that the State officers are not bound to carry out the provisions of a pose duties upon State officials-that they must execute their own laws by their own officers. And this may be true. But still it is the duty of the States to deliver fugitive slaves, as well as the duty of the General Government to see that it is done.

When I look around and see our prosperity in every thing, agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of education, physical and mental, as well as moral advance-law of Congress-that the Federal Government can not imment, and our colleges, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to-let us not too readily yield to this temptation-do so. Our first parents, the great progenitors of the human race, were not without a like temptation when in the garden of Eden. They were led to believe that their condition would be bettered-that their eyes would be opened and that they would become as gods. They in an evil hour yielded-instead of becoming gods, they only saw their own nakedness.

I look upon this country with our institutions as the Eden of the world, the paradise of the universe. It may be that out of it we may become greater and more prosperous, but I am candid and sincere in telling you that I fear if we rashly evince passion, and without sufficient cause shall take that step, that instead of becoming greater or more peaceful, prosperous, and happy-instead of becoming gods, we will become demons, and at no distant day commence cutting one another's throats. This is my apprehension. Let us, therefore, whatever we do, meet those difficulties, great as they are, like wise and sensible men, and consider them in the light of all the consequences which may attend our action. Let us see first clearly where the path of duty leads, and then we may not fear to tread therein.

I come now to the main question put to me, and on which my counsel has been asked. That is, what the present Legislature should do in view of the dangers that threaten us, and the wrongs that have been done us by several of our confederate States in the Union, by the acts of their legislatures nullifying the fugitive slave law, and in direct disregard of their constitutional obligations. What I shall say will not be in the spirit of dictation; it will be simply my own judgment for what it is worth. It proceeds from a strong conviction that according to it our rights, interests and honor-our present safety and future security-can be maintained without yet looking to the last resort, the "ultima ratio regum." That should not be looked to until all else fails. That may come. On this point I am hopeful, but not sanguine. But let us use every patriotic effort to prevent it while there is ground for hope.

If any view that I may present in your judgment be inconsistent with the best interests of Georgia, I ask you, as patriots, not to regard it. After hearing me and others whom you have advised with, act in the premises according to your own conviction of duty as patriots. I speak now particularly to the members of the legislature present. There are, as I have said, great dangers ahead. Great dangers may come from the election I have spoken of. If the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his Republican associates shall be carried out, or attempted to be carried out, no man in Georgia will be more willing or ready than myself to defend our rights, interests and honor, at every hazard and to the last extremity.

What is this policy? It is, in the first place, to exclude ns, by an act of Congress, from the Territories with our slave property. He is for using the power of the General Government against the extension of our institutions. Our position on this point is, and ought to be, at all hazards, for perfect equality between all the States, and the citizens of all the States, in the Territories, under the Constitution of the United States. If Congress should exercise its power

Northern States, on entering into the Federal compact, pledged themselves to surrender such fugitives; and it is in disregard of their obligations that they have passed laws which even tend to hinder or obstruct the fulfilment of that obligation. They have violated their plighted faith what ought we to do in view of this? That is the question. What is to be done? By the law of nations you would have a right to demand the carrying out of this article of agreement, and I do not see that it should be otherwise with respect to the States of this Union; and, in case it be not done, we would, by these principles, have the right to commit acts of reprisal on these faithless governments, and seize upon their property, or that of their citizens, wherever found. The States of this Union stand upon the same footing with foreign nations in this respect. But, by the law of nations, we are equally bound, before proceeding to violent measures, to set forth our grievances before the offending Government, to give them an opportunity to redress the wrong. Has our State yet done this? I think not. Suppose it was Great Britain that had violated some compact of agreement with the General Government, what would be first done? In that case our Minister would be directed, in the first instance, to bring the matter to the attention of that Government, or a Commissioner be sent to that country to open negotiations with her, ask for redress, and it would only be when argument and reason had been exhausted, that we should take the last resort of nations. That would be the course toward a foreign government, and toward a member of this Confederacy I would recommend the same course.

Let us, therefore, not act hastily in this matter. Let your Committee on the State of the Republic make out a bill of grievances; let it be sent by the Governor to those faithless States, and if reason and argument shall be tried in vain-all shall fail to induce them to return to their constitutional obligations-I would be for retaliatory measures, such as the Governor has suggested to you. This mode of resistance in the Union is in our power. It might be effectual, and, if in the last resort, we would be justified in the eyes of nations, not only in separating from them, but by using force.

[Some one said the argument was already exhausted.] Mr. STEPHENS continued. Some friend says that the ar gument is already exhausted. No, my friend, it is not. You have never called the attention of the Legislatures of those States to this subject that I am aware of. Nothing has ever been done before this year. The attention of our own people has been called to this subject lately.

Now, then, my recommendation to you would be this: In view of all these questions of difficulty, let a convention of the people of Georgia be called, to which they may be all referred. Let the sovereignty of the people speak. Some think that the election of Mr. Lincoln is cause suflicient to dissolve the Union. Some think those other griev ances are sufficient to dissolve the same, and that the Le gislature has the power thus to act, and ought thus to act. I have no hesitancy in saying that the Legislature is not the

I think the proposition of my honorable friend had a considerable smack of unfairness, not to say cheat. He wished to have no convention, but for the Legislature to submit Now, when this convention assembles, if it shall be their vote to the people-submission to abolition rule or called, as I hope it may, I would say in my judgment, resistance? Now who, in Georgia, would vote" submis-aud frankly, and it is thus that I give my views, I should without dictation, for I am conferring with you freely

My own opinion is, that if this course be pursued, and they are informed of the consequences of refusal, these States will secede; but if they should not, then let the consequences be with them, and let the responsibility of the consequences rest upon them. Another thing I would have that Convention to do. Reaffirm the Georgia platform with an additional plank in it. Let that plank be the fulfilment of the obligation on the part of those States to repeal these obnoxious laws as a condition of our remain-plea of justification? WHAT RIGHT HAS THE NORTH ing in the Union. Give them time to consider it, and I would ask all States South to do the same thing.

I am for exhausting all that patriotismu can demand before taking the last step. I would invite, therefore, South Carolina to a conference. I would ask the same of all the other Southern States, so that if the evil has got beyond ear control, which God, in his mercy, grant may not be the case let us not be divided among ourselves, but, if possible, secure the united co-operation of all the Southern States; and then, in the face of the civilized world, we may justify our action; and, with the wrong all on the other side, we can appeal to the God of battles to aid us in our cause. But let us not do any thing in which any portion of our people may charge us with rash or hasty action. It is certainly a matter of great importance to tear this Government asunder. You were not sent here for that purpose. I would wish the whole South to be ucited if this is to be done; and I believe if we pursue the policy which I have indicated, this can be effected.

In this way our sister Southern States can be induced to act with us, and I have but little doubt that the States of New York, and Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and the other Western States, will compel their Legislatures to recede from their hostile attitudes if the others do not. Then with these we would go on without New England if she chose to stay out.

[A voice in the assembly. "We will kick them out."] Mr. STEPHENS. I would not kick them out. But if they chose to stay out, they might. I think, moreover, that these Northern States, being principally engaged in manufactures, would find that they had as much interest in the Union under the Constitution as we, and that they would return to their constitutional duty-this would be my hope. If they should not, and if the Middle States and Western States do not join us, we should at least have an undivided South I am, as you clearly perceive, for maintaining the Union as it is, if possible. I will exhaust every means thus to maintain it with an equality in it. My principles are these:

First, the maintenance of the honor, the rights, the equality, the security, and the glory of my native State in the Union; but if these cannot be maintained in the Union, then I am for their maintenance, at all hazards, out of it. Next to the honor and glory of Georgia, the land of my birth, I hold the honor and glory of our common esautry. In Savannah I was made to say, by the reporters-who very often make me say things which I never did say that I was first for the glory of the whole country, and next for that of Georgia.

I said the exact reverse of this. I am proud of her his tory, of her present standing. I am proud even of her motto, which I would have duly respected at the present time by all her sons-Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation. I would have her rights and that of the Southern States maintained now upon these principles. Her position now is just what it was in 1850, with respect to the Southern States. Her platform then has been adopted by most, if not all, the other Southern States. Now I would add but be additional plank to that platform, which I have stated, and one which time has shown to be necessary.

If all this fails, we shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that we have done our duty and all that patriotism could require.

SUICIDAL ACT BY THE PRESENT GENERATION, AND PROBABLY CURSED AND EXECRATED BY POSTERITY FOR ALL COMING TIME, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments-what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. WHAT REASONS CAN YOU GIVE TO THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH TO JUSTIFY IT? They will be the calm aud deliberate judges in the case; and what cause or one overt act can you name or point, on which to rest the ASSAILED? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge the answer. While, on the other haud, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advocate of the North; but I am here the friend, the firm friend, and lover of the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully for yours, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave-trade, or the importation of Africaus for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply that ir many instances they have violated this compact, aud have not been faithful to their engagements? As individual and local communities, they may have done so; but not by the sanction of Government; for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another act: when we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you by this unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow ?

a

But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the General Government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South; as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive department. So of the Judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the Legislative branch of Government. In choosing the presiding Presidents (pro tem.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House, we have had twentythree, and they twelve. While the majority of the Representatives, from their greater population, have

From Mr. STEPHENS's speech in the State always been from the North, yet we have so generally Convention of Georgia:

This step (of secession) once taken, can never be recalled; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow, will rest on the convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, WHICH THIS ACT OF YOURS WILL INEVITABLY INVITE AND CALL FORTH: when our green fields of waving harvest shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the horrors and desolations of war upon us; WHO BUT THIS CONVENTION WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR IT? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this wise and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, SHALL BE HELD TO STRICT ACCOUNT FOR THIS

secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the General Government. Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have bad the principal embassies so as to secure the world-markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of Clerks, Auditors, and Comptrollers filling the Executivo department, the records show for the last fifty years that

of the three thousand thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white population of the Republic.

Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that of revenue, or means of supporting Government. From official documents, we learn that a fraction over threefourths of the revenue collected for the support of Government has uniformly been raised from the North.

Pause now while you cau, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important items. Look at another necessary branch of Government, and learn from stern statistical facts how matters stand in that department. I mean the mail and Post-Office privileges that we now enjoy under the General Government as it has been for years past. The expense for the transportation of the mail in the Free States was, by the report of the Postmaster-General for the year 1860, a little over $13,000,000, while the income was $19,000,000. But in the Slave States the transportation of the mail was $14,716.000, while the revenue from the same was $8,001,026, leaving a deficit of $6,704,974, to be supplied by the North for our accommodation, and without it we aust have been entirely cut off from this most essential branch of Government.

Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North; with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition-and for what, we ask again? Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice and Humanity? And, as such. I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest Government-the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century-in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed-is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote.

In strong contrast with the doleful narrative of the South Carolina Secessionists, are the following extracts touching the point of the security and prosperity of the Slave system:

From the speech of Hon. JAMES H. HAMMOND, U. S. Senator from South Carolina, delivered at Barnwell Court House, October 27, 1858.

From the time that the wise and good Las Casas first introduced into America the institution of African slavery -I say institution, because it is the oldest that exists, and will, I believe, survive all others that now flourishit has had its enemies. For a long while they were chiefly men of peculiar and eccentric religious notions. Their first practical and political success arose from the convulsions of the French revolution, which lost to that empire its best colony. Next came the prohibition of the slave-trade, the excitement of the Missouri compromise in this country, and then the deliberate emancipation of the slaves in their colonies by the British Government in 1833-34. About the time of the passage of that act the abolition agitation was revived again in this country, and Abolition societies were formed. I remember the time well, and some of you do also.

thoroughly, and what is the result? Why it would be difficult to find now a Southern man who feels the system to be the slightest burden on his conscience; who does not, in fact, regard it as an equal advantage to the master and the slave elevating both, as wealth, strength, and power, and as one of the main pillars and controlling influences of modern civilization, and who is not now prepared to maintain it at every hazard. Such have been for us the happy results of this abolition discussion. So far our gain has been immense from this contest, savage and malignant as it has been. Nay, we have solved already the question of emancipation by this re-examination and exposition of the false theories of religion, philanthropy, and political economy which embarrassed our fathers in their day.

With our convictions and our strength, emancipation here is simply an impossibility to man, whether by persuasion, purchase, or coercion. The rock of Gibraltar does not stand so firm on its basis as our slave system. For a quarter of a century it has borne the brunt of a hurricane as fierce and pitiless as ever raged. At the North and in Europe they cried "havoc," and let loose upon us all the dogs of war. And how stands it now? Why, in this very quarter of a century our slaves have doubled in numbers and each slave has more than doubled in value. The very negro who as a prime laborer would have brought $400 in 1828, would now, with thirty more years upon him, sell for $800. What does all this mean? Why, that we ourselves have settled this question of emancipatoin against all the world, in theory and in practice, and the world must accept our solution.

From the carefully-prepared speech of Hon. ALEX. H. STEPHENS of Georgia, in July, 1859, after his retirement from Congress, and in review of his political course :

Nor am I of the number of those who believe that we have sustained any injury by those agitations. It is true, we were not responsible for them. We were not the sault, calumny, and aspersion, by argument, by reason aggressors. We acted on the defensive. We repelled asand truth. But so far from the institution of African slavery in our section being weakened or rendered less secure by the discussion, my deliberate judgment is, that it has been greatly strengthened and fortified-strengthened and fortified not only to the opinions, convictions, and consciences of men, but by the action of the Government.

From the Charlottesville (Va.) speech of Hon. ROBERT M. T. HUNTER, U. S. Senator from Virginia, at the Breckinridge Democratic State Convention, 1860:

When I first entered the Federal councils, which was

Then the Southern

at the commencement of Mr. Van Buren's administration, the moral and political status of the slavery question was men themselves, with but few exceptions, admitted slavery different from what it now is. very to be a moral evil, and palliated and excused it upon the plea of necessity. Then there were few men of any party to be found in the non-slaveholding States who did not maintain both the constitutionality and expediency of the anti-slavery resolution, now generally known as the Wilmot Proviso. Had any man at that day ventured the prediction that the Missouri restriction would ever be repealed, he would have been deemed a visionary and theorist of the wildest sort. What a revolution have we not witnessed in all this! The discussion and the contest on the slavery question have gone on ever since, so as to absorb almost entirely the American mind. In many respects the results of that discussion have not been adverse to us. Southern men no longer occupy a deprecatory attitude upon the question of negro slavery in this country. While they by no means pretend that slavery is a good condition of things, under any circumstances and in all countries, they do maintain that, under the relations that And what then was the state of opinion in the Sonth? the two races stand to each other here, it is best for both Washington had emancipated his slaves. Jefferson had that the inferior should be subjected to the superior. The bitterly denounced the system, and had done all that he same opinion is extending even to the North, where it is could to destroy it. Our Clays, Marshalls, Crawfords, entertained by many, although not generally accepted. and many other prominent Southern men, had led off in As evidence, too, of the growing change on this subject the colonization scheme. The inevitable effect in the of the public sentiment of the world, I may refer to the South was that she believed slavery to be an evil-weak-course of France and Great Britain in regard to the coolie ness-disgraceful-nay, a sin. She shrunk from the and the African apprenticeship system introduced into discussion of it. She cowered under every threat. She their colonies. That they are thus running the slaveattempted to apologize, to excuse herself under the plea-trade in another form is rarely denied. It is not to be which was true-that England had forced upon her: and supposed that these Governments are blind to the real nain fear and trembling she awaited a doom that she deemed ture of this coolie-trade; and the arguments by which inevitable. But a few bold spirits took the question they defend it already afford an evidence of a growing up: they compelled the South to investigate it anew and change in their opinions upon slavery in general.