excluded from one half of the Union by the fiat of the lynch code, deprived of the protection of the law, and branded as traitors, because they dare to assert that God wills all men to be free! Now, I frankly put it to the understandings of Southern men, whether, in view of these considerations, it is adding any thing to their safety, or postponing the much dreaded catastrophe a single hour,—whether, in fact, it is not increasing their peril, and rendering an early explosion more probable,for them to persevere in aggravating the condition of their slaves by tightening their chains and increasing the heavy burdens-or wreaking their malice upon the free people of color-or in adopting every base and unlawful measure to wound the character, destroy the property, and jeopard the lives of abolitionists, and thus leaving no stone unturned to inflame them to desperation? All this, Southern men have done, and are still doing, as if animated by an insane desire to be destroyed. The abject of the Anti-Slavery association is not to destroy men's lives,-despots though they be,-but to prevent the spilling of human blood. It is to enlighten the understanding, arouse the conscience, affect the heart. We rely upon moral power alone for success. The ground upon which we stand belongs to no sect or party-it is holy ground. Whatever else may divide us in opinion, in this one thing we are agreed that slaveholding is a crime under all circumstances, and ought to be immediately and unconditionally abandoned. We enforce upon no man either a political or a religious test, as a condition of membership; but at the same time, we expect every abolitionist to carry out his principles consistently, impartially, faithfully, in whatever station he may be called to act, or wherever conscience may lead him to go. I hail this union of hearts as a bright omen, that all is not lost. To the slaveholding South, it is more terrible than a military army with banners. It is indeed a sublime spectacle to see men forgetting their jarring creeds and party affinities, and embracing each other as one and indivisible, in a struggle in behalf of our common Christianity and our common nature. God grant that no root of bitterness may spring up to divide us asunder! "United we stand, divided we fall "—and if we fall, what remains for our country but a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation, that shall consume it? Fall we cannot, if our trust be in the Lord of hosts, and in the power of his might—not in man, nor any body of men. Divided we cannot be, if we truly "remember them that are in bonds as bound with them," and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Genuine abolitionism is not a hobby, got up for personal or associated aggrandizement; it is not a political ruse; it is not a spasm of sympathy, which lasts but for a moment, leaving the system weak and worn; it is not a fever of enthusiasm; it is not the fruit of fanaticism; it is not a spirit of faction. It is of heaven, not of men. It lives in the heart as a vital principle. It is an essential part of Christianity, and aside from it there can be no humanity. Its scope is not confined

to the slave population of the United States, but embraces mankind. Opposition cannot weary it out, force cannot put it down, fire cannot consume it. It is the spirit of Jesus, who was sent to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." Its principles are self-evident, its measures rational, its purposes merciful and just It cannot be diverted from the path of duty, though all earth and hell oppose; for it is lifted far above all earth-born fear. When it fairly takes possession of the soul, you may trust the soulcarrier anywhere, that he will not be recreant to humanity. In short, it is a life, not an impulsc-a quenchless flame of philanthropy, not a transient spark of sentimentalism.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SECESSION.

HENRY CLAY.

Senate Chamber, Feb. 6, 1850.

SIR, This Union is threatened with subversion. I want, Mr. President, to take a very rapid glance at the course of public measures in this Union presently. I want, however, before I do that, to ask the Senate to look back upon the career which this country has run since the adoption of this constitution down to the present day. Was there ever a nation upon which the sun of heaven has shone that has exhibited so much of prosperity? At the commencement of this Government our population amounted to about four millions; it has now reached upward of twenty millions. Our territory was limited chiefly and principally to the border upon the Atlantic ocean, and that which includes the southern shores of the interior lakes of our country.

Our country now extends from the northern provinces of Great Britain to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico on one side, and from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific on the other side-the largest extent of territory under any government that exists on the face of the earth, with only two solitary exceptions. Our tonnage, from being nothing, has risen in magnitude and amount so as to rival that of the nation who has been proudly characterized "the mistress of the ocean." We have gone through many wars-wars too with the very nation from whom we broke off in 1776, as weak and feeble colonies, and asserted our independence as a member of the family of nations. And, sir, we came out of that struggle, unequal as it was-armed as she was at all points, in consequence of just having come out of her long struggles with other European nations, and unarmed as we were at all points, in consequence of the habits and nature of our country

and its institutions-we came, I say, out of that war without any loss of honor whatever-we emerged from it gloriously.

In every Indian war-and we have been engaged in many of them -our armies have triumphed; and without speaking at all as to the causes of the recent war with Mexico, whether it was right or wrong, and abstaining from any expression of opinion as to the justice or propriety of the war, when once commenced all must admit that, with respect to the gallantry of our armies, the glory of our triumphs, there is no page or pages of history which record more brilliant successes. With respect to one commander of an important portion of our army I need say nothing here; no praise is necessary in behalf of one who has been elevated by the voice of his country to the highest station she could place him in, mainly on account of his glorious military career. And of another, less fortunate in many respects than some other military commanders, I must take the opportunity of saying, that for skill, for science, for strategy, for ability and daring fighting, for chivalry of individuals and of masses, that portion of the American army which was conducted by the gallant Scott, as the chief commander, stands unrivalled either by the deeds of Cortez himself, or by those of any other commander in ancient or modern times.

Sir, our prosperity is unbounded-nay, Mr. President, I sometimes fear that it is in the wantonness of that prosperity that many of the threatening ills of the moment have arisen. Wild and erratic schemes have sprung up throughout the whole country, some of which have even found their way into legislative halls; and there is a restlessness existing among us which I fear will require the chastisement of Heaven to bring us back to a sense of the immeasurable benefits and blessings which have been bestowed upon us by Providence. At this moment-with the exception of here and there a particular department in the manufacturing business of the country-all is prosperity and peace, and the nation is rich and powerful. Our country has grown to a magnitude, to a power and greatness, such as to command the respect, if it does not awe the apprehensions, of the powers of the earth, with whom we come in contact.

Sir, do I depict with colors too lively the prosperity which has resulted to us from the operations of this Union? Have I exaggerated in any particular her power, her prosperity, or her greatness? And now, sir, let me go a little into detail with respect to sway in the councils of the nation, whether from the North or the South, during the sixty years of unparalleled prosperity that we have enjoyed. During the first twelve years of the administration of the government Northern counsels rather prevailed; and out of them sprang the Bank of the United States, the assumption of the state debts, bounties to the fisheries, protection to our domestic manufactures—I allude to the act of 1789neutrality in the wars of Europe; Jay's treaty, the alien and sedition laws, and war with France, I do not say, sir, that these, the leading and

prominent measures which were adopted during the administrations of Washington and the elder Adams, were carried exclusively by North. ern counsels-they could not have been--but mainly by the ascendancy which Northern counsels had obtained in the affairs of the nation. So, sir, of the later period-for the last fifty years.

I do not mean to say that Southern counsels alone have carried the measures which I am about to enumerate. I know they could not exclusively have carried them, but I say that they have been carried by their preponderating influence, with the co-operation, it is true-the large co-operation in some instances of the Northern section of the Union. And what are those measures? During that fifty years, or nearly that period, in which Southern counsels have preponderated, the embargo and other commercial restrictions of non-intercourse and non-importation were imposed; war with Great Britain, the Bank of the United States overthrown, protection enlarged and extended to domestic manufactures-I allude to the passage of the act of 1815 or 1816 -the Bank of the United States re-established, the same bank put down, re-established by Southern counsels and put down by Southern counsels, Louisiana acquired, Florida bought, Texas annexed, war with Mexico, California and other territories acquired from Mexico by conquest and purchase, protection superseded, and free trade established, Indians removed West of the Mississippi, and fifteen new states admitted into the Union. It is very possible, sir, that in this enumeration I may have omitted some of the important measures which have been adopted dur ing this later period of time-the last fifty years-but these I believe to be the most prominent ones.

Now, sir, I do not deduce from the enumeration of the measures adopted by the one side or the other any just cause of reproach either upon one side or the other; though one side or the other has predominated in the two periods to which I have referred. These measures were, to say the least, the joint work of both parties, and neither of them have any just cause to reproach the other. But, sir, I must say, in all kindness and sincerity, that least of all ought the South to reproach the North, when we look at the long list of measures which, under her sway in the counsels of the nation, have been adopted; when we reflect that even opposite doctrines have been from time to time advanced by her; that the establishment of the Bank of the United States, which was done under the administration of Mr. Madison, met with the co-operation of the South-I do not say the whole South-I do not, when I speak of the South or the North, speak of the entire South or the entire North; I speak of the prominent and larger proportions of Southern and Northern men. It was during Mr. Madison's administration that the Bank of the United States was established. My friend, whose sickness—which I very much deplore-prevents us from having his attendance upon this occasion (Mr. Calhoun), was the chairman of the committee, and

carried the measure through Congress. I voted for it with all my heart. Although I had been instrumental with other Southern votes in putting down the Bank of the United States, I changed my opinion and co-operated in the establishment of the bank of 1816. The same bank was again put down by Southern counsels, with General Jackson at their head, at a later period. Again, with respect to the policy of protection. The South in 1815-I mean the prominent Southern men, the lamented Lowndes, Mr. Calhoun and others-united in extending a certain measure of protection to domestic manufactures as well as the North.

We find a few years afterward the South interposing most serious objections to this policy, and one member of the South, threatening on that occasion, a dissolution of the Union or separation. Now, sir, let us take another view of the question-and I would remark that all these views are brought forward not in a spirit of reproach, but of conciliation-not to provoke, or exasperate, but to quiet, to produce harmony and repose, if possible. What have been the territorial acquisitions made by this country, and to what interests have they conduced? Florida, where slavery exists, has been introduced; Louisiana, or all the most valuable part of that state-for although there is a large extent of territory north of the line 36° 30, in point of intrinsic value and importance, I would not give the single state of Louisania for the whole of it -all Louisania, I say, with the exception of that which lies north 36°30, including Oregon, to which we obtained title mainly on the ground of its being a part of the acquisition of Louisania; all Texas; all the territories which have been acquired by the government of the United States during its sixty years operation have been slave territories, the theatre of slavery, with the exception that I have mentioned of that lying north of the line 36° 30.

And here, in the case of a war made essentially by the Southgrowing out of the annexation of Texas, which was a measure proposed by the South in the councils of the country, and which led to the war with Mexico-I do not say all of the South, but the major portion of the South pressed the annexation of Texas upon the country—that measure, as I have said, led to the war with Mexico, and the war with Mexico led to the acquisition of those territories which now constitute the bone of contention between the different members of the Confederacy. And now, sir, for the first time after the three great acquisitions of Texas, Florida and Louisiana have been made and have redounded to the benefit of the South-now, for the first time, when three territories are attempted to be introduced without the institution of slavery, I put it to the hearts of my countrymen of the South, if it is right to press matters to the disastrous consequences which have been indicated no longer ago than this very morning, on the occasion of the presentation of certain resolutions-even extending to a dissolu tion of the Union. Mr. President, I cannot believe it.