has been estimated, by some persons most familiar with these statistics, at more than eighty-eight millions of dollars. Whoever looks into the condition of the different States prior to the formation of the Union, and compares it with their situation at first, under low duties, up to the war and tariff of 1816, and its successors, highly protective as they have been, will find the facts fully sustaining the opinions I have expressed. Northern writers of elementary books, made for school children, of course represent things differently, and deceive the careless and ignorant. My opinions on these points have been settled for a long while past, though I have not heretofore been in a position where I thought I could exert any controlling influence, or effect any desirable object, by giving utterance to them.

In throwing out these views, Mr. Chairman, I have not sought the utmost degree of precision, but I have no doubt but that all the facts will be found on examination not less favorable to my conclusions than I have stated them. My purpose now is simply to present to Northern gentlemen such general views as are likely now to be adopted by the South. Your course of aggression is already arraying against you all the highest minds of the South men of high intellect, and higher patriotism, whose utter indifference to all personal considerations will make them, in the language of my eloquent friend from Georgia, (Mr. Toombs) "devote all they have and all they are to this cause.'

But gentlemen speak of the difficulty of making the boundary; and the condition of the border States of Maryland and Kentucky are particularly referred to. Undoubtedly each State would have the right to determine for itself to which section of the confederacy it would belong. If these two States were to unite with the North, then, as it would not be possible for them to change their condition immediately with respect to slavery, if they ever did, they would for many years, at least, form a barrier against the aggressions of the free States, until, in short, the South would have become too great and powerful to need such aid. I take it, however, that their interest would lead them to prefer an association with the South. With reference to fugitive slaves, Maryland would not be materially worse off than I have shown her to be, if she were not in fact less molested. There would, however, be some great countervailing advantages. She is in advance of most of the Southern States in manufactures, and a duty on Northern imports would give her for the time better prices on such things as now come from the North. Baltimore would, perhaps, from its considerable size and its capital, become the New York of the South. New York itself must at once lose more than half its foreign trade. Charleston and New Orleans would expand rapidly. The like might occur to the cities of Virginia. Even the little towns on the eastern coast of my own State would more than recover the trade which they had prior to the war duties and tariff of 1816. The northern tier of counties in Kentucky would perhaps be obliged to remove their slaves to the South. But there would be to her advantages in the change, similar to those of Maryland. Kentucky supplies the South with live stock to a great extent; but she has to encounter the competition of Ohio and other Northwestern States. If the productions of these States were subjected

to a duty, she might for a time have a monopoly in the trade. I would do injustice to these two States if I supposed that they would be gov. erned solely or even mainly by calculations of interest. Maryland and Kentucky are filled with as courageous, as generous, and as nobleminded men and women as exist on earth; and following their bold impulses, they would make common cause with their oppressed sisters of the South, and, if necessary take their places where the blows might fall thickest, in the front of the column, with the same high feelings that animated their ancestors on the battle-fields of the Revolution. Rather than that they should separate from us, I think it far more probable that some of the northwestern free States would find it to their advantage to go with the South. But we have been threatened that the North will take possession of the Lower Mississippi. The British tried that in 1815, but found Andrew Jackson and some of the Southwestern militiamen in the way. In the thirty-five years that have since passed, those States have become populous and strong, and would doubtless be able to protect their waters from aggression. The Southern States having now a free population of six millions, and producing in succession such soldiers as Washington, Jackson, Scott, and Taylor, need have no serious fears of foreign aggression.

I submit it, then, Mr. Chairman, calmly to Northern gentlemen, that they had better make up their minds to give us at once a fair settlement; not cheat us by a mere empty form, without reality, but give something substantial for the South. We might acquiesce in the Missouri compromise line. I should individually prefer, under all the circumstances, giving up the whole of California, provided we could have all on this side of it, up to about the parallel of 40°, not far from the Northern line of the State of Missouri, rather than its Southern36° 30'. We would thus, by getting the whole of New Mexico, and having the mountain chain and desert on the west, obtain a proper frontier. We might then acquire, at some future day, whether united or divided, possession of the country along the Gulf of Mexico, well suited to be occupied by our slave population. I mean, sir, that no restriction ought to be imposed by Cougress on this territory, but that after it has been left open to all classes for a proper period, the majority may then, when they make a State Constitution, determine for themselves whether they will permit slavery or not. The South will acquiesce in any reasonable settlement.

But when we ask for justice, and to be let alone, we are met by the senseless and insane cry of "Union, union!" Sir, I am disgusted with it. When it comes from Northern gentlemen who are attacking us, it falls on my ears as it would do if a band of robbers had surrounded a dwelling, and when the inmates attempted to resist, the assailants should raise the shout of " Peace-union-harmony!" If they will do us justice, we do not need their lectures. As long as they refuse it, their declarations seem miserable, hypocritical cant. When these things come from Southern men, I have even less respect for them. Even the most cowardly men, when threatened with personal injury, do not usually announce in advance that they mean to submit to all the chastisement which an adversary may choose to inflict. And those

persons who, seeing the aggressive attitude of the North, and its numerical power, declare in advance that for their parts they intend to submit to whatever the majority may do, are taking the best course to aid our assailants, and need not wonder if the country regards them as enemies of the South.

If Northern gentlemen will do us justice on this great question, we may consent to submit to lesser evils. We may acquiesce in a most oppressive revenue system. We may tolerate a most unequal distribution of the public expenditures. We may bear the loss of our fugitive slaves, incurred because the Legislators of the Northern States have nullified an essential provision of the Constitution, without which the Union could not have been formed, because mere pecuniary considerations are not controlling with us. We may even permit such portions of the Northern people as are destitute of proper self-respect, to send up here occasionally representatives whose sole business seems to be to irritate as much as possible Southern feeling, and pander to the prejudices of the worst part of the Northern community. We may allow that the Northern States shall keep up and foster in their bosoms abolition societies, whose main purpose is to scatter firebrands throughout the South, to incite servile insurrections, and stimulate, by licentious pictures, our negroes to invade the persons of our white women. But if, in addition to all these wrongs and insults, you intend to degrade and utterly ruin the South, then we resist. We do not love you, people of the North, well enough to become your slaves. God has given us the power and the will to resist. Our fathers acquired our liberty by the sword, and with it, at every hazard, we will maintain it. But before resorting to that instrument, I hold that all constitutional means should be exhausted. It is, sir, a wise provision of Providence that less force is required to resist an attack than to make it. The Constitution of the United States has been well framed on these principles. While, therefore, a majority is necessary to pass a measure, one-fifth of the members may demand the yeas and nays. In spite, therefore, of any change of rule which the majority can make, as long as this constitutional provision stands, a minority of one-fifth or more, if firm, and sustained by the people at home, can stop the wheels of the government. If it is ascertained that no proper settlement can be gotten of the Territorial question, it would be in the the power of the Southern members to defeat all the appropriation bills, and bring the government to a dead halt. Perhaps it might be well to give such a cup to Northern gentlemen; for I well remember that when the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill was under consideration, with the amendment from the Senate known as Walker's, which would have settled the question of slavery in the Territories, a number of Northern gentlemen resolved to defeat that bill and all other business by constantly calling for the yeas and nays, if they did not succeed in striking out that amendment. I recollect perfectly, that while I was pressing a Pennsylvania member to vote against striking out that amendment, which was the pending motion, a member of high standing from Massachusetts said to me, "You need not give yourself any trouble about this matter; if we do not succeed in changing it, we shall

prevent its adoption by having the yeas and nays on motions to adjourn, and calls of the House, till the end of the session." From similar declarations made to me by a number of Northern gentlemen, as I went through the House, I had no doubt, but that, as he said, enough had agreed to have enabled them to effect their purpose, if the motion to change the character of the amendment had failed. It is not long since, too, that another citizen of Massachusetts (Mr. John Davis) defeated the two million bill then pending in the Senate, by speaking till the end of the session. As Northern gentlemen have therefore been accustomed to this mode of resistance to such measures as they do not like, I take it, that they would hardly complain of this kind of retaliation.

I tell gentlemen that, if we cannot in advance get a fair settlement of this question, I should be pleased to see the civil and diplomatic bill, the army and navy bill, and all other appropriations, fail. We should thereby make every officer and every expectant of public money directly interested in having justice done to the South. It would be far better to have this temporary inconvenience for a year or two, than that we should see a bloody revolution, or something worse. I hold it to be the duty of every Southern representative to stay here and prevent, till the close of our official term, the passage of any measures that might tend to force our people to unjust submission. In the meantime, the Southern States could, in convention, take such steps as might be necessary to assert their right to a share in the public territory. If this interregnum were to continue long, it might drive both sections to make provisional governments, to become permanent ones in the end.

But it is advised, in certain portions of the Northern press, that the members from that section ought to expel such as interrupt their proceedings. Let them try the experiment. I tell gentlemen, that this is our slaveholding territory. We do not intend to leave it. If they think they can remove us, it is a proper case for trial. In the present temper of the public mind, it is probable that a collision of the kind here might electrify the country, as did the little skirmish at Lexington the colonies in their then excited state. Such a struggle, whoever might prove the victors in it, would not leave here a quorum to do business. Gentlemen may call this treason-high treason-the highest treason ever known. But their words are idle. We shall defeat their movement against us. But even if I thought otherwise, I would still resist. Sooner than submit to what they propose, I would rather see the South, like Poland, under the iron heel of the conqueror. I would rather that she should find the fate of Hungary.

It was but the other day, and under our own eyes, that the gallant Hungarians asserted their independence. Though in the midst of, and struggling against those two immense empires, that could bring more than a million of armed men into the field, they were successsful at first in beating down the power of Austria. It was not until some of her sons became traitors that Hungry was finally overpowed, borne down, and pressed to death by the long columns and gigantic strength of Russia. If necessary, let such be our fate.

"Better be

Where the extinguished Spartans still are free,
In their proud charnel of Thermopyla."

Rather let the future traveller, as he passes over a blackened and desert waste, at least exclaim, "Here lived and died as noble a race as the sun ever shone upon." If we were to wait until your measures were consummated and your coil, like that of a great serpent, was completely around us, then we might be crushed. Seeing the danger, we have the wisdom and the courage to meet the attack now, while we have the power to resist. We must prove victors in this struggle. If we repel the wave of aggression now, we shall have peace. The Abolitionists defeated before the country on the main issue, will not have power to molest us.

I have thus, sir, frankly spoken my opinions on this great question, with no purpose to menace, but only to warn. Gentlemen of the North ought themselves to see that, while submission to what they propose would be ruinous to us, it would not in the end be beneficial to their section. Seeing, then, the issue in all its bearings, it is for them to decide. They hold in their hands the destiny of the existing government. Should circumstances divide us, I wish that you may prosper. From all my knowledge of the elements of your society, I have doubts. That we shall, under the favor of Providence, in all events, take care of ourselves, I have no fears. In conclusion, I have to say, do us justice and we continue to stand with you; attempt to trample on us, and we separate.

NOTE.

This speech being published in the two Washington dailies, the New York Herald and other papers, and coming as it did from one previously regarded as a zealous Whig, and a decided Union man, was read with great astonishment. Papers favorable to the Northern view denounced it in strong language, and as treasonable, while in the South there was a general surprise on account of its views, and a desire to ascertain whether its representations were to be verified by the developments of the session.

On previous occasions, dilatory motions, with calls of the ayes and noes, had been resorted to for temporary purposes, or to prevent action for a day on some question. My suggestion to use these means with a deliberate purpose to defeat action on the slavery issues, which might be unjust, and if extreme views were persisted in by the Northern members, to employ dilatory proceedings to the extent even of defeating the appropriation bills, was regarded with incredulity at first. After a few weeks trial, however, it was seen that these means might prove most formidable for defense. The papers at that time spoke of it as "the Clingman process," and it became evident that the admission, for example, of California as a separate proposition, or the passage of other measures proposed, might be indefinitely resisted. Mr. Clay, who with Mr. Webster and others had insisted on the admission of California by itself, saw that a different policy might become necessary. On meeting me one day in the passage near the Senate, he said: "Clingman, how did you get that idea of calling the ayes and noes to defeat measures?" I replied, "I will tell you exactly, Mr. Clay, when it occurred to me. About a week before the meeting of Congress, being here in the city, after I went to bed my anxiety as to the condition of the country made me so restless, that I could not sleep, and sometime between midnight and day the thought, suddenly flashed into my mind like electricity, and it excited me so much that I sprang out of bed and walked up and down my room for at least half an hour in the dark and cold before I could lie down again." "Well," said he, with