countenanced by acts of hers, how is it that, while he relies on these acts, he covers, or seeks to cover, their authors with reproach? But, Sir, if, in the course of forty years, there have been undue effervescences of 5 party in New England, has the same thing happened nowhere else? . . . If the gentleman wishes to increase his stores of party abuse and frothy violence, if he has a determined proclivity to such pursuits, there are treasures of that sort south of the Potomac, much to 10 his taste, yet untouched. . . . The gentleman's purveyors have only catered for him among the productions of one side. I certainly shall not supply the deficiency by furnishing samples of the other. I leave to him, and to them, the whole concern. It is enough for me 15 to say, that if, in any part of this their grateful occupation, if, in all their researches, they find anything in the history of Massachusetts or New England, or in the proceedings of any legislative or other public body, disloyal to the Union, speaking slightly of its 20 value, proposing to break it up, or recommending nonintercourse with neighboring States, on account of difference of political opinion, then, Sir, I give them all up to the honorable gentleman's unrestrained rebuke; expecting, however, that he will extend his buffetings in 25 like manner to all similar proceedings, wherever else found.

39 Mr. President, in carrying his warfare, such as it is, into New England, the honorable gentleman all along professes to be acting on the defensive. He chooses to 30 consider me as having assailed South Carolina, and insists that he comes forth only as her champion, and in her defence. Sir, I do not admit that I made any attack whatever on South Carolina. Nothing like it. The honorable member, in his first speech, expressed opinions, in 35 regard to revenue and some other topics, which I heard

both with pain and with surprise. I told the gentleman I was aware that such sentiments were entertained out of the government, but had not expected to find them advanced in it; that I knew there were persons in the South who speak of our Union with indifference or doubt, 5 taking pains to magnify its evils, and to say nothing of its benefits; that the honorable member himself, I was sure, could never be one of these; and I regretted the expression of such opinions as he had avowed, because I thought their obvious tendency was to encourage feelings 10 of disrespect to the Union, and to impair its strength. This, Sir, is the sum and substance of all I said on the subject. And this constitutes the attack, which called on the chivalry of the gentleman, in his own opinion, to harry us with such a foray among the party pamphlets 15 and party proceedings of Massachusetts! If he means that I spoke with dissatisfaction or disrespect of the ebullitions of individuals in South Carolina, it is true. But if he means that I had assailed the character of the State, her honor, or patriotism, that I reflected on her 20 history or her conduct, he has not the slightest ground for any such assumption. I did not even refer, I think, in my observations, to any collection of individuals. I said nothing of the recent conventions. I spoke in the most guarded and careful manner, and only expressed 25 my regret for the publication of opinions which I presumed the honorable member disapproved as much as myself. In this, it seems, I was mistaken. I do not remember that the gentleman has disclaimed any sentiment, or any opinion, of a supposed anti-union tendency, 30 which on all or any of the recent occasions has been expressed. The whole drift of his speech has been rather to prove that, in divers times and manners, sentiments equally liable to my objection have been avowed in New England. And one would suppose that his object, in 35

this reference to Massachusetts, was to find a precedent to justify proceedings in the South, were it not for the reproach and contumely with which he labors, all along, to load these his own chosen precedents. By way of 5 defending South Carolina from what he chooses to think an attack on her, he first quotes the example of Massachusetts, and then denounces that example in good set terms. This twofold purpose, not very consistent, one would think, with itself, was exhibited more than once 10 in the course of his speech. He referred, for instance, to the Hartford Convention. Did he do this for author

ity, or for a topic of reproach? Apparently for both; for he told us that he should find no fault with the mere fact of holding such a convention, and considering and 15 discussing such questions as he supposes were then and there discussed; but what rendered it obnoxious was its being held at the time, and under the circumstances of the country then existing. We were in a war, he said, and the country needed all our aid; the hand of govern20 ment required to be strengthened, not weakened; and patriotism should have postponed such proceedings to another day. The thing itself, then, is a precedent; the time and manner of it only, a subject of censure. Now, Sir, I go much further on this point than the honorable 25 member. Supposing, as the gentleman seems to do, that the Hartford Convention assembled for any such purpose as breaking up the Union, because they thought unconstitutional laws had been passed, or to consult on that subject, or to calculate the value of the Union; supposing 30 this to be their purpose, or any part of it, then, I say, the meeting itself was disloyal, and was obnoxious to censure, whether held in time of peace or time of war, or under whatever circumstances. The material question

is the object. Is dissolution the object? If it be, ex

35 ternal circumstances may make it a more or less aggra

New England, if assembled for any such purpose as gentleman says would have been an allowable purp To hold conventions to decide constitutional law! to the binding validity of statutes, by votes in a conventi Sir, the Hartford Convention, I presume, would not de that the honorable gentleman should be their defende advocate, if he puts their case upon such untenable extravagant grounds.

40 Then, Sir, the gentleman has no fault to find w these recently promulgated South Carolina opinic And certainly he need have none; for his own se ments as now advanced, and advanced on reflecti as far as I have been able to comprehend them, go full length of all these opinions. I propose, Sir, to something on these, and to consider how far they just and constitutional. Before doing that, howev let me observe that the eulogium pronounced by honorable gentleman on the character of the State South Carolina, for Revolutionary and other mer meets my hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowled that the honorable member goes before me in regard whatever of distinguished talent, or distinguished ch acter, South Carolina has produced. I claim part of honor, I partake in the pride, of her great names. claim them for countrymen, one and all. The Laurens the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the Mario Americans all, whose fame is no more to be hemmed by State lines than their talents and patriotism w

capable of being circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In their day and generation they served and honored the country, and the whole country; and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country. Him 5 whose honored name the gentleman himself bears, — does he esteem me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his sufferings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of Massachusetts instead of South Carolina? Sir, does he suppose it in his power to ex10 hibit a Carolina name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom? No, Sir; increased gratification and delight rather. I thank God that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which 15 would drag angels down. When I shall be found, Sir, in my place here in the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happens to spring up beyond the little limits of my own State or neighborhood; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage 20 due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of Heaven, if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue, in any son of the South, and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by State jealousy, 25 I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!

Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections; let me indulge in refreshing remembrance of the past; - let me 30 remind you that in early times no States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God that harmony might again return! Shoulder to shoulder they went through the Revolution, hand in hand they 35 stood round the administration of Washington, and felt