As to the injustice of taxation without representation,
that is an idea derived from our English ancestors, and is liable, like
all rules, to the exceptions of necessity. I see no reason why a State
may not as well be disfranchised as a borough for an illegal abuse of
its privileges; nor do I quite feel the parity of the reason which
should enable you to do that with a loyal black which we may not do
with a disloyal white. Remember that this government is bound by every
obligation, ethical and political, to protect these people because they
are weak, and to reward them (if the common privilege of manhood may be
called a reward) because they are faithful. We are not fanatics, but a
nation that has neither faith in itself nor faith toward others must
soon crumble to pieces by moral dry-rot. If we may conquer you,
gentlemen, (and you forced the necessity upon us,) we may surely impose
terms upon you; for it is an old principle of law that _cui liceat
majus, ei licet etiam minus_.

"In your part of the country, gentlemen, that which we should naturally
appeal to as the friend of order and stability--property--is blindly
against us; prejudice is also against us; and we have nothing left to
which we can appeal but human nature and the common privilege of
manhood. You seem to have entertained some hope that I would gather
about myself a 'President's party,' which should be more friendly to
you and those animosities which you mistake for interests. But you
grossly deceive yourselves; I have nor sympathy but with my whole
country, and there is nothing out of which such a party as you dream of
could be constructed, except the broken remnant of those who deserted
you when for the first time you needed their help and not their
subserviency, and those feathery characters who are drawn hither and
thither by the chances of office. I need not say to you that I am and
can be nothing in this matter but the voice of the nation's deliberate
resolve. The recent past is too painful, the immediate future too
momentous, to tolerate any personal considerations. You throw
yourselves upon our magnanimity, and I must be frank with you. My
predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, taught us the impolicy of weakness and
concession. The people are magnanimous, but they understand by
magnanimity a courageous steadiness in principle. They do not think it
possible that a large heart should consist with a narrow brain; and
they would consider it pusillanimous in them