inly drive out the Border States? They would say, "If we go
south, we ally ourselves to a homogeneous people; we shall have none
of these difficulties; we have no reason to fear their citizens; we
can grant all these privileges without the least difficulty or
danger; we can send our slaves south from a country where they are not
profitable, to one where they are; but if we stay here, we are
forbidden to do any of these things; if we stay here, we are prevented
from ever obtaining any outlet for our slave property." Will you not
offer them the highest inducements, nay, will you not make it almost
necessary for them to leave you, if you should adopt such a
proposition as this?

Nor is that all, Mr. President. Our present Constitution--for I am
comparing our position under it with that in which this would place
us--in most of its difficult provisions has been expounded--expounded
by the action of the State Governments, by the action of all the
departments of the Federal Government. We have had legal
interpretations in the decisions of the State and Federal courts. We
have come almost to a point--indeed, I, who believe that the Dred
Scott decision is law, think we have come to a point--where we have a
legal exposition on the whole of these matters. Are we to be turned
aside from that, to wander into a new sea of doubt and difficulty and
ambiguity? No candid man can take this up and say it is not full of
double constructions, full of ambiguities, giving ground for new
quarrels between the sections, to new constructions of courts, to new
lawsuits.

Mr. COLLAMER:--And to be perpetual.

Mr. HUNTER:--Yes, sir; and to be made perpetual. We cannot change them
afterwards, if we want to do it. I can conceive nothing that would
endanger what is left of this Union so much as the adoption of this
proposition, although it has been produced by persons so eminent and
so respectable as those who composed the Peace Congress.

I know that this measure does emanate from a body eminently patriotic
and wise, entitled to the public deference and affection; and for
their work I feel all possible respect. Against that work I will
pronounce nothing except what the necessities of the occasion may
require. But when the peace, the safety, the rights of the State which
I seek to represent--when the peace of the whole country, as it seems
to me, would be so seriously imperilled as it would be if this were
adopted, I feel bound by a sense of what I