an
amendment to one of that series of resolutions I voted against; and I
would vote against any thing and every thing that would embarrass
their passage, for they contained just what I thought was right.

What has happened since? Why, a thing has happened that never happened
before. The denial of any and all protection to slave property in any
and in all the territory; the denial of the right to take slave
property to any of them has been proclaimed and affirmed at the
ballot-box by a majority of the States, and a majority of the
electoral votes of this Union. What has happened? Why, the thing has
happened that has been three times before attempted, and three times
before failed; the first attempt having endangered the formation of
the Union, and the second and third its continuance. The first attempt
was made in 1784, to exclude slavery from all the Territories. It was
abandoned in 1787 by excluding it only from the territory northwest of
the Ohio, leaving it to colonize that portion southwest of that river.
The same thing was again attempted in 1820, as to the territory
acquired from Louisiana; and after a terrible agitation, was abandoned
by adopting the Missouri line. The third attempt was made in 1850, as
to the territory acquired from Mexico; and then also the Union
narrowly escaped destruction; but the compromise measures were
adopted. And now it comes again, but in a more formidable way than
ever. A President has been elected on that issue; for the first time
the people of the North, after all previous compromises and warnings,
have voted on the question, and every Northern State has pronounced
for the spoliation.

Mr. President, perhaps the most signal instance of the evils of
compulsory union between dissimilar people, is that of Ireland and
England. The people of Ireland--the home and heritage of my
ancestors--have, as the South has, a representation in the national
Legislature; but being also, as the South is, in a minority in that
body, have no power to protect themselves from the aggressions of
England. The consequence is, that they have been excluded from the
common benefits of British legislation, commercially, and even
religiously, to say nothing of their exclusion from official station
in the empire. And, accordingly, Ireland has been impoverished,
degraded, and discontented. She has been trampled upon, outraged,
insulted, treated like Cinderella. The people of this country have
always sympathized