the earth cumbered with the bodies of the dying and the dead, will
bear awful testimony to the madness and wickedness which, from the
very summit of prosperity and happiness, are plunging us headlong into
an abyss of woe.

Sir, in God's name, let us have peace! If we cannot have it in the
Union, as it existed prior to November last, let us have it by
cultivating friendly relations with those States which have dissolved
their connection with that Union, and established a separate
government. Though we and they may not, and, perhaps, in the nature of
things, cannot live harmoniously under the same Government, it is our
interest, no less than theirs, that we should at once endeavor to
establish between our Government and theirs those amicable relations
which should ever exist between two neighboring Republics. War, with
its attendant horrors, being thus happily averted, the people of each
Republic will be left at liberty to pursue, undisturbed, their several
vocations. A mutually advantageous commerce will grow up between the
two nations; treaties, such as regulate our intercourse with the
Canadas, will be formed; confidence in all branches of business will
be restored; a new impetus given to every variety of industry; the
march of improvement accelerated, and the cause of humanity, of
civilization, and of Christianity, advanced throughout the world. The
people of Europe, accustomed to refer the settlement of their
slightest differences to the bloody arbitrament of the sword, will
behold with silent wonder and amazement the spectacle of a great
people unable to agree in reference to one of their peculiar domestic
institutions, peacefully separating, as did the patriarchs of old;
resolving themselves into two distinct political communities, not
hostile, discordant, belligerent; but each, animated with a spirit of
generous rivalry toward the other, pursuing a more successful and
prosperous career in its own chosen path, than when, united under the
same Federal head, they painfully sought together the same common
destiny.

Mr. President, we are living at a day and at a time when a Northern
sectional party have obtained possession of the power of this great
Government, who have declared in their platform, in their speeches
everywhere, and in their press, that slavery shall never go into
another foot of territory; that no other slave State shall ever be
admitted into this Union; that slavery shall be put in the course of
ult