itself the power to secure its own preservation. The Constitution
ought not to be amended without the deliberate action of the people
themselves. I cannot and I will not disregard their rights. I cannot
recognize the claim that the secession of a State, by an ordinance of
its Convention, can carry either the State or its people out of the
Union. There is no such thing as _legal_ secession, for there is no
power anywhere to take the people out of the protecting care of the
Government, or to relieve them from their obligations to it.

And where is the clause in the Constitution that authorizes the call
upon Congress to do what Congress is asked to do here? The
Constitution was adopted "to form a more perfect Union." The people
were not to be allowed to alter it, except in the two modes prescribed
in it. The Convention which adopted it did not propose that changes
should be made in it without ample time for deliberation and
discussion. We are here, then, simply as conferees from States
expressing our individual opinions. We are now asked to recommend to
Congress amendments to our fundamental law; we have no more right to
do so than members of the so-called Southern Confederacy. We, a mere
fraction of the people, propose to unite in bringing a pressure upon
Congress, which shall induce it to propose these amendments. This was
not one of the modes contemplated or provided by the framers of that
sacred instrument.

General WASHINGTON presided over the Convention which prepared our
Constitution. None knew better than he the reasons which made its
adoption necessary to the preservation of the Government--none knew
better the dangers which would probably surround it in after years. In
that last counsel of his to the American people--his Farewell
Address--a paper drawn up with the greatest deliberation, embodying
opinions which he entertained as the result of a long life of active
study and reflection, he warns us against all such proceedings as
those contemplated by the majority of the committee. I am sure the
delegates from Virginia will not now refuse to listen to the words of
that illustrious man, uttered upon the most solemn and momentous
occasion of his life. Hear his words:

"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your
welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the
apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me
on an occasion like the present to offer to your solemn