hem, and I know that this Union can never be dissolved
without a struggle. Will you hasten the time when we shall begin to
shed each other's blood? No! gentlemen, no!

There seems to be but one question which gives us any difficulty in
adjusting. That is, about the right of the South to take their slaves
into the territories. Is it possible that we can permit this Union to
be broken up because of any difference on such a question as this?
Better that the territories were buried in the deep sea beyond the
plummet's reach, than that they should be the cause of such a
deplorable result.

But it is not the value of the territories which is in dispute; it is
not whether the North or the South shall colonize them, because, as
the gentleman from New York has said, that though the territory south
of 36 deg. 30' had been ten years open to Southern colonization, only
twenty-four slaves had been introduced into it. No, the real question
is, whether pride of opinion shall succumb to the necessities of the
crisis.

The Premier of the incoming administration has declared that parties
and platforms are subordinate to, and must disappear in the presence
of the great question of the Union. This gives me hope. Let him and
his friends act upon that, and this Conference can in six hours, in
conjunction with a committee of his political friends, adjust such
terms of settlement as will save the Union.

The Roman Curtius offered himself as a sacrifice to save Rome, when
informed by the oracle that the loss of his life would save his
country. We are now in greater danger than Rome was then; but is there
no Curtius for our salvation? We are not called upon to give up life,
property, or honor, but to concede justice and equal rights to our
Southern brethren. We only want the courage to yield extreme opinions.
What power, after victory, refuses to lower the lofty terms which were
asserted on the eve of the battle for the sake of peace? But the
Republicans say, shall we surrender the fruits of victory to the
vanquished? I answer, how are you to enjoy your fruits without
pacification? You expected to govern the whole country. You aspired to
the control of the whole empire. Without peace you will not succeed in
establishing possession of that magnificent country which your
predecessors governed, but you will govern a little more than half of
it, and with that you have to provide for war.

It is easy to dispose of the threatening attitude of th