rit to-day she bears her full share of the heavy sorrow
that rests, like a pall, over the people of the whole country as they
witness this glorious fabric, which our fathers erected and cemented
with their blood and their prayers--trembling, shattered, and
dismembered. In the conciliatory spirit of my State, I, as a
Jerseyman, proud of the title and every thing connected with it, wish
to say a word to the South in all frankness and candor. I freely tell
you that, in my opinion, you have a right to guarantees, and to
constitutional guarantees. It is no answer to say that the
Constitution has not been broken. That is not the question now.
Reference has been made to the fact that WASHINGTON signed the present
Constitution. Yes, but when he did so we had a population of but three
millions, and now we have a population of upward of thirty millions.
Is it surprising that some change should be required in that
instrument with this great change in the nation? The balance of power
so long fluctuating between the free and the slaveholding States has
at length entirely changed. It has now come to us of the free States,
and therefore we are bound to respect the claims of the South, and
quiet the apprehensions of its people.

It is of little use to make patriotic speeches here. The South demands
guarantees, and I feel under obligations to respond to that demand. I
assert as a general principle, that whoever has a right is entitled
to have it guaranteed. I believe there is not a gentleman here, who,
in his heart, does not think so. If it is right for them to have these
guarantees at all, they should have them to-day. I do not care whether
Virginia occupies a menacing attitude or not, my moral code is still
the same; it is not effected by any thing that has been done or can be
done by Virginia or any other State. It is my belief that
nineteen-twentieths of the people of the North to-day are in favor of
giving to the South all the guarantees it asks against all
interference with slavery in the territories. Some say, "We admit
this, but we will do nothing until the Republican President is
inaugurated on the 4th of March." I am ready to do it now; and my
obligations to do right will not be changed by the 4th of March
rolling over my head.

Gentlemen have made eloquent and patriotic speeches asserting their
determination not to interfere with the rights of the South. That is
very pleasant and very proper. But those speeches are the expr