can
go home to the Republicans of New Jersey with a clear conscience and
say to them, that by our action here we have not carried slavery one
inch farther than it was before. If they are not satisfied with that,
they must be dissatisfied.

But there is one plank in the Chicago platform to which I will call
the attention of my Republican friends. It must not be forgotten. I
read from a genuine copy which I brought from Chicago myself.

"_Resolved_, That to the Union of the States, this nation
owes its unprecedented increase in population, its
surpassing development of internal resources, its rapid
augmentation of wealth, its happiness at home and its honor
abroad, and we hold in abhorrence all schemes of disunion,
come from whatever source they may."

It is a rule of construction, that all parts of an instrument must be
construed together; that due regard and effect must be given to all
parts of it, unless they are clearly repugnant. Will any gentleman
tell me how the Union can be more effectually preserved than by
controlling disunion? It is by granting what is asked to those who
might disturb its tranquillity, when they ask nothing unreasonable.
This resolution every patriot can subscribe to; and I hold that it can
be as effectually violated by the neglect to do all we can to turn
aside disunion, as by affirmative action against the Government. And
let me say that the party in this country which goes between the
people and the preservation of the Union, will sink so low,
eventually, that a bubble will not return to mark the spot where it
went down. But I cannot understand how any one who is honestly opposed
to the extension of slavery, as a political institution, can refuse
the compromise proposed. The federal courts, to which we have
committed the power, have decided that slavery, of right, goes into
all the territories. The distinguished Republican from Massachusetts
has told us that the court cannot be so organized, even if we keep the
power, as to change that decision in twenty-five years. In that time
the whole question will be determined. Now we have an opportunity, at
once and forever, by constitutional enactment, to prohibit slavery
from going into three-fourths of the territory, by simply agreeing
that as to the other one-fourth, while it remains a territory, the
_status_ of slavery shall not be changed. I confess I have not the
ingenuity to contrive how I should apologize to