all
be swept from the face of the earth.

If the gentleman from New York means to say that the nation can put
its foot on to the neck of the States and crush them into submission,
let him go into Virginia and join in another JOHN BROWN raid. Virginia
will treat him as she did JOHN BROWN. No! the gentleman has not
studied the motto of the Union. There is the _E pluribus_ as well as
the _unum_. If the new President proposes to come down to the South
and conquer us, he will find that the whole temple shall fall. We can
be crushed, perhaps, but conquered, _never_!

Mr. BRADFORD:--Maryland has, under the lead of her constitutional
Chief Magistrate, determined to preserve her position of neutrality,
and not by any action of hers to add to the prevailing excitement on
either side. She has done what she could to allay the existing
irritation, and will continue to pursue the same policy she has
hitherto adopted.

Here is a large file of amendments. Almost every delegation has given
notice of an intention to offer one or more. If we begin to adopt
them, I feel sure that we shall destroy all hope of an ultimate
agreement.

Mr. President, I desire to make an emphatic declaration to this
Conference. It is this: Give us the report as it came from the
committee, without substantial alteration, and there is no power on
earth that can draw the State of Maryland out of the Union! Maryland
has been called the heart of the Union. The day she leaves the Union,
that heart is broken! I am now inclined to set my face against all
amendments. I think that is the better course.

In the populous section of the State where I reside, the universal cry
is, "For God's sake, settle these questions!" Why can we not settle
them? The committee inform us that the members of which it is
composed, were nearly unanimous upon all points except the territorial
question. Will reasonable men not yield a little to each other in
order to settle that?

Then let us look calmly at the consequences which must follow our
disagreement. I will enter into no panegyric of the Union. To use an
often repeated expression, it needs none. It is enshrined in the
hearts of the people with all the glories of the past, with all the
glorious hopes of the future. It has given us a position in the front
rank of the nations. There is every prospect that it will make us in
the end the most powerful among the nations. Who can look unmoved upon
the spectacle of such a Union about