right exists
already--if it is apprehended that the people themselves may assert
the right to overthrow the Constitution and destroy the Government at
pleasure--we should not, by all means, pass this amendment.

The slave power has now had possession of the Government in all for
more than fifty years. A President has been elected belonging to the
opposing party. For that cause alone, and without claiming or
assigning any other, the slave States, under the powerful protection
of Virginia, have come here for guarantees. We are told, over and over
again, that seven States have left the Union. There is a fact with
which we have to deal. On our side, we are merely dealing with
apprehensions. If you have a right to guarantees to quiet your
apprehensions, have we not a right to insist that secession shall be
put down and condemned by an explicit clause of the Constitution? It
is this claim of the right of secession which has brought all the
trouble upon the country. We are right in our claim that it should be
dealt with in this Conference. If we, as delegates, should prove
faithless to our trust, should yield you all the guarantees you ask,
and should insist upon nothing on our side, such action would not
avail you any thing.

The North and the people of the North must be satisfied upon this
point. Much has been said here about the right of revolution. I do not
propose to discuss that right. At all events that is not a right which
depends upon the Constitution, or grows out of it. If it exists at
all, it is higher than, and above all Constitutions. The statement in
this amendment does not controvert the right of revolution. It is
simply a statement that _the Union of the States, under the
Constitution, is indissoluble_. I regard the adoption of this
amendment as both expedient and essential.

Mr. TURNER, of Illinois:--I do not think this amendment very important
either way. If this is intended as a mere declaration of the purposes
of the Constitution, it may be well enough. But will the assertion
that such is the purpose of the Constitution preserve that instrument
and the Government under it? No, sir. We may call spirits from the
vasty deep; but the question is, will they come?

If the right of secession exists at all, it is not confined to the
South. If it is conceded at all, it must be conceded in much broader
terms--in terms that are common to all the States. This amendment
secures to the States no practical benefit.