o think was the essence of democracy. Our
little State has a constitution that could not stand a day against such
doctrines, and yet we glory in it as the best in the Union. It is a
constitution which respects all the great interests of the State, giving
to each a separate and distinct voice in the management of its political
affairs, by means of which the feebler interests are protected against
the preponderance of the stronger. We call our State a Republic--a
Commonwealth, not a Democracy; and let me tell the Senator, it is a far
more popular government than if it had been based on the simple
principle of the numerical majority. It takes more voices to put the
machine of government in motion than in those that the Senator would
consider more popular. It represents all the interests of the
State,--and is in fact the government of the people in the true sense of
the term, and not that of the mere majority, or the dominant interests.

I am not familiar with the constitution of Maryland, to which the
Senator alluded, and cannot therefore speak of its structure with
confidence; but I believe it to be somewhat similar in its character to
our own. That it is a government not without its excellence, we need no
better proof than the fact that though within the shadow of Executive
influence, it has nobly and successfully resisted all the seductions by
which a corrupt and artful Administration, with almost boundless
patronage, has attempted to seduce her into its ranks.

Looking then to the approaching struggle, I take my stand immovably. _I
am a conservative in its broadest and fullest sense, and such I shall
ever remain, unless indeed the government shall become so corrupt and
disordered that nothing short of revolution can reform it._ I solemnly
believe that our political system is, in its purity, not only the best
that ever was formed, but the best possible that can be devised for us.
It is the only one by which free States, so populous and wealthy, and
occupying so vast an extent of territory, can preserve their liberty.
Thus thinking, I cannot hope for a better. Having no hope of a better, I
am a conservative; and _because I am a conservative, I am a State Rights
man_. I believe that in the rights of the States are to be found the
only effectual means of checking the overaction of this government; to
resist its tendency to concentrate all power here, and to prevent a
departure from the Constitution; or in case of one, to r