members on
this side of the Chamber heretofore. It is not to be expected
that they will be renewed, for the people have taken the subject
into their own hands. States, in their sovereign capacity, have
now resolved to judge of the infractions of the Federal compact,
and of the mode and measure of redress. All we can usefully or
properly do is to send to the people, thus preparing to act for
themselves, evidence of error, if error there be; to transmit to
them the proofs of kind feeling, if it actuates the Northern
section, where they now believe there is only hostility. If we
are mistaken as to your feelings and purposes, give a
substantial proof, that here may begin that circle which hence
may spread out and cover the whole land with proofs of
fraternity, of a reaction in public sentiment, and the assurance
of a future career in conformity with the principles and
purposes of the Constitution. All else is idle. I would not give
the parchment on which the bill would be written that is to
secure our constitutional rights within the limits of a State,
where the people are all opposed to the execution of that law.
It is a truism in free governments that laws rest upon public
opinion, and fall powerless before its determined opposition.

"The time has passed, sir, when appeals might profitably be made
to sentiment. The time has come when men must of necessity
reason, assemble facts, and deal with current events. I may be
permitted in this to correct an error into which one of my
friends fell this morning, when he impressed on us the great
value of our Union as measured by the amount of time and money
and blood which were spent to form this Union. It cost very
little time, very little money, and no blood. It was one of the
most peaceful transactions that mark the pages of human history.
Our fathers fought the war of the Revolution to maintain the
rights asserted in their Declaration of Independence."

Mr. Powell: "The Senator from Mississippi will allow me to say
that I spoke of the Government, not of the Union. I said time
and money and blood had been required to form the Government."

Mr. Davis: "The Government is the machinery established by the
Constitution; it is the agency created by the States when they
formed the Union. Our fathers, I was proceeding to say, having