on them, it is not to be
expected that New England, any more than other portions of the country,
will now consent to any measure destructive or highly dangerous. The
duty of the government, at the present moment, would seem to be to
preserve, not to destroy; to maintain the position which it has assumed;
and, for one, I shall feel it an indispensable obligation to hold it
steady, as far as in my power, to that degree of protection which it has
undertaken to bestow. No more of the tariff.

Professing to be provoked by what he chose to consider a charge made by
me against South Carolina, the honorable member, Mr. President, has
taken up a new crusade against New England. Leaving altogether the
subject of the public lands, in which his success, perhaps, had been
neither distinguished nor satisfactory, and letting go, also, of the
topic of the tariff, he sallied forth in a general assault on the
opinions, politics, and parties of New England, as they have been
exhibited in the last thirty years. This is natural. The "narrow policy"
of the public lands had proved a legal settlement in South Carolina, and
was not to be removed. The "accursed policy" of the tariff, also, had
established the fact of its birth and parentage in the same State. No
wonder, therefore, the gentleman wished to carry the war, as he
expressed it, into the enemy's country. Prudently willing to quit these
subjects, he was, doubtless, desirous of fastening on others, which
could not be transferred south of Mason and Dixon's line. The politics
of New England became his theme; and it was in this part of his speech,
I think, that he menaced me with such sore discomfiture. Discomfiture!
Why, Sir, when he attacks any thing which I maintain, and overthrows it,
when he turns the right or left of any position which I take up, when he
drives me from any ground I choose to occupy, he may then talk of
discomfiture, but not till that distant day. What has he done? Has he
maintained his own charges? Has he proved what he alleged? Has he
sustained himself in his attack on the government, and on the history of
the North, in the matter of the public lands? Has he disproved a fact,
refuted a proposition, weakened an argument, maintained by me? Has he
come within beat of drum of any position of mine? O, no; but he has
"carried the war into the enemy's country"! Carried the war into the
enemy's country! Yes, Sir, and what sort of a war has he made of it?
Why, Sir, he has str