ion with
language alluding to the things slave, or slavery; and that wherever in
that instrument the slave is alluded to, he is called a "person;" and
wherever his master's legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it
is spoken of as "service or labor which may be due"--as a debt payable
in service or labor. Also it would be open to show, by contemporaneous
history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of
speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the
Constitution the idea that there could be property in man.

To show all this is easy and certain.

When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their
notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the
mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion based upon it?

And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers who framed the
Government under which we live"--the men who made the
Constitution--decided this same Constitutional question in our favor
long ago: decided it without a division among themselves when making
the decision; without division among themselves about the meaning of it
after it was made, and so far as any evidence is left, without basing
it upon any mistaken statement of facts.

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourself justified to
break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is shall
be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political
action?

But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that
supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say,
the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us!

That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters
through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then
you will be a murderer!"

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me--my money--was my own; and I
had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is
my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the
threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be
distinguished in principle.

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all
parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony one
with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even
though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill temper.
Even though the Southern people will not so