far more extensive. Suppose the case of a servile war,
complicated, as to some extent it is even now, with an Indian war;
suppose Congress were called to raise armies, to supply money from the
whole Union, to suppress a servile insurrection: would they have no
authority to interfere with the institution of slavery? The issue of a
servile war may be disastrous. By war the slave may emancipate himself;
it may become necessary for the master to recognize his emancipation by
a treaty of peace; can it for an instant be pretended that Congress,
in such a contingency, would have no authority to interfere with the
institution of slavery, in any way, in the States? Why, it would be
equivalent to saying that Congress have no constitutional authority to
make peace.

[Illustration: John C. Calhoun]

JOHN C. CALHOUN,

OF SOUTh CAROLINA (BORN 1782, DIED 1850.)

ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION,

SENATE, MARCH 4, 1850

I have, Senators, believed from the first that the agitation of the
subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective
measure, end in disunion. Entertaining this opinion, I have, on all
proper occasions, endeavored to call the attention of both the two great
parties which divide the country to adopt some measure to prevent so
great a disaster, but without success. The agitation has been permitted
to proceed, with almost no attempt to resist it, until it has reached a
point when it can no longer be disguised or denied that the Union is in
danger. You have thus had forced upon you the greatest and the gravest
question that can ever come under your consideration: How can the Union
be preserved?

To give a satisfactory answer to this mighty question, it is
indispensable to have an accurate and thorough knowledge of the nature
and the character of the cause by which the Union is endangered. Without
such knowledge it is impossible to pronounce, with any certainty, by
what measure it can be saved; just as it would be impossible for a
physician to pronounce, in the case of some dangerous disease, with any
certainty, by what remedy the patient could be saved, without similar
knowledge of the nature and character of the cause which produced
it. The first question, then, presented for consideration, in the
investigation I propose to make, in order to obtain such knowledge, is:
What is it that has endangered the Union?

To this question there can be but one answer: That the immediate
cause is the