brought to this test? Have they abstained from
violating the Constitution? Let the many acts passed by the Northern
States to set aside and annul the clause of the Constitution providing
for the delivery up of fugitive slaves answer. I cite this, not that
it is the only instance (for there are many others), but because the
violation in this particular is too notorious and palpable to be denied.
Again: Have they stood forth faithfully to repel violations of the
Constitution? Let their course in reference to the agitation of the
slavery question, which was commenced and has been carried on for
fifteen years, avowedly for the purpose of abolishing slavery in the
States--an object all acknowledged to be unconstitutional,--answer. Let
them show a single instance, during this long period, in which they have
denounced the agitators or their attempts to effect what is admitted to
be unconstitutional, or a single measure which they have brought forward
for that purpose. How can we, with all these facts before us, believe
that they are sincere in their profession of devotion to the Union, or
avoid believing their profession is but intended to increase the vigor
of their assaults and to weaken the force of our resistance?

Nor can we regard the profession of devotion to the Union, on the part
of those who are not our assailants, as sincere, when they pronounce
eulogies upon the Union, evidently with the intent of charging us
with disunion, without uttering one word of denunciation against our
assailants. If friends of the Union, their course should be to unite
with us in repelling these assaults, and denouncing the authors as
enemies of the Union. Why they avoid this, and pursue the course they
do, it is for them to explain.

Nor can the Union be saved by invoking the name of the illustrious
Southerner whose mortal remains repose on the western bank of the
Potomac. He was one of us,--a slave-holder and a planter. We have
studied his history, and find nothing in it to justify submission to
wrong. On the contrary, his great fame rests on the solid foundation,
that, while he was careful to avoid doing wrong to others, he was
prompt and decided in repelling wrong. I trust that, in this respect, we
profited by his example.

Nor can we find any thing in his history to deter us from seceding
from the Union, should it fail to fulfil the objects for which it was
instituted, by being permanently and hopelessly converted into the means
of