ear its mouth, each forming a separate government? Pray,
sir, let me say to the people of this country, that these things are
worthy of their pondering and of their consideration. Here, sir, are
five millions of freemen in the free States north of the river Ohio.
Can anybody suppose that this population can be severed, by a line that
divides them from the territory of a foreign and alien government,
down somewhere, the Lord knows where, upon the lower banks of
the Mississippi? What would become of Missouri? Will she join the
arrondissement of the slave States? Shall the man from the Yellowstone
and the Platte be connected, in the new republic, with the man who lives
on the southern extremity of the Cape of Florida? Sir, I am ashamed to
pursue this line of remark. I dislike it, I have an utter disgust for
it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence,
and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of secession. To break up this
great Government! to dismember this glorious country! to astonish Europe
with an act of folly such as Europe for two centuries has never beheld
in any government or any people! No, sir! no, sir! There will be no
secession! Gentlemen are not serious when they talk of secession.

Sir, I hear there is to be a convention held at Nashville. I am bound to
believe that if worthy gentlemen meet at Nashville in convention, their
object will be to adopt conciliatory counsels; to advise the South to
forbearance and moderation, and to advise the North to forbearance and
moderation; and to inculcate principles of brotherly love and affection,
and attachment to the Constitution of the country as it now is. I
believe, if the convention meet at all, it will be for this purpose; for
certainly, if they meet for any purpose hostile to the Union, they have
been singularly inappropriate in their selection of a place. I remember,
sir, that, when the treaty of Amiens was concluded between France and
England, a sturdy Englishman and a distinguished orator, who regarded
the conditions of the peace as ignominious to England, said in the House
of Commons, that if King William could know the terms of that treaty, he
would turn in his coffin! Let me commend this saying to Mr. Windham, in
all its emphasis and in all its force, to any persons who shall meet at
Nashville for the purpose of concerting measures for the overthrow of
this Union over the bones of Andrew Jackson. * * *

And now, Mr. President, instea