may have declared that the
contingency will then have occurred which will, in the judgment of most
of the slave-holding States, as expressed by their resolutions, justify
resistance as to an intolerable aggression. If he does entertain and
has expressed such sentiments, he is not to be held up as peculiarly a
disunionist. Allow me to say, in reference to this matter, I regret that
you have brought it about, but it is true that this epithet "disunionist"
is likely soon to have very little terror in it in the South. Words do
not make things. "Rebel" was designed as a very odious term when applied
by those who would have trampled on the rights of our ancestors, but I
believe that the expression became not an ungrateful one to the ears
of those who resisted them. It was not the lowest term of abuse to call
those who were conscious that they were struggling against oppression;
and let me assure gentlemen that the term disunionist is rapidly
assuming at the South the meaning which rebel took when it was baptized
in the blood of Warren at Bunker Hill, and illustrated by the gallantry
of Jasper at Fort Moultrie. * * *

MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I said nothing with respect to the character
of Mr. Rhett, for I might as well name him. I know him personally,
and have some respect for him. But, if he pronounced the sentiment
attributed to him--of raising the standard of disunion and of resistance
to the common government, whatever he has been, if he follows up that
declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, and I
hope he will meet the fate of a traitor.

THE PRESIDENT:--The Chair will be under the necessity of ordering the
gallery to be cleared if there is again the slightest interruption. He
has once already given warning that he is under the necessity of keeping
order. The Senate chamber is not a theatre.

MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I have heard with pain and regret a
confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disunion is
becoming familiar. I hope it is confined to South Carolina. I do not
regard as my duty what the honorable Senator seems to regard as his. If
Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never
will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole
Union--a subordinate one to my own State. When my State is right--when
it has a cause for resistance--when tyranny, and wrong, and oppression
insufferable arise, I will then share her fortunes; but i