on certain civil
strife.

Under this new condition of things Mr. Toombs made his great "door-sill"
speech in the United States Senate, on the 24th of January, 1860. It was
upon the resolution offered by Senator Douglas calling for a measure of
protection of each State and Territory against invasion by the
authorities and inhabitants of every other State and Territory. Senator
Toombs declared that the resolution opened up a new page in the history
of our country. It was a step in the right direction. He feared that the
disease lay too deep for the remedy. Heretofore the people of the United
States could grapple and surmount all difficulties, foreign and
domestic. A spirit of nationality, a common interest, a common danger,
carried the country through revolutions. Now all this has changed. The
feeling of loyalty and common destiny is rapidly passing away. Hostility
to the compact of the Union, to the tie which binds us together, finds
utterance in the tongues of millions of our countrymen, animates their
bosoms, and leads to the habitual disregard of the plainest duties and
obligations. Large bodies of men now feel and know that party success
involves danger; that the result may bring us face to face with
revolution.

"The fundamental principles of our Union are assailed, invaded, and
threatened with destruction; our ancient rights and liberties are in
danger; the peace and tranquillity of our homes have been invaded by
lawless violence, and their further invasion is imminent; the instinct
of self-preservation arms society to their defense."

Mr. Toombs contended that this was no new principle introduced into our
Constitution. ["]It was inserted in the ordinance of 1787. The New
England Confederation adopted it in 1643. The Supreme Judicial tribunal
of Prussia affirmed it as the public law of Europe as late as 1855. It
was acknowledged to be a sound principle of public law in the days of
Pericles, and its violation by one of the States of Greece was the chief
cause of the Peloponnesian War, which devastated Greece for twenty-one
years. The Megareans had given refuge to the revolted slaves of Athens."

"I say," he continued, "the bargain is broken--broken by the States
whose policy I have reviewed; broken by the Republican party, which did
the work in their legislatures and elsewhere. Their hands are soiled
with the blood of the compact. They cannot be permitted to minister at
its altar. Their representatives on this f