, I united with a few friends in calling,
at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the FIRST _Democratic_ meeting, by which
General Jackson was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the
Presidency of the United States. I offered the resolutions in his favor
adopted by that meeting, calling the Democratic State Convention of
Pennsylvania which confirmed that nomination in March, 1824. I attended
that Convention, as a delegate from Pittsburg, and wrote the address of
the Convention to the Democracy of the State and of the Union on that
momentous occasion. I supported General Jackson for the Presidency in
1823 (my first vote), 1824, 1828, and 1832, and uniformly adhered to
the Democratic party until after the rebellion of 1861.

During the great nullification and secession question of South Carolina,
on the first Monday of January, 1833, at Natchez, Mississippi, I made
the opening speech, then published, against nullification and secession,
in favor of "_war_," if necessary to maintain the Union--in favor of
"_coercion_" to put down rebellion in any State. The Legislature of
Mississippi indorsed that speech, and passed resolutions declaring
nullification and _secession_ to be _treason_, and, upon THAT ISSUE, I
was elected by the Legislature to the Senate of the United States. If
Mississippi, under the influence of Jefferson Davis, and other traitor
leaders, has since that period abandoned those principles, she cannot
expect me to follow her, and thereby surrender opinions which I have
uniformly maintained and advocated throughout my life, but more
especially from 1833 until the present period. Mississippi (whose
prosperity I would restore by bringing her back to the Union) indorsed
those opinions when she elected me to the Senate of the United States
over an avowed and distinguished secessionist (George Poindexter), after
a contest of unexampled violence, personal and political, extending from
January, 1833, to January, 1836.

It was on that occasion that General Jackson wrote his celebrated letter
in favor of my election and sustaining my political course. It was after
the adoption of the secession ordinance by Carolina, that General
Jackson sent our war vessels to Charleston to hold and blockade the
harbor, and our troops, under the illustrious Scott, to maintain, by
force, if necessary, the authority of the Federal Government over the
forts commanding the city of Charleston. Let us suppose that the rebels
had then shot down our