ton
harbor, he said:--

"We are no longer to dispute between legislation and taxation; we
are now only to consider whether or not we have any authority
there. It is very clear we have none, if we suffer the property of
our subjects to be destroyed. We must punish, control, or yield to
them."

And thereupon he proposed to close the port of Boston, just as the
representatives of Massachusetts now propose to close the port of
Charleston, in order to determine whether or not you have any
authority there. It is thus that, in 1861, Boston is to pay her
debt of gratitude to Charleston, which, in the days of her struggle,
proclaimed the generous sentiment that "the cause of Boston was the
cause of Charleston." Who, after this, will say that republicans
are ungrateful? Well, sir, the statesmen of Great Britain answered
to Lord North's appeal, "yield." The courtiers and the politicians
said, "punish," "control." The result is known. History gives you
the lesson. Profit by its teachings!

So, sir, in the address sent under the royal sign-manual to
Parliament, it was invoked to take measures "for better securing the
execution of the laws," and it acquiesced in the suggestion. Just as
now, a senile executive, under the sinister influence of insane
counsels, is proposing, with your assent, "to secure the better
execution of the laws," by blockading ports and turning upon the
people of the States the artillery which they provided at their own
expense for their own defense, and intrusted to you and to him for
that and for no other purpose--nay, even in States that are now
exercising the undoubted and most precious rights of a free people;
where there is no secession; where the citizens are assembling to
hold peaceful elections for considering what course of action is
demanded in this dread crisis by a due regard for their own safety
and their own liberty; aye, even in Virginia herself, the people are
to cast their suffrages beneath the undisguised menaces of a
frowning fortress. Cannon are brought to bear on their homes, and
parricidal hands are preparing weapons for rending the bosom of the
mother of Washington.

Sir, when Great Britain proposed to exact tribute from your fathers
against their will, Lord Chatham said:--

"Whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own; no man has a right
to take it from him without his consent. Whoever attempts to do it
attempts an injury. Whoever does it commits a robbery. You ha