OUR COUNTRY WHEN IN
DANGER, are of higher obligation. To LOSE OUR COUNTRY by a scrupulous
adherence to written law WOULD BE TO LOSE THE LAW ITSELF, with Life,
Liberty, Property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus
absolutely SACRIFICING THE END TO THE MEANS."

[In a letter to J. B. Colvin, Sept. 20, 1810, quoted at the time
for their information, and which may be found at page 542 of vol.
v., of Jefferson's Works.]

Indeed these extreme sticklers for the letter of the Constitution, who
would have sacrificed Country, kindred, friends, honesty, truth, and all
ambitions on Earth and hopes for Heaven, rather than violate it--for
that is what Mr. Cox's announcement and the Democratic endorsement of it
meant, if they meant anything--were of the same stripe as those
querulous Ancients, for the benefit of whom the Apostle wrote: "For THE
LETTER KILLETH, but the Spirit giveth life."

And now, inspired apparently by the reckless utterances
of Long, if not by the more cautious diatribe of Cox, Harris of
Maryland, determining if possible to outdo them all, not only declared
that he was willing to go with his friend Long wherever the House chose
to send him, but added: "I am a peace man, a radical peace man; and I am
for Peace by the recognition of the South, for the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy; and I am for acquiescence in the doctrine of
Secession." And, said he, in the midst of the laughter which followed
the sensation his treasonable words occasioned, "Laugh as you may, you
have got to come to it!" And then, with that singular obfuscation of
ideas engendered, in the heads of their followers, by the astute
Rebel-sympathizing leaders, he went on:

"I am for Peace, and I am for Union too. I am as good a Union man as
any of you. [Laughter.] I am a better Union man than any of you!
[Great Laughter.] * * * I look upon War as Disunion."

After declaring that, if the principle of the expulsion Resolution was
to be carried out, his "friend," Mr. Long, "would be a martyr in a
glorious cause"--he proceeded to announce his own candidacy for
expulsion, in the following terms:

"Mr. Speaker, in the early part of this Secession movement, there was a
Resolution offered, pledging men and money to carry on the War. My
principles were then, and are now, against the War. I stood, solitary
and alone, in voting against that Resolution, and whenever a similar
proposition is brought here it will