Shall it be said that we have allowed all these evils to come
upon our country, while we were engaged in the petty and small disputes
and debates to which I have referred? Can it be that our name is to rest
in history with this everlasting stigma and blot upon it?
Sir, I wish to God it was in my power to preserve this Union by
renouncing or agreeing to give up every conscientious and other opinion.
I might not be able to discard it from my mind; I am under no obligation
to do that. I may retain the opinion, but if I can do so great a good as
to preserve my country and give it peace, and its institutions and its
Union stability, I will forego any action upon my opinions. Well, now,
my friends (addressing the Republican Senators), that is all that is
asked of you. Consider it well, and I do not distrust the result. As
to the rest of this body, the gentlemen from the South, I would say to
them, can you ask more than this? Are you bent on revolution, bent on
disunion. God forbid it. I cannot believe that such madness possesses
the American people. This gives reasonable satisfaction. I can speak
with confidence only of my own State. Old Kentucky will be satisfied
with it, and she will stand by the Union and die by the Union if this
satisfaction be given.
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