Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we
recur to the principles upon which our Government was founded; and when
you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from a
Government which, thus perverted, threatens to be destructive of our
rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our
independence, and take the hazard. This is done not in hostility to
others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own
pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending and
protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to
transmit unshorn to our children.
I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my
constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility to you,
Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever
sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now
say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure,
is the feeling of the people whom I represent towards those whom you
represent. I therefore feel that I but express their desire when I say
I hope, and they hope, for peaceful relations with you, though we must
part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have
been in the past, if you so will it.
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