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Page 62
But, sir, it is not necessary for me to speak to you of the consequences
that will follow disunion. Who of us is not proud of the greatness we
have achieved? Disunion and separation destroy that greatness. Once
disunited, we are no longer great. The nations of the earth who
have looked upon you as a formidable Power, and rising to untold and
immeasurable greatness in the future, will scoff at you. Your flag, that
now claims the respect of the world, that protects American property
in every port and harbor of the world, that protects the rights of
your citizens everywhere, what will become of it? What becomes of its
glorious influence? It is gone; and with it the protection of American
citizens and property. To say nothing of the national honor which
it displayed to all the world, the protection of your rights, the
protection of your property abroad is gone with that national flag,
and we are hereafter to conjure and contrive different flags for our
different republics according to the feverish fancies of revolutionary
patriots and disturbers of the peace of the world. No, sir; I want to
follow no such flag. I want to preserve the union of my country. We have
it in our power to do so, and we are responsible if we do not do it.
I do not despair of the Republic. When I see before me Senators of so
much intelligence and so much patriotism, who have been so honored by
their country, sent here as the guardians of that very union which is
now in question, sent here as the guardians of our national rights, and
as guardians of that national flag, I cannot despair; I cannot despond.
I cannot but believe that they will find some means of reconciling and
adjusting the rights of all parties, by concessions, if necessary, so
as to preserve and give more stability to the country and to its
institutions.
ROBERT TOOMBS,
OF GEORGIA. (BORN 1810--DIED 1885.)
ON SECESSION; SECESSIONIST OPINION;
IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, JANUARY 7, 1861.
MR. PRESIDENT AND SENATORS:
The success of the Abolitionists and their allies, under the name of the
Republican party, has produced its logical results already. They have
for long years been sowing dragons' teeth, and have finally got a crop
of armed men. The Union, sir, is dissolved. That is an accomplished fact
in the path of this discussion that men may as well heed. One of your
confederates has already, wisely, bravely, boldly, confronted public
danger, and she is only ahead of many of her sisters because of her
greater facility for speedy action. The greater majority of those sister
States, under like circumstances, consider her cause as their cause; and
I charge you in their name to-day, "Touch not Saguntum." It is not only
their cause, but it is a cause which receives the sympathy and will
receive the support of tens and hundreds of thousands of honest
patriotic men in the non-slave-holding States, who have hither-to
maintained constitutional rights, and who respect their oaths, abide by
compacts, and love justice. And while this Congress, this Senate, and
this House of Representatives, are debating the constitutionality and
the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious
authors of this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large
portion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are coolly
and calmly voting what you call revolution--ay, sir, doing better than
that: arming to defend it. They appealed to the Constitution,
they appealed to justice, they appealed to fraternity, until the
Constitution, justice, and fraternity were no longer listened to in the
legislative halls of their country, and then, sir, they prepared for the
arbitrament of the sword; and now you see the glittering bayonet, and
you hear the tramp of armed men from your Capitol to the Rio Grande. It
is a sight that gladdens the eyes and cheers the heart of other millions
ready to second them.
Inasmuch, sir, as I have labored earnestly, honestly, sincerely, with
these men to avert this necessity so long as I deemed it possible, and
inasmuch as I heartily approve their present conduct of resistance, I
deem it my duty to state their case to the Senate, to the country, and
to the civilized world.
Senators, my countrymen have demanded no new government; they have
demanded no new constitution. Look to their records at home and here
from the beginning of this national strife until its consummation in
the disruption of the empire, and they have not demanded a single thing
except that you shall abide by the Constitution of the United States;
that constitutional rights shall be respected, and that justice shall be
done. Sirs, they have stood by your Constitution; they have stood by
all its requirements; they have performed all its duties unselfishly,
uncalculatingly, disinterestedly, until a party sprang up in this
country which endangered their social system--a party which they
arraign, and which they charge before the American people and all
mankind, with having made proclamation of outlawry against four thousand
millions of their property in the Territories of the United States; with
having put them under the ban of the empire in all the States in which
their institutions exist, outside the protection of Federal laws; with
having aided and abetted insurrection from within and invasion from
without, with the view of subverting those institutions, and desolating
their homes and their firesides. For these causes they have taken up
arms. I shall proceed to vindicate the justice of their demands, the
patriotism of their conduct. I will show the injustice which they suffer
and the rightfulness of their resistance.
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