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Show 344 SLAV.l£HY AGl'l'A'l'lON. just concern with it than they ltave with slavery as it exists throughout the world. Why not leave it to us, as the common Constitution of onr country has left it, to lJe dealt with under the guidauce of Providence, as be. i we lllay or can? * * * * * * * * I know thai there is n vi ionary dogma which holds that negro slaves cannot be the snbjcct of property. I shall not dwell long with this speculative abstraction. That is property which the Jaw declares to be property. 'l'wo hundrcu years of legislation have sanctioned and sanctified negro slaves as property. Under all the forms of government which have existed upon this continent dnring that long space of time-under the British government-under the colonial government--under all the State constitutions and governmenis- alld under the federal government itself--they have been deliberately and solemnly recocrnized as the legitimate subjects of property. 'l'o the wild speculations of theorists and innovators stands opposed tho fact, tltat in an uninterrupted period of two hundred years' duration, under every form of human legislation, and by all the departments of human government, .African negro slaves have been held and respected, have descended and been transferred, as lawful and indisputable property. 1'hey were treated as property in the very British example which is so triumphantly appealed to as worthy of our imitation. Allhough the West India planters had no voice in the united Parliament of the British Isles, an irresistible sense of justice extorted from that legislature the grant of twenty millions of pounds sterling to compensate the colonists for their loss of property. * * * * * * * * Sir, I am not in the habit of speaking lightly of the pos-sibility of dissolving this happy Uuion. 'l'he Senate knows that I have deprecated allusions on o'rdinury occasions to that direful event. 'l'he country will testify that if there be anything in the history of my public career worthy of re- SLAVgH,y AU L'l'A'l' lO:f. 3·15 collection, it is the truth and sine rity of my nr<lent devotion to its ln.stiug preservation. Hut we shonl<l be fal se in our allegiance to it, if we did not di: criminalc uctwccn the imaginary and r 'al dangers by whieh it may be as::~n.i l e <l. AlJo lition should no long •r l>c regarded as an illt nginary <lang<' r. r:rhe Aholitioni. is, let me suppost•, succc <l in Lheir pre:<'nt aim of uniting the inha.l>ila.n ts or the free ~ta t ' S as one rnnn arraiust the iuhabitanls of the slave Slt~tcs. Union on tho 0~0 side will beo-ct union on the othct·; and this procrss of reciprocal consolitlation will be ~LLe nded \\:i lh all the vi~ lcnt prejudices, cmbitiereu passtans, and 1mplacable ammosities which ever degraded or deformed human nature . .A. virtual di oluiion of the Union will have taken place, whilst the forms of its existenco remain. 'fhe most valuable clements of uuion, mutual kitHlness, the feelings of sympathy, the fraternal bonds, which now happ!ly nn.ite us, w~ll have been cxtinguisheu forever. One Sectwn will stand m menacing and hostile array again ·L the other. 'l'he collision of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of ar~s. .I will not attempt to describe scenes which now happ1ly lJC concealed from our view. Abolitionists themselves would shrink back in dismay and horror at the contemplation of desolated fields, confiagrated cities, murdered inhabitants, and the overthrow of the fairest fabric of human government that ever rose to animate the hopes of civilized man. Nor should these Abolitionists flatter themselves that, if they can succeed in their object of uniting the people of the free States, they will enter the contest with a numerical s~per. iority that must insure victory. All history and expenenco proves the hazard and uncertainty of ~ar. .And we ~ro admonished by holy writ thai the " race IS not to the sw1ft, nor the battle to the strong." But if they were to conquer, whom would they conquer ? .A foreign foe-one who had insulted our flag, invaded our shores, and laid our country waste? No, sir ; no, sir. It would be a conquest without |