De Alexander

What is it but nullification by the wholesale?

I use the term reluctantly but truly--it is rebellion! rebellion against the noblest government man ever framed for his own benefit and for the benefit of the world.

If secession be not lawful, then, what is it?

The Constitution of these United States was intended to form a firm and perpetual Union.

We urge measures which are demanded by the hour and the safety of our Union.

It is the vital principle of social existence; it unites the family circle; it sustains the church, and upholds nationalities....

Whether for good or evil, according to the standards by which his critics may judge him, he swayed the minds of his party to a degree that was unequalled among his contemporaries.

It was his opinion that a separation, if sought by the South through peaceful means alone, must be conceded by the North, as an evil less than that of war....

Nevertheless, the men of New York who desired peace on any honourable terms, seemed to grow more earnest as the alarm in the public mind became more intense.

But while adhering to the position she has heretofore occupied, New York will not reject an invitation to a conference, which, by bringing together the men of both sections, holds out the possibility of an honourable settlement of our…

The instant you do, they have us under again; all our labour is lost, and sooner or later must be done over....

Let the Union slide--it may be reconstructed; let Presidents be assassinated--we can elect more; let the Republicans be defeated and crushed--we shall rise again.

If the Republican members of Congress stand still, we shall have a divided North and a united South.

The continued blindness of Democracy and the continued madness of slavery enabled us to elect Lincoln.

But for the ever blind spirit of slavery, Buchanan would have taken away our ammunition and spiked our guns.

We owe our existence as a party to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.

But I am opposed to tinkering with the Constitution, especially in these exciting times.

We of the North are called upon to save the Union by making concessions and giving new guarantees to the South....

With our experience of the little importance attached to former compromises by the South, it is ridiculous to talk about entering into another.

Why should we now make any concessions to them?

Never, with my consent, shall the Constitution ordain or protect human slavery in any territory.

Republican congressmen from the State, almost without exception, yielded to this view, voicing the sentiment that it was vain to temporise longer with compromises.

To go back to the line of 36° 30´, permitting slavery to the south of it, meant the loss of all that had been gained, and a renewal of old issues and hostilities in the near future.

Besides, a spontaneous feeling existed that the United States was a nation, that secession was treason, and seceders were traitors.

The belief obtained that, the election having been fair and constitutional, the South ought to submit to the decision as readily as Northern Democrats acquiesced in it.