infringing them, but the President in the field
at the head of his army, can prescribe the
terms upon which he shall reign master, so
far that it will puzzle any American ever to
get his neck from under the galling yoke. I
cannot with patience think of this idea. If
ever he violates the laws one of two things
will happen: he will come at the head of his
army to carry everything before him, or be
will give bail, or do what Mr. Chief Justice
will order him. If he be guilty, will not the
recollection of his crimes teach him to make
one hold push for the American throne?
Will not the immense difference between
being master of everything, and being igno-
miniously tried and punished, powerfully ex
cite him to make this bold push? But, sir,
where is the existing force to punish him ?
Can he not, at the head of his army, beat
down every opposition? Away with your
President, we shall have a King; the army
will salute him monarch; your militia will
leave you, and assist in making him king,
and fight against you; and what have you
to oppose this force? what will then become
of you and your rights? Will not absolute
despotism ensue?"
Let me ask gentlemen who favor a consol-
idated government, how they like this picture
that Patrick Henry has drawn of their idol.
The hammer again fell.
Mr. DANIEL. Some three years ago in the
city of Baltimore we were tauntingly told
that we had no government. And when the
streets bristled with cannon charged to the
mouth with grape and canister, and, armed
men were rushing to and fro in the streets,
usurping the military authority, when the
old flag of the Union was torn down and the
flag that represents the States' Rights Sover-
eignty, the flag of Maryland, was put up in
its place; aye, sir, when even ladies—those
who called themselves ladies—were rushing
through the streets with secession badges
flaunting and with pistols by their sides, and
when it was almost as much as a man's life
was worth to mention the Union; then we
did gravely begin to think that we had no
government. Men began to look each other
in the face, inquiring, Has the old govern-
ment clean gone forever ?
I thought, sir, that those days had passed
by, I thought the recent developments, from
that time to the present, had shown everybody
that we had a government, not only able to
control individual citizens, but able to control
the State. Where should we have been to-
day if it had not been for the power of the
central government, whose soldiers, the na-
tion's defenders, rushed from every State of
the Union into the State of Maryland at the
call of the National Government, and saved
Maryland to the Union. I thought such in-
formation bad reached even the county of:
Prince George's, and the county of Anne
Arundel, that the government bad such a |
power, and were exercising that power. But
it seems that I have been somewhat mistaken,
for in listening to the debates which we have
heard here for the last few days, one would
think we were away back in the old days of
the Confederation; that for the first time this
question of State and National sovereignty
was about being discussed, and upon the for-
mation of a National Constitution we were
about to decide whether we should have a
National Government with strong powers, or
should have the State sovereignties which
existed under the old Confederation. Or we
might almost suppose from the earnestness
with which gentlemen promulgate their the-
ories here, that they were for the first time
announcing some new theory of government
and political science. We might not go
quite so far back as the days of the Confeder-
ation; but we might imagine that we were
in the Senate of the United States listening
to the celebrated Calhoun, who was the author
and expounder of these doctrines, or
some of his school from that time down to the
time of Benjamin, the apostate Jew.
I had thought that with the American peo-
ple such doctrines were exploded, or if they
had not been exploded already by the crush-
ing logic of Webster, the keen analysis of
Clay, and the sturdy good sense and deter-
mined will of Jackson, who would have
bung the author as high as Haman
if he had persisted in it, that powder
and ball was exploding them, and that
General Grant was on the mission now,
and we should soon hear no more of States'
rights doctrines. They have appealed to the
arbitrament of the sword to settle this ques-
tion. After trying thirty years or more out
of Congress and in Congress to impress these
ideas upon the people, and finding it all in
vain, they appeal to an arbitrament of these
dreadful political heresies that is deluging
the country in blood.
The gentleman from Prince George's (Mr.
Belt,) told us of the great peace and pros-
perity under the administration of this States'
rights party, the Democratic party. I deny
it, sir, and I say that if the States' Right's
Democratic party had had their way the
country would have been ruined long ago.
Come back with me to the time of Calhoun.
Suppose be had had his way when South
Carolina first raised this doctrine, where
should we have been? South Carolina would
have annulled the law of the government
laying an impost duty; and another State
might have annulled another law for another
reason, and another State still another law;
and where should we have been? We should
have found the remaining States saying they
did not agree to any such doctrine. Mary-
land or Pennsylvania, for instance, might
say", We waived the right to lay imposts in
on. harbors in order that the general govern-
ment might lay them equally upon all the |
