United States within prescribed limits, but
that they only owe it while they who are the
administrators of the law adhere to the pro-
visions and the restraints of the Constitution.
That, in my judgment, is as fatal a heresy and
as fatal an error as exists in the extreme
States' rights theory, if the authorities who
administer the government or execute the
laws, constitutionally elected by the people of
the country according to the provision of
the laws under which we live, are distasteful
or objectionable to certain persons, and do
not administer the laws according to the
rules laid down, what must be the position
of gentlemen who wish to be true to the gov-
ernment? They must either submit to this
malfeasance in office, they must submit to the
maladministration, and wait until they can
redress those grievances in the civil and con-
stitutional mode, or, as those in armed rebel-
lion have done, they must come out and
make war upon the government of the United
States and repudiate its authority. That is
the only alternative, put it in any shape we
may. If they are not disposed to recognize
the men who administer the laws, they must
either submit or go out. Submitting is a ta-
cit and implied obedience to the government
of the United States; a willingness to wait
until the grievances can be redressed is the
constitutional mode.
Abraham Lincoln, for instance, is elected
President of the United States. Gentlemen
living in Maryland, in New York, or in South
Carolina say that they will not submit if
Abraham Lincoln is elected; they will repu-
diate the government. While we adhere to
the Constitution, say they, we repudiate
Abraham Lincoln; and because he is elected,
although the Constitution remains intact, and
as capable of exercising all its functions as
before, we will go out. That is precisely
what Southern States did. This is the pre-
dicament in which these gentlemen place
themselves who proceed upon this fallacy;
that because certain men administer the laws,
if that administration changes, we are not to
be patient; we are not to have confidence in
the government and stand firm and loyal to
it; but we must go out because certain men
may be in power whom we cannot indorse.
What has been my experience and what has
been the experience of many other members
of this body? Franklin Pierce—poor Pierce !
I will say, although I do not intend to bandy
the names of retired gentlemen, famous or in-
famous, who. according to some accounts,
was a modern Solomon, whose name was
adorned with lustre too magnificent to he
beheld, and that might only faintly be con-
ceived; and if it had been the pleasure of the
gentlemen of this body to contemplate the
splendors of his reign in the light which was
so radiant in the sight of the gentleman from
Prince George's, (Mr. Belt,) we might
have exclaimed, as the Queen of Sheba did of |
old, that the half had not been told us. He
was not the man of my choice, and he wag
not the choice of many other people through-
out the country; but we felt no disposition
to revolt. No such emotion stirred in my
bosom. No such feeling had an existence in
my mind. I felt it due to the government to
be loyal to him, and so did the people through-
out the country. I entertain the belief that
"truth is mighty and will prevail." I be-
lieve that a great principle cannot berestrain-
ed or kept down. I have confidence in the
ability of the people to determine wisely and
justly respecting every subject that may be
presented to them for consideration, I be-
lieve they are more capable of acting wisely,
fairly, and impartially than those who hold
places of power, and who are interested in a
very great degree. I believe that what is ne-
cessary for the interests of this people, is to
allow the power to be exercised through the
constituted medium of government; and I
believe the power is ample and full for any
redress that is needed, through the medium
of those courts composed of the wisest and
the best that could be selected by human
judgment.
I held on with others, knowing that four
years was but a short time, and that we
should then have an opportunity of securing
perhaps another man that would be more sat-
isfactory to us as the Chief Magistrate of the
country; when, lo and behold I James Bu-
chanan, a son of Pennsylvania, was borne to
the Chair of State, and borne their under cir-
cumstances not at all creditable. I have no-
thing to say against the men who sustained
Mr. Buchanan. I have no affiliation with the
pertinacity with which men cling to old party
ties. The man who can dissolve his connec-
tion with any political party with which he
may heretofore have acted, in order to sustain
the government when it is in peril, is my
friend and my brother. I glory in his pa-
triotism and in his resolution. Mr. Buchanan
was carried to the Chair of State under cir-
cumstances that were morally wrong, and did
this country great detriment. The public
mind was watched from one end of the na-
tion to the other, and the rod was held in
terrorem over the heads of the people of this
country; for they said then that if a certain
man was elected President of the United
States, there would be secession, disunion,
and civil war. This was all morally wrong,
and we are now reaping the legitimate but
fearful consequences of that wrong.
Millard Fillmore, of New York, was my
choice for President; and he received the vote
of the single State of Maryland. Mr. Bu-
chanan was elected. Did we secede then, ac-
cording to the views entertained by gentle-
men? No, sir, we held on still. We had
given our support to Fillmore, because he was
a true and a faithful servant, and in him we
recognized the embodiment of good Union- |
