326 Southern Historical Society Papers.
patriotic minds of the North. Daniel Webster, who had no superior as a statesman, who was regarded the best constitutional lawyer in the land, and whose patriotism embraced thy whole country, was alarmed, and gave the best efforts of his life to check and paralyze the lawlessness of the " originally small party." In a reception speech made in New York on the i5th of March, 1837, he said:
" We have slavery already amongst us. The Constitution found it in the Union, recognized it, and gave it solemn guaranties. So the full extent of these guaranties we are bound in honor, in justice, and by the Constitution. All the stipulations contained in the Con- stitution in favor of the slaveholding States which are already in the Union ought to be fulfilled, and, so far as depends on me, shall be fulfilled in the fullness of their spirit and to the exactness of their letter. Slavery as it exists in the States is beyond the reach of Congress. It is a concern of the States themselves ; they have never submitted it to Congress, and Congress has no rightful power over it. I shall concur therefore in no act, no measure, no menace, no indication of purpose which shall interfere with the exclusive au- thority of the States over the subject of slavery as it exists within their respective limits. All this appears to me to be matter of plain and imperative duty." At Buffalo, on the 22d of May, 1851, he said: ' ' There is but one question in this country now, or, if there be others, they are but secondary, and so subordinate that they are all absorbed in that great and leading question, and that is nothing more nor less than this : ' Can we preserve the union of the States, not by coercion, not by military power, not by angry controversies, but can we of this generation you and I, your friends and my friends can we so preserve the union of these States by such administration of the powers of the Constitution as shall give content and satisfac- tion to all who live under it, and draw us together, not by military power, but by the silken cords of mutual, paternal, patriotic affec- tion ? That is the question, and no other.' Gentlemen, I believe in party distinctions; I am a party man. These are questions belong- ing to party, in which I take an interest, and there are opinions entertained by others which I repudiate. But what of all that ? If a house be divided against itself it will fall and crush everybody in it. We must see that we maintain the government which is over us; we must see that we uphold the Constitution, and we must do so with- out regard to party. The question, fellow-citizens (and I put it to you now as the real question), the question is, whether you and the rest of the people of the great State of New York and of all the
