324 Southern Historical Society Papers.
not take this view of the presidential election. I believe, and the belief amounts to absolute conviction, that the election must be regarded as a triumph of principles cherished in the hearts of the people of the free States. These principles, it is true, were origi- nally asserted by a small party only, but after years of discussion they have by their own value, their own intrinsic soundness, obtained the deliberate and unalterable sanction of the people's judgment. Chief among these principles is the restriction of slavery within State limits; not war upon slavery within those limits, but fixed opposition to its extension beyond them.
"Mr. Lincoln was the candidate of the people opposed to the extension of slavery. We have elected him. After many years of earnest advocacy and severe trial we have achieved the triumph of that principle. By a fair and unquestionable majority we have obtained that triumph. Do you think we who represent this majority will throw it away ? Do you think the people would sustain us if we undertook to throw it away ? I must speak to you plainly, gen- tlemen of the South. It is not in my heart to deceive you. I there- fore tell you explicitly that if we of the North and West would consent to throw away all that has been gained in the recent triumph of our principles, the people would not sustain us, and so the con- sent would avail you nothing. And I must tell you, further, that under no circumstances whatever will we consent to surrender a prin- ciple which we believe to be sound and so important as that of restricting slavery within State limits."
Here was a positive assertion that Lincoln and the party which elected him would not respect the decision of the Supreme Court. Then, if the Constitution, as construed by that court, a tribunal con- stituted for the purpose, was to be so emphatically disregarded and ignored, what remedy was left for the South ? If that organic law, by the terms and assurances of which the States became parts of the Union, is repudiated, was the South required in morals or good faith to quietly submit? I answer, No. Mr. Chase proceeds: "Aside from the territorial question, the question of slavery outside of the slave States, I know of but one serious difficulty. I refer to the question concerning fugitives from service. The clause in the Con- stitution concerning this class of persons is regarded by almost all men, North and South, as a stipulation for the surrender to their masters of slaves escaping into free States. The people of the free States, however, who believe that slave-holding is wrong, cannot and will not aid in the reclamation, and the stipulation, therefore, becomes
