Senator from Virginia--I do not know whether to call him junior or
senior--said. I do not mean the Senator who spoke last. He [Mr.
HUNTER] says that this proposition here is worse than the old
Constitution. If that be really so, what in the world has he been
complaining of so bitterly? He tells us, now, that under the old
Constitution slavery was secure. Then, why do you grumble? He
considers it as secure, not only wherever it is, but wherever it can
go--nay, more than that; wherever the Stars and Stripes of the
American Republic can float. I have been telling my people that, as a
Republican, for a long while, and complaining of the Dred Scott
decision; but he says slavery is secured. All the complaint that the
other Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON] makes, is against the decision
of the courts in the free States we have been in the habit of making,
which he insists are against the decision of the Supreme Court,
constituted other than we wished it was. We have been in the habit of
believing that one of the great evils we complained of was under the
old Constitution, and that a new construction was given to it, alien
to the intention, wish, construction, of our fathers; and we have
complained that the Supreme Court was so constituted that it could not
be reversed. We complained, as partisans, that now this Senate and the
other House were so composed that we had no power in the Government,
save through the President. Now, the Senator from Virginia indorses
the whole of it, and says they were very well off, and did
beautifully. Then why dissolve; why threaten; why make a Peace
Conference necessary?

Mr. President, let us be just to these propositions. As a Republican,
I give up something when I vote for them; but remember, sir, I am not
voting for them now; I am only voting to submit them to my people; and
I shall go before them, when the time comes, being governed in my
opinion and advice as to whether they shall vote for them or not, as I
see that Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Missouri,
by their people, desire. To be frank, sir; if this proposition will
suit the Border States, if there will be peace and union, and loyalty
and brotherhood, with this, I will vote for it at the polls with all
my heart and with all my soul; but if I see that the counsels of the
Senators from Virginia shall prevail; if my noble friend from
Tennessee [Mr. JOHNSON] shall be overwhelmed; if secession shall still
grow in t