into being that noble compact, which has
so long been a bond of Union and goodness between all the States. It
is the very life-blood and vitality of the Constitution. It is the
ligament that has held us together heretofore, and which, if cut now,
will result only in hopeless and immutable disruption. I have never
deviated a single iota from this correct doctrine. Had we lived up to
this equitable principle--the foundation upon which the Constitution
rests, upon which only this Union can be maintained--we should have
had no trouble in this country to-day. It is not my fault that trouble
and dissatisfaction prevail; it is not my fault that secession has
taken place, and that further secession will take place, unless
Congress shall recognize this great principle of justice, of right,
and of equality. That is the doctrine upon which this Union rests; and
it must be maintained, or the connection will be severed.

While upon this question, Mr. President, I may be permitted to allude
to my course in the Senate last session, and I shall do so very
briefly, upon a series of resolutions introduced by the Senator from
Mississippi [Mr. DAVIS]--a series of resolutions that were considered
in this body, after having been previously maturely and deliberately
adopted by a caucus composed of the Democratic Senators, and agreed
upon by them, as setting forth the principles necessary to be
maintained in order to secure the existence and perpetuity of this
Confederacy. It has been charged upon this floor that, on the 25th day
of May last, I voted against the right of protection to slave property
in the Territories. In order that the Senate may know how I voted, and
that I may show you and every other man that I stood then as I stand
to-day, and as I have always stood upon this question, I will read
some short extracts from the discussion upon this series of
resolutions. The fourth resolution was in these words:

"_Resolved_, That neither Congress nor a Territorial
Legislature, whether by direct legislation or legislation of
an indirect and unfriendly nature, possesses the power to
annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of
the United States to take his slave property into the common
Territories, but it is the duty of the Federal Government
there to afford for that, as for other species of property,
the needful protection; and if experience should at any time
prove that the judi