ceeded. We should then have had those
principles endorsed upon which the Government is established, and the
country would have been at peace. For that alone I wished it to
succeed.

I will say only a word, now, as to the amendments proposed to the
Constitution. I had the pleasure of listening, yesterday, to the
distinguished Senator from Kentucky. I know his patriotism and his
devotion to the Union. I know his willingness to take any thing,
however small, however trifling, however little it might be, that
would, in his opinion, give peace to the country. Sir, I am actuated
by no such feeling. We should never compromise principle nor sacrifice
the eternal foundations of justice. Whenever the Democratic party
compromised principle it laid the foundation of future troubles for
itself and for the country. When we do, then, amend the Constitution,
it ought to be in the spirit of right and justice to all men and to
all sections. I voted for the Senator's propositions, and I will do so
again, if we can get a vote, because there is something in them;
something that I could stand by; but there is nothing in the
amendments proposed by the Peace Conference. He proposed to establish
the line of 36 deg. 30', and to prohibit slavery north of it and protect
it south of it, in all the present territory, or of the territory to
be hereafter acquired. In that proposition there was something like
justice and right; but there is nothing in the amendments proposed by
the Peace Conference that any man, North or South, ought to take. They
are a cheat; they are a deception; they are a fraud; they hold out a
false idea; and I think, with all due respect to the Senator--for I
have the highest regard for him personally--that he is too anxious to
heal the trouble that exists in the country. He had better place
himself upon the right and stand by it. Let him contend, with me, for
the inalienable and constitutional rights of every American citizen.
Let him beware of "compromising" away the vital rights, privileges,
and immunities of one portion of the country to appease the graceless,
unrelenting, and hostile fanaticism of another portion. Let him labor
with me, to influence every State to mind its own affairs, and to keep
the Territories entirely _free_ to the enterprise of all, with equal
security and protection--without invidious distinctions--to the
property of every citizen. Thus, and only thus, can we have peace,
happiness, and eternal Union.