I was, as I stated at the time, surprised at the
Senator's speech--because I understood it to be for coercion, as I
think it was by almost everybody else, except, as we are now told, by
the Senator himself; and I still think it amounted to a coercion
speech, notwithstanding the soft and plausible phrases by which he
describes it--a speech for the execution of the laws and the
protection of the Federal property. Sir, if there is, as I contend,
the right of secession, then, whenever a State exercises that right,
this Government has no laws in that State to execute, nor has it any
property in any such State that can be protected by the power of this
Government. In attempting, however, to substitute the smooth phrases
of "executing the laws" and "protecting public property" for coercion,
for civil war, we have an important concession, _i.e._, that this
Government dare not go before the people with a plain avowal of its
real purposes, and of their consequences. No, sir; the policy is to
inveigle the people of the North into civil war, by masking the design
in smooth and ambiguous terms.

Now, sir, I want it distinctly understood, as I have already shown,
that during the last session I stood firmly by the DAVIS resolutions.
I voted against every amendment. I voted against an amendment that he
voted for, because I believed it was partial, and did not do justice.

But the Senator from Tennessee proceeded with an air and tone of great
triumph to bring forward my vote on the amendments proposed to the
DAVIS resolutions. I think I have said all that it is necessary for me
to say upon that subject. I have shown that I have voted for them
under all circumstances, and against every amendment. Those
resolutions assert the right of property in the Territories, and that
when the courts fail to afford protection, then it is the duty of
Congress to come forward and provide that protection. I wished to put
slave property upon the same footing as other property. That is where
I then stood, where I now stand, and where I intend to stand. The
Senator asks, with a kind of triumphant air, what has happened since
that day? Mr. President, I have said that I have done all in my power,
by standing firm to the resolutions agreed to by the Democratic party,
to afford protection. The Senator misrepresented my vote on those
resolutions. I never voted against the DAVIS resolutions, nor did
their substitute ever come up as a separate proposition. It was