overnment and the Union. I know
Massachusetts; I have been into every one of her more than three
hundred towns. I have seen and conversed with her men and her women,
and I know there is not a man within her borders who would not to-day
gladly lay down his life for the preservation of the Union.

Massachusetts has made war upon slavery wherever she had the right to
do it; but much as she _abhors_ the institution, she would sacrifice
everything rather than assail it where she has not the right to assail
it.

Can it be denied, gentlemen, that we have elected a President in a
legal and constitutional way? It cannot; and yet you tell us in tones
that cannot be misunderstood, that as a precedent condition of his
inauguration we must give you these guarantees.

Massachusetts hesitated, not because her blood was not stirred, but
because she insisted that the Government and the inauguration should
go on, in the same manner they would have done had Mr. Lincoln been
defeated. She felt that she was touched in a tender point when invited
here under such circumstances.

It is true, and I confess it frankly, that there are a few men at the
North who have not yielded that support to the grand idea upon which
this confederated Union stands, that they should have done; who have
been disposed to infringe upon, to attack certain rights which the
entire North, with these exceptions, accords to you. But are you of
the South free from the like imputations? The John Brown invasion was
never justified at the North. If, in the excitement of the time, there
were those to be found who did not denounce it as gentlemen think they
should, it was because they knew it was a matter wholly outside the
Constitution--that it was a crime to which Virginia would give
adequate punishment.

Gentlemen, I believe, yes, I know, that the people of the North are as
true to the Government and the Union of the States now, as our
fathers were when they stood shoulder to shoulder upon the field,
fighting for the principles upon which that Union rests. If I thought
the time had come when it would be fit or proper to consider
amendments to the Constitution at all, I should believe that we would
have no trouble with you except upon this question of slavery in the
territories. You cannot demand of us at the North any thing that we
will not grant, unless it involves a sacrifice of our principles.
These we shall not sacrifice--these you must not ask us to abandon. I
b