she deprives the nation of the valuable
privilege, the unquestionable right, of acquiring new territory in an
honorable way.

I have tried to look upon these propositions of the majority of the
committee, as true measures of pacification. I have listened patiently
to all that has been said in their favor. But I am still unconvinced,
or rather I am convinced that they will do nothing for the Union. They
will prove totally inadequate; may, perhaps, be positively
mischievous. The North, the free States, will not adopt them--will not
consent to these new endorsements of an institution which they do not
like, which they believe to be injurious to the best interests of the
Republic; and if they did adopt them, as they could only do by a
sacrifice of principles which you should not expect, the South would
not be satisfied; she would not fail to find pretexts for a course of
action upon which I think she has already determined. I see in these
propositions any thing but true measures of pacification.

But the North will never consent to the separation of the States. If
the South persists in the course on which she has entered we shall
march our armies to the Gulf of Mexico, or you will march yours to the
Great Lakes. There can be no peaceful separation. There is one way by
which war may be avoided and the Union preserved. It is a plain and a
constitutional way. If the slave States will abandon the design, which
we must infer from the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia they
have already formed, will faithfully abide by their constitutional
obligations, and remain in the Union until their rights are in _fact_
invaded, all will be well. But if they take the responsibility of
involving the country in a civil war; of breaking up the Government
which our fathers founded and our people love, but one course remains
to those who are true to that Government. They must and will defend it
at every sacrifice--if necessary, to the sacrifice of their lives.

Mr. GUTHRIE:--I came here with my colleagues representing a Southern
State. I have had full and free communication with the people of all
portions of the South, before, during, and since the election of the
sixth of November, and I state here, that I have never dreamed that
there was the slightest objection anywhere to the inauguration of Mr.
LINCOLN. To-day is the first time I ever heard the question raised,
and yet I do not believe that any such objection now exists.

It is said