th, and a little of the South. I fully believe that the institution
of slavery within the States should be left with them exclusively--that
such is the prevailing sentiment of the North. I say so because there
is no disposition at the North to interfere with it. Do we believe
that we can manage slavery better than you? No, sir! I believe that we
could not manage it so well. If we had been reared on your soil in the
midst of slavery, we could manage it just as well. It is a mistake and
a pernicious error, for the South to believe that either party at the
North proposes to raise any question relating to slavery within State
limits. There is not a man at the North who could stand up long enough
to fall down, if he should take such a position.

There are problems connected with slavery which we cannot solve; we do
not wish to undertake their solution. We will leave them with you.

What, then, should we do? My answer is, live along as we have done
before. We will live with you in the Union, under a Constitution that
requires us to help you keep the peace. Where you dwell, we will
dwell. Your people shall be our people, and where you die, we will
die. Our Constitution is good enough for a people who are wise enough
to live under it. With such a Constitution, Virginia proposes to leave
the Union.

Will you leave the Union because the Constitution has not been rightly
construed? No; for it has been construed to your entire satisfaction.
It has been made to speak your views. The judges of our Supreme Courts
represent your opinions. There has never been a construction of the
Constitution adverse to your interests. The Dred Scott decision
protects slavery in all the territories according to your desire,
though against our strong conviction of law and right. Will you leave
the Union because you have not had the Government your share of the
time? You have had possession and control of it for fifty years out
of seventy-two; and during a large portion of the twenty-two years,
when we have had the President from the free States, the
administration has been under the control of southern sentiments, and
southern interests have been in the ascendency, through the servility
of northern men. Do you leave the Union in order to secure the
protection of a better Constitution? No; for they who have left us
have said that the Constitution was well enough, if the people were
sufficiently enlightened to live under it. Why is it, then, with all