ground. Remember that it is the
minority that is asking for these guarantees. You are just coming into
power. The country has approved of your action in the election of Mr.
LINCOLN. You can afford to be liberal. Liberality is a noble trait in
any character, whether it be that of an individual or political party.

There are reasons why the South should be apprehensive now. The
organizations of the old Whig and Democratic parties had nothing
sectional in them. There were no resolutions in their platforms which
could give the South any cause of alarm. The content between these
parties did not involve any sectional interests whatever. Now, it is
undeniable that the organization of the Republican party was brought
about by the agitation of the slavery question in its various forms.

It is not strange to me that the success of that party in the late
election should be misconstrued and misunderstood by the South, and
that the people there should be apprehensive for the result.

If the Missouri Compromise had not been repealed we should not have
found ourselves in our present condition. It was the repeal of that
compromise that brought the Republican party into power. The masses of
the people do not sympathize with extremists on either side. The
Republican party took the middle ground, and thus rendered itself
acceptable to them.

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came the Kansas agitation.
In this the North was right and the South was wrong. Slavery was
attempted to be forced upon an unwilling people. They resisted--the
American people always will resist injustice. The excitement pervaded
the whole country. Sympathy was excited for Kansas, and properly
enough. This excitement benefited the Republican party--it injured all
others. It overwhelmed all other considerations. The aspect of the
slavery question was remembered in Kansas; elsewhere it was forgotten.

In this way, was the Republican party brought into power. I say now
that if the Union is dissolved, that party will be responsible;
responsible, as that party has now the power to prevent it.

The gentleman from Vermont, who has put his argument in a very
ingenious way, insists that before the North is called upon to act on
these propositions, that the South ought to declare whether she will
be satisfied with them. I do not think so. I am perfectly aware of the
difficulties under which the Representatives of the slave States are
laboring. They cannot answer