the State beyond controversy. How we have wielded that
power it is not for me to say. I trust others may see
forbearance in our conduct--that, with a determination to insist
upon our constitutional rights, then and now, there is an
unwavering desire to maintain the Government, and to uphold the
Democratic party.

"We believe now, as we have asserted on former occasions, that
the best hope for the perpetuity of our institutions depends
upon the cooeperation, the harmony, the zealous action, of the
Democratic party. We cling to that party from conviction that
its principles and its aims are those of truth and the country,
as we cling to the Union for the fulfillment of the purposes for
which it was formed. Whenever we shall be taught that the
Democratic party is recreant to its principles; whenever we
shall learn that it can not be relied upon to maintain the great
measures which constitute its vitality--I for one shall be ready
to leave it. And so, when we declare our tenacious adherence to
the Union, it is the Union of the Constitution. If the compact
between the States is to be trampled into the dust; if anarchy
is to be substituted for the usurpation and consolidation which
threatened the Government at an earlier period; if the Union is
to become powerless for the purposes for which it was
established, and we are vainly to appeal to it for
protection--then, sir, conscious of the rectitude of our course,
the justice of our cause, self-reliant, yet humbly, confidingly
trusting in the arm that guided and protected our fathers, we
look beyond the confines of the Union for the maintenance of our
rights. An habitual reverence and cherished affection for the
Government will bind us to it longer than our interests would
suggest or require; but he is a poor student of the world's
history who does not understand that communities at last must
yield to the dictates of their interests. That the affection,
the mutual desire for the mutual good, which existed among our
fathers, may be weakened in succeeding generations by the denial
of right, and hostile demonstration, until the equality
guaranteed but not secured within the Union may be sought for
without it, must be evident to even a careless observer of our
race. It is time to be up and doing. There is yet time to remove
the cau