ses of dissension and alienation which are now
distracting, and have for years past divided, the country.

"If the Senator correctly described me as having at a former
period, against my own preferences and opinions, acquiesced in
the decision of my party; if, when I had youth, when physical
vigor gave promise of many days, and the future was painted in
the colors of hope, I could thus surrender my own convictions,
my own prejudices, and cooeperate with my political friends
according to their views of the best method of promoting the
public good--now, when the years of my future can not be many,
and experience has sobered the hopeful tints of youth's gilding;
when, approaching the evening of life, the shadows are reversed,
and the mind turns retrospectively, it is not to be supposed
that I would abandon lightly, or idly put on trial, the party to
which I have steadily adhered. It is rather to be assumed that
conservatism, which belongs to the timidity or caution of
increasing years, would lead me to cling to, to be supported by,
rather than to cast off, the organization with which I have been
so long connected. If I am driven to consider the necessity of
separating myself from those old and dear relations, of
discarding the accustomed support, under circumstances such as I
have described, might not my friends who differ from me pause
and inquire whether there is not something involved in it which
calls for their careful revision?

"I desire no divided flag for the Democratic party.

"Our principles are national; they belong to every State of the
Union; and, though elections may be lost by their assertion,
they constitute the only foundation on which we can maintain
power, on which we can again rise to the dignity the Democracy
once possessed. Does not the Senator from Illinois see in the
sectional character of the vote be received,[16] that his
opinions are not acceptable to every portion of the country? Is
not the fact that the resolutions adopted by seventeen States,
on which the greatest reliance must be placed for Democratic
support, are in opposition to the dogma to which he still
clings, a warning that, if he persists and succeeds in forcing
his theory upon the Democratic party, its days are numbered? We
ask only for the Constitution. We ask of the Democracy only fr