me as having assailed South Carolina,
and insists that he comes forth only as her champion, and in her
defence. Sir, I do not admit that I made any attack whatever on South
Carolina. Nothing like it. The honorable member, in his first speech,
expressed opinions, in regard to revenue and some other topics, which I
heard both with pain and with surprise. I told the gentleman I was aware
that such sentiments were entertained _out_ of the government, but had
not expected to find them advanced in it; that I knew there were persons
in the South who speak of our Union with indifference or doubt, taking
pains to magnify its evils, and to say nothing of its benefits; that
the honorable member himself, I was sure, could never be one of these;
and I regretted the expression of such opinions as he had avowed,
because I thought their obvious tendency was to encourage feelings of
disrespect to the Union, and to impair its strength. This, Sir, is the
sum and substance of all I said on the subject. And this constitutes the
attack which called on the chivalry of the gentleman, in his own
opinion, to harry us with such a foray among the party pamphlets and
party proceedings of Massachusetts! If he means that I spoke with
dissatisfaction or disrespect of the ebullitions of individuals in South
Carolina, it is true. But if he means that I assailed the character of
the State, her honor, or patriotism, that I reflected on her history or
her conduct, he has not the slightest ground for any such assumption. I
did not even refer, I think, in my observations, to any collection of
individuals. I said nothing of the recent conventions. I spoke in the
most guarded and careful manner, and only expressed my regret for the
publication of opinions, which I presumed the honorable member
disapproved as much as myself. In this, it seems, I was mistaken. I do
not remember that the gentleman has disclaimed any sentiment, or any
opinion, of a supposed anti-union tendency, which on all or any of the
recent occasions has been expressed. The whole drift of his speech has
been rather to prove, that, in divers times and manners, sentiments
equally liable to my objection have been avowed in New England. And one
would suppose that his object, in this reference to Massachusetts, was
to find a precedent to justify proceedings in the South, were it not for
the reproach and contumely with which he labors, all along, to load
these his own chosen precedents. By way of defe