, in violation of the
constitution, undertake to regulate commerce, then her commerce
must be suspended.

"No doubt other measures can be devised that will preserve the
peace of the country until the people of the states may confer in
a constitutional way, unless one or more of the seceding states
shall, by military force, shed the blood of their fellow-citizens,
or refuse to surrender to the proper authorities the acknowledged
property of the government. I know that all the gentlemen around
me must deeply deplore a civil war, especially if that war shall
involve the fate of this capital and the disruption of the government.
No man can contemplate the inevitable results of such a war without
the most serious desire to avert it. It is our duty as Members of
the House, it is the duty of Congress, I am happy to say it is now
the acknowledged duty of the President, as it is of the incoming
administration, to use forbearance to the extremest point. Let
not physical force be arrayed in civil war until the last hope of
peace and conciliation has been exhausted; then let each branch of
the government, acting in concert with each other, perform its
respective duties, though the heavens fall!

"What can we do for peace and conciliation? I anticipate at once
your reply; you say, 'Let us compromise; yield what we demand of
you. Let us compromise, and we will preserve the Union; civil war
will be averted.' This, I know, is the earnest appeal of patriotic
men in the southern states, who would gladly give their lives to
stop the march of treason in those states. How useless it is to
talk about compromises, concessions, conciliation, adjustment,
when, if everything was conceded, the integrity of the government
may be broken up by a majority of a single state. If we hold this
Union, and all the rights it secures to us, and all the hopes we
have upon it, upon the whim or will of a single state, then, indeed,
it is the weakest government ever devised by man. If a single
state may destroy our nationality, then, indeed, is the wisdom of
our fathers the wisdom of babes. We can no longer talk about the
weakness of the old confederacy or anarchy of Mexico.

"Sir, we owe it as the most sacred of duties to put down this
heresy. If it now fortifies itself by sectional animosities, if
it rises from party rebellion to sectional and civil war, still it
must, and will, be met with determined resistance. Upon this point,
I am glad to