om my address against repudiation, and placed it on their
banners, and at the head of their presses, in these words: 'The honor of
the nation and of every State is the birthright of every American--it is
the stainless and priceless jewel of popular sovereignty--it has been
preserved unsullied, in all times that are past, through every sacrifice
of blood and treasure, and it must be maintained.' Ay! and it will yet
be maintained. The time will come, when repudiation will be repudiated
by Mississippi--when her wretched secession leaders, the true authors of
her disgrace and ruin, will be discarded--when her insolent slaveholding
oligarchy will be overthrown, when the people will break the chains of
their imperious masters, and labor, without regard to color, will be
emancipated. _Secession_, _repudiation_, and _slavery_ are the same in
principle and had the same leaders. Jefferson Davis carried the
repudiation banner in 1849, as he now does that of secession and
slavery. Secession is a repudiation of law, of constitution, of country,
of the flag of our forefathers, and of the Union purchased by their
blood. Driven at home within a circle of fire, which narrows every day,
it is crouching before foreign rulers, and imploring their aid to
accomplish the ruin of our country. It appeals to their ambition, their
avarice, their fears, their hatred of free institutions and of
constitutional government. It summons them to these English shores, it
unsheathes the imperial sceptre in the House of Commons, denounces the
Ministry of England, and dictates the vote of Parliament on the most
momentous question in the history of the world. Why, when these
sentiments were uttered, I almost expected to see the shades of Burke
and Fox, and Pitt and Chatham, and Peel and Wellington, rise in the
midst and denounce the degenerate bearer of such a message. What! the
British Commons become the supple tools, the obsequious minions, the
obedient parasites, to do the bidding of a foreign master, and tremble
when his envoy should stamp his foot and wave the imperial banner in the
halls of Parliament. From whom was this message, and to whom? Was it to
the England of Trafalgar and the Nile? Was it to the descendants of the
men who conquered at Agincourt and Cressy, and changed for ages at
Waterloo the destiny of the world? Why, Nelson would speak from his
monument, and the Iron Duke from his equestrian statue, and forbid the
degradation of their country.