Mr. President, such is the state of things actually existing in the country, and of which I have now given you a sample.  And yet there are persons who constantly clamor against this state of things.  They call it aristocracy.  They excite the poor to make war upon the rich, while in truth they know not who are either rich or poor.  They complain of oppression, speculation, and the pernicious influence of accumulated wealth.  They cry out loudly against all banks and corporations, and all the means by which small capitals become united, in order to produce important and beneficial results.  They carry on a mad hostility against all established institutions.  They would choke up the fountains of industry, and dry all its streams.

In a country of unbounded liberty, they clamor against oppression.  In a country of perfect equality, they would move heaven and earth against privilege and monopoly.  In a country where property is more equally divided than anywhere else, they rend the air with the shouting of agrarian doctrines.  In a country where the wages of labor are high beyond all parallel, and where lands are cheap, and the means of living low, they would teach the laborer that he is but an oppressed slave.  Sir, what can such men want?  What do they mean?  They can want nothing, Sir, but to enjoy the fruits of other men’s labor.  They can mean nothing but disturbance and disorder, the diffusion of corrupt principles, and the destruction of the moral sentiments and moral habits of society.  A licentiousness of feeling and of action is sometimes produced by prosperity itself.  Men cannot always resist the temptation to which they are exposed by the very abundance of the bounties of Providence, and the very happiness of their own condition; as the steed, full of the pasture, will sometimes throw himself against its enclosures, break away from its confinement, and, feeling now free from needless restraint, betake himself to the moors and barrens, where want, erelong, brings him to his senses, and starvation and death close his career.

REMARKS ON THE POLITICAL COURSE OF MR. CALHOUN, IN 1838.

FROM THE SAME SPEECH.

Having had occasion, Mr. President, to speak of nullification and the nullifiers, I beg leave to say that I have not done so for any purpose of reproach.  Certainly, Sir, I see no possible connection, myself, between their principles or opinions, and the support of this measure.[1] They, however, must speak for themselves.  They may have intrusted the bearing of their standard, for aught I know, to the hands of the honorable member from South Carolina; and I perceived last session what I perceive now, that in his opinion there is a connection between these projects of government and the doctrines of nullification.  I can only say, Sir, that it will be marvellous to me, if that banner, though it be said to be tattered and torn, shall yet be lowered in obeisance, and laid at the footstool