The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced.  I do not believe it; it is not the genius of the worst men of this country in the worst of times.  But I have set my mind at rest.  The last end that can happen to any man never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country (for liberty is synonymous to law and government).  Such a shock, too, might be productive of public good:  it might awake the better part of the kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have benumbed them; and bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are sometimes stunned into sobriety.—­Burrows’s Reports No. 4, pp. 2561-3.

Mr. Bayard—­Mr. President, in the course of my duty here as a representative of the rights of others, as a chosen and sworn public servant, I feel that I have no right to give my individual wishes, prejudices, interests, undue influence over my public action.  To do so would be to commit a breach of trust in the powers confided to me.  It is true I was chosen a Senator by a majority only, but not for a majority only.  I was chosen by a party, but not for a party.  I represent all the good people of the State which has sent me here.  In my office as a Senator I recognize no claim upon my action in the name and for the sake of party.  The oath I have taken is to support the Constitution of my country’s government, not the fiat of any political organization, even could its will be ascertained.  In sessions preceding the present I have adverted to the difficulty attending the settlement of this great question, and have urgently besought action in advance at a time when the measure adopted could not serve to predicate its results to either party.  My failure then gave me great uneasiness, and filled me with anxiety; and yet I can now comprehend the wisdom concealed in my disappointment, for in the very emergency of this hour, in the shadow of the danger that has drawn so nigh to us, has been begotten in the hearts of American Senators and Representatives and the American people a spirit worthy of the occasion—­born to meet these difficulties, to cope with them, and, God willing, to conquer them.

Animated by this spirit the partisan is enlarged into the patriot.  Before it the lines of party sink into hazy obscurity; and the horizon which bounds our view reaches on every side to the uttermost verge of the great Republic.  It is a spirit that exalts humanity, and imbued with it the souls of men soar into the pure air of unselfish devotion to the public welfare.  It lighted with a smile the cheek of Curtius as he rode into the gulf; it guided the hand of Aristides as he sadly wrote upon the shell the sentence of his own banishment; it dwelt in the frozen earthworks of Valley Forge; and from time to time it has been an inmate of these halls of legislation.  I believe it is here to-day, and that the present measure was born under its influence.

LORD BEACONSFIELD (BENJAMIN DISRAELI) (1804-1881)