Sir, in the language of our declaration of secession from Great Britain, it is stated as an established truth, that “all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they have been accustomed”; and nothing can be more obvious to the calm and candid observer of passing events than that the disruption of the Confederacy has been due, in a great measure, not to the existence, but to the denial of this right.  Few candid men would refuse to admit that the Republicans of the North would have been checked in their mad career had they been convinced of the existence of this right, and the intention to assert it.  The very knowledge of its existence by preventing occurrences which alone could prompt its exercise would have rendered it a most efficient instrument in the preservation of the Union, But, sir, if the fact were otherwise—­ if all the teachings of experience were reversed—­better, far better, a rope of sand, aye, the flimsiest gossamer that ever glistened in the morning dew, than chains of iron and shackles of steel; better the wildest anarchy, with the hope, the chance, of one hour’s inspiration of the glorious breath of freedom, than ages of the hopeless bondage and oppression to which our enemies would reduce us.

We are told that the laws must be enforced; that the revenues must be collected; that the South is in rebellion without cause, and that her citizens are traitors.

Rebellion! the very word is a confession; an avowal of tyranny, outrage, and oppression.  It is taken from the despot’s code, and has no terror for others than slavish souls.  When, sir, did millions of people, as a single man, rise in organized, deliberate, unimpassioned rebellion against justice, truth, and honor?  Well did a great Englishman exclaim on a similar occasion:—­

“You might as well tell me that they rebelled against the light of heaven, that they rejected the fruits of the earth.  Men do not war against their benefactors; they are not mad enough to repel the instincts of self-preservation.  I pronounce fearlessly that no intelligent people ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere, rational, and benevolent authority.  No people were ever born blind.  Infatuation is not a law of human nature.  When there is a revolt by a free people, with the common consent of all classes of society, there must be a criminal against whom that revolt is aimed.”

Traitors!  Treason!  Ay, sir, the people of the South imitate and glory in just such treason as glowed in the soul of Hampden; just such treason as leaped in living flame from the impassioned lips of Henry; just such treason as encircles with a sacred halo the undying name of Washington.

You will enforce the laws.  You want to know if we have a government; if you have any authority to collect revenue; to wring tribute from an unwilling people?  Sir, humanity desponds, and all the inspiring hopes of her progressive improvement vanish into empty air at the reflections which crowd on the mind at hearing repeated, with aggravated enormity, the sentiments against which a Chatham launched his indignant thunders nearly a century ago.  The very words of Lord North and his royal master are repeated here in debate, not as quotations, but as the spontaneous outpourings of a spirit the counterpart of theirs.