Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourself justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action?

But you will not abide the election of a Republican president!  In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us!

That is cool.  A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me—­my money—­was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.

A few words now to Republicans.  It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony one with another.  Let us Republicans do our part to have it so.  Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill temper.  Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can.  Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine if we can, what will satisfy them.

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered to them?  We know they will not.  In all their present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely mentioned.  Invasions and insurrections are the rage now.  Will it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections?  We know it will not.  We so know, because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation.

The question recurs, What will satisfy them?  Simply this:  we must not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them that we do let them alone.  This, we know by experience, is no easy task.  We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success.  In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them.  Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.