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SAMITzL WRIGHT, Editor and Proprietor.
VOLUME XXXI, NUMBE
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The Lucky Hand
I'll tell you the queerest thing that ever
happened to me in business. One evening,
about twenty years ago, I was going home
alma,. the City Road to my own hose nt
Pe•itonville llill. It was near the end of
December. I had staid balancing accounts
in my office some time after the Stock Ex
change closed. A frosty night, with a half
fog in it, had fallen; and there was a rather
valuable pocket-book safely buttoned up in
the breast-pocket of my great coat, fur I had
that day sold five hundred Western Can al
shares. which, in common with all such pro.
property, the railways were rapidly bring
ing down. They belonged to one of my
hest customers, had been advantageously
disposed of. and I was carrying home the
bank notes, thinking my own house was a
oafor nlane than the office, as the gentleman
li,ol nut ineasecl to m cation hia banker.—
The City Road is not a solitary place at 5
P. 11 . I lvallced on, summing up the day'-
tra,,tutions and the probabilities of the
m , r 7 l looking into the window., of all
nee,oten stationers for the evening pa
per.. 1 r , ,ought most reliable, and occasion
-1 I e ,g HIV great coat was seem
hutton,,l.
1 wit dug .g.e.l in the hitter occupatsoo
within eight of that notahle ion, the Angt• I,
Ishogtoi, when 1 became conscious of being
watched and lit:lowed by a wan who seemed
determined to keep his eye on me. His dress
and appearance belonged to the shabby
respectable; hi in sel I' and everything, around
hint ~Xeu as if they had seen better 4 11 i) • •
His figure was Lilla, d thin, his Coe, o f
and sharp; his hair was per'rectly let
I felt convinced rha: tn. years lid 'pa Truett
exceed my own, and i was .r , •t e
•suntiv side of fi:tv. It wits st: _
that be made n uttemri at C , noo
pursuit or me; indeed, there .0 I)3 isg
sly or c0mm.:4.1 'king about the matt.—
Still, I had my pocket book to takt..-are of;
and as we reacito,l.t quieter part of :he r
skirting the Na.. River Compnoy': W.,ter
Works, I resol‘o.i to let boo know tie was
observed. by Forcing attrut,tty and fiacilig
him in the full light of a street lamp. .
Had it been aNy dc-t , tription of w.ond 0-
I,d, instead of a gray haired and evidently
not well to ti. , matt. should have gone home
to Mrs. Itugly more puffed up with vanity
nod self conceit than the honest woman wits
accustomed to find me, for the best dressed
specimen of beauty and fashion in all
llelgravia could nut have been greeted with
a gaze of greater admiration and delight
,than that be best Owed on my cane colored
whiskers and almoSt carroty hair. WWI the
man mad, or making game of roe? Some
how, he did not look to be either; there was
an appearance of perfect earnestness and
sincerity in his demonstrations, as if his
whole heart was iu the business, and he
neither thought nor cared for anything else.
"Do you do anythit.4 in the Stock Ex
change, sir?" said lie, before I could make
up my mind what proceedings to take.
"Yes," said I, astonished out of all my
.caution. "Why do you ask?"
, "Because, sir, I want a little business
done in that way. It's not much, but I'll
pay you any commission I can;" and he
pressed so near that I laid my hand on his
breast buttons. "If you will be so good as
to tell me your office, or anywhere you like
,to see me, I'll come to-morrow forenoon."
"Here's my address," said I, "I'm always
glad to see people in the way of business;
,in the meantime, I am in haste to get home,
,and wish you a very good night."
Aly step• IA) not linger .tong after that
_deduction. The shabby, admiring roan
/night have confederates, and the road was
,nyt busy; but when I looked back at the
~nest turn. there he was, standing in the
?lame lOpot, and gazing after me as if I had
been his guprdian angel leaving him to
himself.
: 1 1rs.itugly,and J had a good laugh over
that interview, when we Just by the fire after
our boys and girls had gone to bed. I
.wanted to make bet believe he was a coun
tess in disguise; she insisted he was a
sharper, and meant to wheedle me out of
money or stock. At last, we agreed the
man must be mad: and I went to the ',pee
peal morning resolved to ler him slip out of
acquaintaztee at quietly Its he and stepped
into it. 4.emirding to my usual custam, I
was at my office full three hmrs hefore the
Exchange Ott:11:M, but there was the man
pacing up and down in front ~ f the premises.
and evidently waiting for ive, token he
had got fairly int..' the sanetuary or basis
{ 32.1
nese, alias the small and dingy room which
serves gentlemen of my profession in the
nighborhood of Capel Court, he came to the
point without giving me time to ask it, by
producing a pocket book with as many
marks of better days and hard service as
himself, turning it over so as to let me see
a very few notes, reading a memorandum
for his own instruction, and then requesting
me to buy for him three hundred shares in
a certain Scotch railway.
The line is now one of the best paying in
Britain, but, for prudential reasons, which
one ought to have in speaking of anything
Scotch, I will not give its particular desig
nation. It had been commenced in the first
fervor of railway making,•when the public
mind having awakened to the utility of the
iron road, for which George Stephenson
and his supporters had fought so tough a
battle, rushed into companies and scrip in
every direction, and would have laid down
rails between John o'Groata and the Land's
Eud. The line in question was not quite so
unpromising, but, from local causes, as well
as a temporary reaction of the fertneot, its
scrip was going rapidly down. I was aware
that interested parties were doing their best
to keep up the shares, and brokers who had
none to sell called it a bad speculation.
Perhaps I ought to claim credit fur consci
entiousness beyond the wont of Capel
Court men, but my would-be customer
looked so hard-up, so earnestly ent on
turning 111 few notes to the best advantage
that I could not help telling him my mind
on theisubject, and seriously advising him
to have nothing to do with the Scotch rail
way. Be heard me with a look of quiet hut
immovable obstinacy.
"It may be all true, sir I am sure it is,
for I hove Ilford as much from all quirters;
but boy the three hundred shares for me—
they :Ire down fifty per cent. now. I have
got a hundred ponnds here, and I'll pay you
the rest 'thin a fortnight."
SI 50
"You'll lose your money," said 1, "the
line will never pay."
"It will pay and I won't lose!" said the
man, his eye kindling with a fire no bright
and wild that it eta•le me think of our eon
uS or night.
••I don't care if I tell you, though some
people might think it silly to believe in
such things, that I had it dream about that
railway. -ir. My uncle was a first-rate
' speculator. a Lancashire man, one of the
earliest that came out strung for George
I Stephen...a, you have heard of him. per
ha..-;" and he named a getitlenian well
kootvu it. the first railway war, but then
some years. "Ile brought me
an. and would have left me Itis shares in
the N •rtlwestern, but I displeased him by
marrt-ng ago mst his will, and my uncle
nev - •r forgave anybody. I don't repent that
yet; my wife's the best woman in the world,
arid n prettier face I never saw; but we've
been poor, sir, very poor, and nothing has
suceeeded with me, though I have tried a
good many things. When my uncle dind,
five years ago, he left his shares, bank • toek,
and all to a housekeeper he had. I'm told
they're Liverpo g• not try now; but I had
not seen him for seventeen years, till one
night last month. I had a dream; it must
have been near daybreak. The old man
appeared to come into my room, looking Its
he used to do when we were good friends,
and bringing with him a person whom I
never saw before. 'Tom,' said he, 'th.s
gentleman is a stock broker; get him to buy
you three hundred shares in the
and you'll be a rich man before seven
years.' lle said a few more words which
don't matter lust at present, then walked
away, and I awoke up so sure of the whole
business that I struck a light, and looked
round the room for the man he had brought.
till poor Sally thought I had lost my judg
merit. The dream occurred every night for
a week after. I got up all the money I
could muster, and went over London, look
ing fur the stock broker, but I never saw
him till yesterday evening, when I was going
home, and, sir, you aro the very man my
uncle brought with him. I would know
your face among twenty thoutand, and, if
you will buy me Cho shares, it will be better
for us both."
Mrs Rugly, at least, gave me credit for
sense and discretion; but the singular story,
the fact that he had recognized me, and the
man's own faith in his dream, made me
give up reasoning against the Scotch Rail
way, and consent to buy the shares. They
had another fall that very day: and, know
ing they were still in the descending line, I
bought t.,em in slowly, so that by the end
of the week the three hundred shares were
secured with little more than the contents
of my friend's pocket-book. The man had
interested me. You perceive it is possible
to Interest even a stook broker; and, while
buying up the shares, I made inquiries after
his antecedents. There was not a broker
in the Exchp.nge who could not tell me
something about him, and their accounts
confirmed his own—that he bad tried a good
many things, and succeeded in nothing.—
There was no spectdation—mine, canal,
dock, or railway—in which be had not dab
bled; and the host popular superstition in
Capel Court was, that whatsoever he bought
shares in was sure to go to the dogs, except
ho sold out immediately, when it was equal
ly cerium to rise in the market. There
were tales of stock-brokers who bail made
their fortunes, and those of their costumers,
by the guidance of that curious rule. As
the natural consequence of so much ill-luck
and determination to speculate, I also-heard
"SO ENTERTAINMENT IS SO CHEAP AS READING, NOR ANY PLEASURE SO LASTING."
COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA, SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 9, 1861.
that Le was in the habit of owing and bor-
rowing, and that his funds and his credit
were now at a very low ebb. Nobody could
imagine were be got the hundred pounds,
except from his relations in Lancashire, on
a promise to embark for Australia, to which
safe distance their united endeavors had not
been sufficient to send him and his wife,
though employed to that end for the last ten
years. 'Whether fortunately or otherwise I
cannot say, but he had no children; but, in
spite of his unsuccessful stock-jobbing, the
pair were said to live in affectionate har
mony, not always found in better supplied
homes. There, at the time of my story,
was a second flour in Cummin Street, Pen
tonville. Their name was Raxwortla, and
there was at once a contrast and a resem
blanee between them; while he was a tale
man, she was a little woman; but both were
gray before the time, very thin, and looked
as if they were always expecting some
thing.
Faith is infectious. When I had bought
the shares, delivered them to Mr. Raxworth,
and, shove all, talked over the matter with
Mrs. Rugly, she and I felt so persuaded
that something would come of the dream
that we kept our eyes on the Rasworths,
took n deep interest in their welfare, and
would have been friendly with them but for
an unexpected obstacle. On the evening
after I had bought up the last of the shares
and we were settling money matters in the
back-room of a coffee-house, whet Rax
worth insisted on treating me to a steak and
porter because I would charge him no com
mission. One pot followed another, till my
friend's eyes began to twinkle, and his
words followed rapidly. lle told all he
would do when his fortune was made by the
Railway; of the relations he would
cut dead for looking down on him and
Sally; of the house he would build over
looking Birkenhead, and to which he would
take her home in her own carriage, to spite
people who thought little of her fur being a
dressmaker's girl, though anybody who saw
Sally knew she was born to be a lady.
"No doubt of it," said I my own heart
getting worm. "I am sure Mrs. Rugly
would like to know her; we'll call on, you
some day this week."
"No, if you plea. e," said Raxworth, start
ing back with a blank terror in his look.—
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rugly; it would
be a great pleasure to my wife and me; in
fact, we are too poor acquaintances for you.
But doll't come, sir, don't. come toonr !loose
at all. After what the old man said, that
might be true, as well as the rest of the
dream."
"What did the old man say, Mr. Box
worth?" said I, laying down my pot with
my whole stock of determination.
"Well, sir, I should have told you before,
but I thought you would not buy the shares
for me. My uncle, after he told me about
tee making of my fortune, and the hand
you were to have in it, said a few words
more, and they were the strangest of all:
'Take care of him, for he will kill your
vt.fe!' Now, sir, I don't believe you would
the like, I.ot it was all in the same
dream; that.was the last thing my uncle
said. ain't come to the house, sir, nor
have aoything more to do with us!"
Itaxw..rth believed in what he told me,
and I did not tell that. part of his dream to
Mrs. Rugl.r. but I made him a solemn
promise, and took a fixed resolution, to
avoid their domicile, which, under one
excuse or another, I kept to the letter.
In pursuing this policy, I gradually lost
sight of the man of the three hundred shares.
I saw him in Capel Court sometimes, occa
sionally met him going home, heard of him
first as an agent for somebody's unadulter
ated coffee, then as a traveler for a patent
p 11. and lastly or his subscribing a pictorial
Bin'e. They had removed from Cummin
8: reet to a humbler lodging in Clerkenwell,
and his wife was taking in plain work. To
say the truth, I had no wish to see the poor
man. In spite of his dream, the—Rail
way had gone utterly and totally to the
dogs; the most sanguine speculators pro
nounced it a bad jot-; its shares were
declared to be nowhere at all; and many a
time Mrs. Rugly and I lamented over poor
Raxworth and his three hundred.
In the cares of one's family, and the ups
and downs of one's business, time slips
away wonderfully. It was five years after
I had bought the said shares; there had been
a panic, bad times, a settling down and
clearing up again, when, to the amazement
or the whole stock Exchange, there was a
resurrection of the Railway. Some
body from Glasgow had taken it in hand.—
The gentlemen bad a large capital and rich
cousins. The newspapers began to talk of
what immense utility the line would be to
northern towns and the agricultural dis
tricts; the shares came into the market and
went up every day. Where was Rasworth?
I could not make out, till one day he ap
peared in my office, looking grayer and more
shabby than ever, but with the same earnest
eyes.
•'Tdey're going up, Mr. Rugl,yl" was his
first salutation.
"Yes," said 1. "You'll get back your
hundred pounds yet.
"Get back my hundred pounds!" he
screamed, for his voice had grown strangely
cracked and shrill. "I'll make my fortune:
didn't the old man say it? Have Sally and
1 lived poor and pinched, wanting coal in
winter, and beer in summer, all those years,
only to get back a hundred pounds'. No,
Mr. Itugly, I won't sell out until they come
,to cant. per cent. at Icar.t."
No arguments could shake that resolu
tion, and I did not try to do it; the matter
was beyond my Capel Court experience;
but fur once Raxworth was not mistaken.—
The shares went up higher and higher—
such a ran upon a railway was never known.
At last they reached cent. per cent., and
then he sent me a brief note to sell out im
mediately, and buy him six hundred shares
in the Southwestern. Rasworth had got
above my reasoning. Henceforth I obeyed
his mandates without question. they always
came by post. Somehow, whatever he
bought, whatever ho sold, success and profit
attended his speculations. I knew him net
five thousand by a venture that same year,
and he doubled it within the nest. His
luck became as proverbial among the
brokers as his want of it had been before.
He was now a comparatively rich man. I
was aware of his having a considerable
deposit in the Bank of England, beside own
ing railway stock to a greater amount; yet
when I saw him again, Raxworth looked as
shabby, as careworn, and as earnest as he
had looked when I was going to congraulate
him on the prospect of getting back his
hundred pounds. He settled with me
liberally, promised the continuance of his
patronage, told me he had bought the
grounds for his house overlooking Birken
head, and that Sally and he would enjoy
their money; but ho could not understand
her, she was growing so strange like, and
taking on so many odd ways.
To bring my story to an end, it turned
out that the sudden accession of wealth,
after such long poverty and frequent disap
pointment, upset poor Mrs Raxworth's
brain. The strangeness and odd ways re
sulted in frantic madness, and she died a
few years ago in a private asylum. tier
husband still lives, and speculates; his
capital is now immense, though ho has not
always won at the same rate. His house
has been built, and is let, for be never in
habited it, nor set up his carriage. I can
see no change in his appearance from the
day he came to tell me "They were going
up." Once, after a long reckoning, he ask
ed me if the old man had not spoken true in
his dream. "Only," said he "we did not
understand it right about Sally; but that
could not be helped, and nothing can Mr.
Rugly. Never mind, I have a great respect
for you, because I know you to be a lucky
hand."
That was all I ever heard him say on the
subject which had troubled hint so much in
his poverty-stricken days, when he begged
me not to come to the house nor have any
to do with them, lest his uncle's
prophecy about the killing of Sally should
come to pass. I suppose the killing of het
mind by the fortune which came through
me must have been the proper interpreta
tion of the dream, if it had any, and was not
all a downright invention of Itaxworth's
fancy, running, as it always did, on stocks
and shares. At all events; he made money
and that makes people take everything else
uncommonly easy; yet, somehow, there is
nobody's business I care less for doing, and
I know he employs me only for being a
lucky bawl, which is a character worth
having in the Stock Exchange.
Inaugural Address of President Lincoln,
delivered March 4, 1861
Fellow-Citizens of the United States:
In compliance with a custom as old as
the Government itself, I appear before you
to address you briefly, and to take, in your
presence, the oath prescribed by the Consti
tution of the United States to be taken by
the President "before he enters on the ezecu
tion of his office."
I do not consider it necessary at present
to discuss those matters of administration
about which there is no special.anxiety or
excitement.
Apprehension seems to exist among the
people of the States that by the accession of
a Republican administration their pr.'perty
and their peace and personal security are to
be endangered.
There has never been any reasonable cause
for such aporehension. Indeed, the most
ample evidence to the contrary has all the
while existed and been open to their inspee- I
tion. It is found in nearly all the published
speeches of him who now addresses you.—
Idu but quote from one of those speeches
when I declare that "I have no purpose, di
rectly or indirectly, to interfere with the in
stitution of slavery in the States where it
exists. I believe I have no lawful right to
do so, and I have no inclination to do so." i
Those who nominated and elected me did'
so with full knowledge that I had made this
and many similar declarations, and had
never recanted them; and more than this—
they placed in the platform for my accept
ance, and as a law to themselves and to me
the clear and emphatic resolution which I
now read:
PResoloed, That the maintenance inviolate
of the rights of the States, and especially
the right of each State to order and control
its own domestic institutions, according to
its own
_judgement exclusively, is essential
to that balance of power on which the per
fection and endurance of oar political fah
rie depends, and we denounce the lawless
invasion, by armed force, of any State or
Territory, no matter under what pretext, as
the gravest of crimes."
I now reiterate these sentiments, and in
doing so I only press upon the public atten
tion the most conclusive evidence of which
the case is susceptible, that the property,
pence and security of no section arc to be
in nny mine endangered by the incoming
Administration. I add, too, that all the,
protection which, consistently with the
Constitution and the laws, can be given, will
be cheerfully given to all the States, when
lawfully demandel, for whatever cause—as
cheerfully to one section as to another. !
There is much controversy about the do
livering up of fugitives from service or la- ;
bor. The clause I now read is as plainly
written in the Constitution as any other of ;
its provisions:
"tio person held - to service or labor in one
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up
on claim of the party to whom such service
or labor may be due."
It is scarcely questioned that this provis
ion was intended by those who made it for
the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves;
and the intention of the law-giver is the
law.
Allanembers of Congress B , c:ear their sup
port to the whole Constitution—to this pro
vision 'as much as to any other. To the
proposition, then, that slaves whose cases
come within the terms of this clause "shall
be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous.
Now, if they would make the effort in good
temper, could they Lot, with nearly equal
unanimity, frame and pass a law,by means
of which to keep good that unanimous oath?
There is some difference of opinion wheth
er this clause should be enforced by nation
al or by authority, but surely that dif
ference is not a very material one. If the
slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but
little consequence to him, or to others, by
which authority it is done. And should
any one, in any case, be content that his
oath shall go unkept on—a merely unsub
stantial controversy as to now it shall be
kept? Again, in any law upon this subject,
ought metal( the safeguards of liberty known
in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be
introduced, so that a free man be not in
any case surrendered as a slave? And migh t
it not be well, at the same time, to proviie
by law for the enforcement of that clause
in the Constitution which guarantees that
"the citizens of each State shall be entitled
to all privileges and immunities of citizens
'in the several States?"
I take the official oath to-day with no
mental reservations, and with no purpose to
construe the Co .Atitution or :61,11 by any
hypercritical rules. And while I d nut
choose now to specify particular acts of Con
gross as proper to be enforced, I do suggest
that it will he much safer for all, both in
official and private stations, to conform to
and abide by all thoil acts which stand un
repealed, than to violate any of them, trust
ing to find impunity in having them held to
be unconstitutional.
It is seventy-two year since the B. in
auguration of a President underour National
Constitution. During that poriod fifteen
great and distinguished citizens have, in
succession, administered the Executive
branch of the Government. They have con
ducted it throuei many perils, and gener
ally with great success. Yet with all this
scope fur precedent, I now enter upon the
same task, for the brief constitutional term
of four years. under great and peculiar dif
ficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union
heretofore only menaced, is now formidably
attempted.
I hold that, in the contemplation of uni
versal law, and of the Constitution. the
Union of these States is perpetual. Perpe
tuity is implied if not expressed, in the fon
damental law of all national governments.
It is safe to assert that no government
proper ever had a provision in its organic
law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the expreso provisions of our
National Constitution, and the Union will
endure forever, it being impossible to de
stroy it, except by some action not provided
for in the instrument itself.
Agi.in, if the United States be not a Gov
ernment proper, but an ass lciation of States
in the nature of contract merely, can it, as
a contract, be peacefully unmade by less
than all the parties who made it? One par
ty to a contract may violate it—break it, so
to speak; but does it not require all to law
fully rescind it?
Descending from these general principles,
we find the proposition that, in legal con
templation; the Union is perpetual,confirmed
by the history of the Union itself. The
Union is much °bier than the Constitution.
It was formed in fact by the Articles uf As
sociation in 1774. It m at"red and con
tinued by the Declaration of Independence
in 177 G. It was further matured and the
faith of all the then thirteen States express
ly plighted and engaged that it should be
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation
in 1778.
And finally, in 1787, ono of the declared
objects for ordaining and establishing the
Constitution. was "to form a more p•rfect
Cision." But if destruction of the Union
by one or by a part only of the States, be
lawfully possible, the Union is MSS perfect
than before, the Constitution having lost the
vital element of perpetuity.
It follows from these views that no State,
upon its own mere motion. can lawfully get
out of the Union—that resolves and ordi
nances to that effect are legally void, and
that acts of violence within any State or
States against the authority of the United
States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary,
according to circumstances.
I therefore consider, that in view of the
Constitution and the laws, the Union is un
broken, and to the extent r.f my
$1,50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE; $2,00. IF NOT IN ADVANCE
shall take care, as the Constitution itself
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of
the Union be faithfully executed in all the
States. Doing this I deem to be only
simple duty on my cart, and I shall perform
it so far as practicable, unless my rightful
masters, the American people, shell with
hold the requisite means, or in some author
itative manner direct the contrary.
I trust that this will not be regarded as
a menace, but only as the declared purpose
of the Union that it wilt Constitutionally de
fend and maintain itself. In doing this
there needs to be no bloodshed or violence,
and there shall be none, unless it be forced
upon the national authority.
The power confided to toe will be used to
hold, occupy and possess the property and
; places belonging to the Government, and to
collect the duties and imposts; but beyond
what may be necessary for these objects
them will be no invasion, no using of force
against or among the people anywhere.
Where hostility to the United States, in
any interior locality, shall be so great and
so universal as to prevent ,competent resi
dent citizens from holding the Federal offices,
there will be no attempt to force obnoxious
strangers among the people for that object.
While the strict legal right may exist in
the Government to enforce the exercise of
these offices, the attempt to do so would he
so irritating, and so nearly impracticable
withal, that I deem it better to forego for
the time the uses of such offices. The mails,
unless repelled, will continue to be furnished
in all parts of the Union. So far as possi
ble, the people everywhere shall have that
sense of perfect security which is most fa
vorable to calm thought and reflection.
The course here indicated will be followed,
in'ess current events and experience shall
show a modification or change to be proper,
and in every ease and exigency my best
discretion will bo exercised, accor ling to
circumstances actually existing, and with a
view and a hope of a peaceful solution of
the national troubles, and the restoration of
fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons in one section or
another who seek to destroy the Union at
nil events, and are glad of any pretext to
do it, I will neither affirm or deo ; • if
there be such, I need address no word to
them. To those, lieu-ever, who really love
the Union, may I not speak?
Before entering upon so grave a matter ns
the destruction of our national fabric, with
all its benefits, its memories and its hopes,
would it not be wise to - ascertain precisely
why we do it? .
Will you hazard so de -t• irate ti step,
while there is any possibility that any por
tion of the ills you fly fr•tm a otve no real
existence? Will you - while the certain ills
you fly to are greater thin all the real ones
you fiy from—will you risk the commission
of so fearful a mistake?
All profess to bo eordent in the Union, if
all Constitutional eights can he maintained.
Is it true then that any right, plainly writ
ten in the Constitution, has been denied?—
I think not. Happily the human mind is
so constituted th t no party can reach to the
audacity of doing thig. Think, if you can,
of a single instance in wit.. h 4 plainly
written provision of the Censtition has ever
been denied.
If, by the mere force of numbers, a ma
jorityo
should deprive a mmrity of any
clearly written consti..l ional right, it tpight,
lin a motel point of view, justify revolution
—certainly would, if such a right were a
vital one. But such is not our case. All
the vital rights of minorities and of individ
uals are so plainly assured to them by
1 affirmations and negations, guarantees and
provisions in the Constitution, that contro
-1 rersies never arise concerning them. But
I no organic law can ever be framed with a
I provision specifically applicable to every
question which may occur in practical ad.
ministration. No foresight can anticipate,
nor any document of reasonable length con
tain express provisions for all possible guns.
tions. Shall fugitives from labor be sur
rendered by national or State authority?—
The Constitution does not expressly say:-
1 Nay Congress prohibit slavery in the Terri
tories? The Constitution does not expressly
' says—Must Congress protect slavery in the
Territories? The Constitution does not ex
pressly say.
Prom questions of this class string all our
controversies, as we divide upon them into
majorities and minorities. If the minority
will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the
Government must cease. There is no other
alternative; for continuing the Government
is acquiescence on ono aide or the other.—
If a minority in such case will secede rather
than acquiesce, they make a precedent
which, in turn, will divide and ruin them.
For n roinorit7 of their own will secede
from theta whenever a majority refuses to
be controlled by such minority. For in
stance, why may not any portion of a new
Confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily
secede again, precisely as portions of the
present Union now claim to secede from it?
lAlt who;cherish disunion sentiutents are
now being
- educated to the exact temper of
doing this. Is there such a perfect identity
of interests among the States to compose a
new Union, as to produce harmony only,
and prevent new secession? Plainly. the
central idea of secession is the essence of
anarchy.
A majority held in restraint by constitu
tional checks and limitations, and always
changing easily with delibcrn•e changes or
”pinion• an.) eetitinseilt<. i , the 011 y
[WHOLE .N UMBER 1,594.
true sovereign of a free people; what vcr re•
ijetty it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to
I.lespotism. Unanimity is impossible.
Tno rule of a minority as a permanent
arrangement is wholly inadmissible, au that.
rejecting the majority principle, anarohy ~r
I •
despotism in some form is all that is left,
I do not forget the position' assumed I.y
some that Constitutional questions am to io
decided by the Supreme Court. N.. 7 I
deny tbs.: such decisions must be binding
in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as
the object of that suit, while they are als ,
entitled to very high respect - and consider: -
tion is all parallel cases by all other depart
ments of the Government. And whi:c it is
obviously possible that such dt vision may
be erroneous in any given case, still 0.0
evil effect following it, being limited to that
particular case, with the chance that it may
be overruled and never become a precedent
for other eases, can better ho borne than
could the evils of a different practido.
At the same time the candid citizen must
confess that if the policy of the Government
upon vital questions affecting the whole
people, is to be irrevocably fixed by thn
decisions of the Supremo Court, the instant
they are made in ordinary litigation between
parties in personal actions, the people will
have ceased to be their own rulers, having
to that extent practically resigned their
government into the hands of that eminent
tribunal.
Nor is there, in this view, any assault
upon the Court or the Judges. It is a duty
from which they may not shrink, to decide
cases properly brought before them, and it
is no fault of their., if others seek to turn
their decisions to political purposes.
000 section of our country believes slavery
is right, and ought to be 'extended, while
the other believes it is wrong, and ought not
to be extended. This is the only substan
til dispute.
The Fugitive Slave clause of the Constitu
tion, and the law for the suppres.lon
of the Foreign Slave Trade. are_caci,
as well enforced, perhaps, as any law
cart be in a community where the moral
sense of the people imperfectly supports the
law itself.
The great body of the people abide I y
the dry legal obligation in both CkSO.3, id)
few break orer in each. This, I think,
cannot be perfectly cure I, and it world
worse in both cases after the separntion of
the sections than before. The foreign sieve
trade, now imperfectly suppressed, %%oitbt
be ultimately revived without restriction in
one section, while fugitive slaveto. now only
partially surrendered, would not lie 3‘irron•
derei at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate.
we cannot remove our rc.pectivo section+
from each other nor build any impakt,ablc
wall between them. A husband and wife
may be divorced and go out of the present..
and beyond the reach of each other—but
the different parts of our country cannot du
this. They cannot but remain face to face.
and intercourse either amicable or hostile
must continue between the n.
ls it possible then to make that-inter
course more advantageous, or mores ttisf.
tory, after ~ 'partition than before Can
aliens make treaties easier than friends can
makelaws? Can treaties he more faithfully
enforced between aliens than —l.tws
among friends?
Suppose you go to war, you cannot fi,gliz
always; and when, after much loss on bm.lt
side. and no gain on either , you cease
ing, the identical old questions as to th.•
terms of intercourse are again upon y
This country with its institutions lailang,
The people, who inhabit it. Whenever .tlic
shall grasr weary of the cri•ting
they ea , xercise their Cowl,' utiunal :ig lo•
of amending it, or their
to dismember ur overthrow it.
I cannot he ignorant of the feet that ni,n..;
worthy and patriotic citizen.: are , t
having the Yttional Constitution amended.
While I make no recommendation of ante% ?-
mends, I fully recognize the rightful r. •
thority of the people over the whole sums; t.
to be exercised in either of the modes pro-
scribed in the instrument itself, end I shoold
under existing eireutostnnees, furor, rather
than oppose, a fair opportunity being afford
ed the people to act upon it.
I will venture to add, thin tome the Con
vention mode seems preferable, in that it
allows, amendments to originate with thn
people themselves, instead of only permit
ting theta to take or reject propositions orig.
inated by others not especially chosen fur
the purpose, and which might no: be pre,
cisely such as they would with to either ac
cept or approve.
I understand that a propose 1 amendment
b the Constitution, which amendment, how
ever, I have not seen, has parsed Congress.
to the effect that the Federal Government
shall never interfere with the domestic insti•
tations of the States, including that of per
sons, held to service.
To avoid misconstruction of what I barn
said, I depart from my purpose not to speak:
of particular amendments, so far as to say
that, holdingsuch it provision to norr be im •
plied constitutional law. I hare no objection
to its being made express nod irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives nil his au
thority from the people, and they !taro con
ferred none upon him to fix terms f r the
s'pnration of the States. The i3.3p10 them
selves can Jo tail also if they choose. tett
the Executive, as such, has nothing to dpi
with it. HIS duty ii teatiniiiiister the ve rs
••nt -4orertinactit at it ;rant.• to hi. 1i:it:lb:,