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336 North whether the enactment of the Wilmot Proviso would not be an unnecessary provocation, since there was no slavery existing in the territories acquired from Mexico, and no probability of its introduction. Why not, then, give it up for the sake of harmony? He reminded his Southern friends that all the great acquisitions of territory — Louisiana, Florida, and Texas — had “redounded to the benefit of the South,” and pointed out the injustice of their “pressing matters to disastrous consequences,” when, for the first time, the attempt was made to introduce acquired territories without slavery. He emphatically denied the right of any state to secede from the Union, and the possibility of peaceable secession. “War and dissolution of the Union are identical,” he exclaimed; “they are convertible terms; and such a war!” With prophetic words he foretold them their isolation in case of an armed conflict.

“If the two portions of the confederacy should be involved in civil war, in which the effort on the one side would be to restrain the introduction of slavery into the new territories, and on the other side to force its introduction there, what a spectacle should we present to the contemplation of astonished mankind! An effort to propagate wrong! It would be a war in which we should have no sympathy, no good wishes, and in which all mankind would be against us, and in which our own history itself would be against us!”

His feelings told him the truth. Southern men indeed, counted upon British support in case of