Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/219

 JEFFERSON DAVIS with the mother country? "When our Constitu- tion was formed the same idea was rendered more palpable, for there we find provision made for that very class of persons as property; they were not put upon the footing of equality with white men — ^not even upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so far as representation was con- cerned, were discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical proportion of three-fifths. Then, senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we recur to the principles upon which our government was founded; and when you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from a government which, thus perverted, threatens to be destruc- tive of our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our independence^ and take the hazard. I find in myself, perhaps, a tj^pe of the gen- eral feeling of my constituents toward yours. I am sure I feel no hostility' to you, senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I can not now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you re- present. I therefore feel that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceful relations with you, tho we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us IX— 14 209