Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/80

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS talked in 1832, and sent their remarks to the Press? We all know the fact, and we all know the cause; and everything that these agitating people have done has been, not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster, the slave population of the South. ]Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard from every member on this floor declara- tions of opinion that this Union could never be dissolved, than the declaration of opinion by any- body, that in any case, under the pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was pos- sible. I hear with distress and anguish the word "secession," especially when it falls from the lips of those who are patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world for their political services. Secession! Peaceable seces- sion ! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country without convulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish — I beg everybody's pardon — as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees these States now revolving in harmony around a common center, and ex- pects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle agatust each other in the realms of space, without causing the crush of the universe. There can be no such thing as a peaceable <MM*'*^n^