Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter

“ Because, to vote for a bill passed under such circumstances, would be to agree to a principle, which may exclude forever hereafter, as it does now, the States which we represent from all enjoyment of the common territory of the Union; a principle which destroys the equal rights of their constituents, the equality of their States in the Confederacy, the equal dignity of those whom they represent as men and as citizens in the eye of the law, and their equal title to the protection of the Government and the constitution. ”

“ The men of that day—the men of the revolutionary generation, who covered the name of Massachusetts with glory, the generation which produced the heroes of Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and gave birth to the sages that illustrated the revolutionary councils, was not only willing but glad to receive Virginia into a family alliance. They were willing to enter into an association by which they bound themselves to put down insurrection in the States—by which they bound themselves to give a certain representation for the slaves—by which they bound themselves to restore the fugitive slave. ”

“ Upon that subject the majority in Congress, who were from these States, assumed whatever power they wanted. Could the minority rely upon the constitution to protect any of their rights, if it suited the passions or the interests of the majority to invade them? Our government was fast being revolutionized, and becoming one of a despotic majority of numbers; the limitations of a written constitution fast proving themselves to be without the defence of the political power to enforce them. Had the South the slightest hope of attaining any increase of that power? ”

“ If I am to choose between the generation of men who, under the guarantee of treaties, under the sanction of laws, transferred the African from a worse to a better condition, and those who, in violation of law and of the Constitution, steal away the southern slave, and transfer him from a better to a worse condition, let me live with the first rather than with the last. ”

“ I believe that the progress of light and intelligence in both races is not incompatible with the institution with the institution of southern slavery. I believe that we all are responsible for the happiness of all who are committed to our charge, whether they be white or black; and I say, let us do right in despite of the Abolitionist, however he may throw himself in the path of the improvement of the slave. ”

“ Indeed, one of its resolutions was amended so as to declare: "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impelled them to the separation." ”

“ By what right then, does any man reproach us for doing that which places the society of our country in the very best possible position? Sir, the statesman is not responsible for not attaining the greatest ideal good. He is responsible for not doing the best under the circumstances; and he who has done that has discharged his full duty to his race and to his principles. Are we to say, we will put down any organization, social or political, in which we find individual cases of evil and injustice? ”

“ When the vast territory obtained from Mexico at the close of the war was organized, the Missouri compromise line was set aside, and the non-intervention principle was adopted, by which it became between the sections a mere question of the ability to colonize—a question in regard to which there could scarcely be a doubt, with the superior resources in wealth and population of the free States. It had become manifest that the South had no protection for its rights but the constitution, nor could it hope to avail itself of that protection without an increase of power in the government. ”

“ A thousand offenses, so trivial and so absurd, have been thus summarily disposed of, that it would be impossible for any man to maintain that we should be justified in the attempt to exercise such power upon precedents drawn from the British Parliament.
Sir, if we claim any privilege beyond what the Constitution has specially given, it is only under the implication that we may punish things done within our own view, and may preserve our own existence by expelling an intruder and preventing contempts. ”

“ The leaders of the States rights party, aware of this tendency, as the contest went on, became more and more anxious to preserve their constitutional defences, and loudly proclaimed the danger of yielding them up. Time and again they proclaimed that the worst of all governments was that of a majority of numbers with absolute and unrestricted powers. Despotism of all sorts was bad, but the despotism of a majority of numbers in a democratic form of government was the worst of all—particularly was that the case in regard to slavery, as was often asserted. ”

“ The party of power showed a constant tendency to draw all important subjects of jurisdiction within the vortex of Federal control, and an equally persevering effort on the other to limit that control to the strict necessities of a common government. A great leader, who came into the contest and figured in it until it was well nigh ended, used to say that in all good governments there existed a tax-consuming and tax-paying party, between whom a constant conflict existed, and in the history of that conflict the history of party strife would be found to consist ”

“ Of course I argue upon the principle that the alleged breach of privilege is founded upon the constitutional provision as to words spoken in debate. I show enough, if I prove that this provision can in no way extend to a speech published and circulated. No one can allege, as it seems to me, that a mere assault upon a Senator is a breach of his parliamentary privilege. It is a violation of his legal rights, and for that wrong the courts afford a remedy. ”

“ We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, 'that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,' is sound and just, and that if the slave States, the cotton States, or the gulf States only, choose to form an independent nation, they have a moral right to do so. ”

“ We should find, probably, if we could pursue the inquiry strictly and accurately, that Massachusetts herself is more interested in the profits of slave labor, and subsists a larger number of people upon it, than do, perhaps, the States of Maryland or Missouri, or even some other slave States which I might enumerate.
Not only this; but those who thus make slavery profitable by creating the demand for the products of slave labor, are as much responsible for the institution as we are who own the slaves. ”

“ Suppose an officer were to arrest a man who was privileged by the Constitution from arrest. The remedy against him would be, that the man thus arrested could plead that privilege in order to be released, and he could sue the officer for false imprisonment; but could this House take up the officer and punish him? Surely not. The Constitution itself provides that no man shall be punished either in life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law. The theory of our Constitution is one of law and of equal rights ”

“ To the wise men who were entrusted with the formation of that union and common government, it was obvious enough that each separate society should be entrusted with the management of its own peculiar interests, and that the united government should take charge only of those interests which were common and general. ”

“ We are strong enough within the Union, or without the Union, to defend ourselves, and with the blessing of Providence let us do right, and leave the consequences to God. To him who intrudes his opinion upon us—to him who has no right to make an inquiry as to our domestic affairs, I have only to say, "There is the southern slave; he speaks for the institution of slavery in our section; produce to us the same number of African negroes in bondage or otherwise, and in any other country, who have made the same progress in improvement, and then we may acknowledge your right to reproach us ”

“ To enforce this necessary distinction, it was provided that all powers, not specially granted, should be reserved to the people and the States, and a list of the granted powers was carefully and specifically made. But two parties soon arose in regard to these limitations. Those who wielded the powers thus granted became interested to remove these limitations as far as possible, whilst the minority, who belonged to the governed rather than the governing party, early learned to regard these limitations as the best and surest defences against the abuses and oppressions of a despotic majority. ”

“ If your obligations to God forbid you to discharge the duties required by the society whose government protects you, nothing is left for you but to abandon that society if it will not change the government. You can have no right to enjoy the benefits and protection of that Government, and then refuse to perform the conditions upon which those advantages are extended to you.
Now, sir, if it be an individual who is in this unhappy case, there is nothing left for him but to expatriate himself at once, or else, make up his mind to meet the penalties of the violated law. ”

“ The late civil war which raged in the United States has been very generally attributed to the abolition of slavery as its cause. When we consider how deeply the institutions of southern society and the operations of southern industry were founded in slavery, we must admit that this was cause enough to have produced such a result. ”

“ When we come to add the number who depend on the other slave-grown staples, not only in Great Britain but in all Europe, and in the free States of our own Confederacy, we should find, I believe, that there were more depending for their existence on the institution of slavery, and its profits, outside of our slaveholding States than within them. ”

“ But great and wide as was that cause in its far-reaching effects, a close study of the history of the times will bring us to the conclusion that it was the fear of a mischief far more extensive and deeper even than this which drove cool and reflecting minds in the South to believe that it was better to make the death struggle at once than submit tamely to what was inevitable, unless its coming could be averted by force. ”