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. ”

“ We desire to place the reasons upon which we are willing to be judged by generations living, and yet to come, for our opposition to a bill whose consequences may be so durable and portentous as to make it an object of deep interest to all who may come after us. ”