John C. Breckinridge's Speech in the Senate Congressional Globe - 25 July 1861 Mr. President, I do not propose to detain the Senate for more than a few minutes. I cannot vote for this resolution, because I do not agree with the statement of facts contained in it. I do not propose to argue it at any length, nor to interfere with the purposes of the Senate in the passage of the resolution.          The first statement of fact is, that "the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government, and in arms around the capital." I do not intend to go into the antecedents of this unhappy difficulty. My own opinion is, that there have been errors upon both sides; my own opinion is, that these sectional Federal difficulties might have been settled last winter; my opinion is, that the present condition of affairs is due principally to the absolute refusal of the majority in this Chamber to agree to any proposition of adjustment, as I have taken occasion to state, and tried to show heretofore; and I think to that persistent and obstinate refusal, more than to any other cause, is due the present condition of public affairs.          I do not consider that the rupture which took place in the harbor of Charleston, the firing upon the Star of the West, and the collision at Fort Sumter, justified the proceedings which took place upon the part of the President of the United States, that have made one blaze of war from the Atlantic to the western borders of the Republic. I do not believe that he had a right to take that step which produced this war, and to call, under executive authority alone, the largest armies into the field ever assembled on the continent, and the largest fleet ever collected in American harbors. I believe that after that difficulty, which was then a local one, there was still an opportunity for considerate and thoughtful men, who desired to preserve the Constitution and Union of their country, in the border slaveholding States, and in the conservative portion of the northern States, to mediate and produce a settlement; and it might have been done, but for the proceedings of the President of the United States and his constitutional advisers.          I believe, therefore, that, first, the gentlemen who represented the majority in this Chamber and the House of Representatives were responsible for the failure to produce a just and reasonable settlement; and secondly, the President of the United States is chiefly responsible for the broad, general war that is upon us.          The resolution proceeds: "That in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion and resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country." I do not think the Congress of the United States has recollected only its duty to the whole country. I think the Congress of the United States -- perhaps, sir, I have no right to speak of the other House in my place here; but I believe that the Senate of the United States is influenced to a considerable degree by those considerations which do not touch the interests of the whole country, and that to some extent it is influenced by passion and resentment.          "That this war is not prosecuted upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights and established institutions of those States." I think, sir, that this war is prosecuted, according to the purposes of a majority of those who are managing the legislation that leads to its prosecution, for objects of subjugation. I believe that, unless those States which have seceded from the Federal Union lay down their arms and surrender at discretion, the majority in Congress will hear to no terms of settlement, and that those who may attempt to mediate will speak to the winds. I believe, therefore, that the war, in the sense and spirit entertained by these gentlemen, is a war of subjugation. The eminent Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman], not less conservative than a majority of the organization with which he is connected, went so far, in the warmth of his feelings, the other day, as to declare that, unless the people of certain States in the South yielded willing obedience, he would depopulate them and people them over again. That I call not only a war of subjugation, but a war of extermination.          "...nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institution of those States." On the day before yesterday, I think, sir, an amendment offered by the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Trumbell] to one of the general bills before the Senate received the vote of an overwhelming majority of this body, which declared that any person held to service or labor who should be employed to aid the rebellion in any form should be discharged from service or labor. These were the general vague terms of that proposition. I think I have the very words. Now what have the President of the United States, and the Secretary of the Treasury, and his other advisers, construed to mean by aiding and promoting? The furnishing of provisions and raising of supplies they construe to be aiding and promoting. They have even cut off from the Union people of the southern States the very necessaries of life. Quinine for the sick, medical stores for women and for children, the old and feeble and the young have been cut off from those States by an act of executive usurpation. A cordon has been drawn around them; they have been environed, blockaded, and even the necessaries of life and those medical necessaries which are essential to the sick cut off, alike from the Unionists and disunionists, from all; and that because they would be used in an indirect way for aiding and promoting this resistance to the Federal Government.          I consider that amendment passed by a vote of the Senate, so far as the vote of this Senate can go, a general act of emancipation. I should like to know if those held to service or labor who are employed as agricultural laborers in the South in raising cotton, in raising corn and other products, which are used by the mass of the population, cannot readily be considered by a rampant and fanatic spirit as being employed in aiding the rebellion. Certainly as readily as every means of subsistence can be cut off from that whole country by the act of the Executive, approved by the legislative department of the Government.          The resolution proceeds: "But to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and all laws made in pursuance thereof..." The conduct of the war up to this time has not been characterized by any purpose to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution; on the contrary, it has been deliberately trampled under foot in every step of the procedure. I have undertaken to show, and other gentlemen have undertaken to show, that the Constitution has been deliberately, frequently, and flagrantly violated. We have heard violent, denunciatory, stirring speeches made in opposition; but we have heard no arguments to meet those we have had the honor to adduce before the Senate. While they stand unanswered, I maintain that the war, in its inception and in its progress, is not to maintain the Constitution, but is in derogation of that instrument. It is not enough to tell me that it has been violated in the first instance by others. The adhering States of this Union have the right to demand that the Constitution shall be the measure of Federal action; and the violation of the Constitution (conceding the point) by any number of individuals, or any number of States, does not justify the Federal Government, in opposition to the rights of loyal and adhering States, in violating that instrument, which is the bond of their connection with the Federal Government and the measure of their allegiance to it. Then, sir, in my opinion, it is not to defend and maintain the Constitution.          "...and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired." I believe, sir, in point of fact, that if this war continues, the equality and dignity and rights of the several States will not be preserved unimpaired, either of those which have withdrawn or of those that remain. I believe the prosecution of this war for twelve months, if waged successfully, will be the grave of constitutional liberty upon this continent. That is my humble judgment. I believe it is no remedy for the present difficulties. I believe, when you array ten or twelve million people on one side, and some eighteen or nineteen million people on the other, and when you put aside the Constitution of your country, and they wage war like two nations, it is a war of subjugation, and it will terminate in the conquest of one or the other; and however it may terminate, be equally disastrous to both.          I am quite aware, sir, that I stand here, in uttering these opinions, almost alone. They are my opinions. I am responsible for them in my place, and under the Constitution of my country have a right to utter them in my place. I know that the rampant spirit of passion is abroad over the land, and I know there are many here and elsewhere who have staked their all upon inflaming it, and keeping it inflamed to the frenzy point. The day is not yet, but it draws nigh, when a terrible accountability will be rendered by those who are plunging their country into the vortex of ruin, under the pretense of maintaining the Constitution and the laws. Peace, sir, peace is what we want for the restoration of the Federal Union and the preservation of constitutional liberty.          I will not, however, be drawn into a further discussion of the resolution. I simply rose to express, in brief, the reason why I cannot vote for it.