If the time of the Senate permitted, I should feel it to be my duty to call for the reading of the mass of petitions on the table, in order that we might know what language they hold towards the slaveholding states and their institutions; but as it will not, I have selected indiscriminately from the pile, two: one from those in manuscript, and the other from the printed; and, without knowing their contents, will call for the reading of them, so that we may judge, by them, of the character of the whole. 

(Here the secretary, on the call of Mr. Calhoun, read the two petitions.) 

Such, resumed Mr. C, is the language held towards us and ours; the peculiar institutions of the South, that on the maintenance of which the very existence of the slaveholding states depends, is pronounced to be sinful and odious, in the sight of God and man; and this with a systematic design of rendering us hateful in the eyes of the world, with a view to a general crusade against us and our institutions.  This, too, in the legislative halls of the Union; created by these confederated states for the better protection of their peace, their safety, and their respective institutions; and yet we, the representatives of twelve of these sovereign states against whom this deadly war is waged, are expected to sit here in silence, hearing ourselves and our constituents day after day denounced, without uttering a word; if we but open our lips, the charge of agitation is resounded on all sides, and we are held up as seeking to aggravate the evil which we resist.  Every reflecting mind must see in all this a state of things deeply and dangerously diseased. 

I do not belong, said Mr. C, to the school which holds that aggression is to be met by concession.  Mine is the opposite creed, which teaches that encroachments must be met at the beginning, and that those who act on the opposite principle are prepared to become slaves.  In this case, in particular, I hold concession or compromise to be fatal.  If we concede an inch, concession would follow concession—compromise would follow compromise, until our ranks would be so broken that effectual resistance would be impossible.  We must meet the enemy on the frontier, with a fixed determination of maintaining our position at every hazard.  Consent to receive these insulting petitions, and the next demand will be that they be referred to a committee, in order that they may be deliberated and acted upon.  At the last session, we were modestly asked to receive them simply to lay them on the table, without any view of ulterior action.  I then told the senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan), who strongly urged that course in the Senate, that it was a position that could not be maintained; as the argument in favour of acting on the petitions, if we were bound to receive, could not be resisted.  I then said that the next step would be to refer the petition to a committee, and I already see indications that such is now the intention.  If we yield, that will be followed by another, and we would thus proceed, step by step, to the final consummation of the object of these petitions.  We are now told that the most effectual mode of arresting the progress of abolition is to reason it down; and with this view, it is urged that the petitions ought to be referred to a committee.  That is the very ground which was taken at the last session in the other house; but, instead of arresting its progress, it has since advanced more rapidly than ever.  The most unquestionable right may be rendered doubtful, if once admitted to be a subject of controversy, and that would be the case in the present instance.  The subject is beyond the jurisdiction of Congress—they have no right to touch it in any shape or form, or to make it the subject of deliberation or discussion. 

In opposition to this view, it is urged that Congress is bound by the Constitution to receive petitions in every case and on every subject, whether within its constitutional competency or not.  I hold the doctrine to be absurd, and do solemnly believe that it would be as easy to prove that it has the right to abolish slavery, as that it is bound to receive petitions for that purpose.  The very existence of the rule that requires a question to be put on the reception of petitions, is conclusive to show that there is no such obligation.  It has been a standing rule from the commencement of the government, and clearly shows the sense of those who formed the Constitution on this point.  The question on the reception would be absurd, if, as is contended, we are bound to receive; but I do not intend to argue the question; I discussed it fully at the last session, and the arguments then advanced neither have nor can be answered. 

As widely as this incendiary spirit has spread, it has not yet infected this body, or the great mass of the intelligent and business portion of the North; but unless it be speedily stopped, it will spread and work upward till it brings the two great sections of the Union into deadly conflict.  This is not a new impression with me.  Several years since, in a discussion with one of the senators from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), before this fell spirit had showed itself, I then predicted that the doctrine of the proclamation and the force bill—that this government had a right, in the last resort, to determine the extent of its own powers, and enforce it at the point of the bayonet, which was so warmly maintained by that senator—would at no distant day arouse the dormant spirit of Abolitionism; I told him that the doctrine was tantamount to the assumption of unlimited power on the part of the government, and that such would be the impression on the public mind in a large portion of the Union.  The consequence would be inevitable—a large portion of the Northern States believed slavery to be a sin, and would believe it to be an obligation of conscience to abolish it, if they should feel themselves in any degree responsible for its continuance, and that his doctrine would necessarily lead to the belief of such responsibility.  I then predicted that it would commence, as it has, with this fanatical portion of society; and that they would begin their operation on the ignorant, the weak, the young, and the thoughtless, and would gradually extend upward till they became strong enough to obtain political control, when he, and others holding the highest stations in society, would, however reluctant, be compelled to yield to their doctrine, or be driven into obscurity.  But four years have since elapsed, and all this is already in a course of regular fulfilment. 

Standing at the point of time at which we have now arrived, it will not be more difficult to trace the course of future events now than it was then.  Those who imagine that the spirit now abroad in the North will die away of itself without a shock or convulsion, have formed a very inadequate conception of its real character; it will continue to rise and spread, unless prompt and efficient measures to stay its progress be adopted.  Already it has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent, of the press; those great instruments by which the mind of the rising generation will be formed. 

However sound the great body of the non-slaveholding states are at present, in the course of a few years they will be succeeded by those who will have been taught to hate the people and institutions of nearly one half of this Union, with a hatred more deadly than one hostile nation ever entertained towards another.  It is easy to see the end.  By the necessary course of events, if left to themselves, we must become, finally, two people.  It is impossible, under the deadly hatred which must spring up between the two great sections, if the present causes are permitted to operate unchecked, that we should continue under the same political system.  The conflicting elements would burst the Union asunder, as powerful as are the links which hold it together.  Abolition and the Union cannot coexist.  As the friend of the Union, I openly proclaim it, and the sooner it is known the better.  The former may now be controlled, but in a short time it will be beyond the power of man to arrest the course of events.  We of the South will not, cannot surrender our institutions.  To maintain the existing relations between the two races inhabiting that section of the Union is indispensable to the peace and happiness of both.  It cannot be subverted without drenching the country in blood, and extirpating one or the other of the races.  Be it good or bad, it has grown up with our society and institutions, and is so interwoven with them that to destroy it would be to destroy us as a people.  But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races, in the slaveholding states, is an evil: far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be, to both, and will continue to prove so, if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition.  I appeal to facts.  Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.  It came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and, in the course of a few generations, it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, as reviled as they have been, to its present comparative civilized condition.  This, with the rapid increase of numbers, is conclusive proof of the general happiness of the race, in spite of all the exaggerated tales to the contrary. 

In the mean time, the white or European race has not degenerated.  It has kept pace with its brethren in other sections of the Union where slavery does not exist.  It is odious to make comparison; but I appeal to all sides whether the South is not equal in virtue, intelligence, patriotism, courage, disinterestedness, and all the high qualities which adorn our nature.  I ask whether we have not contributed our full share of talents and political wisdom in forming and sustaining this political fabric; and whether we have not constantly inclined most strongly to the side of liberty, and been the first to see, and first to resist, the encroachments of power.  In one thing only are we inferior—the arts of gain; we acknowledge that we are less wealthy than the Northern section of this Union, but I trace this mainly to the fiscal action of this government, which has extracted much from, and spent little among us.  Had it been the reverse—if the exaction had been from the other section, and the expenditure with us—this point of superiority would not be against us now, as it was not at the formation of this government. 

But I take higher ground.  I hold that, in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by colour, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good.  I feel myself called upon to speak freely upon the subject, where the honour and interests of those I represent are involved.  I hold, then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labour of the other.  Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history.  This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided, and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labour it was produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing class.  The devices are almost innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern.  I might well challenge a comparison between them and the more direct, simple, and patriarchal mode by which the labour of the African race is among us commanded by the European.  I may say, with truth, that in few countries so much is left to the share of the labourer, and so little exacted from him, or where there is more kind attention to him in sickness or infirmities of age.  Compare his condition with the tenants of the poor-houses in the most civilized portions of Europe—look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poorhouse.  But I will not dwell on this aspect of the question: I turn to the political; and here I fearlessly assert, that the existing relation between the two races in the South, against which these blind fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions.  It is useless to disguise the fact.  There is, and always has been, in an advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labour and capital.  The condition of society in the South exempts us from the disorders and dangers resulting from this conflict; and which explains why it is that the political condition of the slaveholding states has been so much more stable and quiet than those of the North.  The advantages of the former, in this respect, will become more and more manifest, if left undisturbed by interference from without, as the country advances in wealth and numbers.  We have, in fact, but just entered that condition of society where the strength and durability of our political institutions are to be tested; and I venture nothing in predicting that the experience of the next generation will fully test how vastly more favourable our condition of society is to that of other sections for free and stable institutions, provided we are not disturbed by the interference of others, or shall have sufficient intelligence and spirit to resist promptly and successfully such interference.  It rests with ourselves to meet and repel them.  I look not for aid to this government, or to the other states; not but there are kind feelings towards us on the part of the great body of the non-slaveholding states; but, as kind as their feelings may be, we may rest assured that no political party in those states will risk their ascendency for our safety.  If we do not defend our-selves, none will defend us; if we yield, we will be more and more pressed as we recede; and, if we submit, we will be trampled under foot.  Be assured that emancipation itself would not satisfy these fanatics: that gained, the next step would be to raise the negroes to a social and political equality with the whites; and, that being effected, we would soon find the present condition of the two races reversed.  They, and their Northern allies, would be the masters, and we the slaves; the condition of the white race in the British West India Islands, as bad as it is, would be happiness to ours; there the mother-country is interested in sustaining the supremacy of the European race.  It is true that the authority of the former master is destroyed, but the African will there still be a slave, not to individuals, but to the community—forced to labour, not by the authority of the overseer, but by the bayonet of the soldiery and the rod of the civil magistrate. 

Surrounded, as the slaveholding states are, with such imminent perils, I rejoice to think that our means of defence are ample, if we shall prove to have the intelligence and spirit to see and apply them before it is too late.  All we want is concert, to lay aside all party differences, and unite with zeal and energy in repelling approaching dangers.  Let there be concert of action, and we shall find ample means of security without resorting to secession or disunion.  I speak with full knowledge and a thorough examination of the subject, and, for one, see my way clearly.  One thing alarms me—the eager pursuit of, gain which overspreads the land, and which absorbs every faculty of the mind and every feeling of the heart.  Of all passions, avarice is the most blind and compromising—the last to see, and the first to yield to danger.  I dare not hope that anything I can say will arouse the South to a due sense of danger; I fear it is beyond the power of mortal voice to awaken it in time from the fatal security into which it has fallen.