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we, for sectional squabbles, for abstractions, to barter away the rights which we have derived from our fathers, and which we have been instructed by the Father of our Country to preserve? No, sir, in the pursuit of noble ends and glorious objects, let us not forget our high destiny, but contribute all our aid to sustain this glorious Union, and transmit it to the latest ages of time. · I regret extremely that the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Barnwell] should have applied any remarks of mine in any degree as personal to himself. I should have felt myself wanting in respect to this body, and wanting in the feelings of gentlemanly courtesy and propriety, if I had said anything with the intention of wounding that gentleman's feelings. His demeanor since he has been a member of this body, and since I have had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with him, refutes the idea of my entertaining or expressing anything I could deem calculated to wound his sensibilities, or to cast the slightest shade of reflection upon his character. In my remarks I especially excluded that Senator to myself from their application; and I wish him to rest assured that the delicacy of his deportment, the propriety of his conduct throughout, since he has been a member of this body, and I have had the pleasure of his acquaintance, would, even if I entertained unkind feelings towards him, at once have the effect to disarm my resentment. But, with the most profound respect for that gentleman-and my endeavor shall be to treat him with the most profound respect-I must confess that his eulogiums upon the members of the Nashville Convention have not made me a convert to the propriety of its proceedings. If I read the Constitution rightly, it discourages any assemblages of the kind, for one of its provisions declares that no States shall enter into any compact or agreement without the consent 'of Congress. Well, if that Convention was assembled for the purpose of drag- ging down and intimidating Congress by threats of disunion, it ought to be considered as a very harmless affair; and if that was their sole aim and object, I do not believe that there was much that is unconstitutional about it; but if that Convention assembled for the purpose of entering into any compact or agreement adverse to the integrity of this Union, then I say that it was an illegal assemblage, and forbidden by the Constitution, and I will not characterize it by name. This is the light in which I have regarned it. If it assembled for unconstitutional purposes it was bad; if it assembled for no purpose it was most ridiculous. That gentlemen of distinction and high character were associated
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