Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis, 1858 | Page 2

past the age to which
the Union should have lived. If we have got to the point when it is
treason to the United States to protect the rights and interests of our
constituents, I ask why should they longer be represented here? why
longer remain a part of the Union? If there is a dominant party in this
Union which can deny to us equality, and the rights we derive through

the Constitution; if we are no longer the freemen our fathers left us; if
we are to be crushed by the power of an unrestrained majority, this is
not the Union for which the blood of the Revolution was shed; this is
not the Union I was taught from my cradle to revere; this is not the
Union in the service of which a large portion of my life has been passed;
this is not the Union for which our fathers pledged their property, their
lives, and sacred honor. No, sir, this would be a central Government,
raised on the destruction of all the principles of the Constitution, and
the first, the highest obligation of every man who has sworn to support
that Constitution would be resistance to such usurpation. This is my
position.
My colleague has truly represented the people of Mississippi as
ardently attached to the Union. I think he has not gone beyond the truth
when he has placed Mississippi one of the first, if not the first, of the
States of the Confederation in attachment to it. But, sir, even that deep
attachment and habitual reverence for the Union, common to us
all--even that, it may become necessary to try by the touchstone of
reason. It is not impossible that they should unfurl the flag of disunion.
It is not impossible that violations of the Constitution and of their rights,
should drive them to that dread extremity. I feel well assured that they
will never reach it until it has been twice and three times justified. If,
when thus fully warranted, they want a standard bearer, in default of a
better, I am at their command.--(_Cong. Globe_, p. 995-6)

On Fourth of July, 1858, At Sea. [From the Boston Post.]
The fine ship Joseph Whitney, from Baltimore, Captain S. Howes, was
making for this port on the day of the celebration of the nation's birth,
and among an unusually brilliant array of passengers from different
parts of the country, was the distinguished Senator, Jefferson Davis, of
Mississippi. The patriotic suggestion of the captain, to celebrate the day
in a manner befitting the great anniversary, met with a hearty response
from the company, among whom were zealous republicans, democrats
and Americans. A committee was appointed to invite the Senator to
make an address, and he consented.
First, the Declaration of Independence was read by Sebastian F.
Streeter, Esq., of Baltimore, when Senator Davis made an address of
singular felicity of diction and impassioned eloquence, and of such a

character as to command the admiration of those who listened to it. He
commenced by happy allusions to the array of beauty and intelligence
that stood before him from all parts of our common country; he then
passed in review the condition of the feeble and separate colonies of
1776, and contrasted with it the country now--the only proper republic
on earth, as it stood before the world in its wonderful progress in art,
and agriculture, and commerce, and all the elements that constitute a
great nation. When thus sailing on the Atlantic, looking to the coast of
the United States, he was reminded of those bold refugees from the
British and French oppression who crosses these water to found a home
in what was then a wilderness. The memory, too, arose of the many
sorrowing hearts and oppressed spirits since born over these waves to
that refuge from political oppression which our fathers founded as the
home of liberty and the asylum of mankind. Her terrtiory {sic}, which
now stretches from ocean to ocean, contains a vast interior yet
unpeopled; and, with a destiny of still further and continued expansion
of area, why should the gate of the temple be now shut upon sorrowing
mankind? Rather let it be that the gate should be forever open, and an
emblematic flag, hereafter as heretofore, wave a welcome to all to
come to the modern Abdella--fugitives from political oppression.
Senator Davis dwelt at some length on the right of search question--on
the insulting claim which Great Britain made to a peace-right to visit
our ships. Under the pretence of stopping the slave trade--a trade
against which the United States was the first nation to raise its
voice--she had interrupted and destroyed a lucrative commerce we had
enjoyed in ivory and other products on the coast of Africa. The late