The Chair did not hear any on the floor, nor did he believe that there was any in the lobby.
It was all around. I think it very hard that the innocent should suffer.
Certainly.
May they return immediately?
After a while.
Return after a while. How long will that be?
The gentleman from Middlesex
I believe these little ebullitions which have occured must occur in a time like this.
The Chair deemed it his imperative duty to enforce the order to clear the galleries.
I do not complain of the Chair. It is hard for men to restrain their feelings in a time like this. I assure gentlemen and the Chair that I have no desire to excite applause here. I did not come here with any such purpose. I came here to present my views to the heads of the people, and not to their feet.
I have shown that Virginia when she joined the Federal Constitution, reserved the power to withdraw whenever she might think proper. Having shown that that was the understanding of the men who ratified the Constitution in Virginia, let us see what they did in New York. In the ratification of the Constitution by New York, yol will find this : "That the powers of government may be re-assumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness ; that every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the government thereof remains to the people of the several States, or to their respective State governments, to whom they may have granted the same." (1 Ell. Debates, 327.)
Here, then, the Committee will see that New York reserved the right to secede. Little Rhode Island, about whom we hear so much here, declared in the third section of her articles of ratification, "That the powers of government may be re-assumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness." (1 Ell. Debates, 334.)
Here, then, you have three States going into the confederation upon a
certain condition? What condition? Why, that they reserved the right
to withdraw whenever in their judgment their happiness and safety
require it. And just here I lay down a great principle, not only
