Those views prevailed in the House
of Representatives, and partially in the Senate; and thus the party
succeeded in their first movements, in gaining what they proposed--a
position in Congress, from which agitation could be extended over the
whole Union. This was the commencement of the agitation, which has ever
since continued, and which, as is now acknowledged, has endangered the
Union itself.
As for myself, I believed at that early period, if the party who got up
the petitions should succeed in getting Congress to take jurisdiction,
that agitation would follow, and that it would in the end, if not
arrested, destroy the Union. I then so expressed myself in debate, and
called upon both parties to take grounds against assuming jurisdiction;
but in vain. Had my voice been heeded, and had Congress refused to take
jurisdiction, by the united votes of all parties, the agitation which
followed would have been prevented, and the fanatical zeal that gave
impulse to the agitation, and which has brought us to our present
perilous condition, would have become extinguished, from the want of
fuel to feed the flame.
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