Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

1 In this speech, Mr. Stephens said, truly, that the Slave-labor States had always received from the National Government all they had ever asked. When they demanded it, the Slave-trade was allowed, by a special provision in the Constitution, for twenty years. When they asked for a three-fifths representation in Congress for their slaves, it was granted. When they asked for the return of fugitive slaves, a provision of the Constitution and special laws were made for that purpose. When they asked for more territory, they received Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. “We have always had the control of the General Government,” he said, “and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years, of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive Department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court; there have been eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North. Although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. This we have received, so as to guard against any interpretation unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the Legislative branch of the Government. In, choosing the Presidents of the Senate, pro tempore, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the, House, we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the majority of the Representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had any less control in every other department of the General Government. Attorney-generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign Ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four.” He then went on to show that while three-fourths of the business demanding diplomatic agents abroad was from the Free-labor States, his section had had the principal Embassies; that a vast majority of higher officers of the Army and Navy were, from the South, while a larger portion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North; and that two-thirds of the clerks in the Departments at Washington had been taken from the Slave-labor States, while they had only about one-third of the white population. During the same time, over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of the Government was uniformly raised from the North. . . . The expense for the transportation of the mails in the Free-labor States was, by the Report of the Postmaster-general for 1860, a little over $18,000,000, while the income was $19,000,000. But in the Slave-labor States, the cost of the transportation of the mails was $14,716,000, while the revenue from the same was $8,001,026; leaving a deficit of. $6,704,974.

In view of all this, Mr. Stephens might well ask, as he did, “For what purpose will you break up this Union.--this American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice, and Humanity?”

2 In contrast with this subserviency to the idea of State supremacy, and with more enlarged views of the, duty of American citizens, Henry Clay, as much interested in Slavery as Mr. Stephens, once said on the floor of Congress, in rebuke of disunion sentiments:--“If Kentucky, to-morrow, unfurls the banner of resistances I never will fight under that banner; I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union--a subordinate one to my own State.” A writer in the New York Evening Post (“W. L. P.”), of February 8th, 1865, in a long poem, called “Aleck and Abe,” thus alludes to Stephens's defection, which some have attributed to “coercion:”

But by and by, our doleful friend
     Received a rousing start,
As Yancey waved his lucifers
     To “fire the Southern heart.”
“Hold, there!” shrieked Aleck, in dismay;
     “Was ever wretch so rash?
If you ignite that magazine,
     You'll blow us all to smash!”
Outspoke the Fire-fiend of the South:
     “Not so, by grandest odds--
If I let off this magazine
     We all become as gods!”
“You lie,” cried Aleck, “in your throat;
     And more, you know you lie!”
Screamed Yancey, “You shall eat those words,
     As sure as I am I.”
And, sooth, he did it in a twink,
     With many a wry grimace;
As Jeff. and Toombs stood by, and shook
     A halter in his face.
And when the words were all devoured,
     With right hand on his breast,
He whimpered, “Pray, forgive me, friends;
     Indeed, I did but jest.
And now I've had my little joke,
     And you your natural “swear ;”
I'm all agog to back your aims--
     What's first to do or dare?”