Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/203

YANCEY dissolve the Union itself. Each and all of these allegations, come from what quarter they may, I pronounce to be false. There is no disunionist, that I know of, in the delegation from the State of Alabama. There is no disrupt ionist that I know of, and if there are factionists in our del- egation they could not have got in there with the knowledge upon the part of our State Conven- tion that they were of so unenviable a character. "We have come here, with the twofold purpose of saving the country and of saving the Democ- racy; and if the Democracy will not lend itself to that high, holy and elevated purpose; if it can not elevate itself above the mere question of how perfect shall be its mere personal organiza- tion and how widespread shall be its mere vo- ting success, then we say to you, gentlemen, mournfully and regretfully, that, in the opinion of the State of Alabama, and I believe, of the whole South, you have failed in your mission, and it will be our duty to go forth and make an appeal to the loyalty of the country to stand by that Constitution which party organizations have deliberately rejected. The South is in a minority, we have been tauntingly told to-day. In the progress of events and the march of civilization and emigration, the Northwest has grown up, from a mere infant in swaddling clothes, at the formation of the Constitution, into the form and proportions of a giant people ; and owing to its institutions and demand for white labor, and the peculiar nature IX— 13 193