But here, let me pause.
It is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out; the
numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the
hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court, and the
tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order
and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us from
those they call the people, the judgment to be given now and
afterward upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged from
danger to the kingdom by commotion and general confusion.
Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable
audience to let the whole world know all such attempts are vain.
I pass over many anonymous letters I have received. Those in print
are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the
court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do
my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That _mendax_ _infamia_ from
the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The
lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I trust that my temper of
mind, and the color and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of
armor against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have
ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have
done it without any other reward than the consciousness of doing
what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon
the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and
without any collateral views. I honor the king, and respect the
people; bat many things acquired by force of either, are, in my
account, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is
that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. It is
that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to
the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which
my conscience tells me is wrong upon this occasion to gain the
huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which
come from the press; I will not avoid doing what I think is right,
though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libel, all that
falsehood and malice can invent or the credulity of a deluded
populace can swallow. I can say, with a great magistrate, upon an
occasion and under circumstances not unlike, "_Ego_ _hoc_ _animo_
_semper_ _fui_. _ut_ _invidiam_ _virtute_ _partam_ _gloriam_, _non_
_invidiam_ _putarem_."
The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced. I
do not believe it; it is not the genius of the worst men of this
country in the worst of times. But I have set my mind at rest. The
last end that can happen to any man never comes too soon, if he
falls in support of the law and liberty of his country (for liberty
is synonymous to law and government). Such a shock, too, might be
productive of public good: it might awake the better part of the
kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have benumbed them; and
bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are
sometimes stunned into sobriety.--Burrows's Reports No. 4,
pp. 2561-3.
Mr. Bayard--Mr. President, in the course of my duty here as a
representative of the rights of others, as a chosen and sworn public
servant, I feel that I have no right to give my individual wishes,
prejudices, interests, undue influence over my public action. To do
so would be to commit a breach of trust in the powers confided to
me. It is true I was chosen a Senator by a majority only, but not
for a majority only. I was chosen by a party, but not for a party.
I represent all the good people of the State which has sent me here.
In my office as a Senator I recognize no claim upon my action in the
name and for the sake of party. The oath I have taken is to support
the Constitution of my country's government, not the fiat of any
political organization, even could its will be ascertained. In
sessions preceding the present I have adverted to the difficulty
attending the settlement of this great question, and have urgently
besought action in advance at a time when the measure adopted could
not serve to predicate its results to either party. My failure then
gave me great uneasiness, and filled me with anxiety; and yet I can
now comprehend the wisdom concealed in my disappointment, for in the
very emergency of this hour, in the shadow of the danger that has
drawn so nigh to us, has been begotten in the hearts of American
Senators and Representatives and the American people a spirit worthy
of the occasion--born to meet these difficulties, to cope with
them, and, God willing, to conquer them.
Animated by this spirit the partisan is enlarged into the patriot.
Before it the lines of party sink into hazy obscurity; and the
horizon which bounds our view reaches on every side to the uttermost
verge of the great Republic. It is a spirit that exalts humanity,
and imbued with it the souls of men soar into the pure air of
unselfish devotion to the public welfare. It lighted with a smile
the cheek of Curtius as he rode into the gulf; it guided the hand of
Aristides as he sadly wrote upon the shell the sentence of his own
banishment; it dwelt in the frozen earthworks of Valley Forge; and
from time to time it has been an inmate of these halls of
legislation. I believe it is here to-day, and that the present
measure was born under its influence.