The Consequences of Secession.
Henry Clay, Senate Chamber, 1842.
Mr. President: I must take occasion here to say that in my opinion,
there is no right on the part of any one or more of the States to
secede from the Union. War and dissolution of the Union are identical
and inevitable, in my opinion. There can be a dissolution of the Union
only by consent or by war. Consent no one can anticipate, from any
existing state of things, is likely to be given, and war is the only
alternative by which a dissolution could be accomplished. If consent
were given—if it were possible that we were to be separated by one
great line—in less than sixty days after such consent was given war
would break out between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding portions
of this Union—between the two independent parts into which it would be
erected in virtue of the act of separation. In less than sixty days, I
believe, our slaves from Kentucky, flocking over in numbers to the
other side of the river, would be pursued by their owners. Our hot and
ardent spirits would be restrained by no sense of the right which
appertains to the independence of the other side of the river, should
that be in the line of separation. They would pursue their slaves into
the adjacent free States; they would be repelled, and the consequence
would be that, in less than sixty days, war would be blazing in every
part of this now peaceful and happy land.
And, sir, how are you going to separate the States of this
Confederacy? In my humble opinion, Mr. President, we should begin with
at least three separate Confederacies. There would be a Confederacy of
the North, a Confederacy of the Valley of the Mississippi. My life
upon it, that the vast population which has already concentrated and
will concentrate on the head waters and the tributaries of the
Mississippi will never give their consent that the mouth of the river
shall be held subject to the power of any foreign state or community
whatever. Such, I believe, would be the consequence of a dissolution
of the Union, immediately ensuing; but other Confederacies would
spring up from time to time as dissatisfaction and discontent were
disseminated throughout the country—the Confederacy of the Lakes,
perhaps the Confederacy of New England, or of the Middle States. Ah,
sir, the veil which covers these sad and disastrous events that lie
beyond it is too thick to be penetrated or lifted by any mortal eye or
hand.
Mr. President, I am directly opposed to any purpose of secession or
separation. I am for staying within the Union, and defying any portion
of this Confederacy to expel me or drive me out of the Union. I am for
staying within the Union and fighting for my rights, if necessary,
with the sword, within the bounds and under the safeguard of the
Union. I am for vindicating those rights, not by being driven out of
the Union harshly and unceremoniously by any portion of this
Confederacy. Here I am within it, and here I mean to stand and die, as
far as my individual wishes or purposes can go—within it to protect my
property and defend myself, defying all the power on earth to expel me
or drive me from the situation in which I am placed. And would there
not be more safety in fighting within the Union than out of it?
Suppose your rights to be violated, suppose wrong to be done to you,
aggressions to be perpetrated upon you, can you not better vindicate
them—if you have occasion to resort to the last necessity, the sword,
for a restoration of those rights—within, and with the sympathies of a
large portion of the population of the Union, than by being without
the Union, when a large portion of the population have sympathies
adverse to your own? You can vindicate your rights within the Union
better than if expelled from the Union, and driven from it without
ceremony and without authority.
Sir, I have said that I thought there was no right on the part of one
or more States to secede from the Union. I think so. The Constitution
of the United States was made, not merely for the generation that then
existed, but for posterity—unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual
posterity. And every State that then came into the Union, and every
State that has since come into the Union, came into it binding itself
by indissoluble bonds, to remain within the Union itself, and to
remain within it by its posterity, forever. Like another of the sacred
connections in private life, it is a marriage which no human authority
can dissolve or divorce the parties from. And if I may be allowed to
refer to some examples in private life, let me say to the North and to
the South, what husband and wife say to each other: We have mutual
faults; neither of us is perfect; nothing in the form of humanity is
perfect; let us, then, be kind to each other—forbearing, forgiving
each other’s faults—and above all, let us live in peace and happiness
together.
Mr. President, I have said, what I solemnly believe, that dissolution
of the Union and war are identical and inevitable; that they are
convertible terms; and such a war as would be following a dissolution
of the Union! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so
ferocious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating—not even the
wars of Greece, including those of the Commoners of England and the
revolutions of France—none, none of them all would rage with such
violence, or be characterized with such bloodshed and enormities as
would the war which must succeed, if that event ever happens, the
dissolution of the Union. And what would be its termination? Standing
armies and navies to an extent stretching the revenue of each portion
of the dissevered members, would take place. An exterminating war
would follow, not, sir, a war of two or three years’ duration, but a
war of interminable duration—and exterminating wars would ensue until,
after the struggles and exhaustion of both parties, some Philip or
Alexander, some Cæsar or Napoleon, would arise and cut the
Gordian knot, and solve the problem of the capacity of man for
self-government, and crush the liberties of both the severed portions
of this common empire. Can you doubt it?
Look at all history—consult her pages, ancient or modern—look at human
nature; look at the contest in which you would be engaged in the
supposition of war following upon the dissolution of the Union, such
as I have suggested; and I ask you if it is possible for you to doubt
that the final disposition of the whole would be some despot treading
down the liberties of the people—the final result would be the
extinction of this last and glorious light which is leading all
mankind, who are gazing upon it, in the hope and anxious expectation
that the liberty which prevails here will sooner or later be diffused
throughout the whole of the civilized world. Sir, can you lightly
contemplate these consequences? Can you yield yourself to the tyranny
of passion, amid dangers which I have depicted in colors far too tame
of what the result would be if that direful event to which I have
referred should ever occur? Sir, I implore you, gentlemen, I adjure
them, whether from the South or the North, by all that they hold dear
in this world—by all their love of liberty—by all their veneration for
their ancestors—by all their love of liberty—by all their regard for
posterity—by all their gratitude to Him who has bestowed on them such
unnumbered and countless blessings—by all the duties which they owe to
mankind—and by all the duties which they owe to themselves, to pause,
solemnly to pause at the edge of the precipice, before the fearful and
dangerous leap is taken into the yawning abyss below, from which none
who ever take it shall return in safety.
Finally, I implore, as the best blessing which Heaven can bestow upon
me upon earth, that if the direful event of the dissolution of this
Union is to happen, I shall not survive to behold the sad and
heartrending spectacle.