The Will Of A Majority Is The

I Take Higher Ground. I Hold That In The Present State Of Civilization, Where Two Races Of Different Origin, And Distinguished By Color, And Other Physical Differences, As Well As Intellectual, Are Brought Together, The Relation Now Existing In The Slaveholding States Between The Two, Is, Instead Of An Evil, A Good—a Positive Good. . . . I Hold Then, That There Never Has Yet Existed A Wealthy And Civilized Society In Which One Portion Of The Community Did Not, In Point Of Fact, Live On The Labor Of The Other.

The Object Of A Constitution Is To Restrain The Government, As That Of Laws Is To Restrain Individuals.

To Maintain The Ascendancy Of The Constitution Over The Lawmaking Majority Is The Great And Essential Point On Which The Success Of The [american] System Must Depend; Unless That Ascendancy Can Be Preserved, The Necessary Consequence Must Be That The Laws Will Supersede The Constitution; And, Finally, The Will Of The Executive, By Influence Of Its Patronage, Will Supersede The Laws . . .

A Power Has Risen Up In The Government Greater Than The People Themselves, Consisting Of Many And Various Powerful Interests, Combined In One Mass, And Held Together By The Cohesive Power Of The Vast Surplus In Banks.

Stripped Of All Its Covering, The Naked Question Is, Whether Ours Is A Federal Or Consolidated Government; A Constitutional Or Absolute One; A Government Resting Solidly On The Basis Of The Sovereignty Of The States, Or On The Unrestrained Will Of A Majority; A Form Of Government, As In All Other Unlimited Ones, In Which Injustice, Violence, And Force Must Ultimately Prevail.