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In 1855, Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio (afterwards, as we know one of the most notorious South-haters), said in a speech delivered in the United States Senate:
Who is the judge in the last resort of the violation of the Constitution of the United States by the enactment of a law? Who is the final arbiter, the General Government or the States in their sovereignty? Why, sir, to yield that point is to yield up all the rights of the States to protect their own citizens, and to consolidate this government into a miserable despotism.And he further said, on the 18th of December, 1860:
I do not so much blame the people of the South, because I think they have been led to believe that we to-day, the dominant party, who are about to take the reins of government, are their mortal foes, and stand ready to trample their institutions under foot.And notwithstanding the expression of these sentiments, we know, as we say, that this man became one of the most ardent supporters of the ‘miserable despotism’ established by Abraham Lincoln, and became the second officer in that ‘despotism’ on the assassination of Mr. Lincoln.
