[327] government, the people must decay and the government must either go to pieces or assume another and different form. Now, sir, I say that the working of our present executive system is such as to produce a party of that description in the country, and give it the power of ruling our affairs. Place the predominant power in the government in such hands, and I say one of two things must certainly happen; the union will go to pieces in the collision which such a state of things would occasion, or else the government would eventuate in a despotism.The danger signal was that the bond or union for the tax-consuming party was geographical. The dominion of the North would move on with the invariable sequence of the processes of nature. The natural result would be a government of the South by the North and for the North; a government under which the South would have no rights which the North would be bound to respect.
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Richmond, VA. 1908.
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