But, sir, the Union survived the disunion movement of 1832; it survived the excitement upon the slavery question in 1850; it survived the disturbances in Kansas in 1855 and 1856, consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It survived them all without an actual attempt at disruption, until we came down to 1860, and Abraham Lincoln was elected President; and even now, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction at his election in some portions of the country, and all the previous troubles, the laws to-day would have had force in every part of the Union, and secession would have been checked in its very origin, had the Government done its duty and not acted in complicity with the men who had resolved to destroy it. The secession movement, then, dates back several years. It received an impetus in 1850; another in 1854; and in 1860, by the connivance and the assistance of the Government itself, it acquired the strength which it now has. What has been the policy of the expiring administration? Its Cabinet officers boasting of their complicity with the men who were plotting the destruction of the Government; openly proclaiming in the face of the world that they had used their official power, while members of the Cabinet, and sworn to protect and preserve the Government, to furnish the means for its destruction; openly acknowledging before the world that they had used the power which their positions gave them to discredit the Government, and also to furnish arms and munitions of war to the men who were conspiring together to assault its fortifications, and seize its property; openly boasting that they had taken care, during their public service, to see that the arms of the Federal Government were placed in convenient positions for the use of those who designed to employ them for its destruction. More than this, members, while serving in the other branch of Congress, go to the Executive of the United States, and tell him, "Sir, we are taking steps in South Carolina to break up this Government; you have forts and fortifications there; they are but poorly manned; now if you will leave them in the condition they are until the state of South Carolina gets ready to take possession, we will wait until that time before we seize them"; and the Executive of the nation asks that the treasonable proposition be put in writing, and files it away. Why, sir, is there another capital on the face of the globe, to which men could come from state or province, and inform the executive head that they were about to take steps to seize the public property belonging to the Government, and warn the Executive to leave it in its insecure and undefended state until they should be prepared to take possession, and they be