laws; and I am for coercion. I am for settling, in the first place, the question whether we have a government before making compromises which leave us as powerless as before. Sir, if my friend from Kentucky would employ some of that eloquence of his which he uses in appealing to Republicans--and talking about compromise--in defense of the Constitution as it is, and in favor of maintaining the laws and the Government, we should see a very different state of things in the country. If, instead of coming forward with compromises, instead of asking guarantees, he had put the fault where it belongs; if he called upon the Government to do its duty; if, instead of blaming the North for not making concessions where there is nothing to concede, and not making compromises where there was nothing to compromise about, he had appealed to the South, which was in rebellion against the Government, and painted before them, as only he could do it, the hideousness of the crimes they were committing, and called upon them to return to their allegiance, and upon the Government to enforce its authority, we would have a very different state of things in this country to-day from what now exists. This, in my judgment, is the way to preserve the Union; and I do not expect civil war to follow from it. You have only to put the Government in a position to make itself respected, and it will command respect. As I said before, five hundred troops in Charleston would unquestionably have kept that port open; and if you will arm the Government with sufficient authority to maintain its laws and give us an honest Executive, I think you will find the spread of secession soon checked; it will no longer be a holiday affair. But while we submit to the disgrace which is heaped upon us by those seceding states, while the President of the United States says, "You have no right to secede; but if you want to, you may, we cannot help it," you may expect secession to spread.