He turned suddenly and bent his piercing single eye on the Northern Senators: "I hope none who hear me will confound my position with the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union and disregard its Constitutional obligations by the nullification of the law--" A sudden cheer swept the tense galleries. The sergeant-at-arms called for order. The cheer rose again. The Vice-President rapped for silence and threatened to close the galleries. The speaker lifted his hand and commanded silence. "It was because of his deep attachment to the Union--his determination to find some remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties which bound South Carolina to the other States--that John C. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification which he proclaimed to be peaceful and within the limits of State power. "Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. The phrase 'to execute the laws' General Jackson applied to a State refusing to obey the law while yet a member of the Union. You may make war on a foreign state. If it be the purpose of gentlemen--" He paused and again his eagle eye swept the tiers of Northern Senators. "You may make war against a State which has withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the United States to be executed within the limits of a seceded State--" Seward leaned forward in his seat and shook his head in grave dissent. The speaker bent his gaze directly upon his great antagonist and spoke with strange regretful tenderness. "A State finding herself in a condition in which Mississippi has judged she is--in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union--surrenders all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself of all the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affections (and they are close and enduring) which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit--taking upon herself every burden--she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits. "When Massachusetts was arraigned before the bar of the Senate for her refusal to permit the execution of the laws of the United States within her borders, my opinion was the same then as now. Her State is sovereign. She never delegated to the Federal Government the power to drive her by force. And when she chooses to take the last step which separates her from the Union, it is her right to go!--" Another electric wave swept the crowd that burst into applause. The speaker lifted his long arm with an impatient gesture. "And I would not vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her back into unwilling submission. I would say to her--'God speed in the memory of the kind associations which once existed between her and her sister States.'