for our grievances, or that her course would in the least depend upon that of Texas, I would suggest such views as sincere and earnest reflection have induced. But as you express the opinion that Alabama will, through her convention, without waiting to know the sentiments of the people of Texas, act for herself, there can be no reason why I should press them upon your attention, nor is it a matter of importance whether they reflect the popular sentiment of the State or not. They would be alike unavailing. Nor will I enter into a discussion as to how far the idea of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States will be acceptable to the people of the States forming a Southern confederacy. That Constitution was a compromise of conflicting interests. It was framed so as to protect the slave-holding States against the encroachments of the non-slave-holding. The statesmen of the South secured a representation for three-fifths of our slave property. Whether this and other provisions of that instrument will be deemed applicable to states which have no conflicting interests so far as slavery is concerned is not for me to say; but I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that if the proud and gallant people of Alabama are willing to 'still cover themselves and their posterity under the folds of the old Constitution of the United States in its purity and truth," the rights of Texas will be secure in the present Union, so long as that Constitution is preserved and controls the administration of the Government; and although the "administration of the Government by a sectional, hostile majority" will be distasteful to the feelings of Texas, if she can, be fair and constitutional means, induce that majority to yield obedience to the Constitution and administer the Government in accordance with it, the triumph will be hers, and we will escape the miseries of civil war and secure to us and to our posterity all the blessings of liberty which by the power of union made us the greatest nation on earth.

Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the Black Republican party call for determined constitutional resistance at the hands of the united South, I also feel that the million and a half of noble-hearted, conservative men who have stood by the South, even to this hour, deserve some sympathy and support. Although we have lost the day, we have to recollect that our conservative Northern friends cast over a quarter of a million more votes against the Black Republicans than we of the entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert them as well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I believe, will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the Union. In conclusion, allow me to say that whatever may be the future of the people of Alabama, my hopes and ardent prayers for prosperity will attend them. When I remember their progress and the evidences they have had of the blessings of free government, I join you in the belief that they "will not act with rashness or thoughtlessness, but with mature and deliberate consideration. " Forty-seven years ago, to prevent the massacre of her citizens, it was upon her soil that I gave the first proofs of my manhood in devotion to the Union. The flag that I followed then was the same Stars and Stripes which the sons of Alabama have aided to plant on many a victorious field. Since then Alabama has risen from an almost wilderness region (under the fostering care of the Federal Government and the power embraced in union) to a great, wealthy, and prosperous people, and obtained a position which without union with the other States she could not have achieved for ages, if ever.