to the State which I represent here.  I have an allegiance to those who have entrusted their interests to me, which every consideration of faith and of duty, which every feeling of honor, tells me is above all other political considerations.  I trust I shall never find my allegiance there and here in conflict.  God forbid that the day should ever come when to be true to my constituents is to be hostile to the Union.  If, sir, we have reached that hour in the progress of our institutions, it is past the age to which the Union should have lived.  If we have got to the point when it is treason to the United States to protect the rights and interests of our constituents, I ask why should they longer be represented here? why longer remain a part of the Union?  If there is a dominant party in this Union which can deny to us equality, and the rights we derive through the Constitution; if we are no longer the freemen our fathers left us; if we are to be crushed by the power of an unrestrained majority, this is not the Union for which the blood of the Revolution was shed; this is not the Union I was taught from my cradle to revere; this is not the Union in the service of which a large portion of my life has been passed; this is not the Union for which our fathers pledged their property, their lives, and sacred honor.  No, sir, this would be a central Government, raised on the destruction of all the principles of the Constitution, and the first, the highest obligation of every man who has sworn to support that Constitution would be resistance to such usurpation.  This is my position.

My colleague has truly represented the people of Mississippi as ardently attached to the Union.  I think he has not gone beyond the truth when he has placed Mississippi one of the first, if not the first, of the States of the Confederation in attachment to it.  But, sir, even that deep attachment and habitual reverence for the Union, common to us all—­even that, it may become necessary to try by the touchstone of reason.  It is not impossible that they should unfurl the flag of disunion.  It is not impossible that violations of the Constitution and of their rights, should drive them to that dread extremity.  I feel well assured that they will never reach it until it has been twice and three times justified.  If, when thus fully warranted, they want a standard bearer, in default of a better, I am at their command.—­(Cong.  Globe, p. 995-6)

On Fourth of July, 1858, At Sea.
[From the Boston Post.]

The fine ship Joseph Whitney, from Baltimore, Captain S. Howes, was making for this port on the day of the celebration of the nation’s birth, and among an unusually brilliant array of passengers from different parts of the country, was the distinguished Senator, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi.  The patriotic suggestion of the captain, to celebrate the day in a manner befitting the great anniversary, met with a hearty response from the company, among whom were zealous republicans, democrats and Americans.  A committee was appointed to invite the Senator to make an address, and he consented.