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![handle is hein.slavery/mrsasi0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
THE MASSACHUSETTS RVSOLUTIONS ON TIHE SUMNER ASSAULT,
AND THE SLAVERY ISSUE.
SPEECHES OF SENATORS
BUTLER, EVANS, AND HUNTER,
DELIVERED
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Jine 12, 1856.
1on. A. P. BUTLER addressed the Senate
as follows:
Mr. President: The occasion and the subjert
upon which I am about to address the Senate
ot the United States, at this time, have been
brought about by events over which I have had
no control, and could have had none-events
which have grown out of the commencement of
a controversy for which the Senator from Mas-
sachusetts (not now in his seat) (Mr. SUMNER]
should be held exclusively responsible to his
sountry and his God. He has delivered a speech
the most extraordinary that has ever had utter-
ance in any deliberative body recognizing the
sanctions of law and decency. When it was de-
livered I was not here; and if I had been present,
what I should have done it would be perfectly
idle for me now to say; because no pne can sub-
stitute the deliberations of a subsequent period
for such as might have influenced him at another
time and under different circumstances. My
unpression now is that, if I had been present, I
should have asked the Senator, before he finished
some of the paragraphs personally applicable to
myself, to pause; and if he had gone on, I would
have demanded of him, the next morning, that he
should review that speech, and retract or modify
it, so as to bring it within the sphere of parlia-
mentary propriety. If he had refused this, what
I would have done I cannot say; -yet I can say
that I would not have submitted to it. But what
mode of redress I should have resorted to, I can-
not tell.
I wish I had been here. I would have at least
assumed, as I ought to have done on my respons-
ibility as a Senator, and on my responsibility as
a representative of South Carolina, all the con-
sequences, let them lead where they might; but
instead of that, the speech has involved his own
friends, and his own colleague. It has involved
my friends. It has involved one of them to such
an extent that, at this time, he has been obliged
to puit his fortune and his life at stake. And, sir,
if the consequences which are likelyto flow from
that speech hereafter shall end in blood and vio-
lence, that Senator should be prepared to repent
in sackcloth and ashes.
Now, I pronounce a judgment on that speech
which will be adopted by the public. I am as
certain as I am speaking that it is now condemned
by the public mind, and by posterity it will be
consigned to infamy, for the mischievous conse-
quences which have flowed from it already, and
such as are likely yet to disturb the peace and
repose of the country.
I said nothing, Mr. President, at any period of
my life-much less did I say anything in the
course of the debate to which the Senator from
Massachusetts purports to hW made a reply-.
that could have called for, much less have Justi-
fied,,*the gross personal abuse, traduction, and
calumny, to which he has resorted.
When I was at my little farm, enjoying myself
quietly, and as I thought had taken refuge from
the strifes and contentions of the Senate, and of
politics, a message was brought to me that my
kinsman had been involved in a difficulty on my
account. It was so vague that I did not know
how to account for it. I was far from any tele-
graphic communication. I did not wait five min-
utes before I left home to put myself within the
reach of such information-and garbled even that
was-as was accessible. I traveled four days
continuously to Washington; and when I arrived
I found the very subject under discussion which
had given me so much anxiety; and it has been
a source of the deepest concern to my feelings
ever since I heard of it, on many accounts---on
account of my country, and on account of the
honor and the safety of my kinsman. When I
arrived here, I found the subject under discussion.
J went to the Senate worn down by travel; and I
then gave notice that, when the resolutions froid
Massachusetts should be presented, I would speak
to them, as coming from a Commonwealth whos6
history, and W'hose lessors of history, had in-
spired me with the very highest adtmiration - I
would speak, to them from a respect to aCOW](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/mrsasi0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)