majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have
required so as to guard against any interpretation of the constitution
unfavourable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard
our interests in the legislative branch of government. In choosing the
presiding president (_pro. tem._) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four
to their eleven. Speakers of the house we have had twenty-three, and they
twelve. While the majority of the representatives, from their greater
population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally
secured the speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and controls
the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every
other department of the general government. Attorney-Generals we have had
fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had
eighty-six and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business
which demands diplomatic agents abroard is clearly from the Free States,
from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal
embassies, so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco,
and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the
higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the
soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks,
auditors, and comptrollers filling the executive department, the records
show for the last fifty years that of the three thousand thus employed, we
have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of
the white population of the republic. Again, look at another item, and
one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that
of revenue, or means of supporting government. From official documents we
learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the
support of government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now
while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these
important items. Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless
millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North; with tens of