thing with him. They will retain him in full membership, but endeavor to teach him some instructive and useful lessons. And upon this subject of reading out the entire Democracy of fifteen States of this Union, they will request my young friend from Alabama to tarry awhile at Jericho until his beard shall have grown. [Laughter.] I greatly admired parts of a speech which that honorable Senator delivered here a few days since. He therein depicted the position of the South in glowing and eloquent terms, and in a manner which was well calculated to call the attention of the American people to this question. And if we could at all times keep in view the high destiny of this nation, and the high duties of those clothed with power-if the American people would set their seal upon political hobby-riding for a miserable party advantage upon questions of this import,-there would be no trouble; or none which did not exist at the time of the original formation of this government. This question of slavery was one of diffi culty then and the same spirit of patriotism which rose above it then, the same principles of compromise which led to the formation of the Constitution, must preserve it. The Democracy of the North are not, and cannot be made, a mere sectional party. Our government, in one sense, exists in the organization of national political parties; we have nothing separated from politics. If you make a sectional party in the North, you will by the same act make a sectional party in the South. If you thus divide the Democratic party, you will also divide the Whig party; and when you thus divide politcal parties into sectional portions, the result will prove that you have taken a long step towards putting an end to the Constitution and the Union. I have spoken only because I felt assured that the remarks of the Senator had a direct tendency to create and foster sectionalism, and to produce, what we all deprecate, a division of political parties by a sectional line the formation of provis ional sectional governments, and then a dissolution of the Union. Sir, this Union can never be dissolved, if representatives in Congress will only do their duty. If they will abide by the principles which their fathers taught them; if they will treat cach other with kindness and courtesy and conciliation; if they will bear and forbear, and be as firm and as true as the masses of the people, all will go well, and this republic will be able to outride the dark lowering storms which threaten its existence. [Further explanations of a conciliatory character from Mr. DOUGLAS, Mr. Downs, Mr. DAVIS, Mr. CLEMENS, and Mr. WHITCOMв of Illinois, followed; when the resolution passed by yeas and nays.] SPEECH DELIVERED AT A COMPLIMENTARY PUBLIC DINNER, GIVEN TO MR. DICKINSON BY THE DEMOCRATS OF THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK, KINGS, QUEENS, RICHMOND AND WESTCHESTER, AT TAMMANY HALL, NEW YORK, June 17, 1850. [The proceedings, published at the time, give the following account of the preliminaries to the speech. "Long before the hour of sitting down at the dinner-table, the entrance to the long room in old Tammany was crowded with the admirers of the distinguished guest. At half-past six o'clock he arrived at Tammany Hall, escorted by the committee of arrangments. On entering the room his reception was most enthusiastic, all present seeming desirous to do him honor. At seven o'clock, the committee conducted the honored guest to the large room, followed by some two or three hundred citizens who had determined to enjoy the festive occasion. The band (Dodworth's) performed a favorite air during the time the company were entering the room. The following gentlemen presided at the various tables : CHARLES O'CONNOR, ESQ., President; JOHN D. VAN BUREN, ESQ., First Vice-President; Gen. AARON WARD, Fourth Vice-President. The room was decorated in magnificent style. It presented a spacious and splendid "marquee," beautifully formed at the top by several thousand yards of flowing tri-colored bunting, and at the sides and front by innumerable large-sized republican banners, promiscuously blended together. The lower end or entrance was an arch, surmounted by a golden eagle, composed of the American and French flags, united, as in the Revolutionary struggle, with each other. Over the President's chair bung an original portrait of Washington, by Stuart, kindly loaned to the committee by Mr. Crumby, and around it was entwined the never-fading emblem of our glorious nation. Immediately on the right was suspended, elegantly and richly ornamented, the coat of arms of Virginia, the birth-place of the immortal father of his country; on the left shone no less brilliant the coat of arms of our own favored State, New York. Above these, bearing in every letter a deserved compli ment to Senator Dickinson, was the following: "IN HONOR OF THE BOLD AND ELOQUENT EXPONENT OF A NATION'S WILL." This comprehensive and complimentary sentence was originally embodied in a resolution by the Central Democratic Jackson Association of Washington, in 1847, upon the introduction of the resolution in the Senate of the United States, in opposition to the Wilmot Proviso, by Mr. Dickinson. The coat of arms of South Carolina occupied a place next to New York. It was shrouded in deep mourning in honor of her departed son, the lamented JoHN C. CALHOUN. Around the tent were similar banners of the "thirteen" original States, and in the vicinity of the orchestra was an oil-painting of the signing of the Declaration of American Independence, politely furnished by Gen. Storms. Five chandeliers, and numerous branches of wax candles, spread their lustre on the scene, and added greatly to the effect. In short, the old and venerable "Wigwam," in which not a spot of the walls was to be seen, presented to the eye a grand and chaste appearance, not easy to describe. The tout ensemble has never been equalled in this city. The first regular toast, which was "The Union," having been drank with the honors, the President, after some eloquent, pertinent, and complimentary remarks upon the all-absorbing political question of the day, and the action of the guest of the evening upon it, announced the second regular toast: "Our Guest: "By unwavering fidelity to the Union, he truly represents the Empire State; by according justice to every section he has attained it for his own." Mr. DICKINSON responded, and spoke as follows:-] MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: The highly complimentary remarks and sentiments which have just been uttered, the magnificence of the festival with which I have, as your representative, been honored, demand from me a response suited to the occasion. The kind allusion to my humble services in the public councils inspires me with sentiments and emotions which I will not attempt to conceal or describe. It is the highest motive of the representative to discharge his important trusts with fideli ty; and if I have, in executing mine, secured the approbation of the Democratic party of the Empire City, I shall feel assured that I have not been unmindful of the obligations which rested upon me as a representative of this great State and great com mercial emporium of the Union. The occasion is not only flattering in the highest degree personally, but it affords the most gratifying evidences that the Democratic party, chastened and instructed by the reverses which domestic strife and division have brought to its once potent and successful career, is about to profit by its dear-bought lessons of experience, and laying aside all matters of minor consideration, and leaving each to the indulgence of his own private sentiments, to organize again upon that ancient and catholic creed which was prescribed by the purest and best of men ;—a creed which is as broad as the light and comprehensive as space, which knows no North, no South, no East, no West, but regards all as children of a common father, and seeks, by the wise influences of its genial principles of progress, to usher in the day when all shall drink alike at the pure fountain of liberty;-when violence and oppression shall exist only in the remembrance of the wrongs they have done; and when, so far as is consistent with our natures, every root of sorrow shall be plucked out of the great garden of the world. We see on either hand evidences of fraternal union. The dove, bearing the olive-leaf to our windows, assures us that the dark waters which had overwhelmed us have assuaged, and that we can meet and worship again around the altar-fires of our fathers in our ancient temple. Let us, then, only remember the past, as the mariner does the shoals and the storm where his best hopes have been wrecked, that he may avoid them, and look forward upon the future to the bright prospects which await our united efforts. By the favor of my Democratic friends, I have been long devoted to the public service. The best, though not the greatest portion of my life has been withdrawn from the interesting cares of domestic life, and the practice of an honorable profession, that I might fulfil responsible public trusts, and gratify a laudable ambition; and if I have failed to discharge my duty according to the ability which has been given me, I must have been basely ungrateful, and that without motive. The period during which I have, in part, represented the proudest sovereignty of the confederacy in the Senate of the United States, has been without its parallel in our eventful history. To claim to have been exempt from error through all the vicissitudes which have, at such a time, attended public affairs, would be claiming that which has not been vouch |