Now the territory constituting at present the District of Columbia was
granted, as you well know, by Maryland to the United States for use as
the seat of the Federal capital. When it ceases to be used for that
purpose, it, with all its public fixtures, will revert by law to
Maryland. But," and his eye brightened to the hue of cold steel in a
way the writer will never forget, as he uttered, in a tone perfectly
self-poised, undaunted, and slightly defiant, the words, "_that is a
point which may be settled by force rather than by reason_."
This was January 1, 1861, only eleven days after South Carolina had
passed her Act of Secession, and shows that even then, notwithstanding
the professed desire of the South to depart in peace, the attack not
only upon the national principles of union, but upon the national
property as well, was projected. Mr. Davis, loaded with the benefits of
his country, yet occupied a seat in the Senate Chamber, under the most
solemn oath to uphold its Constitution, which, even if his grievances
had been well founded, afforded Constitutional and peaceful remedies
that he had never attempted to use.
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