"The world look on with scorn and derision. We have, it is said, no government--a mere voluntary association of independent states--a debating society, or a moot court, without any real power to uphold the laws or maintain the Constitution. We have no country, no flag, no Union; but each state at its pleasure, upon its own mere whim or caprice, with or without cause, may secede and dissolve the Union. Secession, we are told, is a constitutional right of each state, and the Constitution has inscribed its own death-warrant upon its face. If this be so, we have indeed no government, and Europe may well speak of us with contempt and derision."
Robert J. Walker, former US Senator from Mississippi, in a speech at the Union Meeting in Union Square, New York City, April 20, 1861.