I desire to proclaim that Tennessee, whose representative I have been, is free.

She has bent the tyrant's rod, she has broken the yoke of slavery, she stands to-day redeemed.

She waited not for the exercise of power by Congress; it was her own act; and she is now as loyal, Mr.Attorney-General, as the State from which you come.

It is the doctrine of the Federal Constitution that no State can go out of this Union.

Thank God, Tennessee has never been out of the Union! It is true the operations of her government were for a time interrupted; there was an interregnum; but she is in the Union, and I am her representative.