Excerpt from Speech of the Hon. William Smith, Delivered on Monday, August 1, 1931 Fellovv-citizens, -i have not come here by the invita tion of your Committee of Arrangement, nor by the invitation of any other citizen of your District. I heard of your intended meeting and its object, and have volunteered my attendance; and by your indulgence have been called upon to address you. I am for that purpose, and have no hesitation to avow it. I had been associated with you in various political relations. I had for merly presided in your Courts. 1 had been your Senator in the Congress of the United States. I am now, and have been for more than forty years ago, associated with'you in the same Con gressional Election District. These I calculated, as I have found it, would shield me from the imputation of an intruder. But I calculated on another reason, a little stronger still, to shield me from that imputation. I believed that there existed between us a kindred sympathy for the safety of our country, and a dis position to co-operate in the best means to preserve our happy Union, and I came, not under a belief that I could pour out a torrent of eloquence, by which to lead your minds captive, or prostrate your reasoning faculties, and proselyte you to new and unheard of doctrines; but I came, my fellow-citizens, tl mingle my humble voice with yours, in deprecating the devas tating doctrine of Nullification, now stalking through your country, disquieting the peaceful repose of your honest citizens and if not arrested by the good sense of our intelligent commu' mity, must inevitably produce a dissolution of the Union, or 1 state of civil war. To reflecting minds these alternatives pre sent an awful crisis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.