Excerpt from The Usurpations of the Federal Government; The Dangers of Centralization, 1863: Speech of Hon. Robert C. Hutchings, of New York, on the Governor's Annual Message The House being in Committee of the Whole on. the annual Message of the Governor, Mr. Hutchings obtained the floor, and said: Mr. Chairman - I solicit the attention of the members of the Committee to the views which I desire to present, upon the Federal and State relations as treated of in the Message of his Excellency the Governor. I solicit their respectful attention for the reason that I am aware that my views will not be in consonance with those entertained by the Republican members, who constitute an equality of this house, and I am not certain that they will receive the approval of all of my political colleagues. But however you may differ with me, award me the credit of expressing views which are based upon the honest convictions of my judgment and conscience. We have, as it has been expressed, passed the military, and we are now approaching the intellectual epoch of the revolution. The time is near when men will be permitted to investigate its causes and to present their opinions upon the policy of the administration without being charged with treason, and called by the vilest names which party malignity can conceive. I trust that the day is not distant when the standard of patriotism will not be the changing and imbecile policy of the administration, but the ancient standard - obedience to the mandates of the Constitution and laws, based upon the Constitution, by both the North and South. And when that day arrives, men will be permitted to exclaim in the words which the venerable and politic Cardinal of France uttered to his youthful and impetuous page: "Take away the sword. States can be saved without it!" To those, and there are some in this house, who will not award me the credit of honesty of conviction, and who denounce all those who differ with them as to the policy of the war, for disloyalty and sedition, I would address the words of Charles Fox, the great parliamentary orator of England, when his country was involved in a war with France, and to the policy of which he was opposed: "Say at once that a free Constitution is no longer suitable to us; say at once, in a manner, that upon an ample review of the state of the world, a free Constitution is not fit for you; conduct yourselves at once as the Senators of Denmark; lay down your freedom, and acknowledge and accept of despotism. But do not shock the understandings and feelings of mankind by telling the world that you are free, - by telling me that if, for the purpose of expressing my sense of the public administration of this country, of the calamities which this war has occasioned, I state a grievance, or make any declaration of my sentiments in a manner that may be thought seditions, I am to be subjected to penalties hitherto unknown to the law. Did ever a free people meet so? Did ever a free state exist so?" The day must come - I believe it to be very near - when we must surrender our partisan prejudices, and investigate in the coolness of reason, and in the calmness of peace, the causes of this war, and the remedies for its consequent disasters - when we must decide upon the nature of the polity under which we are to live as a people, whether it shall be one, based as our fathers made it, upon local sovereignty, or of a centralized and consolidated form. I purpose, sir, to trace the causes of the revolution if which this country is now the scenic theatre, and to state to what principles of government those who now shape the policy, and guide the destinies of the country must return, if they desire a restoration or even a reconstruction of the Union, and an honorable peace. I intend moreover to speak of this revolution in the full estimation of its proportions. It has been too long the standard of "loyalty" to under-estimate it, and to speak confidently of its ce