: 392 

.B7 V4 SPEECH 

Copy ^ 



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HON. A. W. YEN ABLE, OF N. CAROLINA, 



ON THE 



^ TE XAS AND NEW MEXICO aUESTION 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1850. 



WASHINGTON: 

MWJIT&D AT THl COKGRESSIO.NAL GJ-OB» ©*JP*CB. 

1850. 






t»f ns o -^ ••w 



TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO UUESTION 



Ths House oeing in Committee of the Whole on the state 
•' the Union, and having under consideration tlie Civil and 
Oiplomatic Appropriation Bill — 

Mr. VEN ABLE said: 

Mr. Chairman: I had intended to address the 
committee upon the bill for making appropriations 
for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Gov- 
ernment, and an apology is due for my change 
of purpose. I have never before discussed any 
other subject than that which the committee had 
immediately in charge. But the course which 
6his debate has assumed, and the high and vital 
issues involved in the principles, as well as the 
policy foreshadowed in the late message of the 
President, impress my mind with the necessity of 
pursuing this subject until its importance shall 
have been fully developed. Objectionable as the 
appropriation bill under consideration is, there will 
be another opportunity, whilst considering it in de- 
tail, to expose its enormities. If there was no such 
occasion to occur, a few millions improperly ap- 
propriated is a small consideration compared with 
the mischiefs resulting from the assumption of 
power set forth by the Executive in the message 
relating to the boundary of Texas. 

I shall not repeat the eloquent and impressive 
remarks of the gentlemen from Georgia, [Mr. 
Stephens and Mr. Toombs.] Those gentlemen, 
as well as my friend from Virginia, [Mr. Seddon,] 
have elaborated the argument against the doc- 
trines of this message in a most masterly manner, 
and I shall content myself with indorsing their 
conclusions, so far as they refer to the elemeuts of 
despotism which are to be found in the Executive 
assumption of the judiciary, in addition to those 
powers with which he is clothed by the Constitu- 
tion. The statutes of 1795 and 1807 present a 
case in which the military arm of this Government 
may be used for the execution of the laws of the 
United States; but it is a case in no way resembling 
that to which the President refers in his message. 
Both of those acts, which I shall presently read, 
refer to a state of things where the civil power has 
been unable to enforce the laws; and, as a last re- 
sort, when the marshal and the posse have failed, 
the Executive may interpose. It will be seen in 
the debates attending the passage of the act re- 
ferred to, that, during the whisky insurrection in 
Pennsylvania, when the necessity for the interfer- 
ence of the Federal Government grew out of an 
open rebellion, Congress even then refused to give 



a general power to the President to interpose with 
the military arm. That proposition was debated 
and rejected, and the present law was passed 
Gentlemen feel the pressure of this fact, when they 
fly to the general provisions of the Constitution to 
justify this interference. I saw that the astute and 
able gentleman from New York, [Mr. Duer,] to 
whom I always listen both with pleasure and in- 
struction, felt the pressure of this difficulty, and 
considered the Constitution in a broad and unre- 
stricted construction of that instrument, for the 
power and the consequent duty of the President 
to interfere in the manner indicated by the present 
Executive under existing circumstances. The 
statute of 1795 is as follows: 

'• That whenever the laws ol the United States shall be 
opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed, in any State, 
by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordi- 
nary course of judicial proceedings,or by the powers vested 
in the marshals by this act, it shall be lawful for the Presi- 
dent of the United States to call forth the militia of such 
State, or of any other State or States, so far as may be neces- 
sary to suppress such combinations and cause the laws to be 
duly executed ; and the use of the militia so to be called forth 
may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty 
days after the commencement of the then next session of 
Congress." 

The act of 1807 provides: 

" That in all cases of insurrection or obstruction to the 
laws, either of the United States or of any individual State 
or Territory where it is lawful for the Presidentof the United 
States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing 
such insurrection or of causing the laws to be duly executed, 
it shall be lawful foi him to employ, for the same purposes, 
such part of the land or naval forces of the United States as 
shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre- 
requisites of the law in that respect." 

He at once perceived that those statutes do not 
give the power claimed, but are a distinct declara- 
tion that the military is, in time of peace, ancillary 
and subject to the civil power. From that broad 
construction of the Constitution which used to be 
the party line which divided the politicians of this 
country, the gentleman has sought to protect the 
President from blame. I would only inquire, if 
this be true — if the power was to be derived obvi- 
ously from the Constitution, and required no legal 
grant to make it operative, why was it deemed 
necessary, in the full reign of Federal party power, 
in the hour of triumph to Federal doctrines, in 
Anno Domini 1795, just preceding the enactment 
of the sedition law, that such statutes should have 
been thought indispensable to enable the President 
to suppress rebellion and execute the laws? Thera 



never was a time when a dominant party had more 
thorough belief in the unlimited powers of this 
Government under the general powers of the Con- 
stitution. It was for these doctrines and these 
opinions that the old Federal party was rebuked 
by the public voice, and have been generally out of 
power ever since. 

These are the statutes to which the President 
refers, which weigh upon his conscience, and indi- 
cate to him the duly of coercing the government of 
Texas, should it have the temerity to claim the 
boundaries by which they came into the Union, 
to which they have made a continual claim; which 
were acknowledged to be valid by President Polk, 
who began, prosecuted, and terminated the Mexi- 
can war for a trespass on the soil of Texas; and 
who commanded the military occupant of the ter- 
ritory east of the Rio Grande to surrender it to the 
jurisdiction of Texas. If President Fillmore can 
decide the question of boundary, President Polk 
had equal authority; and although a principle on 
which a case is decided may be overruled, it would 
be something new for a court of equal jurisdiction 
to reverse a case and eject a party placed in pos- 
session by a former decision of the same tribunal. 
This is assuming for the President the right to de- 
termine and to execute his own desires. Texas 
claimed the boundary of the Rio Grande. Presi- 
dent Polk did not claim the right of possession for 
this Government. He had expelled the enemy of 
Texas and the United States from Texan territory, 
and, surrendered it to Texas, as any portion of any 
State in the occupation of a hostile force would be 
restored when that enemy had been driven back 
Mr. Polk asserted no conflicting claim. The Presi- 
dent now has decided against the tide of Texas 
when Texas has not been heard, and upon an as- 
sumed jurisdiction of the case. It is for this reason 
that the gentleman from New York sought for 
justification in the general powers conferred by 
the Constitution. 

Sir, the doctrine set up by the President is but 
a revival of the old Federal doctrines, which seem 
to have lost no vigor by their repose — a resuscita- 
tion of the maxim, that the States exercise au- 
thority only by permission, and that all 'power is 
centralized here. I was pleased to hear the gentle- 
man remark, that whatever might be his opinion 
of the rights and the powers of this Government, 
he had never given up, neither would he ever sur- 
render the right of resistance to oppression or dis- 
honor, under whatever pretext it might be inflicted 
or imposed. This was a sentiment which I knew 
must dwell in the bosom of one whose distin- 
guished ancestor surrendered titles, wealth, and 
allegiance, to the British Crown, and led our troops 
over many a well-fought and bloody field. The 
revival of this claim for the exercise of Federal 
authority, is but another illustration of the tsuth, 
that power has a cumulative, a self-increasing tend- 
ency, nevftr providing for its own liroitations, but 
breaking down all barriers to its extension. These 
were the doctrines of the old Federal party, to 
'whose credit be it spoken, that were an hon- 
est and candid party, openly asserting their prin- 
ciples, and prompt to propngate and maintain 
them. 1 have nevf r seen one of that old school of 
thos'i politici'ins who denied their name or their 
opinions. (Here some gentleman said, I am 
one, thank Heaven; and another gentleman re- 
sponded, God bless them.) 1 hear the ejaculations 



of gentlemen in response to my remarks corj- 
cerning the old Federalists. I say to them tha; 
they are thankful for small favors, and are, nc 
doubt, in the exercise of continued gratitude, ae 
those impulses are set in motion by such slight 
causes. But 1 repeat, they were an honest and 
a patriotic people — wron?, in my judgment, ar 
to their notions of our Republican Government: 
but even those who voted for the sedition law, and 
wore the black cockade, never dreamed of march- 
ing troops into a Stale or Territory to enforce the 
notions of law which were formed by the Presi- 
dent, without the authority of a law of Congress 
It is only necessary to refer to the guarded cautior 
of the framers of the Constitution, to learn that nc 
such power was intended to be given. The Presi- 
dent is authorized to march troops into a State to 
repel invasion or suppress insurrection only when 
invited by the Legislature, or the Governor in the 
recess, — a pow»r given for the protection, not for 
the coercion or punishment of a refractory State. 

I take occasion here, Mr. Chairman, to remark, 
that 1 neither am nor ever was a vullififr. I wap 
a member of the Union party m 1832, and have 
never been identified with those stateemen whc 
held the doctrines of nullification. My opinions 
have undergone no change upon that remedy, ae 
to its eflicacy or its practicability. Whilst I diG 
not adopt the high Federal doctrines of the procla- 
mation of General Jackson, but took it with the 
explanation given by himself,as I alwayssupposed, 
and am distinctly informed by Mr. Ritchie, the 
present editor of the Union, then of ihe Enquirer, 
who spoke upon the authority of a personal inter- 
view with the President himself. I did not deetr. 
it proper to withdraw my support from him, be- 
cause differing with him in one particular, anC 
commit the blunder of cooperating with the Fed- 
eral party, with whom 1 diti'ered in all thniga, and: 
who concurred with General Jackson only in this 
single act of his policy, which 1 did not fully ap- 
prove. Yet even General Jackson, who was not 
wanting; in perception to apprehend, or the will tc 
execute the commands of the Constitution, never 
imagined that he had the power, under the statutes 
of 1795 and 1807, to march troops, or call out the 
militia against a resisting State, without the au- 
thority of Congress. Accordingly the force biK 
was passed, to give him that power, and upon the 
most mature deliberation of his advisers. Genera. 
Jackson was by all considered bold, by many 
rash, even reckless, and by some oppressive, ir 
the measures which he recommended to Congress. 
Sir, his boldness was caution; his rashness delib- 
eration; his recklessness prudence, and his deter- 
mination to exert power, the soft radiations o'' 
mercy, in comparison with the authority assumed, 
and the designs disclosed in this message. It ie 
true that there is much mildness in the manner, 
and a deep regret at the necessity for the expres- 
sion of his determination. I am forcibly remindet 
by the langnarge in which it is couched, of tht 
deprecatory and self-denying marner of Crom- 
well find his Cdtemporaries, who usually spoke of 
the purposes which they had conceived, anc 
the outrages they were about to perpetrate, at 
rlispensations impnped upon them by the will of 
Heaven. Whether meditating the expuli^Jon of 
the Parliament, r-r the establishmentof the suprem- 
acy of the army, the substitution of thedccisior 
o'' courts-marshal for the trial by jury, cr fyrepnr 



ing to destroy opposition by the gallows, tlie axe, 
or the deadly fire of the platoon, they prayed 
that the cup might pass fnm them; that the exe- 
cution of this high behest of Providence might be 
'•eserved for another; yet most humbly expressing 
1 readiness to do what might be necessary to re- 
onove a crying sin from the land. So the Presi- 
dent is deeply conscientious concerning the neces- 
sity of executing the laws of the United States in 
protecting the public domain. Conscious of his 
duty to do the one, and his power to effect the 
other, he is condescending enough to admonish 
those interested of the danger, and presents to us 
che alternative of taking steps to avoid his indig- 
fiation, or bear the responsibility which the dis- 
charge of his duty may incur. 

Sir, we have fallen on evil times. One Presi- 
dent of this Republic may interpose over and 
against the Cotistiiuiion, and, by the intervention 
of the military power, aid a number of adventur- 
ers to seize upon the whole Pacific coast of our 
domain; make a constitution excluding the inhab- 
ttanie of fifteen States from the use or occupation 
of the country with their property; appropriate 
r.o the emigrant population, foreign and native, 
che boundless mineral wealth of California, with 
borders extensive enough for six or seven States 
of ordinary size; and leave the rest of the terri- 
cory to undergo the same process of military 
manipulation previous to the abolition consum- 
enation. His successor assumes the right to deter- 
mine boundaries of States, settle questions re- 
served for the courts, and to march armies into 
the Territory whose limits he has determined, and 
drive out the authorities of the State which has the 
temerity to assert and maintain her claim. It has 
aven become a matter of grave monnent to all con- 
cerned, should they dare to differ with or dissent 
from the opinions of the President as to his powers 
or the policy of his measures. Especially is it 
deemed contumacious to refuse support to meas- 
ures of compromise or adjustment, which differ 
chiefly from the plan of the President in this, that 
they combine the several offensive measures in one 
dose, which he proposed to administer at inter- 
vals. Southern members of Congress are called 
on to aid in the work. If they do so, no man can 
deny that the result is abolition, and that they 
would be doing the work of abolitionists. If con- 
currence and aid is refused, every such individual 
ts subjected to the charge of being a disunionist. 
This has been paraded before the country for 
effect, with a considerable flourish, and much 
show of concern, by those who, sensible that their 
own position was one which could not bear the 
.scrutiny of their constituents, have adopted the 
old device of railing at others in order to divert 
attention from themselves. When northern men, 
who get the principal profit from the labor of the 
plantation States, make such accusations, I am not 
.iiurprised — the owner of the sheep would not con- 
cur in any system of policy which would prevent 
the growth of the fleece by the next shearing time. 
When fanaticism makes such a charge, and cu- 
pidity, availing itself of such a witness, endorses 
the statement, I am not surprised. This is an 
averyday occurrence, the operation of principles 
*8 universal as human depravity, the most com- 
mon resori of ingenuity sharpened by fanaticism 
or the lust of power. It is the natural outlet for 
such impulses as I have described. Having con- 



fidently expected this, I was not disappointed at 
its advent. But when the chief singers to the 
glory of the Union among the non-slaveholding 
States, who by the present organization of affaira 
derive the chief profit from the labor and the enter- 
prise of the South, become either silent or breathe 
their songs in whispers; when those who by turns 
have wheedled and taunted us, who have urged us 
to be still under wrong because it might be worse, 
or threatened us with chastisement at the hanii 
of numberless regiments of valorous volunteers 
when such as these retire with harps unstrur 
and troops disbanded, before a relay, a reinforce 
ment of southern men, the Represestatives of slave- 
holders and slaveholding States, who teach submis- 
sion to unconstitutional legislation, yielding to ag- 
gressions perpetrated and to wrongs of a deeper and 
more degrading character in immediate prospect — 
southern statesmen who recommend acquiescence 
in a ruinous policy, lest the South should feel the 
weight of the military arm of this Government, it 
is natural that all should be astonished, and espe- 
cially those whose interests they represent. We 
hid expected confidently to be called disunionists 
by those whose immediate interest or whose well- 
known fanaticism has always suggested this mode 
of assault; and to such assaults, and their conse- 
quences, we were indifferent. But when the whip 
of political power and of party organization; the 
desire of receiving rewards from those who have 
the numerical authority to distribute them; the 
fascinations which cluster around great national 
parties, and perhaps others and by no means higher 
motives, all combine to induce a southern man to 
lie as low and stjxy as long as the most imperious 
master could demand, I have feelings of surprise 
and regret, mingled with others which I decline to 
name. 

Sir, I have spoken freely and sharply, because 
not only I, but southern gentlemen with whom I 
concur upon the exciting questions which have oc- 
cupied our attention almost exclusively, have been 
designated as ultras, slandered as disunionists, and 
denounced as traitors. Men in places both high 
and low; politicians representing all the gradations 
in the animal creation, from the lion to the monkey 
and the cat; organs of all sorts, from the slow, 
stately, solemn music-making instrument, both 
dull and deep-toned, through all the varieties, down 
to the tuneless, cracked convenience on which 
melody is manufactured by the job; those who 
could make speeches, and those who, in default of 
that quality, could pay those who can write let- 
ters, — all aid in forming public sentiment to par- 
alize, and discredit southern men, whose offence 
has been faithfulness to the constituency who sent 
them here. It is proper that such should be freely 
and faithfully dealt with; for although few believe 
them here, they work mischief where they are 
not well known. It is the settled policy of the 
Free-Soil and Anti-Slavery party, in all its shades 
and variations of opinion, to unite in discrediting 
every statesman of the South who affirms any 
principle of the Constitution protecting the domes- 
tic institutions of the South. In this they are 
promptly seconded by their allies, dupes, and de- 
pendents at the South, who with exceeding alac- 
rity unite to prostrate such statesmen, by calling 
them disunionists and disorganizers. It would 
amuse, sir, did it not call up sensations of a very 
different character, to observe their devices to con- 



ciliate favor at the expense of those whose inter- 
ests demand a different line of action. There is 
no lack of denunciation by southern men in high 
places against those of tlieir own section who main- 
tain the rights of their people. Such men see 
treason and disunion in every southern conven- 
tion, and every resolution of the assembled people 
which advises resistance to oppression; whose 
indignation -vents itself upon those who are con- 
tendmg for their homes, their firesides, and their 
property; but who have never discovered the pro- 
priety of censuring those whose whole history has 
been one of meddling and aggression; whose Abo- 
lition conventions and Free-Soil associations — or- 
ganizations for the abduction of slaves, openly 
formed and unrebuked by law, legislative resolu- 
tions of disunion purposes, and votes in this House 
which have agitated this country in all its length 
and breadth, destroying confidence and alienating 
sections. Such things as these are not proper sub- 
jects of animadversion with those who are foremost 
in the effort to hurl down men who ask for nothing 
but the guarantees of the Constitution. And, sir, 
the most^humiliating conviction of the whole is 
this: that these prompt assailants of all of us, who 
are determined not to yield our honor or our polit- 
ical equality, are compelled to acknowledge that 
no plan proposed does justice to the South, and 
that we must and ought to take what is offered, 
because it is the best we shall get. 

I have, whilst hunting with my pointer, found 
it necessary to scourge him for driving up the 
game unseasonably, or some other disobedience of 
orders. When the chastisement was over he was 
BO thankful that 1 did not kill him, that his pro- 
tracted caresses about my feet rendered it neces- 
sary that I should kick him away and make him 
hunt. There is in the advice given to take this 
northern infliction for fear of a worse, so much of 
the instinct of the whipped pointer, that I can have 
no sympathy with those who give it, or those who 
are inclined to take it. I yield to no man in my at- 
tachment to the Union as the Constitution has 
created it. I adopt the clear, patriotic, and admi- 
rably expressed resolution of the Democratic Con- 
vention of North Carolina, who recently nomina- 
ted a candidate for Governor, and whose nomina- i 
tion has been so signally indorsed by the people. | 
Without approving of all the resolutions, I make I 
especial reference to the third, as expressive of my j 
feelings, and to which I cordially adhere. ••That I 
" the union of these States as formed by our fore- j 
' fathers, is dearer to us than everything else be- 

• side our vital interests and our honor; that we 

• will cherish and stand by it, so long as it realizes 
' in its operations the design of those who founded 
« it as equals; but^ that while we yield to none in 
' our attachment to it, we are still determined, hap- 

* pen what may, to resist all palpable violations of 
" the Constitution, and all attempts to wield this 
"Government by a mere sectional majority, to the 

* injury and degradation of the southern people." 
In this noble declaration I fully concur, and the 
people of my good old Slate have, from Cape Hat- 
teras lo the Pilot Mountain, from the northern to 
the southern boundary, shouted onelong, loud, and 
hearty amen. To the Constitution and the Union 
which its guarantees contemplate, to the Union as a 
means for insuring tranquillity, repose, equal rights, 
and human liberty, I am devoted by sacred and 
revolutionary recollections of ancestors' and kin- 



dred, by every hope which had its origin in the ex- 
pectation of a just and equal administration of out 
rights, and by the anticipations of a future which 
would be doubly glorious, should these sacred 
principles prevail. But to that Union as an end 
to enslave, plunder, degrade, and dishonor; to the 
power derived from its name, to inflict the tyranny 
of a despotic majority irrespective of the Consti- 
tution; to all legislative or palpable violations of 
the Constitution, and to all attempts to wield this 
Government by a mere sectional majority to the 
degradation and injury of the South, my heart re- 
sponds that resistance is a duty, come what may. 
I rejoice, sir, that North Carolina has made a like 
response at the ballot-box. 

I have not, sir, been ignorant of the attempt to 
disparage us by calling public attention to the fact, 
that those falsely-called ultra southern men and 
Abolitionists voted together in opposition to the 
plan of the Committee of Thirteen in the Senate. 
Much denunciation was uttered on that account, 
and a poor attempt to make poHtical capital by that 
device. It is true that southern statesmen opposed 
the progress of the bill of the Committee of Thir- 
teen, and that some northern Free-Soilersand Ab- 
olitionists did the same. This was not a universal 
rule; some southern statesmen who were Free- 
Soilers, and some who were not, and many from 
the North, were the advocates of that measure. 
The chairman of the committee himself is an 
emancipationist and a Frce-Soiler. The reasons 
which induced a union in the opposition to the 
measure of such opposite opinions was sufficiently 
obvious to every candid observer. The extreme 
Free-Soilers opposed the bill because it provided 
for territorial governments without the proviso; 
and those of the South who claimed an equality 
in the territories of the Republic were hostile to ii 
because its purpose was to exclude their constitu- 
ents from the right to remove their property to the 
public domain. The chairman of the committee, 
and every Free-Soiler, North and South, who sus- 
tained the measure, believed that Mexican laws, 
which they were unwilling to repeal, performed 
the ofHce of the Wilmot proviso. Some of the 
same class doubted their efficacy, and demanded 
the proviso. But when that ill-constructed omni- 
bus was overthrown, and the true test-question of 
Abolition came up— when the issue was to waive 
all the informalities contained in the constitu- 
tion and organization of California— m othei 
words, to enact the Wilmot proviso by the adop- 
tion of the constitution with all of their defective el- 
ements in its formation— then it was manifest that 
all Free-Soilers and anti-slavery men voted for 
(he California bill— all Wilmot proviso men. 
North and South, and one or two Senators who 
are believed to be adverse to the principles of the 
proviso. One thing is certain, that those who 
voted for the Oregon bill of last session, containing 
the proviso, also voted for the admission of Cah- 
fornia. It is true that some southern Senators 
were abeenton this important occasion, and did not 
choose to record their votes upon a measure which 
has occupied seven months of the session. Of theiT 
opinions it would not be proper to speak. The 
great fact exists, that a constitution was framed by 
a convention called by an army-chief— a militarj? 
governor, whose deliberations were supermtendec 
by him— who had the benefit of the advice of T. 
ButlerKing, who wen! on a mission from, and war 



fully acquainted with the views of the President; 
that emigrants, native and foreign, squatters and 
negroes, pilgrims and passers-by, united in this 
flagrant act, and that the Senate has ratified the 
seizure of the whole Pacific coast and its appro- 
priation to abolition purposes — a territory wliose 
inexhaustible mines have in oneyear yielded about 
thirty-five millions of dollars from the crude 
and imperfect operations of unskillful miners — a 
domain which, if accessible to slave labor, would 
add one hundred per cent, to the value of all dis- 
posable labor of that description — a loss under 
which the whole South is to suffer that foreigners 
may become rich. All this is done in open Sen- 
ate, and but eighteen southern Senators are found 
to vote against it. 

But, sir, it was gratifying to find amongst that 
small number those who had uniformly and 
steadily opposed the whole adjustment arrange- 
ment. They had another good and sufficient 
reason. None of the elements of the bill of the 
Thirteen met with their approbation. They knew 
of no process by which an accumulation of bad 
measures rendered any one of them more accept- 
able. They had learned no rule by which three 
insults combined were equivalent to a compli- 
ment — no discovery in chemistry which would 
convert three offensive odors into a perfume. 
They were not disposed to take insults by the 
wholesale, which ought to be resented each in its 
place. They were unwilling to load the South 
with chains, merely because those who pro- 
posed to enslave her attempted to fulfill the design 
by one enactment. To southern statesmen who 
framed that measure, and were willing to inflict it 
on the country, 1 say that they are not account- 
able to me, but to their constituents. To those 
who feel called upon to denounce as disunionists 
those who were opposed to their scheme, I say 
distinctly, there are offences which are never 
forgiven. The system of Christianity requires 
forgiveness of personal injuries; and this is not 
only duty to our fellow-men, but justice to our- 
selves. Malignity ia its own executioner, and in- 
flicts most awful tortures on those who cherish it. 
But political unfaithfulness is not and ought not to 
be forgiven. The day of settlement will come, 
and charges of disunion and clamors about trea- 
son, threats to coerce States and punish traitors, 
will be all nailed to the counter as base counterfeit 
«oin. There will be another sort of treachery 
passed in review, and other actors who will be 
seen after the clamor about others shall have 
ceased. They will learn that the wronged and in- 
jured South will regard him alone as a disunionist 
who, following the leadof Free-Soilers and eman- 
cipators, was willing to disinherit her of all the 
fair domain which her sword had won, the blood 
of her sonB had watered, and her treasure pur- 
chased. Woe to them when they shall feel that 
they are surrounded by a ring-fire which continu- 
ally approaches, the heat becoming more intense, 
the anguish more insupportable, until they are 
consumed and annihilated in the burning focus of 
public indignation. 

But, sir, I must speak for a short time as to the 
title of Texas to the boundary which she claims, 
and our duty to defend her in that claim. The 
resolutions of annexation, the supreme law of the 
land, acknowledge her claim to a latitude above 
36° 30', for they provide for the States to be made 



above and below that line, and absolutely forbid 
slavery above. The war declared and prosecuted by 
the Democratic party was a bloody and cruel out- 
rage, founded on falsehood and crime, or else the 
title in Texas to the lower Rio Grand was valid. 
The latitude of 36° 30' is nearly that of Santa Ft, 
now claimed as a part of New Mexico. Then the 
resolutions of annexation, and the action of our 
Government acknowledging the Rio Grande, is 
conclusive of the understanding between the par- 
ties themselves. But this is not all. By those 
resolutions, Texas deprived herself of the right to 
negotiate her boundary, and the United States as- 
sumed the office and the responsibility. By the 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the whole country 
north of El Paso on the Rio Grande west, was 
absorbed by the United States. The Texas bound- 
ary, the avowed cause of the war, came, by that 
treaty, into the possession of this Government as a 
trustee. With whom, then, was the United States 
to treat, or to settle it by negotiation? The ques- 
tion is too plain for argument. All principles of 
law and equity decide, that the cestui qui trust is en- 
titled to the benefit of property acqui;:ed in his 
name and his right. So thought President Polk, 
and so thought the last House of Representatives. 
He directed the military commandant to surrender 
the territory east of the Rio Grande to Texas, 
and the House of Representatives concurred in that 
determination. Besides, sir, the gist of the contest" 
between the parties as to the Mexican war was, 
that Texas did not extend beyond the Nueces. 
Why, then, has not the President claimed the 
country on the lower Rio Grande, as well as that 
on the upper portion of that river ? It is no reply 
that the title of Tamaulipas has been extinguished 
to all the country east of the lower Rio Grande. 
So has all the political existence of New Mexico 
been destroyed and absorbed by the treaty of ces- 
sion. From El Paso westwardly to the Pacific, 
the treaty line includes all of that former province 
of the Mexican Republic not claimed by the au- 
thorities of Texas. So clear was the case, that 
even the late President of the United States di- 
rected his military commandant, in his first in- 
structions, not to obstruct the extension of the 
civil jurisdiction of Texas over the country east of 
the Rio Grande. 

The obligation on the United States to assert and 
maintain the boundary of Texas, may be made 
manifest in another view of the subject. Suppose 
that after the adoption of the resolutions of annex- 
ation, and before the acceptance of Texas, a sudden 
eruption of Mexicans had driven the Texans to 
the Sabine — Texas accepting the resolutions, as 
she did, can any one question that the United 
States would have been bound to recover the pos- 
session of the Territory of Texas ? And having 
done so, it would immediately inure to the sover- 
eignty which had become one of us. The obliga- 
tion to assert her rights,and the undertaking to nego- 
tiate for her boundary, together with the decla- 
ration of President Polk, the negotiator, and the 
action of this House, make it manifest thatall sidee 
believed and intended to fix the Rio Grande as the 
boundary of Texas. It leaves a question for the 
courts, and not for the Executive, to decide; a case 
for judicial investigation, not for feats of arms or 
military conquest. 

Sir, this boundary question was deeply agitating, 
and wasjnost thoroughly discussed as connected 



8 



with the Mexican war. It was asserted with the 
'reatest unanimity by the Democratic party at the 
aeclaration, during the progress, and at the termi- 
nation of the war. The invasion of Mexico was 
declared a duty to Texas, because her territory 
was inv&ded first by Mexican troops by crossing 
the Rio Grande. The treaty of peace and the ces- 
sion of territory made by Mexico, left but few in 
doubt as to the right of Texas to the limit as 
claimed at the time of annexation. A gentleman 
from Georgia [Mr. Toombs] said, with great pro- 
priety, that the question made now springs from 
the fanaticism connected with free-soil — the anti- 
alavery crusade of the northern section of this 
Republic. 

I trust, Mr. Chairman, that we shall hear no 
more of the slang that the anti-slavery party is 
confined to a few Abolitionists. Every demonstra- 
tion, either in the North, or in either House of 
Congress, forbids the conclusion. We have acted 
upon this fallacy until the evil has almost passed 
remedy — until the agitation of the public mind can 
scarcely be allayed. It is a melancholy truth that 
we have an Abolition Government and an Aboli- 
tion Administration of that Government. The 
strides in that direction since the last presidential 
alection are most alarmingly aggressive; and we 
have lived to receive a message from a President 
of the United States announcing his readiness to 
press free-soil conquests at the pointof the bayonet. 
The whole history of the California government, 
the advice of T. Butler King to members of the Con- 
vention 5 as they report in debate — that to take all the 
territory, all the sea-coast, and a settlement of the 
slavery question for themselves, was the soundest, 
safest, surest policy to secure admission into the 
Union. His agency is owned by the Government, 
and intervention not being denied, the proof is 
conclusive that, as far as California was concerned, 
the government is for abolition. 

The policy recommended in the message of the 
President for the organization of New Mexico, 
forces us to the same conclusion. But one year 
since, when it was proposed to exclude the south- 
ern slaveholder from emi?rating into the newly 
acquired territory by the Mexican laws, we were 
told that the laws and Constitution of the United 
States did not necessarily reach our conquered 
territory. But a declaratory act of Congress was 
necessary to effect that end. We have not for- 
gotten the debate between Mr. Calhoun and the 
present Secretaiy of State, Mr. Webster, in the 
Senate, upon that question. The Secretary brought 
all the powers of his great mind to that encoun- 
ter. Abolition was expected then from the Mex- 
ican law."?. Neither the Constitution nor the 
laws of the United States could protect the slave- 
holder, for, said that statesman, they are not 
there. But the scene is changed. To defeat the 
claims of Texas, the President and his Secreta- 
ry now declare that the Constitution and laws are 
in the Territory; that it never belonged to Texas; 
and that there arc combinations amongst the 
citizens of Texas to prevent the execution of those 
laws. When abolition is to be fostered by the 
Mexican laws, the Constitution of the United 
States is not there. When the power of the army 
is called in requisition to extend abolition, the 
same parties, in a message to this House, declare 
that the Constitution and laws are there, and must 
he enforced and executed la not the fact estab- 



lished, that this ia an abolition Government.'' An 
anti-slavery constitution has been gotten up within 
the boundary claimed by Texas, and the Presi- 
dent proposes to march an army to compel Texas 
to abandon her claims, or induce Congress 
to buy her soil for abolition purposes, or tliat 
we should vote ten millions, the price fixed in 
the bill now on your table. Sir, Texas is first 
insulted, then threatened. A deliberate attempt is 
made to intimidate her; she is then offered a 
bribe, and, to crown the indignity, set up for sale. 
And this is called a peace-offering to Texas, and a 
measure of conciliation! Texas, our younger 
sister, came into our family upon equal and honor- 
able terms. I will never presume on her weak- 
ness, neither will I avail myself of her necessities, 
produced by a struggle for her independence, and 
the burden of a debt, the price of her liberties, to 
advise or induce her to stoop to such a sale of 
her domain. I say such a sale, for it is a viola- 
tion of the understanding by which she united 
her.self with us. She came as a slaveholding StatCj 
and to sell her territory for free-soil purposes, is 
to inflict an injury on the South. I will never 
advise her to accept of terms which are accompa- 
nied with a menace of the sword and the use of 
force to compel acquiescence. If I offer her the 
olive-branch, it will be plucked from a vigorous 
and healthy tree, fresh and beauitful — not a limb 
broken off by the storm and soiled with mud 
from the gutter, an offering at once unworthy of 
the one who offers and the one who receives. I 
will not aid in a negotiation which must carry to 
her a sense of lost self-respect. Were these ten 
millions to be distributed amongst the gallanj 
surviverS and the families of those fallen brave 
men who shared her trials, suffered in her poverty 
and achieved her glorious independence — if it were 
to carry joy to the hearts of widows and orphans 
whose gallant husbands and sires fell on her battle- 
fields with the shout of victory sounding in their 
ears — if the families of those who were assassi- 
nated at the Alamo, or perished on any other of those 
fields of glory which make her history one of the 
most romantic of modern times — I could be less 
averse to this odious measure. But the bonds and 
scrips have long since passed into the hands of bro- 
kers, shavers and speculators, at from five to ten 
cents in the dollar; and the importunities and 
appeals which we see and hear are the sighing for 
the rise of Texas scrip, rather than any justice or 
propriety in the measure, or apprehension of a 
collision and civil war in New Mexico or in Texas, 
I am no stranger to this mode of raising money 
by a dispute. It is a stale contrivance of unscru- 
pulous men in private life, to set up claims and seek 
to arbitrate them. If anything by possibility is 
secured, it is clear gain; if nothing, then nothing is 
lost. This dispute is got up with great dramatic 
effect. All the horrors of civil war are depicted; 
gentlemen seem to yield to the pressure of neces- 
sity — they are complimented for their patriotism; 
the Union is praised, its danger magnified, the 
country alarmed, and the public mind agitated. 
Behind all this dust and smoke, the Texan bond- 
holder sits and calculates how much more thunder it 
is necessary to pump to cause Congress to vote the 
millions. Sir, there is no pretence for this offer. 
The land belongs either to Texas or to the United 
States. If to Texas, I do not wish to purchase it 
for free soil; if to the United States, I do not think 



9 



it just to tax the South, who would pay two jj&irds 
of it, to make the fortunes of brokers and claims- 
agents for the purchase of our own property. I do 
apprehend danger to the country from the agitation 
of the public mind, if California with her present 
boundaries and constitution be admitted into the 
Union, or from a stern refusal to divide the terri- 
tories, or a determination to exclude the southern 
slaveholder either by pretence of the Mexican 
laws, or the Wilmot proviso. 1 have no doubt 
that if the Administration be guilty of the folly 
or the weakness of marching troops into Texas 
under the pretence of fixing ihe boundary of New 
Mexico, the gravest consequences may ensue. 
But, sir, the ieaot of the dangers is to be found in 
the last measure. It would be the greatest if the 
President really intended to execute the threat in 
his message. But he will noido it, sir. Stand one 
side, Mr. Chairman, let Congress refuse to purchase 
the dispute, leave him to advance or recede, as 
prudence may determine, and there will be no col- 
lision. If he does not command the army to as- 
sail the authorities of Texas, they will not do it; 
if he does without the assent of Congress, he will 
be amenable for the consequences. It will do 
more for the security oi' our rights and the resto- 
ration of rhe influence of the States, to let the 
President discover his error and recede from his 
position, than years of clamor and resistance. 
No President of this Republic has the temerity to 
assail a State in its sovereign capacity without the 
direction of Congress; and the sooner any Presi- 
dent learns that he dare not do it the better. 

Mr. Chairman, it is something astonishing that 
the President should, all ai once, have wakened up 
to the pressing emergency now existing in New 
Mexico. All the confusion there, has been pro- 
duced by the intermeddling of the Administration 
immediately preceding him, and himself. The only 
danger of collision can be avoided by his discre- 
tion. There does not exist any such combination 
of persons, citizens of Texas, or any other place, 
to resist the laws of the United States. Should 
any portion of people east of the Rio Grande en- 
deavor to make a government against the authority 
of Texas, it will be time enough for the Presi('ent, 
acting under the direction of Congress, to inter- 
pose. Should Texas actually take possession, no 
statute of limitation will run against the United 
States, and no evil can ensue. The concern, and 
conscientious anxieties, under which he suffers, are 
still more a matter of surprise, when we know that 
many cases such as are described by the statutes 
of 1795 and 1807, do exist, and are of continual oc- 
currence, and he is not moved to action by them. 
The acts on which he relies for authority to 
coerce Texas, refer to such combinations in any 
State or Territory to resist the laws of the United 
Slates or preve.'it their execution, as cannot be 
overcome by the judicial authority, or the powers 
given to the marshals by those acts; that then the 
President may call on the army, navy, and militia 
to enforce the laws and secure their execution. 
Now, in many of the non-slaveholding Slatesof the 
Union, euchcombinaiionsdoexist. TheGovcriors 
and Legislatures iiive evidence of their exist- 
ence in the statute book. It is made highly 
penal for courts, officers, or citizens to aid the 
marshal in the capture and delivery of fugitive 
slaves, in open violation of the Constitution — 
the fundamental law of the land. Gerrit Smith, 



of New York, president of the negro stealing so- 
ciety, published his manifesto, boasting of a com- 
bination to steal, protect, and remove the property 
of slaveholders. Mobs interfere to rescue slaves 
who are taken. No prudent man is willing to risk 
his life for the recovery of his property in many 
of the States; and notorious as these facts are, 
widely known and loudly complained of, the Pres- 
ident has fell no conscientious impulses to urge 
him to break up such combinations. But wher. 
the plan is to buy slave territory to make fret 
soil— to dismember a southern State and despoil her 
of her domain — when the banner of abolition is 
to be pushed forward— the necessity becomes 
pressing, and with a sword wielded by himself, and 
ten millions of dollars raised from the taxation of 
a people now pressed with a public debt, ht 
threatens, and asks Congress to bribe Texas. To 
come down to the Paso, and with the Pacific oc- 
cupied by California, the cordon of free States 
around the slave States will be complete. Am I, 
then, in error, when I say this is an aboliuon Gov- 
ernment.' I think not, sir; for all the territorial 
policy looks to the abolition of slavery. ! use 
the term abolition, in reference to ultimate conse- 
quences. I call every Free Soiler, every advocate 
of anti-slavery measures or restrictions, every man 
who votes for the proviso, or refuses to repeal the 
Mexican laws, if he believes them efficient to ex- 
clude the South, an Abolitionist pro tanto. There 
are various stages of the species; the caterpillar is 
a chrysalis before he becomes a butterfly; the 
tadpole will certainly become a frog — he may pre- 
sent a nondescript appearance in his intermediate 
state, but he will shed every appendage inconsist- 
ent with his ultimate condition, and corae out a 
frog confessed. The mildest anti-slavery man 
would vote for the proviso if he did not think the 
Mexican laws sufficient for his purpose, and all at 
last unite to prevent the slaveholder from equal 
participation of the public domain. To extinguish 
slavery, either by direct abolition or restricted sur- 
face — either by immediate destruction or ultimate 
starvation, is the avowed object; and to it all de- 
grees of anti-slavery doctrines assuredly lead. 

Abolition and free-soilism, sir, have become 
very powerful in this Government. The distribu- 
tion of fifty-eight millions of dollars a year, and 
the emoluments of office, ara rapidly creating na- 
tional politicians in the South. The sword and 
the ermine are concentrated in the President — he 
will soon seize the purse, and dispense with the 
formalities of an election for his successor. He 
will, in a short time, have nothing to buy, be- 
cause, sir, you will have nothing to sell. National 
Democratic or national Whig parties may bring 
about such a state of things, but they can never 
remedy the evil. We see it already in the ambi- 
tion of politicians to have a national reputation. 
Words, sir, become things, and it is important 
that we should understand the meaning which has 
been attached to them by circumstances. Speeches, 
letters, and editorials, are filled with such terms 
as these: Southern Hotspurs, nullifiets, ultras, 
disunionists per se, and traitors, on the one hand; 
and moderate men, patriots and national politicians 
on the other. In connection with the great issue 
now occupying the public mind, a southern Hot- 
spur indicates one that asserts the equality of the 
southern .members of this Confederacy; a nui- 
lifier, one who is so simple at' to suppo.se that & 



10 



palpable violation of the Constitution, in any law, 
ought to take away its effect; an ultra, one who 
is satisfied with a part of the territory for the oc- 
cupation of his constituents, who will acquiesce in 
the Missouri compromise line; a disunionist per 
36, one who does not promptly yield to any and 
every measure of adjustment, without reference to 
the rights and the honor of his section; and he a 
traitor, who dares to commit the sin of violated 
majesty, in supposing that plunder, insult, oppres- 
sion, and degradation, in the name of the Union, 
ought to be met and resisted, " come what may." 
Should any member from the South dare to claim 
all of her rights, (which few have the boldness to 
do,) there is no term in the vocabulary of repro- 
bation which describes his offence — it is, sir, "a 
deed without a name." 

On the other hand, a moderate man sees the sal- 
vation of the country in the organization of na- 
tional parties and presidential conventions, and a 
patriot yields to the demands of injustice for the 
Union's sake. He can weep teats of bitterness over 
t:he evils which threaten its integrity — looks with 
idolatrous Teverence to it as the great end of lib- 
erty, not as the means of securing it — bows at the 
aitar of the Federal Government — denounces all 
who think that they owe allegiance to the sover- 
eign State in which they reside, whose citizens 
they represent, and whose protecting arm shields 
their families and their firesides — owes a higher 
and paramount allegiance here; and no matter 
what comes, although the Constitution be violated 
and his rights withheld, he will kiss the rod which 
amites him, and bow to the tyranny which treads 
him to the earth. 

The people, sir, are the great lexicographers — 
they will revise this edition of newly-defined terms, 
and it is probable they may not fully approve, it 
i propose '.o give a more detailed account of na- 
tional politicians, and the process by which they 
are formed — those who enjoy the glory and are 
redolent with the odor of national reputation. 
Northern mec being in a majority, acquire it eas- 
ily. They can bargain for it with expectants of 
patronage, and calculate with some certainty; but 
the southern politician has a more difficult task to 
perform. After much study, I think I have ascer- 
tained how it can be done, and I will tell you, sir — 
it is interesting to understand all those processes, 
which are such important elements in the current of 
events which surround us. A southern politician, to 
be national, must stand South and lean North; must 
censure any of his friends who are urgent for the 
rights of their constituents, and apologize for anti- 
slavery allies; must praise the Union statedly and 
Yociferously, make its glories the staple of his 
speeches and conversation, attribute all the excess- 
es of the Abolitionists to the ultraism of southern 
men; acquire the reputation of a moderate man by 
never demanding the rights of those who have 
intrusted them to his care; advise compromises 
and submission because it is the best that can be 
had; always be in the rear of the just demands 
of the South, and say he is for them, biUlhey can- 
not be had. If a southern member of Congress 
claims bare justice for his section, rebuke him and 
.ell him our northern friends cannot vote for that 
measure, although due to ua, because it will de- 
stroy them at home. Speak much of ultras and 
disunionists per se, and call all who are not out- 
right Rubmissionists, impracticables and southern 



abstractionists. If to this you add that a states- 
man who seeks a national reputation should be 
careful not to be considered the representative of 
his own district, or even State, or the United 
States, but the representative of human rights and 
; human liberty the world over — if he has ever 
been as unwise as to be so sectional as to make a 
bold stand for his people, their property, and their 
[ homes — if he has been indiscreetly conspicuous in 
! any demonstration of this kind, he should imme- 
diately change his course, and by eminent moder- 

■ ation atone for former want of nationality. This 
is the plan to acquire national reputation, the road 
to preferment, to office, and confidence with the ma- 
jority. The only drawback is, that anything so 
easily acquired is usually of but little worth. The 
people will sometimes reason with their servants, 
and be unpleasantly inquisitive into their tran- 
sactions. They still believe that their immediate 
Representatives are responsible to them, and do 
sometimes hold them to that responsibility. These 
national politicians become numerous in proportion 
to the ease with which they are produced and the 
reward which will satisfy them. Their patriotism is 
well described to resemble •' a circle in the water 
which never ceases to enlarge itself till by broad 
spreading it disperse to nought." So there is 

I every grade, from those who aspire to the high- 

■ est rewards in the gift of the people, down to the 
j tide-waiter — but one thing is commmon to them 
l] all, they are eminently national. National, because 

looking for the majority, for all national politicians 
ii have an instinctive, an utter horror of minorities. 
Minorities cannot be national, and unless there be 
two of them, one holding the balance of power, 
are always regarded with contempt. Against this 
national abolition Government I rejoice that North 
Carolina has spoken out. The recent election 
there, sir, does not indicate the numbers or the 
strength of the Democratic or Whig parties on the 
old issues. The nominating convention adopted 
resolutions which on the one side endorsed and 
approved of the administration of General Taylor 
and the compromise bill of the Committee of Thir- 
teen; the other was equally clear in denouncing 
that Administration, and expressing a preference for 
the Missouri compromise line as a basis of settle- 
ment. The people have passed upon the issue — 
they have given judgment for southern rights, and 
the work is done. 

1 know, sir, that opposition to this Texas bound- 
ary bill, or any one of the class of measures in- 
cluded in what was called the adjustment, or com- 
promise bill, §3 long before the Senate, has been 
described as indicative of our unwillingness to 
quiet agitation. That those who cannot approve 
of any or all of the provisions of that plan are de- 
nounced as disunionists and disorganizers. The 
charge is untrue,and can only be intended to cover 
a gross dereliction of duty to the South by those 
who make it. 1 am willing to pay that portion of 
the debt of Texas which was secured upon the 
customs of the Republic before annexation, pro- 
vided Texas shall sell to the United States lands 
for indemnity; — not part with the sovereignty, 
and thus expose it to the Wilmot proviso, but sell 
the land, as the United States owns land in all the 
new States, the eminent domain remaining in the 
States within whose limits the lands lie. The 
remaining debt of Texas is land scrip, and she has 
land enough to pay it. Let, then, those who are 



11 



so liberal in denunciations of southern gentlemen, 
•who are resolved not to betray their conatituenta, 
unite to effect this desirubie end. and they will be 
entitled to much higher consideration now and 
hereafter than they can attain by misrepresenting 
the motives of others. I wish this question set- 
tled, but I wish it settled right. A settlement 
injurious to the South— which abandons their 
right, will only increase agiration and secure the 
condemnation of those who advise or effect it. 

For these, and many other reasons, Mr. Chair- 
man, I cannot vote for the bill sent down by the 
Senate for the settlement of the boundary of 
Texas and the sale of her domain. What, sir, 
vote ten millions for fifty thousand square miles of 
but ordinary lands ! For fifteen millions we pur- 
chased the whole country from the Gulf of Mexico 
to Canada and Lake Superior, thence over the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean down to the 
California line, including the Mississippi river, the 
noblest stream in the world, — a domain large 
enough for thirty States of convenient size, and 
combining more ofagricultural, mineral, and com- 
mercial wealth than any rfejgion on which the sun 
shines. For twelve millions, a part nowunpaid, 
we purchased all the territory from the Rio Grande 
to the Pacfic, surface enough for ten States; and 
we^re asked ti pay ten millions to compose a 
difficulty gotten up and fostered by this Adminis- 
tration against the settled policy of the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Polk; and for what? To permit a gov- 
ernment, all of whose policy is free-soil, to extin- 
guish one more hope that the South shall ever in- 
crease her representation in the Senate, or exert 
her proper influence in the councils of the Repub- 
lic. Should this bill piss, along with the appro- 
priations now reported to the House, and claims 
likely to be passed and provided for by the treas- 
ury, we shall be compelled in one session to ap- 
propriate more than seventy millions, in a time 
of peace — exceeding the appropriations when we 
had fifty thousand troops in the field, with all the 
incidental expenses of a war. A large loan or 
issue of slock will be necessary; the existing debt 
largely increased, taxation rendered indispensable. 
Should I vote for such prodigality, such a waste- 
ful disbursement of public money, such a debt 
upon posterity, I should expect, as I would most 
certainly meet, the indignation of my constituents. 
They are not so national as to consent that I should 
utterly disregard their intetests or their rights. 
They know that when an individual spends more 
than his income, ruin is the result. They believe 
the same thing true as to nations; and they are 
right. 

It has become so common, Mr. Chairman, to 
close a speech on this floor with a shout of glory 
to the Union, that a speech withotH some such 
appendage, subjects a member of this House to 
injurious suspicions. It has been so often exalted 
and described in all the figures of rhetoric, and the 
decorations suggested by cultivated taste, that I am 
at a loss to know how anything, either new, inter- 
esting, or instructive, can be said. I heartily con- 
cur in all that has been said about the Union as a 
means ofsecuring the good and great blessings 
enumerated in the preamble of the Constitution. 
I honor and revere the memory of those who 
framed the compact upon which this Confederacy 
is formed. I am admonished, however, by high 
senatorial authority, that ft is not a " mere Con- 



federacy, but a Union, a constitutional Govern- 
ment, and that we owe a paramount allegiance 
to that Government." I dissent from such an 
opinion, and the consequences which result from 
its adoption. My allegiance is not due to this 
Government, but to the sovereign State of North 
Carolina. She commands me to obey this Gov- 
ernment — I cheerfully acquiesce in her commands,. 
The oath of allegiance which I took was to her 
and to her constitution. When that oath was 
framed so as to require me to' maintain her con- 
stitution when not inconsistent with the Consti- 
tution of the United States, it was not intended 
to acknowledge a paramount allegiance due to any 
above her own sovereign authority. It was the 
acknowledgment of that constitution as a com- 
pact not with her citizens, but with sovereign sis- 
ter States, which her good faith was pledged as a 
sovereign to observe, and which she accordingly 
commands her citizens to maintain. It was not 
allegiance, but obedience which she inculcated. 
Sir, I was not born a citizen of the United States, 
nor have I ever been such in any other sense than 
that which is derived from the provision in our 
Constitution, that the " citizens of each State shall 
be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citi- 
zens in the several States." This is the grant by 
which my American citizenship is recognized, and 
this, and this alone, the sense in which any per- 
son can enjoy that right. It would be asserting 
the absurdity of two citizenships in one and the 
same individual, cotemporaneous and yet distinct 
from each other. I am an American citizen be- 
cause I am a citizen of North Carolina. That 
gives me equal rights and immunities by compact, 
and it is to this that North Carolina agreed when she 
came into the Confederacy amongst the last. I will 
obey as long as she shall require me to do so. To 
her I owe allegiance, to her I bow as my sovereign. 
When she in convention shall revoke the edictwhich 
she adopted in convention, I shall owe my allegiance 
still to her, and will adhere to her fortunes and her 
decisions, whatever may be the consequences to 
myself. North Carolina, with dignity demands 
equal rights, according to the compact. She has 
historical reputation in reference to her determina- 
tion to resist wrong and oppression. She was in 
advance of the Old Thirteen at least one year be- 
fore .Tuly, 1776. She was the last to come into 
this Union — she will not be the first to go out. 
She never will, if justice is awarded; but her peo- 
ple know that yielding to wrong, because power 
claims the right to inflict it — that a public notice 
that whatever may happen submission is intended, 
only provokes aggression and secures degradation. 
North Carolina asks for acts of justice, not empty 
words; and whilst both here and in the Senate she 
h&s heard that her rights, in common with those of 
the whole South, were disregarded, I do not believe 
that mere honeyed words about her grievances, or 
piling up the agony, or the consequences to flow 
from resistance, will influence the determination 
of her citizens. I caution gentlemen, lest the 
people of North Carolina awake to the truth, 
that the practical result to them of all this 
glorification of the Union and submission to 
wrong for the Union's sake, ends in the practi- 
cal result that the Union holds whilst abolition 
skins; that those soft strains of music which 
are employed to sing the glories of the Union, 
be not the fanning of the varapire'.i wings, to lull 



12 



his victim, whilst he gorges himself with his blood. 
A convention of the citizens of North Carolina, 
who nominated the lately elected Governor, re- 
solved, that whilst they yielded to none in at- 
tachment to the Union, they are determined, 
happen what may, "to resist all palpable violations 
of the Constitution, and all attempts to wield this 
Government by a mere sectional majority, to the in- 
jury and degradation of the southern people." i 
The people of that State have ratified the resolu- j 
tion by unmistakable evidence. And when, after | 
having eo often entreated earnestly of a majority 
here, not to apply the Wilmot proviso to the I 
Territories, the answer is, "Surrender at dis- ! 
cretion; we care not for your feelings; it is no 
motive for our action that you have a sensitiveness 
upon this subject, and that what will offcHd you is 
unimportant to us; we will have the Wilmot pro- 
viso; we will vote for it; we will vote for no bill 
without it," — when this and similar answers are 
given to every demand for equality and justice, I 
do not beli''-.ve that North Carolina '.vill submit to 
the slow process of refusmg protection to the man- 
ufacturers at the North, or counting sixpences with 
them on the issue of political equality and the guar- 
antees of the Constitution. Such a submissive 
process will meet with no favor there. A citizen 
of the United States may advise such a course in 
virtue of his allegiance to this Government. As a 
citizen of North Carolina, to whom I have sworn 
allegiance, which implies obedience, love, and 
honor, I neither will, nor can give such advice. I 
owe her allegiance as my son owes me allegiance. I 
place him, by compact, under the tuition and author- 
ity of a teacher, and direct him to yield that 
teacher obedience. He abuses his authority. I 
say to my son, Obey him no longer. And his al- 
legiance to me dissolves the connection with him 



whose will he was once bound by his allegiance 
to me to obey. And North Carolina, loyal to the 
Union, true to her plighted faith, will do all that 
a high, honorable, unpretending people may do 
to avert mischief, restore confidence, and allay 
irritation. Let her be satisfied thatjusiice will be 
withheld, wrong perpetrated, her^sons excluded 
from the public domain, their pVoperty outlawed, 
stolen, and the thieves protected by tlie laws of 
sister States; that concession, submission, humble 
intreaty at the footstool of power usurped by an 
unrelenting majority, is the only resource left tor 
them to preserve the little that remains, and the 
spirit of 1776 will again be aroused into action. 
And to resolve and to act will be but one event. 
Unlike some others, I do admit the light of those 
who elected me to command my judgment — they 
do not ask to command my conscience. They are 
too kind, and have been too confiding and just to 
demand a disregard for its decisions. To their' 
expressed will I would yield the convictibn of 
mv judgment. I will obey their will when con-" 
science does not forbid: should that be the case, I-., 
would cheerfully resign the Jtrust to I'leir ImmfW. 
I represent them, and shall endeavor to repfesent 
their will as well as their interests. To them I am 
responsible, and for their decisions I have the m(^[ 
profound respect. They have generously given me 
their confidence. They are a portion of the State 
of North Carolina; and with her, and with them, 
as a part of her and her fortunes, I am inseparably 
connected. Should she resist the authority of this 
Government, I shall not judge for myself whether 
she be right. No; her fortune is mine, her fate is 
m.ine; I have shared her prosperity, I have been 
favored by her people, and , come weal or woe, I shall 
own my allegiance and obey her commands, as long 
as her constitution and laws protect and defend me. 



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LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



014 647 082 8 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 647 082 8 



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