.5* ,563 ^-i**--- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 025 944 1 ^ pennulijje* pH83 E 440 .5 .B63 Copy 1 SPEECH GE" y HON. S. S. BLAIR, OF PE Delivered in tlie House of Representatives, February 23, 1861. honorable gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Boteler] introduced his resolution changing the accus- tomed order of procedure by referring that por- tion of the President's message touching the troubles to a select committfee of thirty-three. If we had voted down the resolution, and all others of like character, we would have had before the public mind the naked issue, Union or disunion ; you would have almost instantly aroused from its profoundest depths the Union sentiment in the hearts of the people. To meet any great crisis like this, it is essential that the public spirit should be called forth ; but following in the footsteps of the Administration, which was without policy, without unity, struck with the paralysis of wavering resolution, and distracted by fears and timorous doubts, we failed in that important work A new issue has been made up — a false and distracting one ; not union or disunion ; but new guaranties to slavery or disunion. From that day, slavery has seemed almost to keep court within the temple of the nation; where, from far and near, men have come tb do her the reverence of right loyal liegemen. Propositions of great diversity in form, but nearly all looking to the national recognition of slavery, were showered upon us for miiuy days ; and the gentlemen from the disaffected States on the committee, as we are informed, after it had been determined that slavery should not have a roving commission over Mexico and Central America, refused fur- ther official intercourse with their colleagues; who, themselves divided and distracted, have presented a number of reports, no one of which, it appears, had the sanction of the majority. Thus it is, sir, that in this great ejiort to win over the enemies of the Union, we have suc- ceeded only in distracting its friends. It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that we have not yet grappled with the living issue that is before us; we have been telling- the people that this question of disunion mjist be looked squarely in the face ; and yet the House and the Senate dnd the Administration have, up to within one week of our adjournment, been looking at it askance, while we endeavor to reopen a discussion already exhausted and irrevocably closed by the solemn verdict of the people. Sir, the only question that The House having under consideration the re- port from the select committee of thirty-three — Mr. BLAIR said : Mr. Speaker: There seems to me a strange anomaly in our politics. In the clashing opin- ions of these troublous times, all appear to unite in praise of the Government of the United States ; with one consent its structure is pronounced to be better adapted to the spirit of our people than any that could be devised. This is the testimony which an experience of three quarters of a cen- tury bears to the wisdom of its framers, and which we have been accustomed to expect would be strengthened as years increase. But while these encomiums are on the lips of all, we find that one party, in open rebellion against its au- thority, is organized to destroy it by force of arms ; another seeks to change its Constitution ; and yet a third threatens to revolt, unless it shall be altered to suit their views ; while a fourth, in opposition to all, demands its preservation and peroetuity as our fathers made it. The enemies of the Government, bold, cunning, and impetu- ous, have usurped the powers of the people in six of the States. They have by force, and by the basest treachery that ever stained the earth, become possessed of property of the nation, pur- chased at a cost of over seven million dollars, for the common defence of all. They have taken our guns and turned their fire on the flag of the na- tion, thus far, with perfect impunity. In the face of these dire events, what a spectacle do we pre- sent to the world ? Will the generations that are to succeed us believe that at such a time we sat out a whole winter, trying how far we might go to comply with the demands of traitors, and what new securities we might devise for the protection and spread of human bondage ? . Sir, when we came here in December, I hoped to seethe patriots of the North and South stand- ing together in firm concord, and uniting their counsels for'the preservation of the Union in its integrity. I thought they might all agree to pro- vide whatsoever legislation might be deemed needful for the prompt and vigorous execution of the laws ; and was prepared, and am still nre- pared, to join hands with every man willing to avo'.v his unqualified devotion to the country. Animated by this hope, I was pained when the h.. ^ /f- any man can ask this day is : shall the will of a EGajarity be successfully thwarted by an orj^an- ized conspiracy in the minority? The problem which is uppermost in the minds of the people, all experience shows, must be first solved, before they will direct their attention to other less in- teresting investigations. It is a law — which, if but obeyed, will lead to success— to seize first upon the greatest good that is within our reach, and to combat first the greatest evil that en- counters our progress. The people are at this time more deeply con- cerned in establishing the fact before the nations of the world that the Government of the United States is a real power on the earth, than iu ad- justing the details of policy. It is no time now to be higgling with the demands of faction in he State, when faction has drawn the sword against the State itself. Faction must be put down. Treason must first be subdued before its pretexts can be safely considered. We cannot dally with it but at the peril of the nation's honor, which is the nation's life. It asserts the principle that the people of any one State may, iu the exercise of a riglit springing from the Constitution, at any time, with or without cause, withdraw from the Union, and erect in our midst a foreign indepen- dent government, such as they may choose to adopt, whether it be a republic, a constitutional monarchy, or au absolute despotism. If this be true, then, we must bow to the necessity of ac- knowledging it with becoming grace. Bitter as may be the cup, we must drink it to the dregs. We must give up every fort and arsenal in the seceding States, take down the stars and stripes, and salute with respect the Palmetio, the Peli- can, and the Rattlesnake. If secession is consti- tutional, then, sir, we are bound, by our oaths, to recognise the.ic States as foreiga sovereignties as fully as we recognise the sovereignty of Eng- land or of France. But, sir, if there is no such right, we cannot, we dare not, recognise it, or even seem to recognise it, however slightly or obliquely. TUe right of secession is a political theory of modern growth. It looks upon the Constitution as but a league or compact between independent States, and that the Government which it estab- lishes is but an agent of the several States in- trusted with thb execution of certain povvers, which may be revoked and annulled by any State, as tlie interest, convenience, or whims of its people may determine; and that, after such revocation, the State resumes its original inde- pendent sovereignty. Its first fundamental error is, that the States composing this Confederacy ever were in possession of separate independent sovereignty. When South Carolina sent her del- egates to Congress, she was still a colony of Great Britain, never having assumed to exercise the high powers of a sovereign ; and her dele- gates, like the delegates of all the other colonies, met only to consult for the public safety, but found the pressure of events so strong that they were of necessity compelled, as united colonie.^, to assume the powers of a sovereign nation. It was as united colonies that sovereignty was as- sumed, by which they were able to vindicate the .■B4.3 independence of the United States. This league, or Confederacy, though itself declared to be per- petual, not being a Government which operated on the people directly, but upon the States, gave place to the Constitution, which established a Government, net a league. It was established by the people, in precisely the same way that they established their Stale gavernments; and in all matters confided to its jurisdiction by the Constitution, it claims the obedience of the citi- zen in the same way that the State Constitution claims his obedience in all matters within the jurisdiction of the State. Each government is supreme within its own sphere ; so that neither can absolv.' the citizen from his obligations to the other. The sacred instrument itself declares its character as a Constitution for the people of the United States. It was not ordained by the deputies of sovereign States, as is professed by the Montgomery constitution. But the fact that it operates upon the people in the several States no more lessens its force as a Government for the whole people, than does the division of the people of a State into county and township or- ganizations detract from the obligation of the citizens of each of them to obey the State Con- stitution. From the foundation of the Government till recently, the idea was never entertained that our Constitution was but a league of States. About the first resolution that was adopted by the con- vention which formed it, declared " that- a na- tional Government ought to be established, con- sisting of a supreme legislature, judiciary, and executive," and that resolution was fully carried out in the great work of the convention. And it is for us to say whether it shall be preserved, or whether it shall go down, ignominiously, at the biddiug of South Carolina and her confede- rates. It is for us to saj' whether its foundation is on a rock, or on sand or stubble. Its supre- macy must be preserved by a firm and just exe- cution of the laws in every portion of the country. It must not be enervated, and thereby dishonor- ed, by the faintest actual or implied recognition of this heresy of secession. But others tell us that the only effectual way to preserve the Government is by a compromise. Now, there are thousands of people who teil us to compromise, who seem to attach no definite idea to the word. When reminded that Con- gress can only execute its powers by the enact- ment of laws ior the remedy of evils, without telling us what particular lineofaction we should take, they advise us to " do something." No- body seems to know what particular " some- thing" it is wise to do. The country is actually , in a panic. Some persons, alarmed by unusual events, without waiting to take counsel of reason, would madly rush on almost any extraordinary , course ; they know not, and care not what. We all remember how the whole country was panie- stricken by John Brown's lawless invasion at Harper's Ferry; or, rather, how it was seized upon by desperate politicians to alarm the fears of the people ; uuder the influence of panic, ex- traordinary measures were resorted to, which all now admit to have been unwise, and which. ultimately, cost the State of Virfjinia more money to watch Brown, at Chavlestown, than it cost the British Government, for the same length of time, to watch Napoieon on the Island of St. Helena. These moyemeats, aided by the fierce attacks in Congress on the Republican party, as being responsible, produced such a state of alarm, that ^the Union meetings called on the Repub- licans to disband their organizations, and " do sometbittg " for the salvation of the Union. But, instead of yielding, the Republicans, in the strength which conscious rectitude imparts, proceeded to the prooer business of legislation, and convinced the country that a party which, standing by its principles, was able to govern itself, was fit, likewise, to govern the country. AVe let the panic die out ; and our fidelity to principle has been rewarded by the confidence of the country. And now, again, a mad and foolish panic is diligently nourished, under which six States — from South Carolina to Louisiana — have been forced out of the Union by the same alarmists. Has the world ever witnessed such an exhibition of wicked folly? Some of these States, since the origin of the Government, and all of them, since their organi- zation into State Governments, have enjoyed the advantages of a Union, to which they are in- debted for whatever of consequence they pos- sess, and yet, in an hoir of unreasoning mad- ness, have levelled the forces of destruction against that Union itself. They seize upon its public buildings, upon its treasury, and appropriate to their own uses the hospital which the benevolence of the Govern- ment had dedicated to its disabled seamen. Montesquieu has a chapter of three lines in his Spirit of Laws, to illustrate his idea of despotic power. He tells us — "Whon tho savages of Louisiana are dosirous of fruit, they cut thti tree to the root and gather the fruit ; this is au emijiem of despotic government." While the illustration does justice to the sel- fishness of despotism, it reminds us, in the light of the events I have mentioned, that many of the more enlightened successors of the aboriginals of Louisiana have not much improved on the wis- dom of their predecessors. Do they, with any reason, expect to gather and long to enjoy the fruits of Union — independence, security, and strength — by destroying the tree which bears them V No, sir. All man everj'where pronounce them mad. They have been hurried by their leaders into excesses and troubles for which there is but one remedy, and Vi^hich, if we will only be equal to our duty and possess our hearts in pa- tience, will certainly be applied ; and that is, the expulsion of the conspiring leaders from power by the certain return of the people to reason and reflection. The men who sacrifice the public order to their ambition, will in turn become the victims of the very disorders which they have brought about. If history has its logic, it has its avenging justice too. But shall the Government do nothing? Well, sir, I think there is one branch of the Govern- ment has been already used to do a good deal. He^ids of Departments, sworn to maintain the Constitution and the laws of the United States, have openly and secretly used the opportunities of office for the overthrow of the country. Dis- graceful engagements have been made with men in arms against the Government, to leave the strongholds of the country in a defenceless con- dition. Inasmuch, however, as confidence in the integrity of that arm of the Government has been improved of late, let us hope that the future will show it to be well founded. But shall not Con- gress enact some laws relative to slavery, which can be called a compromise, with these men, in order to bring them back to (lie Union? Bring them back ! Sir, they are not out of the Union. Their paper resolves are nullities ; and when you thus recognise South Carolina and other States as out of the Union, you admit that its laws have no force within their limits. Contrive as you please to devise compromises for what you call reconstruction, and as a condition precedent to them all, you are confronted with this humilia- ting concession which y()U s-re forced to make — that South Carolina rightfully disgraced your ILig, and that she may do so again at any future time. Sir, in this hour of peril I turn a willing ear to the voices of departed patriots. I listen submissively to one of the wisest, greatest, and noblest of men. When South Carolina rebelled, in 1833, because she disliked the tariff laws, John Quincy Adams, of the Committee on Manufac- tures, in his report, says : " The subscribers believe, therefore, that tlie ground as- sumed by the Soutli Caroiiua couveutiou for usurping the sovc'reiyu and limitless power of the people of that State, to dictate the laws of the Union, and prostrnte tho legisla- tive, executive, and judicial authority of the United States, is as destitute of foundation as the forms and substance of their iirocecdings are arrogant, overbearing, tyrannical aM oppressive. They believe that ono particle of compromise with that usurped power, or of concession to its pretensions, woulil be a heavy calamity to the people of the whole Union, and to none more than to the people of South Carolina them- selves. That such concessions by Congress would bo a de- reliction of their highest duties to the country, and directly lead to the Uual and inevitable dissolution of the Union. With the usurpations of the South Carolina convention, there can bo no possible compromise. They must conquer , or they must fall." Oh, that the statesmen of that day had all been true to the principles of Mr. Adams's report and General Jackson's proclamation, and had consulted the future of the Republic, rather than their temporary quiet ! A compromise tariff was passed to bring back South Carolina, and she was taught that rebellion was a wise policy to maintain her supremacy in the Union. That compromise has brought us unmixed evil ; but I hope that patience and fortitude will enable us now to avoid the mistake which was then made ; for I do believe that, if you bring her back by a compromise, she will, before six months, rebel against the specific duties of the pending tariff bill, if it^hould become a law. Slavery is thought to be somewhat weaker now than formerly, and the bargain proposed is, if we will give our solemn pledge to strengthen and perpetuate it, we will be paid for the wear and tear of princi- ple by the return of the " confederates" into the Union, with the right to leave it again whenever they please. But the majority of those who urge conces- , fion, admit that the cotton States, having as- ::ameii an open attitude of rebellion against the Constitution and the laws, compromise with them is inadmissible without dishonor; yet, unless concession be made to the border slaveholding States, the same causes which operated to drive off the former, will, in a very short time, pro- duce like results in the latter. But if a compromise to bring back the seceded States is inadmissible, because it would amount to a recognition of the doctrine of secession, does not the same objection apply to a compromise made in obedience to a threat of secession ? If one is dishonorable, is not the other equally so? There is scarcely anything within the compass of our powers to do, not involving a sacrifice of orincipie, that the noble Union men of these States would ask, to which I would not be in- clined to respond as a brother. I know their he- roism and their fortitude, and the dashing gal- lantry with which they have swept the field against haughty insolence and arrogance, which thought to crush them at a blow. But hearts so noble as theirs will not, and cannot, insist that we should sacrifice our convictions of duty to the country in this time of its trial. Rather than do this,' I believe they will buckls on their armor afresh, and march to the higher and the final conflict. The strength which their victory over immediate disunion has imparted to them will bring within their power its more insidious, and therefore more dangerous enemy — conditional secession. They have had their ovation ; let them arise to their triumph. In my judgment, any measure-j of compromise are a concession, not to the patriots of those States, but to the usurpers themselves, by which they will be ena- bled to return to power. But, sir, what is it that is demanded of us? I notice that the President has preferred the charge that the people of the North have, by their presses and their pulpits, spoken evil of slavery, and that pictorial representations unfavorable to it have been scattered over the country. Now, Mr. Speaker, as to the pictures, I have heard that a long time ago they were sent into the Southern States. As the President has always been a swift witness for slavery, his antiquarian researches iuto the forgotten events of the past, that he might bring forth some apology or ex- cuse for treason, is calculated to excite rather our curiosity than our surprise. There may have been pictures — they are not unusual weapons of warfare in political encounters ; I cannot tell how much the President himself may be indebted 10 their instrumentality in the canvass of 185G. 'I'hey were extensively used by Granville Sharp ••iud Clarkson, in their contests with slavery in England, and the good La Fayette, afraid to trust the cause of freedom alone to the eloquence ■ of Mirabeau, lest its sacredness might be sullied by the "Ambition of the orator, distributed five nundred pictures himself among the members of ihe French Assembly ; a copy of that picture is the only one of the kind that I have ever seen in j my life, and that came from Mr. Jefferson's libra- ; ry. I do, therefore, truly think that a revolution , must indeed be " artificial," which includes i among the evils to be remedied a grievance like this. We are told, however, by the gentleman from Kentucky, [.Mr. Simms,] that even if we should adopt every propoaitionfor adjustment yet made, yet, unless we "put down" all publications and speeches at the North against slavery, there can be no Union. We are not told how we are to put them down. I suppose it would perhaps be agreeable to return to the old Spanish policy of subjecting every manuscript of book or pamphlet to a board of licensers before publication, and allow nothing to be printed and read but what they approve by their mark; somewhat in the same way that leather and other commod ties are admitted to the market by the official brand of the inspectors. But, Mr. Speaker, whether a censorship of the press, or a system of pains and penalties, be desired, if the constitutional guar- antee of its freedom must be destroyed as a sac- rifice for the Union, it will never be done. It underlie^ our whole system of constitutional lib- erty, and may be said almost to compose it. It is further charged that the Republican party design to abolish slavery in the States where it exists, and we must therefore consent to an amendment to the Constitution, putting it ex- pressly out of the power of Congress. The Con- stitution ought not to be altered, except for the gravest reasons, much less to meet an evil that has no existence. The charge that the Repub- lican party claims such a power, or intends to usurp it,- is untrue. I have never known a Re- publican who did not consider an attempt by Congress to interfere with it in the States, as a usurpation to be resisted. Congress has no more power over the subject of slavery in the States than it has over the State laws relating to the descent of lands, or any other State institution. We have said so in our platforms, our addresses to the people, and in our votes given here unanimously at this session on the following res- olution: " Itesolved, That neither C<)Dgro.=is nor the people or gov- ernmeut of any non-slaveholdiiig uStatehas the coaslitutioual right to legiiiiite upon, or interfere with, slaverj- in any slavchoUiug State in the Union." Our opponents know that we will live up to our pledges, and therefore fear that the p'c-ople who have been deceived by their misrepresentations will very naturally conclude that they are not to be believed hereafter. They cannot have my vote to help them out of that difficulty. The South has every security in the Constitution already, with- out the proposed amendment. We have done everything that men can do to remove apprehen- sions on this point. An Athenian ambassador, in treaty with the Laced;emonians, after many propositions had been considered, said: "There can be but one bond and security that will bind us. You must show that we have so much in our hands that you cannot hurt us if you would." You have that bond and security. Why, then, did the committee report a remedy for an evil which can only have a place in the wildest fancy. With regard to slavery in the District of Colum- bia, where Congress has the unquestionable power to abolish it, they say that, inasmuch as no one proposes to interfere with it, they deem it useless to report any amendmeDt. I think it not quite consistent in the committee to refuse an amend- ment where it is possible to interfere with slavery, on the ground that nobody proposes to do so, and at the same time to bring in an amendment to provide against not only what no one proposes to do, but what, if desired, it is impossible to do. But gentlemen tell us that dematrogues in the South, by persistently misrepresenting our pur- poses to the people, have brought them to be- lieve that it is our purpose to abolish slavery. I am bound to suppose that the oppone-jts of this class of politicians in the South have always known these representations to be untrue. They have had all the evidence which any man capa- ble of thinking could ask. I must presume, like- wise, that they have, with the earnestness of sin- cere men, brought this evidence to the notice of the people; so that, wherever the poison of falsehood has been scattered, the antidote, truth, has followed. Now, if the friends of truth have done their whole duty in this respect, to the Southern people, I would be very sorry to sup- pose that a majority of them continue to believe a falsehood. It would be evidence to my mind that they would rfot believe though one rose from the dead, and that they were given over to an utter inability to see the truth, though it blazed around them as the light of the sun at mid- day. If an amendment to the Constitution could be carried, it would not open their eyes; for the demagogues would tell them, as they tell them now, that we care nothing about the Constitu- tion, and we only amend it to blind them, that we might the more easily accomplish our pur- poses ; and if it should be lost in any four States, and consequently not adoptf^d, then they would aver the evidence of the design they charge upon us to be conclusive. Let us not, I entreat, then, permit a rash hand to be laid upon the ark of our safety, lest for the error we may be smitten with greater evils than we design to cure. Another proposition is before us, which was first brought lorward under the auspicious name of the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, and called a comj)romise. The offer is to revive the Missouri line of aG*^ 30^, and extend it to Califor- nia, and to exclude slavery from all territory north of the line, and to protect and secure it in all.territory, " now owned or which may be here- after acquired" by the United States; and this astounding proposition is to be incorporated in the Constitution as an amendment, to become the supreme law of the land, high above all Congresses, courts, and Territori.al Legislatures. A superhcial glance at it might lead one to sup- pose that it contains a concession to freedom. The territory, however, which it proposes thus to consecrate, is already free. Kansas, the hrst fruits of the bloody strife between freedom and slavery, inaugurated by the repeal of the Mis- souri compromise, has already been welcomed into the councils of the Union. She is free by her patience, her sutferings, her endurance, and by the valor of her sons. Had she gone down under the victorious heel of slavery, not only her doom was sealed, but that of every rood of national territory to the north and west of her limits. But the same tide of free emigration which gave her population needful for a State, has peopled Nebraska, already organized, and Dakota, with her sister Territories, yet await ng organization from this Congress. And these are the Territories which the Crittenden amendment magnanimously devotes to freedom. Sir, they need no Wilmot proviso, either in their organic acts or in the Constitution, to preserve them to freedom. Tnere is no virtue, then, in this part of the proposed compromise, except that which is born of necessity. We neither wish it nor ask it ; why, then, is it offered ? It is but a cloak to cover the nakedness of the attempt to devote the free territory southward to slavery. Lef the people mark it, aod reflect on the humiliation to which they are invited : " That tho territory now held, or that- may hereafter be acquired by the United States, shall be divided by a line Ircuu east to west ou the p;u'allel of 36'' 30', north latitude. Thiit ill all the territory south of said line, involuntary ser- vitude, us it now exists in the Suites south of Mason and Dixon's hue, is hereby recognised, and shall be sustained and protected by all the departments of the territorial gov- ernments. " The country "now held" south of the line to which this amendment is applica'ile, is the Territory of New Mexico, .organized by one of the compromise measures of 1850, and which was extended by the act of 1853, so as to cover the country called Arizona, witli the right of admis- -ion as a State, with or without s avery, as its constitution might provide. The right, however, was expressly reserved to Congress to re eal any 1:.- w which might be passed by the Territorial Legi.slature. No oae will be so creduloui as to suppose that this extended barren waste called New Mexico, where in ten years they have only been able to introduce about twenty s av.s, is the field in which this extraor- dinary constitutional amendment is expected to operate. The real intention is to apply the pro- vision to lilexico, or such pjrtions of her domin- ions as we may hereafter acquire by treaty or acts of aggression. She has io g been a weak and distracted nation, owing to the cause that now, for the first time in our history, begins to show itself with sufficient force to disturb the general tranquillity of the country — refusal of a defeated party to submit tj the will of a ma- jority. Sii', this Chamber has been ringing with ap- peals to the Republican members to come for- ward, in a magnanimous and conciliatory spirit, and cast away the Chicago platform. These ap- peals are made by gentlt-men without a smile on their faces. They seem to be agonized at the thought that we hesitate to abandon our platform and adopt theirs. By what right do you assume to charge us with the elevation of a party platform above the country, when you yourselves do claim that your platform is of so much more value than the Union that unless you get it foisted into the Constitu- tion of the country you will trample her hag in the dust. You plunder the public moneys and cry out, "give us justice;" you seize the forts a and .nrsc-nals, and then preach conciliation ; you turn the guns which yoa have taken on an un- armed steamer in the service of the Cloverument, and then with extended hands implore ns to rise to the height of this great argument, far above the Chicago platform. Sir, if we could cast off our principles as easily as old garments, it were low-thoughtcd baseness to yield our man- hood on such dishonorable terms. Kut I would have no oas believe I would yield to these demands, if^they could honorably be considered at all. Candor aud frankness, I ven- ture to say, are virtues as essential in public af- fairs as in private, notwithstanding the maxim of Louis XII prevails to a great extent, that " he who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to govern.'' Regarding Uie right of one man to have property iu another as being in derogation of the law of nature, and that wherever the right exists it must depend exclusively on the local law, I believe^and that belief is much older than the Chicago platform — that the moment the slave is transported beyond the limits of hi^ State, to a, St^te or Territory where no such law exists, he becomes as free as his former master. H)w then, sir, can I,,or any one believing this, con- sent to a law of Congress or a ne v Constitution, that will seize that man thus made free and con- vert him iato a chattel? Twelve years ago the Union was threatened, because the people of Cal- ifornia thought proper to seek admission as a State with a constitution forbidding slavery. Senator Dams piesented this identical demand, as his ultimatum, in these words : "That my position may go forth to the country in fho Fame culuiaus that convey the sentiments of ihe Senator Irom Kentuclcy, I here assert that never will I lake less than the Missouri compromise lino oxtonded to the Pacilic ocean, with the specilic recognition of the right to hold slaves in the territory below that line ; and that, before such Terri- tories arc admitted into the Union as Slates, slaves may be taken there from any of the United Stales at the option of their owners." To this demand for mere congressional recog- nition of slavery south of the line, Mr. Clay re- plied in this memorable language, so familiar to us all : " I am'extremely sorry to hear the Senator from Missis- sipi)i say that he requires first the extension of the Mis.souri compromise line to the Pacific, and also that ho is not satis- fied with that, but requires, if I understood him correctly, a positive provision for the admission of slavery south of that line. And now, sir, coming from a slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to say, that no earthly power could induce mo to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had not bclbre existed, either south or north of that line. Coming from a sUive State, as I do, it is my solemn, deliberate, ami well-matured determination, that no power — no earthly ljf)wer — shall compel me to vole for the positive introduction of slavery, cither south or north of that line." These noble words of the great orator of Ken- tucky will live in the memory of men, and pre- serve his fame in the ages that are to come after us, if all else that he has said should be forgot- ten. But I am told that Pennsylvania is con- servative, and has never been so devoted to this abstraction — as it is the fashion to call it — that her Representatives might not, consistently with her views, prove false to it. She is a conserva- tive State, and for that reason they traduce her who would represent her infidelity to principle. She will have her Reprcsentitlves conserve, in legislation, every good principle which she has ever avowed. She was conservative of justice, humanity, .■^.nd political consistency, when, in 1'784, she put slavery in the way of ultimate ex- tinction within her borders by an act of her Legislature, which tells us — as well by its pro- visions as by its thrilling pre.amble — how she loved liberty and hated bondage. She recorded her sentiments again, in 1819, on the question of slavery in the Territories, and those gentle- men who suppose that we are only standing on the Chic.igo platform, will do well to look at this record. We are told the platform was not made in view of these troubles, or she would have repudiated it.. Well, sir, the re- solve which I am about to cite was no party platform, made in time of public quiet to catch votes, but the solemn declaration of her Legis- lature, at a time not unlike the present. The first conflict on the Mi.ssouri question was in the winter of 1810, and it shook the very foun- dation of the Union; but the people of Penn- sylvania, with one heart and voice, protested against the admissiou of Missouri, with a slave constitution; and the Legislature resolved against the admission of the State, unless slavery should be prohibited. From its preamble, I extract the following: " A measure was ardently supported in the last Congress, and will, probably, bo as caruestiy urged during the exist- ing session of that body, wiiich has a probable tendency to impair the political relations of the several Stales ; which is calculated to mar the social happiness of thj present and future generations ; and which, jf adopted, would impede the march of humunity and freedom through the world, and would atlix and perpetuate an odious stain upon the present race. A measure, iu brief, which proposes to spread the crimes and cruellies of slavery from the banks of the iiis- sissippi to the shores of the Pacific. "The Senate and House of Represent/rannis" will tell yju bow Virginia will have fallen. Sir, I believe there is too much home-bred sense in the border States to give up the ad- vantage of our fathers' Union; and your ac- tion, one way or the other, with regard to New Mexico, will scarcely be thought of by them. So far as our territorial policy is the occasion of this strife, I see its removal without a resort to the legislation proposed. I see it in the ordinary legislation for the Territories. All those which we have yet to organize will un- doubtedly be free, and we will consent to or- ganize them without any provision respecting slavery; I would not introduce, needlessly, a cause of complaint, however groundless, into those territorial bills. Without standing on a ceremony, we have already organized Colorado in that way. Let us do likewise with the rest; and then every community within our juris- diction will be organized, so that we may hope to be at peace, so long as the Federal Government does not, by its officials, seek to force it on the people. And danger from that source has been averted by the election of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Speaker, I have necessarily omitted many reasons which constrain me to vote against these measures ; and in so acting, I am sensi- ble of no influence, except from a sincere desire for the welfare of all the States of this Union. A different course might secure the approval of friends whose favor I esteem, but I could not secure my own approval. It might shield me against reproaches fiom others, which, while I might regret them, I know, nevertheless, how to bear them; but I could not fly from self- reproach, which no man can bear. I cannot tell what troubles may be in store for our country if we, by timid counsels, yield to the madness of the times. We cannot see far out into the future; for Heaven, in mercy, has veiled it' from our view, and when we try to pierce it, the imagination is apt to rove, and con- jecture, to forget all bounds. But I believe his- tory Will write of these things in the roll of her book; she will spread it before the nations, and they will read therein our lamentations and our woes. But let us have a mild, just, yet Orm, ad- ministration of the Government, and this chaos will give place to order, the wilduess of anarchy will oe subdued by the pressure of law, and the people, unburdened of their fears, will be glad as is one awakened from a dream full of dangers to .the assurance that it was but a dream. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 025 944 1 # WASHINGTON, D. C. PRINTED AT THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN OFFICE, 1861. /^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 025 944 1 | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 025 944 1 ^ pH83