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SPEECH 
 
 hon. john McQueen, of s. Carolina 
 
 ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 DELJVIfcKt' 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1850. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 1850. 
 
*v C* Q O- r -\ 
 
 <l o f ^ 2. 
 
ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state 
 at the Union, and resuming the consideration of the Cali- 
 fornia question, the President's Message in relation to that 
 subject being before the Committee — 
 Mr. McaUEEN said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: I think it more than likely that 
 nothing I may submit will change the views of 
 members of this body, or stay the aggression 
 which, for some time, I have too plainly seen rap- 
 idly advancing from the northern portion of this 
 Confederacy upon that part of it from whence 1 
 come; yet I feel it my duty to employ one hour, 
 the first 1 have attempted to consume in this 
 House, or in any other legislative body, in por- 
 traying some of the most prominent facts and in- 
 dications which threaten not only the ruin and 
 degradation of the South, but, in my judgment, the 
 downfall at no very distant day of this once happy 
 Confederacy. That we have arrived at a period, 
 when it becomes every honest man to reflect, and 
 gravely reflect, upon the true condition of the 
 country, none can doubt; and to view that condition 
 properly, the various causes which have produced 
 it should be most carefully examined. 
 
 It is useless to disguise the fact, that a system of 
 aggression, regular and unabating, is going on 
 against the South; which if persisted in by the 
 North, and submitted to by the South, must end 
 in nothing less than our utter degradation. Sir, I 
 do not speak without a meanins, when I say our 
 utter degradation and ruin; nor can any artifice 
 however ingenious, or any device however cunning- 
 ly shaped, so cover up the truth as to hide it from 
 the most ordinary capacity. 
 
 What, then, is the great and moving cause which 
 has brought us to this unhappy and 'langerous con- 
 dition? In my judgment it proceeds from more 
 causes than one. It Proceeds from a misconception 
 ormisconstruction of the true principles upon which 
 this Confederacy was entered into by ourancestors, 
 and a sickly, fanatical sentiment, entertained now 
 too generally by the inhabitants of what they please 
 to call the free States, in relation to an institution 
 of which they really know but little, and with 
 which they have no more right to interfere, than 
 they have to dictate to the inhabitants of the south- 
 ern States, in what churches and at what altars they 
 shall worship that God who gave them being. Sir, 
 if this Government were a union of undefined pow- 
 ers, concentrated in one common head here, the 
 rights which the North now claim in relation to 
 slavery might, with some degree of plausibility, be 
 asserted. And tainted as they are by an education 
 founded in falsehood, slander, and misrepresenta- 
 
 tion, there would be some apology for the claim. 
 But, fortunately for us, the Government never was 
 constituted, or intended to be, one grand consolida- 
 ted engine of powers, that might to-day be wielded 
 by an unrestrained majority to the destruction of 
 ' any one section of the Confederacy, while to-mor- 
 I row, that section getting the ascendency might, in 
 I turn, convert it into an engine of revengeful de- 
 I struction, until its devastating powers should anni- 
 hilate the whole. No, sir; no. The framers of 
 ; our Constitution were too recently relieved from a 
 struggle in which the question of equal rights and 
 just powers were deeply involved, to allow them 
 j to have forgotten the rights of the several colo- 
 i nies, who in one common cause had waged a 
 I war of seven years against oppressions. Each 
 ; colony was too jealous of its own sovereignty ever 
 1 to have merged it in one common sovereignty, 
 which, by a bare plurality of numbers, might be 
 j perverted to any purpose that fanaticism and mad- 
 ' ness might suggest. 
 
 When the framers of the Constitution came to- 
 ; gether to adopt a plan of government for their com- 
 ] mon defence, it did not enter into the mind of any 
 i one that they were other than delegates from thir- 
 I teen independent sovereignties — independent of 
 each other and independent of the world. It never 
 entered their brain that they were authorized to 
 transfer that high and exclusive sovereignty inher- 
 ent in the people of each State, to any power on 
 earth, to be wielded by a mere majority against one- 
 half of the States, even to their destruction. Nor 
 would those who sent them ever have recognized 
 their acts, had they attempted to do so. We see 
 the prudent jealousy manifested in the express 
 reservation of all powers not expressly granted to 
 the general agency. Who for a moment can sup- 
 pose that Rhode Island would ever have consented 
 •to commit her fate to the hands of New York and 
 Massachusetts, upon the monstrous principle that 
 her internal affairs were to be regulated by an un- 
 restrained majority? She did refuse for two years 
 to give her sanction, as it was; and I venture the 
 assertion that no three States in the Union ever 
 would have ratified the Constitution, had the 
 northern sentiment of the present, day even been 
 suspected, by which the right of legislation is here 
 claimed from the establishment of a flower garden 
 to the degradation and destruction of one-half the 
 States. Had those who formed the Constitution 
 returned to those who sent them, and said, We have 
 entered into a compact by which for your general 
 welfare and happiness we have mingled your sov- 
 ereignty with that of the other States, to be regu- 
 
latetl by the opinion of a majority of all the peo- 
 ple of the States, unrestrained by any other check 
 than their opinion and will, — they would have 
 been burned in effigy sooner than received to the 
 bosom of their people. Their names would have 
 been consigned to the scorn and indignation of all, 
 rather than perpetuated in history as a band of 
 sages who had erected a beacon to guide the civil- 
 ized world in the way of freedom and the highest 
 enjoyment of human happiness. But, sir, it would 
 be a libel upon their wisdom, their sagacity, and 
 patriotism, to give such construction to their acts. 
 They never contemplated the present state of 
 things under their Constitution. They never sup- 
 posed that a sickly fanaticism would profess to 
 move under its letter or spirit, until agrarianism 
 and desolation shall pervade the land. 
 
 It is well known that it is to the North we are 
 mainly indebted for that unlimited construction of 
 the Constitution of which I have spoken. She, from 
 her very nature and climate, is denied the produc- 
 tion of many of the staples necessary for the food 
 and raiment of the human family, and conse- 
 quently must live upon the products of other 
 places; her inhabitants must live by their genius 
 and wits, rather than the first service allotted to 
 man by his Creator. This necessity early estab- 
 lished in their judgment the right to tax the agri- 
 culture of the South with tribute to their mechanic 
 pursuits; and, as a matter of course, construe the 
 compact of Government to answer that purpose. 
 This principle established, the door has been 
 thrown open to any other heresy that may have 
 its time until, under the broad regis of a general 
 welfare constitution, nothing that a majority, how- 
 ever mad, may design, will not be accomplished. 
 
 But I have not time to dwell longer on this 
 branch of my subject, and will come now to what 
 I consider the immediate cause of the serious diffi- 
 culties in which we find ourselves. And no one 
 need be told it is the actual war, (though not yet 
 of the sword,) carried on by one-half of the Slates 
 of this Confederacy against the other, emanating 
 from a sickly fanaticism among those who, if it 
 were an evil, should be most lenient toward those 
 who now have amongst them African slavery. 
 They claim that they are too holy and pure to 
 allow slavery to exist within this Confederacy — 
 that they themselves, though once contaminated 
 with it, have, from motives of philanthropy and 
 benevolence, long since abolished it; but not con- 
 tent with their own holiness and sanctity, have a 
 duty devolving on them of wiping it off the face 
 of this continent, as a thing too abominable for 
 their toleration. And yet, who does not know 
 that it wax northern capita! and northern seamen 
 mainly who brought from ATrica the thousands 
 whose posterity are the objects of so much strife? 
 Nor is it true, that they abolished slavery, as they 
 pretend they did, within their own limits. In 
 this whole matter they have the grace to claim 
 that which the truth of history denies them. The 
 South, as is well known, was greatly opposed to 
 the shipment of Africans within their borders, but 
 the northern philanthropy of that day forced it 
 upon them for their general "welfare and happi- 
 ness;" and now, when they have civilized and 
 christianized them, the same North, in its next 
 generation, arrogates to itself to tell us that it is a 
 black stain upon our country, and they will take 
 such a course as we had better prepare for — they 
 will give us twenty-five years to see the black pall 
 of slavery banished from this continent. 
 
 Sir, I have said that the North profess a virtue 
 in the abolition of slavery which the truth of his- 
 tory denies them. They never did diminish, to 
 any considerable extent, the number of slaves in 
 this Confederacy. They passed acts, it is true, 
 in their several States, when they found thai 
 neither their soil or climate rendered them longer 
 profitable, but they were prospective in their op- 
 eration, and before they took effect, they took 
 good care to sell in the South the most saleable of 
 their negroes, and pocket the money. They 
 turned loose upon the world those who were old 
 and unfit for sale, and then unblushingly pro- 
 claimed a philanthropic and holy act, by whicr. 
 they had purified their souls and washed from 
 amongst them the black stain of slavery; whilst, 
 in fact and in truth, they simply transferred theni 
 to a more genial clime, but took good care to 
 transfer themselves, by the operation, to that class 
 which they call the upper ten thousand, whilst 
 their children to this day are basking in the 
 affluence thus commenced and secured. And it does 
 seem to me unfortunate that gentlemen, at this 
 day, who profess to believe the Bible, and claim 
 so much purity in themselves, should forget thai 
 part of the Decalogue which tells us that God it 
 a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers 
 upon the children unto the third and fourth gen- 
 eration, and that they should not reflect how 
 damning a sin they are proclaiming against their 
 ancestors, and content themselves with prayer for 
 its forgiveness, and let us alone. We feel at leas: 
 as capable to pursue the path of duty to ourselves, 
 our country, and our God, as they do. if it be & 
 sin, which I earnestly deny, it is now our sin. 
 We are content to answer for it, and it is arro- 
 gance, rank and insulting, to presume to dictate 
 to us, under an insidious, hypocritical, or fanat- 
 ical sentiment, against the Bible, from the earliesi 
 history of the world to the present moment, anti 
 against our peace and unquestionable rights in 
 this Confederacy, which, 1 trust in God, every 
 true-hearted southerner will defend against further 
 aggression, as they would their hearthstones and 
 their lives. But to return from my digression: f 
 have said that the northern States never have, to 
 any considerable extent, diminished the number 
 of slaves in this Confederacy, and will refer to 
 one or two instances of the medus operandi of Oh j it 
 emancipation to show that fact. 
 
 In 1790, according to the census, there were in 
 New York, 21,3:24 slaves and 4,654 free colored 
 persons; between J790and 1800, I presume it will 
 not be contended there was any emancipation in 
 that State, and it is fair to suppose the number of 
 free colored could not have increased by the manu- 
 mission nt' slaves to any extent of consequence. 
 In those ten years the free colored increased to 
 10,374, making about 1,000 over double, whilst by 
 the census of 1800 there were still in the Sitae 
 20 ,343 slaves: and had they increased by procreation 
 in the same ratio with the free colored, there shouic 
 have been about 45,000. And should it be saic 
 that the manumission of sluves increased the num- 
 ber of free colored, still 19,000 must have beoi' 
 sold to the South, or the parents of those who would 
 have raised that number, supposing the free colorea 
 not to have increased at all; but I presume few if 
 any were at that day set free, and it is fair to con- 
 tinue the calculation upon the basis of the increase 
 of free colored during that period. By the census-- 
 of 1810 there were 25,333 free colored, making an 
 increase of about the same ratio, aud the numberof 
 
>s 
 
 slaves was 15,017 — showing a diminution of only 
 a few over 5,000 in those ten years, whilst again 
 their increase would have swelled the number to 
 about 43,000, of whom about 28,000 must have 
 found a southern market. Nor can it be said that 
 during this interval, any were set free by legisla- 
 tive enactment, because an act which had been 
 passed in 1801 only declared that children born 
 after July 1799 should be free, but that they should 
 continue in the service of their-owners until they 
 arrived at the age of twenty-eight years; and they 
 could not until July, 1827, have been classed in the 
 census as free. But by the same act of 1801. a 
 door was left open by which the operation 1 am 
 describing might be carried on by law, as owners 
 were allowed, under certain regulations, to carry 
 .their slaves beyond the limits of the State, and 
 no law was passed until 1827 abolishing slavery 
 within that State. In 1820 the free colored were 
 29,279, s'lowing an increase in ten years of only 
 3,946, when the number of slaves was 10,088, be- 
 ing reduced within the ten years 4,929. Now sup- 
 posing the free colored had not increased at all, 
 nor the slaves either, and that every one of the 
 3,946 increase of free colored had been caused 
 by the liberation of slaves, still there were about 
 one thousand slaves disposed of in some other way. 
 But taking my original data, there should have 
 been at this time about fifty thousand free colored 
 and 30,000 slaves, and about 25,000 of the latter 
 must again have found a more southern clime. 
 During that period too, there was an unaccountable 
 falling off of the increase of free colored, which 
 may be accounted for, perhaps, by the supposition 
 that in those transition times many of them might 
 have traveled off with those who, under the law, 
 had a right to carry their slaves out of the State; 
 and this may, to this day, furnish a reason why 
 gentlemen of the North are so very cautious in 
 providing laws against kidnapping; for I have 
 never been aware that free negroes were ever car- 
 ried south by southern ships or southern traders. 
 By following the calculation through the census of 
 1830, equally clear results will be found. 
 
 I have not time to trace this process through the 
 New England States, but I believe the same sys- 
 tem of boasted emancipation took place in every 
 one of them. I shall but refer to the State of 
 Rhode Island, one of the earliest cradles of African 
 slavery in this Confederacy. In 1790, she had by 
 the census 3,469 free colored, and 952 slaves — she 
 was then deep in her transition state. In 1800 she 
 had 3,304 free colored, and 381 slaves: supposing 
 her free colored had not increased at all, yet there 
 are 165 unaccounted for, who may have fallen into 
 the hands of kidnappers; but there are also unac- 
 counted for 571 of the slaves, who could not have 
 been liberated and added to the list of free colored, 
 for that had diminished; and I leave it to the holy 
 philanthropists and abolitionists of the North to 
 trace the destinies of that unfortunate band of 
 brothers, together with the increase of both classes 
 for the 10 years. Their posterity may, perhaps, see 
 where they found a market from the fact, that af- 
 ter the slave trade was limited to 1808, the ports of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, being opened for the 
 importation of Africans in the year 1804, and re- 
 mained four years. By the census of Charleston, 
 during that time there were two hundred and two 
 vessel entered the port of Charleston with African 
 slaves; and from the custom-house books, and from 
 under the hand of the collector at that time of 
 Charleston, he gives authentic information, that of 
 
 these two hundred and two vessels which were en- 
 gaged in that trade and entered the port of Charles- 
 ton, 108 of their cargoes were owned by foreign 
 countries, (many of them in Great Britain,) 14 in 
 southern .States, and 79 in northern free States. 
 
 The truth is, the free States, as I have said, never 
 did liberate their slaves; they sold them to the 
 South, and built much of their manufacturing and 
 commercial interest upon the money; and by a 
 system of aggression as unwarranted as the pres- 
 ent, they have taxed their labor and plundered 
 their owners ever since, through the instrument- 
 ality of this Government, to add to their own ag- 
 grandizement. 
 
 I venture the assertion, that no such instances of 
 emancipation have ever been known in the North 
 as have taken place in the South. It is well known 
 to all gentlemen in the South, that one mat 
 Louisiana liberated twelve hundred slaves, whilst 
 the whole State of Ilhode Island in 1800 had not 
 a great many more than twice that number. I 
 also deny that those who have been turned loose 
 on the charities of the North are, or ever will be, 
 in as comfortable a condition as those who are 
 slaves with us. They are in a cold and ruthless 
 climate, amongst a white race as distinguished for 
 cupidity and sharpness as any that ever inhabited 
 a spot of this Globe. Inferior in intellect and 
 genius to the whites — destitute of friends who 
 are in affluence and power to employ and assist 
 them — owning little or no land — unable to com- 
 pete with Yankee ingenuity — indisposed at best 
 to labor honestly — incapable of social equality — 
 without food and clothing, or even fuel to warm 
 their wretched bodies during the piercing blasts 
 of winter — they naturally betake themselves to 
 every species of horrible and loathsome vice 
 known in the world; and in proof of this I need 
 but cite to the places of public resort, where they 
 are allowed to congregate about the cities. You 
 cannot hide from their squalid wretchedness; nor 
 need the philanthropist go in search of more vic- 
 tims of misery on earth, for the exercise of his 
 benevolence, than he may find in the cities — in the 
 streets — in the cellars — in the alms-houses — in the 
 suburbs — in the prisons and in the penitentiaries 
 of the free States. And even those you find in best 
 employment amongst them are generally carry- 
 ing out the truth of the Scriptures, that " servants 
 of servants shall they be." No preamble or mis- 
 represented clause of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, or the grossly perverted passages of Scrip- 
 ture will ever change this last condition until God 
 has changed his nature, or his promises are vio- 
 lated. 
 
 Nor would I stop here, sir. I would carry the 
 war into Africa if I had time to do so, and make 
 the comparison, without fear of successful contra- 
 diction, between the condition of a very large pro- 
 portion of the white population of the North and 
 the slaves of the South; in which much that I have 
 said in relation to the free negroes of the North 
 would be equally applicable to the lower order of 
 the whites, with this distinguishing difference, 
 that forgeries and counterfeits, swindling and other 
 artifices, requiring a higher order of intellect, are 
 mainly confinedrto the whites. In proof of this, 
 I need only refe to the records of your courts, 
 your mobs, yourState prisons, your penitentiaries, 
 your stool-pigeon associations, your under-ground 
 rail-roads, and every species of horrible device. 
 
 I have recently seen an account of five hundred 
 true bills, I think, in one week, (I am sure in one 
 
ti 
 
 court,) in the pious city of Boston, for every spe- 
 cies ot" crime. There have been expended in the 
 county of Pliiladelphia, according to a published 
 statement I have clipped from a paper, since the 
 year li^42, upwards of §142,000 for the suppression 
 of mobs; whilst, upon the other hand, I see it repeat- 
 edly stated that there are eighteen thousand human 
 beings, living under ground and in cellars, packed 
 together in rags and horrible wretchedness, in the 
 great city of New York. 1 saw myself, three 
 years ago, there, scenes such as my eyes had 
 in vt r beheld, and such, I trust, as I may be spared 
 seeing again — amongst them a few that I never 
 shall forget — two of them I will mention: The one 
 was a blind man, led amid the throng on the great 
 and crowded Broadway, by a string attached to a 
 dog, (who seemed to me to have been his deepest 
 sympathizer.) He held in his hand a plate, as he 
 passed, that had nothing in it as bright as silver, 
 when I stopped to add a trifle.. The other was a 
 woman, seated on the steps of the notorious Astor- 
 House, with a shriveled and writhing infant on 
 her knee, and whilst I was in the act of giving her 
 a pittance, I was accosted by a citizen, who said 
 she was doubtless an imposter, who had borrowed 
 the child and bandaged it with bands to impose 
 upon strangers. 
 
 In vain shall it be said such scenes and cir- 
 cumstances are confined to the cities. They are 
 not to be found, either amongst the whites or the 
 blacks, in the country or cities of the South. No, 
 sir, no. Go to the farms and cities of the South, 
 and see the African, fed, clothed, and happy, and 
 let your false clamor stand rebuked forever. Nay, 
 more; whether these things be in the cities of the 
 North or elsewhere, they are gathered to the pulls 
 when it comes to voting, and swell the abolition 
 fume, which comes here to denounce and insult 
 us, in relation to an institution that, could they 
 change and be elevated to its scale of happiness 
 and contentment, they would be more improved 
 in their condition than the philanthropy of the 
 North will accomplish for them whilst they re- 
 main on this earth. 
 
 It is from this very city of New York there 
 comes so strong a tide of abolition, a- furnishes a 
 distinguished member in the other end of the 
 Capitol, who stands up in the presence of Sena- 
 tors, the people, and in the face of Heaven, and 
 calls upon his God to witness his oath to sup- 
 part the Constitution under which he takes his 
 seat, and yet declares, in his place, that so great 
 is his philanthropy, he will yield in his conscience 
 to a s^nse of higher duty, when slavery is in 
 question, and whenever it is convenient to accom- 
 plish his purpose. God save me, sir, from such 
 religion as this, and forbid that such votaries shall 
 desecrate these Halls to the accomplishment of 
 their purposes. Much better would it be to exer- 
 cise their benevolence among the wretches who are 
 panting among them, and let those only take oaths 
 here, who are prepared to observe them. When 
 they have relieved their own sufferers, we might 
 better be prepared to hear them, and believe in 
 their professions. Until they do this, 1 have no 
 faith in their philanthropy, and would much 
 sooner suspect that the religion of the Senator 
 would find its happiest goal within the walls of a 
 White House. 
 
 Sir, there is a state of things at the North, with 
 all their boasted piety and philanthropy, which I 
 trust will never be realized at the South. Look 
 for a moment at their thousand societies and asso- 
 
 ciations, anti-sabbath, anti-marriage, anti-rent, &c., 
 with their infidel conventions, and views of social- 
 ism, and agrarianism, which seem to be rapidly 
 tending to such a state of things as will pull down, 
 to the deepest depths of agrarianism and confu- 
 sion, all that the wisdom of a century has done 
 for the country. I but recently saw from the col- 
 umns of a paper, having, perhaps, as large a cir- 
 culation as any in the Union, published in New 
 York, by a gentleman last winter a member of 
 this body, in substance, such sentiment as this: 
 That the pirate who presented his pistol, and 
 forced the surrender of a surplus over that which 
 was necessary to one's own support, had the right 
 to do so, and that the land-owner had no claim on 
 his lessee, unless it were necessary for his own 
 support. Such an abominable sentiment as this has 
 been published before, from the Roman Tribune, 
 and formed a great element in the course of things 
 that pulled down that Republic. It was alike fa- 
 miliar in the Jacobin clubs of France, preceding 
 the time when Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, 
 ruled the destinies of that people, and held up to 
 the world a spectacle that humanity would hide 
 from in disgust. It remains to be seen what may 
 be its effects in this progressive age of monstrosi- 
 ties of the North. It remains to be seen how long 
 before those of every hue and clime, when made 
 freemen and citizens by northern sentiment and 
 practice, having forced the southern States tc 
 withdraw from an association made insufferable 
 to them, will vote themselves a share, without 
 law or right, of the substance of the country, when 
 the verriest vagabond upon earth, may share equal- 
 ly with the honest man of the country, and when 
 those whose sympathies are now so deep for the 
 black race, may have their own slalus controlled 
 by them, as in the crusade now against the South, 
 their favorites are sent to this and the other end of 
 the Capitol to rule the storm against us; but time 
 admonishes me I must pass on. 
 
 I have said that actual war against the South 
 exists in the conduct, of the free States in relation 
 to slavery; and I think every candid man who 
 views things as they are, should sustain me in this 
 position. Every State in this Union had slaves 
 when this Confederacy was formed, unless Mas- 
 sachusetts. She, I believe, had some, though not 
 to be found in the census of 1790; and it may no: 
 be too often repeated, that no association would 
 ever have been formed had slavery not only been 
 recognized, but more carefully guarded than any 
 other species of property. Indeed it was to slaves 
 and their proceeds the Government must mainly 
 have looked for support — lands were then abun- 
 dant and cheap, and no one supposed that impost 
 duties under any scale of imposition ever could 
 answer the exigencies of the Government; hence 
 the provision that slaves and their proceeds should 
 only be taxed in proportion to the representation 
 of the States. Very soon, however, a spirit of 
 fanaticism commenced its progress, which has 
 progressed from various causes until we find our- 
 selves in our present condition, with discord and 
 strife from the one extremity of the Confederacy 
 to the other, that I, for one, do not believe will ever 
 be reconciled until the southern States will either 
 be degraded and ruined, or that spirit of resistance 
 which I think the duty of freemen requires, wiH 
 vindicate her rights and her honor. I shall noi 
 attempt the enumeration of the thousand indica- 
 tions or facts which lead me to this conclusion — I 
 will only refer to a few of them as I pass on. Ir. 
 
the progress of this spirit Abolition societies were 
 formed, public sentiment began to receive the 
 taint, men who were in most instances low and 
 obscure, became orators, and acquired conse- 
 quence that nothing less than superstition or 
 fanaticism would have allowed them. Women 
 and the youth of the country were taught to 
 look upon the owners of slaves as fiends from 
 purgatory; slanders of the grossest type were 
 circulated to effect this purpose; emissaries from 
 England were received and listened to as min- 
 isters from God; they propagated a thousand 
 libels upon the South, represented cases of cru- 
 elty and blood, of which the southern people 
 never heard; nor had they, unless upon their own 
 ships whilst engaged in dragging the African from 
 his native land. Ministers of the Gospel desecra- 
 ted the pulpit with the grossest perversion of 
 Scripture in aid of this unholy work. The Blue 
 Laws were abolished, or rather worn out, by their 
 own satiety, and the public mind found food in 
 this unrighteous warfare upon the rights and 
 peace of those whom, for the purposes of spoil 
 and plunder, they would call brothers. Amid 
 such a state of things there never have been want- 
 ing in any country demagogues to take advantage 
 of the tempest and ride themselves into place; and 
 in thirty years after the adoption of the Constitu- 
 tion, such was the influence of Abolitionism .that 
 in the admission of Missouri the Confederacy tot- 
 tered on its pillars at the hands of the North. 
 Here was the first daring outrage in our National 
 Legisla ure to limit the extent of slavery, and the 
 fir3t unfortunate error by the South in confiding in 
 pledges made by the North on this subject. They 
 gave up a right at the shrine of peace and the 
 Union, and they have in return for it a violated 
 faith by the North, and the assertion that a prece- 
 dent has been established by which the Consti- 
 tion may at all times be trampled under foot. 
 Congress had no authority to make the Missouri 
 compromise as a constitutional act, and never did 
 alter or amend the Constitution, by that act. In- 
 deed Congress cannot alter the Constitution; and 
 although members might vote for an act as a com- 
 promise of their rights, yet the people would at all 
 times have the right to repudiate it. If they fail 
 to do so, still the act cannot change the principles 
 of the Constitution. The Constitution is one thing, 
 and a right under it is another. And although the 
 people acquiesced in the disposal of a part of their 
 territories to buy their peace at one time, it fur- 
 nishes no reason why that act becomes an article 
 of the Constitution. And even the argument itself 
 comes with bad grace from the North, after hav- 
 ing violated their pledge in the act from which they 
 claim a precedent in the Missouri compromise. 
 One set of our ancestors made the Constitution, 
 and another set made the Missouri compromise; 
 the latter, however, did or could not change the 
 Constitution by their unfortunate act, and it re- 
 mains to be seen whether the South will submit to 
 still further aggressions by those who have vio- 
 lated their faith in every compromise ever made 
 with them. A surrender of a right has seldom 
 ever stayed further aggression. Those who un- 
 justly demand a wrong to-day, will have no scru- 
 ples in doing the same thing to-morrow; and those 
 who yield to an unjust demand once, will always 
 find the next more inordinate and insulting; and 
 scarcely ever has wrong been repelled as easily as 
 if met at the threshold. So has it truly been with 
 the Missouri compromise. It not only did not al- 
 
 lay the mad fury of Abolitionists, but it gave them 
 new zeal and confidence in their career. They had 
 converted 3lave territory into free soil, without 
 right, or color of right, and it was but natural 
 their energies should increase. But I have not 
 time to dwell long upon the facts that mark the 
 progress of abolitionism, from the time of that 
 compromise to the present moment. If there was 
 the slightest abatement in the agitation of the sub- 
 ject, I never have been able to learn it. On the 
 other hand, it seems to me the victory then con- 
 ceded to its advocates, but gave new vigor and 
 confidence to their energies, until their influence 
 has almost stricken down every obstacle to its 
 progress, until it controls the almost entire politi- 
 cal action of this Government. I cannot better 
 portray its progress than Garrison himself has re- 
 cently done in an abolition convention atSyracuse, 
 in which he congratulates his confederates on the 
 progress they have made, and the brilliant pros- 
 pects before them. He contrasts the condition of 
 abolition twenty years ago with what it is now. 
 Then, says this apostle, the Governor of Virginia 
 wrote a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, 
 complaining of an abolition meeting held in the 
 city of Boston. The Governor of Massachusetts 
 replied, "he had made inquiry, and could hear of 
 no meeting in Boston except that of a white and a 
 negro man held in a garret." Now their cause .had 
 spread until millions were its votaries throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land. He truly 
 enough describes the progress they have made, 
 and dwells, with unspeakable delight, upon the in- 
 fluence they have acquired, and the prospect of 
 speedy abolition of slavery throughout the Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 I am aware that to all this it will be replied, that 
 Garrison and his associates are a miserable band 
 of fanatics and madmen, unworthy of the notice 
 of statesmen; yet truth bears me out when I assert, 
 that they have been, and are the pioneers in fact, 
 in this unrighteous crusade against the principles 
 of the Constitution and the rights and honor of the 
 South. They but mark out the road, and all, with 
 but very few honorable exceptions, upon this floor 
 follow in their wake; and so far as the practical 
 results to the South are concerned, it is of but 
 little importance to what party they belong, or un- 
 der what name they are known. 1 know a dis- 
 tinction is attempted to be kept up at. the North 
 between those who are called Abolitionists and 
 those who are not; but so far as the records of 
 this House will show, it seems to me it is a dis- 
 tinction without a meaning, unless they mean that 
 one party aim openly to accomplish their object, 
 whilst the others disavow it, yet always vote with 
 them when slavery is concerned. Let us see for a 
 moment whether the action of this House has not 
 kept good pace with Garrison and his band for the 
 last fifteen years. Then petitions for the abolition 
 of slavery could not be received; now, your Clerk's 
 desk almost groans under them. As late as 1838, 
 Atherton's resolutions passed this House, being 
 separated, by votes of from two to one to four- 
 iifths of this body, and are as follow: 
 
 "1. Resolved, That this Government is a Government o( 
 limited powers; and that, by the Constitution of the United 
 States, Congress ha-; no jurisdiction whatever over the in- 
 stitution of slavery in the several States of the Confederacy. 
 
 "■2. Resolved, That petitions for the abolition of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia and the Territories of the United 
 States, and against the removal of slaves from one State to 
 another, are a part of the plan of operations set on foot, to 
 ati'eet the institution of slavery in tile several States, and 
 thus indirectly to destroy that institution within their limits. 
 
■ ,P,j«i.iol II..- si-.i. • mda breach of the 
 
 iU ,o.rwhich they entered into ihisConfeJeracy. 
 , ins titution rests on the broaa 
 ,lil 5 iimong ' 
 ..dlhitCongrc^intl ,• „- a- k,n>„ I- 
 
 wers.hns. ghl todis riminate between the m- 
 
 i ■: th SI ■ - and another, with a 
 bolWiins the on< and promoting the other. 
 
 . ,i all attempts, on the part ol 
 ryln theDistrictol Columbia or 
 I , ohibii the remova of slaves Irom 
 . riminate between the institutions 01 
 one portion ol the country and another, with the views 
 v lati i t'lhel onstitution, destructive ol 
 „ „„, 1 ,;,| principles on which the union ol these 
 i is, and beyond the jurisdiction ol Congress; ana 
 on, memorial, resolution, proposition, or 
 paper, touching or n latingin anj waj or to any extent what- 
 ever to slavery, as aforesaid, or the abolition thereof, shall, 
 on the piesentntion thereof, withoul any further action 
 belaid on the tabic without beingdebated, printed, 
 n d." 
 Gentlemen from the North make no precedent 
 luiiona and the vote upon (hem now. 
 As late as IS4-J the great abolition apostle and 
 martyr from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] received ihe 
 of this Mouse for offering the following 
 
 ■ . Resolv 4, That, prior to the adoption of our federal 
 
 each of the several States composing tins 
 
 sercised full and exclusive jurisdiction over the 
 
 subject of slavery within its own territory, and possessed 
 
 full power to continue or abolish it at pleasure. 
 
 ■••>. Resolved, Thai, bv adopting the Constitution, no part 
 ..i the aforesaid powers were delegated to the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, but were reserved by, and still pertain to each ot 
 the several States. 
 
 ■• 3. Resolved, That by the eighth section of the first arti- 
 cle of the Constitution, each of the several States surren- 
 dered to the Federal Government all jurisdiction over the 
 i commi rce and navigation upon the high seas. 
 
 ■•' 1. Resolved, That slavery, being an abridgment of the 
 natural riehts of man, can exist only by force of positive 
 municipal law, and is necessarily confined to the territorial 
 jurisdiction of the power creating it. 
 
 That when a ship belonging to the citizens 
 Of any State of thiB Union leaves the waters and territory 
 of such Slate, and enters upon the high seas, the persons on 
 !io;inl cease to be subject to the slave laws of such Slate, 
 and, then fore, are governed in their relations to each other 
 are amenable to, the laws of the United States. 
 
 ed, That when the brig Creole, on her late pas- 
 i m New Orleans, left the territorial jurisdiction of Vir- 
 ginia, the -lave laws of that State ceasi il to have jurisdiction 
 over the persons onboard said brig, and such persons be- 
 came ami nable only to the laws of the United States. 
 
 •' ?. Resolved, That the persons on board the said ship, in 
 resuming thi ir natural rights of personal liberty, violated 
 no lawol Hi" United Stales, incurred no legal responsibility, 
 and are justly liable to no punishment. 
 
 " 8. Resolved, Thai all attempts to regain possession of, or 
 tore£nslave said persons, are unauthorized by the Constitu- 
 tion or laws of the United States, and are incompatible with 
 our national honor. 
 
 : '9. Resolved, That all attempts to exert our national in- 
 fluencein favor of the coastwise slave trade, or to place 
 this nation in the attitude of maintaining a 'commerce in 
 human beings,' are subversive of the rights, and injurious 
 to tbe feelings of the free States, are unauthorized by the 
 Constitution, and prejudicial to our national character.'* 
 
 For introducing these resolutions, a member of 
 this House was promptly censured, (notwithstand- 
 ing he withdrew them without testing a vote,) 
 and returned to his constituents to be reinstated 
 to his position. 1 pass by the struggle made on 
 the question of abolition petitions, which has re- 
 sulted at last in the reception of some eighteen 
 thousand, and also the progress toward the abo- 
 OR of the slave trade within this District, to- 
 gether with the effort to allow the slaves themselves 
 to vole on that question, and come it once to res- 
 
 olutions offered during this session by the same 
 distinguished leader from Ohio.. They are as 
 follow: 
 
 « Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident : 
 that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator with the certain inalienable right to life and 
 liberty; and that governments are. constituted for the pur 
 posi of maintaining these rights. 
 
 "Resolved, That in constituting governments in any ter- 
 ritory of the United Slates, it is the duty of Congress to 
 secure all the people thereof, of whatsoever complexion, 
 in the enjoyment of the rights aforesaid. 
 
 "Mr. Haralson moved that the said resolutions be laid 
 upon the table. _ 
 
 "And thequestion being put, it was decided in the atlirm- 
 ative— yeas 103, nays SO." 
 
 Let all who deny the progress of abolition in 
 I his Government contrast the letter, tone, and spirit 
 of the foregoing resolutions, as well as the manner 
 in which they were disposed of, and say whether 
 it is not. an insult to the understanding of the 
 South, as well as to their rights, to endeavor longer 
 to lull them into security by the worn-out and 
 false assertion that there is but a band of fanatics 
 engaged in this work, from whom the South have 
 nothing to apprehend. Ninety members of both 
 patties from the North virtually voted for these 
 monstrous resolutions. Thirty-seven were absent, 
 and we have no reason to believe, had they been 
 present, a sufficient number would not have voted 
 for them to spread them on the journals of this 
 House, to remain forever as its fixed judgment 
 upon the subject of slavery. These startling res- 
 olutions declare a perfect equality of the slave and 
 his master, not only in the territories, but in the 
 States; and although a few gentlemen from the 
 North voted with us, yet we have no reason to 
 suppose many of the absent would have done so. 
 Many of them may have absented themselves by 
 design, not being prepared to make so bold ad- 
 vance, and for this have, and are to receive, the 
 lashings of the leaders against all those whom 
 they call doughfaces. Nor in this day of abolition 
 progress did the resolutions themselves excite 
 more than ordinary feeling. No censure was 
 offered for them, and every one knows no censure 
 could have been carried. 
 
 No, sir, no; the cause of abolition is now too 
 powerful in this Government to allow the censure 
 of one of its most distinguished leaders. No man 
 opposed to its advocates can obtain preferment in 
 its administration. He who seeks it, must at least 
 avoid the sin of opposing their views, and those 
 who resist them are now being called fanatics 
 themselves. Who does not know that no man can 
 be elected President who will avow his sentiments 
 in opposition to them ? And 1 mean by Abolition- 
 ists, all those who vote with them, and aid them in 
 accomplishing their object. Who does not know 
 that both the last candidates published such letters 
 as were used by their friends at the North in favor 
 of abolition, and at theSouth against it? I thought 
 I saw it at the time, and refused to espouse the 
 cause of either. I thank my God that I did. 1 
 would support no southern man who would not 
 pledge himself to carry out the principles of the 
 Constitution in favor of slavery, or no north- 
 ern man who would publish such platform as 
 would better suit, in my judgment, a Delphian 
 { oracle in olden times, than an American states- 
 I man. I have said to my friends for the last sev- 
 | eral years, that the object of the Nonh was to 
 abolish slavery in the entire South; and I still be- 
 lieve it, even though it be at the saerifise of the 
 I life-blood of her white population. I have said 
 
9 
 
 that the object was to cast around the slave States 
 an abolition girdle, and then carry on a regular 
 progression, as systematic and certain as an object 
 could be accomplished. But I did not suppose the 
 plan would be so soon disclosed on this floor as it 
 has been, by gentlemen during this session. The 
 programme already is committed to type. I have 
 in my possession three several plats and pam- 
 phlets, sent me during the winter, in which this 
 whole thing is regularly marked out; the transition 
 States are clearly delineated, in which the slaves 
 are to be put on equality with the whiles, or sold 
 further South; and the little State from which I 
 come is the first on the East at which a rest is to 
 be made, or the general massacre to commence in 
 this unhallowed work, in which the black race are 
 to light the midnight torch of assassination, and 
 bathe themselves in the blood of the men, the 
 women, and babes of the whites. As to their 
 liberation and equality with the whites of the 
 South, it is a purpose for which God never de- 
 signed them, and a condition they never have at- 
 tained on a single spot of the habitable globe; and 
 until the North change their hypocrisy into works, 
 I for one will not argue this subject with them. 
 
 But the grave question presents itself now to 
 fourteen sovereign States of this Confederacy, 
 equal in intelligence, in their rights, and the means 
 of self preservation and defence — with any people 
 on earth, — whether, in the face of all these facts, 
 they are prepared to submit to such degradation, 
 or to cravenly allow it to be cast on their posterity ? 
 Will they allow a chain to be forged around them, 
 out of territory of which they are entitled to 
 their proportion, to be contracted like the crushings 
 of the anaconda, until their race shall be forgotten ? 
 I invoke Heaven and the spirits of their ancestors 
 to forbid it. 
 
 The vast and valuable territory now to be 
 settled was obtained by our common blood and 
 common treasure. In its acquisition — 1 would 
 draw no invidious distinctions, though I do not 
 conceive it immodest in me, to say — the little State 
 from whence I come bore her equal pari., and her 
 citizens fee! they are entitled to their proportion. 
 I" will not dwell upon the motives, or means, by 
 which it was obtained. It was done by the people 
 of the American States, and it is immaterial to 
 me, as i think u should be to (very patriot, who 
 were or were not most active in obtaining it. It 
 is obtained; it is ours; it cos; us not only blood, 
 but $150,0110,000 of our common treasure. Who 
 shall enjoy its possession and advantages? This 
 is the matter we have to settle. Have any of the 
 Staves, or their agents here, the right to exclude 
 the others? If they have, lam sure I have yet 
 
 1 am the reason, in law, in politics, in m irals, 
 or honesty, by which joint owners can be dej 
 of their fair proportion. There can he no re 
 
 is this Government is to be converted into ;i 
 machine to be controlled by fanaticism or a sickly 
 religious sentiment; and even then i iavi 
 educated in no school of religion, by which broi 
 should be robbed of their rights by brothers. 
 
 But there are a people occupying this territory, 
 and they demand a government tor the sat 
 their property and lives. And at this point a f'ulse 
 issue, in character with the whole conduct of the 
 Norm, is sedulously attempted to be kept before 
 the world, h is s. nd (hat the South have demand- 
 ed legislative action to extend slavery over these 
 territories, and that the North simply deny them 
 thai right. This i3 not the truth; and every honest 
 
 man who knows the history of this whole contro- 
 versy, knows it. The North are the actors in 
 this whole issue, and the South but resist their 
 efforts. It is very well known that near the close 
 of the last session of Congress every southern 
 member on this floor voted to give California ti 
 government, such as other Territories have had; 
 every northern man, except very few whose 
 hearts were on the side of justice, voted to defeat 
 that measure, unless the bill should exclude the 
 South from every foot of the territory; and that, 
 too, notwithstanding about $7,000,000, necessary 
 to carry out the purpose of the Government, were 
 suspended upon it. Then the Sooth agreed that 
 the people of the Territory required a government 
 better than that of the pistol and bowie-knife. 
 Then we agreed that the citizens of the United 
 States, wherever they were, deserved our protec- 
 tion and should not be neglected; out the North 
 rallied to prevent it; and at one time during the 
 last memorable night of the session, when there 
 seemed to be some prospect of the passage of the 
 bill, I witnessed the first practical operation of the 
 yeas and nays, on this floor, at the hands of the 
 North; and those brothers, now so much beloved 
 in California — blood of our blood and flesh of our 
 flesh — were left under the law of the bowie-knife 
 and revolver, so horrible at this time to the sensi- 
 bilities of northern gentlemen. 
 
 The inhabitants — I beg pardon — the floating 
 population, of every color and nation, who hap- 
 pened in California, have, since that time, clothed 
 themselves in the habiliments of sovereignly, and 
 demand admission as one of the States of this 
 Confederacy, upon equal terms with the others; 
 and the very men who refused and prevented a 
 government for her, as 1 have already said, are to 
 a man her most zealous advocates; and it is ama- 
 zing to witness the zeal, of those gentlemen to ac- 
 complish their purpose and consummate a meas- 
 ure, such as the history of the world will furnish 
 no parallel; but the reason is manifest and cannot 
 ;'i,:, ' ■ it fraud had been practiced 
 in ..he election of President, and to avoid the 
 
 i Wilrnot proviso, upon the strength 
 and influence of party, this measure was devised 
 to suit the Aboliti hilst the South is to be 
 
 insuli led, un ie Administration 
 
 . of ihe sovereign 
 
 . s of the peopl 
 
 But. will this Government give its sanction to 
 ui irpation i Tin question cannot be loo 
 i, Whence came the sovereignty to 
 these people r Did it exist with the Mexicans, 
 Indians, and negroes, who li our land ? 
 
 Did i ;. army possess it in their 
 
 own right : Could the President, without the 
 authority from Congress, confer it upon th 
 Did those who went there io speculate or dig gold 
 carry it with them? Those who remained on.the 
 soil, afl< i- th '. uld only be citizens of the . 
 
 Uniti afti ii expiration of live j . 
 
 by the law i 'he i fncers of the army 
 
 pi iple of the V 
 lid not as such become sjverei 
 righ of the States. The Pres 
 
 con overeignty on any on< ; 
 
 nor can it be said, with truth, that mere visitors 
 in the country have the right to make a constitu- 
 tion for it, and claim d irnain equal in extent to 
 one-half of Europe, to the exclusion of the rights 
 ne-half the States of this Confederacy. <But 
 suppose there were some persons there having 
 
10 
 
 audi rizhts as tire here pretended, how many were 
 necessary to do this act? Was one a sovereign ? 
 were two? or one hundred or ten thousand? If 
 any of these numbers, when did the blood of sov- 
 sjnty begin to course their veins? These are 
 lions that never could be answered to the 
 satisfaction of a corporal's guard in this House, 
 were it not that the southern man, wit!) his slaves, 
 i il from going there. There is no 
 sovereignty in tins country, except in the people 
 of the States; and no agency of this Government 
 can transfer it, except by limited power of attor- 
 ney; and I am utterly opposed to its being usurped 
 either by the President, aspirants for place, or the 
 heterogeni ous mass that would assume it in Cali- 
 nia. Let them go back into a territorial con- 
 dition, that the land may lie purged of the spurious 
 rs who might claim to be such, and her num- 
 bers ascertained, not by the shipload, as counted 
 by the father of compromises in the other end of 
 the Capitol, who makes no deduction for all those 
 who return to their homes, or pursue their trade 
 upon the bosom of the sea, but the actual number 
 " American citizens. Let her go back until she 
 may come into the Union as other territories have 
 done. This whole thing of the "sovereign State 
 of California" would look better in the pages of 
 the Arabian Nights than the archives of this 
 body. 
 
 As to the residue of the Territories I shall not 
 object to give them territorial governments, pro- 
 vided they conform to the principles of the Con- 
 stitution and rights of the States, but these rights: 
 
 As to the proposed oompromise from the other 
 end of the Capitol: If its name were changed to 
 that of the ignominious surrender of the South, 
 and I were then to vote upon its title, I should 
 vote in favor of the change. But I could not be 
 induced to vote for any other feature in the bill. 
 I am opposed to it, because it proposes to admit 
 California with all its enormities. I am opposed 
 to it, because it proposes to purchase nearly one- 
 third of Texas (acknowledged by Mr. Webster 
 himself to be slave territory) with our own money, 
 to become ultimately subject to some of the new- 
 fangled non-interventions or provisos of free- 
 soilism. 1 am opposed to it, because the report 
 of the committee expresses the existence of the 
 Mexican laws in the territories; because it pro- 
 poses to insert the entering wedge in the abolition 
 of slavery in this District; because it proposes to 
 legislate in fact for the negro, instead of the 
 master, in the States. And above all, I am op- 
 posed to it, because, in my estimation, it would 
 amount to an entire surrender of the rights and 
 honor of the South, and instead of allaying the 
 aggressions regularly going on against us, it would 
 give new zeal and confidence to our enemies, very 
 soon to show itself in this District, the dock- 
 yards and arsenals, and before many years, in the 
 States. 
 
 Our ancestors made compromises in the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution; their posterity made 
 compromises in the admission of Missouri; and 
 again, on the tariff of 1833. And what have they 
 availed us against the arrogance of the North ? 
 
 in my judgment, utterly forbid the interference of j I call upon patriots from the North and the South, 
 
 this Government to exclude slavery in any shape 
 or form — under any name, or by any proviso of 
 any president- making platform. 
 
 I utterly protest against the astounding proviso, 
 which may justly be called Mr. Clay's proviso. 
 He, I think, is entitled to a proviso; though I should 
 not be willing to award him more for the free-soil 
 sentiments he has repeatedly uttered. I have read 
 some little of conquests by Governments, but it has 
 remained for this age to discover a people conquer- 
 ing another, obtaining their lands, and by the opera- 
 tion destroying their own property by its touching 
 their soil, and compelled to abandon theirown reli- 
 gion and to adopt that of the conquered. Yet such is 
 the result of the prevalence of the Mexican laws if 
 they be of force so as to exclude slavery. Sir, these 
 various shifts are lamentable and disgusting in this 
 bold effort to cheat the South. Can any one be- 
 lieve that the day after the treaty, American citi 
 
 if they love this Union, as many profess here, to 
 look at this matter as it is, and to exercise their 
 energies to restore this Government to its original 
 character; to cast out the poisonous heresy that 
 threatens its dissolution. 
 
 But we hear on this floor that the South are ar- 
 rogant, and the North (having all power) will not 
 grant her demands. I ask, in what single instance, 
 since the establishment of this Confederacy, has 
 the South ever demanded the establishment of a 
 single principle of doubtful constitutionality ? And 
 who does not know that the arrogance always 
 comes in every insidious form from the other end 
 of the compass? and who does not feel that there 
 is double arrogance in the unfounded assertion ? 
 It is with the North to determine whether the 
 Union of our fathers shall stand or fall. She is 
 now in the majority, and the destinies of the Union 
 are in her hands. It is for the South to take care 
 
 zenscouldnotbeallowed in New Mexico to worship \\ of herself, according to her sovereign and consti- 
 
 their God in any other faith than that of the Ro- 
 man Catholic? Can any one believe that Ameri- 
 can officers who had slaves with them must have 
 stood by and witnessed their liberation ? Suppose 
 the Mexicans with a view of improving the physi- 
 cal powers of their citizens or for their better secu- 
 rity in crossing their cliffs and precipices, had a 
 law prohibiting the use of horses, would it be con- 
 tended that an American now on the territory 
 should surrender his horse to such law and make 
 his journey on foot? Again; suppose the territory 
 had been conquered shortly after the adoption of 
 the Federal Constitution, when every State in the 
 Union had slaves, could there be found a man so 
 lost to common sense as to contend that none 
 could go with their slaves without encountering 
 their liberation ? 1 do not believe it; nor do I be- 
 lieve it would be so contended now, but for the 
 influence of abolitionism. 
 
 tutional rights, in the Union, if she can, out of il, 
 if she must. Nor will the idle threats of arrogance, 
 or the painted pictures of fanaticism, deter her 
 from her duty.' I make no thieats, except as a man 
 about to be assailed in his person, his rights, or his 
 honor. When wrong is attempted against me, 1 
 will repel it; and, although I trust the conflict may 
 never come, yet whenever force is attempted by 
 the North against the rights of the South, headed 
 even by colonels of militia covered over with glory 
 from the fields of Buena Vista, i promise them re- 
 giments in the field from the district from whence 
 I come, amid whom I shall be found, though my 
 head should be white as snow But I look upon 
 all such threats as idle bombast, rather than the 
 sentiments of statesmen. Let those who threaten 
 to coerce the South to depression and degradation, 
 read the terms upon which the States came into 
 this Confederacy. Virginia, in her ratification of 
 
II 
 
 the Constitution , declares " that 'the powers granted 
 ' under the Constitution being derived from the peo- 
 ' pie of the United States, may be resumed by them 
 ' whensoever the same shall be perverted to their 
 ' injury or oppression, and that every power not 
 ' granted thereby remains with them and at their 
 'will." New York came in on these terms, ex- 
 pressed in her articles of ratification, " that all 
 ' power is originally vested in and consequently de- 
 ' rived from the people," and " that the powers of 
 ' government may be reassumed by the people 
 ' whensoever it shall become necessary to their 
 ' happiness;" and further, " that no religious sect 
 ' or society ou^ht to be favored or established by 
 ' law in preference to others. " Rhode Island came 
 in on the following terms: " That there are certain 
 ' natural rights of which men, when they form a 
 ' social compact, cannot deprive or divest their pos- 
 ' terity, among which are the enjoyment of life 
 ' and liberty, with the means of acquiring, posses- 
 ' sing, and protecting property, and pursuing and 
 ' obtaining happiness and safety. That all power 
 ' is naturally vested in, and consequently derived 
 ' from the people; that magistrates therefore are 
 1 their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable 
 • to them;" and " tliat the powers of the Govern- 
 ' ment may be reassumed by the people, when- 
 ' soever it may become necessary to their happiness." 
 Rhode Island, doubtless recollecting that Roger 
 Williams had to leave Massachusetts for heresy, 
 added a strong clause against the right of Govern- 
 ment to favor religious sects or societies. Thus 
 we see Virginia reserved the right to reassume her 
 sovereignty whenever the same should be per- 
 verted to her injury or oppression; New York re- 
 served the right to reassume the powers granted 
 to the Government, whenever it should become ne- 
 cessary to their happiness; Rhode Island in the same 
 words with New York. Let gentlemen reflect 
 whether the States have not sufficient justification, 
 or if they have not yet, how soon they may have, 
 to reassume their sovereignty. Should they tee 
 fit to do so, there is no right on earth to prevent 
 them. The States making these reservations were 
 admitted into the compact with these terms, and 
 they thereby became the terms of all, and must 
 innure to the benefit of all. 
 
 Melancholy predictions have repeatedly been 
 indulged in on this floor, and perhaps by none 
 more lavishly than the gentleman from Massachu- 
 setts, [Mr. Mann,] as to the condition of the 
 South, should she withdraw from the Confedera- 
 cy. He describes the scenes of piracy, robbery, 
 and plunder, that will be common on her coast. 
 I would not desire to see that necessity, nor will 
 the South be in fault if it has to come. It will be 
 from a sense of the grossest injustice at the hands 
 of the North. I am not one of those who would 
 seek the necessity, nor am I one of those who 
 
 would shrink from the responsibility, when self- 
 preservation may force us to that course. Should 
 it occur, however, it seems to me I can see in Che 
 distance a better destiny than that assigned by the 
 gentleman. With a population of nine millions, 
 inhabiting a country rich in every product neces- 
 sary for the happiness of man — the day may come 
 when her hills and her valleys will resound with 
 the anvil and the loom, whilst it may be, that 
 Massachusetts will have much less shipping and 
 employment for her sailors and mechanics, her 
 Lowells be silenced, and the streets of her vil- 
 lages grow green. 
 
 That our coasts might be infested in some de- 
 gree as the gentleman has described, I will not un- 
 dertake to deny; but that those who attempt it 
 may meet the fate of some of Massachusetts' sons 
 recently in another holy crusade, I think quite 
 as likely. 
 
 • i ' wTCKK ok a Si, aver. — The American brig Lucy Ann, 
 of Boston, was captured on 20th February, 1850, in latitude 
 7° 28' S., and longitude 12° 23' E., and taken to Si. Helena, 
 by H. B. M. steam sloop Rattler, Captain Cumming— eleven 
 persons in the crew, thirty passengers, and five hundred 
 and forty-seven slaves, viz : four hundred and forty-one 
 males and one hundred and six females. At the time of 
 her capture, the Lucy Ann was commanded by John Ham- 
 ilton. He, with the crew, were permitted to go on shore 
 on the coast. 
 
 "There were also at St. Helena, the following named 
 American vessels, condemned for being in the slave trade : 
 Bark Anne D. Richardson ; bark Pilot, of Boston, bark 
 Chester, (formerly a whaler.)" 
 
 A word more, to Massachusetts, and I have 
 done: She complains that South Carolina refuses 
 her colored gentlemen and citizens the rights of 
 citizens within the State, but confines them in 
 our ports until their vessels depart. We reply to 
 Massachusetts, that negroes are not citizens accord- 
 ing to our law, nor were they in Massachusetts 
 when we formed our association with her; and if 
 since that time, she may see fit to citizenize 
 monkeys, it will furnish no reason why we should 
 allow them such rights in the streets of Charleston.. 
 But in this complaint she again forgets what was 
 done on this subject by her pilgrim fathers. Let her 
 turn to her statute books, and find that by her law 
 free negroes who ventured within her limits were 
 not only confined to prevent them from mischief, 
 but were, under certain regulations, also put to hard 
 labor in their workhouses if they refused to depart, 
 and whipped with stripes every ten days until they 
 should leave the State.* South Carolina has not 
 yet attained that refined system of cruelty; when- 
 ever she does, then let Massachusetts complain 
 And 1 would say to Massachusetts as I say to the 
 world, let us alone on this subject. We feel capa- 
 ble of taking care of ourselves, and we intend to 
 do it. 
 
 * See act of Massachusetts, March 1788. 
 

 
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