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 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE— CALIFORNIA. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. A. W. VENABLE, OF N, CAROLINA, 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 19, 1650, 
 
 In Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the Resolution referring the 
 President's Message to the appropriate Standing Committees. 
 
 Mr. VENABLE said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: It is a matter of regret to me 
 lhat the rule, which necessity has compelled us to 
 adopt as to the time allotted to each speaker, will 
 prevent me from the full discussion of the subject 
 before us. I shall, however, avail myself of the 
 privilege of publishing to the country those re- 
 marks, which I shall be 'prevented from deliver- 
 ing. 
 
 The character of the discussion, and particu- 
 larly the proceedings of yesterday, have developed 
 many and important v considerations, which ou°-ht 
 to be fully impressed on the public mind. We 
 hear gentlemen declaring, on the one hand, that 
 measures in progress must produce disastrous con- 
 sequences, and making the strongest appeals for 
 forbearance; whilst on the other, there is a cool 
 annunciation that whatever may be the result, 
 these measures must be consummated. The issue 
 must be made up, and at whatever cost, the 
 strength of the antagonistic parties must be tried. 
 I am satisfied that things are tending in this direc- 
 tion, and that the most desirable event which can 
 happen, is a final adjustment, one way or the 
 other, of the great issue which divides us. 
 
 I like frankness and candor. I abhor conceal- 
 ment and indirection. I must, at least, respect the 
 boldness of the open assailant of my rights, when 
 compared with the covert intriguer, who smiles 
 to conciliate that his unjust purpose may be more ef- 
 fectually accomplished. It was for that reason that I 
 heard without excitement the declaration of thegen- 
 tleman from Ohio [Mr. Root] on Friday last, that 
 Heaven had decreed the abolition of slavery, and 
 warned gentlemen of the South lest they should 
 hurry the execution of that decree. Neither was 
 1 astonished to hear the gentleman from Massa- 
 chusetts [Mr. Mann] announce that the institution 
 must fall. After taxing his rich imagination to 
 describe the horrors of the civil war which would 
 follow disunion— after piling up the agony, midst 
 Clouds and dust and smoke and darkness, with 
 scenes of blood and carnage— distressing our' sym- 
 pathies with all the horrors of civil and servile war 
 f;ill going on to draw from the resources of a 
 rich in such pictures, and prolific in such 
 s, my friend from Alabama [Mr. BowdonI 
 id his progress for a moment, by asking him 
 er he would consent to avoid all these tre- 
 >us consequences by assigning some portion 
 or tne^ubhc domain to southern slaveholders, that 
 tney mivht emigrate to it, ana enjoy their property: 
 fte promptly r epii ed that no such concession could 
 De made. Tp him the horrors of civil discord, the !. 
 
 calamities of internecine war, the thrilling terrors 
 of fraternal and deadly conflict, were more desi- 
 rable than the relaxation of a policy in which 
 his heart and feelings are absorbed. It was some- 
 what amusing, however, to see him 'descend 
 from his lofty soaring in those regions of ima- 
 gination to warn us, as an inducement to sub- 
 mission, of the practical evil in the way of 
 negro stealing to which we should be sub'- 
 jected. The extended sea-coast, our bays and 
 rivers, and the succession of dark nights, were 
 facilites with which he seemed familiar in thought; 
 and he concluded, perhaps justly, that if the re- 
 straints of the Constitution were now some little 
 obstruction to the indulgence of the kidnapping 
 propensity of the sons of the Pilgrims, that those 
 restrainsts being removed, our whole slave popula- 
 tion would be abducted. That the gentleman has 
 no peculiar horror of that crime, was signally 
 shown in his zeal in defending (for the mere love 
 of justice undoubtedly) those daring plunderers 
 who robbed the people of this District, a short time 
 since, of near a hundred slaves in a single night. 
 I can assure him that by far the greater part of 
 our danger from this species of daring crime will 
 be removed, by the fact that unless a market for 
 the kidnapped negroes could be found we have no. 
 fear that New England capital, or New England 
 labor, would be employed in that enterprise. The 
 first impulses of fanatical or unprincipled feeling 
 would abate before the want of pecuniary profit 
 which the employment would yield. We are 
 willing to believe that the descendants of those 
 who filled their purses by seizing the African on 
 his native shore and selling him into bondage, 
 might, too, for a consideration, be induced to open 
 a trade in the descendants of those whose fathers 
 | their fathers made slaves; and I would readily be- 
 lieve that those whose moral sense is so paralyzed 
 as to see no crime in negro stealing, might easily 
 be persuaded that there would be less objection ta 
 the business if it could be rendered profitable. 
 They have not forgotten the convenient morality 
 which — £ • J 
 
 "Oomp-unrfs for sin<? they are inclind to, 
 By damning those they have no mind to." 
 I can assure him that we have not forgotten 
 vast numbers of charming and interes~tin°-' if 
 away negroes at New Bedford, who, as his forr.rci 
 colleague (Mr. Palfrey) remarked with manifest 
 exultation, had paid for themselves with their 
 heels. We are not insensible to the fraternal 
 kindness with which those northern Anacharsis* 
 Klootz orators of the human race regard us of 
 
 :n the 
 
 •rnfcr 
 
 pf<£<? 87 
 
the South. Nothing can equal the indifference 
 with which we regard such predictions of danger, 
 except our detestation of the means employed to 
 bring on the trouble, and our abhorrence of the 
 mock sanctity of those who would be the agents 
 in the work. Sir, there is no more striking evi- 
 dence of the senility, the decay of a people, 
 than the reign of cant. No people have ever 
 recovered from its effects, and never can. Noth- 
 ing but cant could have suggested the atiocities 
 with which the gentleman's speech abounded. 
 Let him blush when he speaks of the sins and 
 crimes of any people on earth. Crime and sickly 
 mental culture have kept pace in his section. 
 No southern calendar of crime can afford such 
 cases as the Salem murders of some years since, 
 or the recent horrors of the Parkman assassin- 
 ation by a professor of the model University of 
 New England. If we add to this the cool assu- 
 rance with which the gentleman from Indiana 
 [Mr. Fitch] designated a portion of the southern 
 members as madmen, we are constrained to admit 
 the force of the maxim quoted by himself, " Whom 
 the gods intend to destroy they first make mad." 
 The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Root] stated his 
 points with clearness and frankness, and with 
 boldness declared that no compromise could be 
 made upon the question of the exclusion of sla- 
 very from the Territories' — an issue in which we 
 join, and shall at least have the satisfaction of 
 understanding each other. On some future occa- 
 sion, when this question shall come up more prac- 
 tically in relation to California and New Mexico, 
 1 intend to reply to his remarks. 
 
 I turn, with gratification, to my friend and col- 
 league, [Mr. Clingman,] who some time since 
 addressed , the committee in a manner which 
 afforded me high pleasure. I avail myself of this, 
 the first occasion, to congratulate the country 
 that the time has arrived when party ties yield to 
 the call of our country on a great occasion, and 
 when the voice of patriotism can be heard above 
 the clamor excited by partisan zeal. I hail him 
 as a bold and efficient champion of our rights, and 
 most gladly will I cooperate with him, or any 
 other man who will, with an honest purpose, take 
 hold of this momentous question, to adjust it 
 properly and according to the guarantees of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 This occasion, sir, is peculiarly suitable for the 
 consideration of the state in which the Union ac- 
 tually is. We are in Committee of the Whole 
 on the state of the Union as disclosed by the 
 President's message. In that communication he 
 speaks strongly of his purpose, as well as his duty, 
 to preserve the union of the Slates composing this 
 Republic. He uses strong expressions when 
 speaking of its value — of the calamity which 
 would supervene upon its dissolution as the great- 
 est which could befall us. He assures us of his 
 determination to "stand bjtit, and maintain it in 
 its integrity to the full extent of the obligations 
 imposed, and the power conferred by the Consti- 
 tution." I suppose that the President apprehends 
 
 me danger of this calamity, or else this declara- 
 
 bn is uncalled for, and believes that this intima- 
 
 ■t tion of his purpose will in some measure tend to 
 
 ' avert it. If he intends to awe those whose deeds of 
 
 jvrong and aggression awaken a spirit of resistance, 
 
 w perhaps it was well-timed; but the language of 
 
 .menace or rebuke seems to be ia bad taste when 
 
 addressed to any portion of the representatives of 
 the people. I presume that it is the purpose of 
 every member here to stand by the Constitution 
 which he has sworn to support — that the obliga- 
 tion of an oath is equally sacred to the members 
 of this House and the Chief Executive of this 
 Republic; and that all must long since have been 
 convinced that the tie which binds us is purely a 
 moral obligation — precluding the supposition that 
 our existence as a Confederacy either originated in 
 force or can be preserved by violence. The States 
 and the people of the States must have sunk de- 
 plorably from the position occupied originally by 
 them when they can be brought to tremble or to 
 yield to the power which they themselves created, 
 or to fear its exercise in controlling their action. 
 To deliberate on all the circumstances which sur- 
 round us, and to determine as to the rights of those 
 whose interests are committed to our care, belong 
 to us; and whilst we shall ever listen respectfully 
 to the messages of the Executive in reference to 
 those subjects on which we are to legislate, we 
 should never forget our own high duties as the 
 representatives of the people, or hesitate to dis- 
 charge them irrespective of the opinions or con- 
 clusions of other departments of the Government. 
 
 It is proper, from the tone of the messsge, that 
 we assume that the Union is in danger; although 
 there is in that document,* remarkable obscurity 
 as to the causes "of that danger, or the means of 
 averting it. It is our duty to make faithful inqui- 
 ry concerning this matter — to ascertain whether 
 this evil is really to be apprehended; and if men- 
 aced by so great a calamity, to point out the 
 individuals and the measures which are active in 
 producing it. It is time for statesmen to cease to 
 speak in mysterious terms, or to bandy epithets as 
 applicable to classes or individuals. It is worse 
 than useless to abandon argument, and resort to 
 denunciation; to speak of ultra men, either North 
 or South, as the cause of that agitation which 
 now pervades the Republic. Our history for the 
 last twenty years instructs us — passing events com- 
 pel us to feel that some great disturbing cause has 
 marred the harmony and destroyed the tranquillity 
 of the great people represented in this Hall. We 
 cannot avoid the conviction, that unless that dis- 
 turbing cause is removed, it is impossible for the 
 Government to extend its existence, without such 
 internal convulsions as must sever the tie which 
 unites the States of this confederacy. It is worse 
 than folly even to think of force as an element in 
 any policy designed to perpetuate the Union. It 
 Ls madness to rely on any other than a sense of 
 equal justice, as the foundation of that confidence 
 upon which that Union is founded, and which 
 supplies its vitality. We must approach this 
 subject with candor. We must, if we hope to ar- 
 rive at any safe conclusion, be willing to investi- 
 gate faithfully, and decide impartially, on all com- 
 plaints which come before us. Nothing but a 
 conviction that full justice has been done, can re- 
 concile the parties who have submitted their rights 
 to our decision. 
 
 With a hope that this confidence is not alto- 
 gether overthrown, and that justice may ydt be 
 done, I submit some considerations to the Com- 
 mittee on the state of this Union — considerations 
 drawn as well from our past history as fram events 
 ' now in progress — to examine into the causes of 
 agitation and dissatisfaction, and show who are 
 
 rs fvic 
 
the agitators and disturbers — to expose the real 
 danger to the Union, and show who are the dis- 
 unionists — to strip history of fiction, and pass- 
 ing events of all false coloring, and to hold up 
 before the American people the danger and the 
 remedy. 
 
 And here, sir, I must remark, that much of the 
 evil which besets us is referable to mere party or- 
 ganization; although I am admonished that its aid 
 has been invoked to avert coming troubles. We 
 have been often reminded by the press of the ne- 
 cessity of maintaining the integrity of the two 
 great national parties, particularly the Democratic, 
 as a panacea for the disease which preys upon the 
 heart of this Republic Like the inebriate, who 
 follows the blind impulse of his appetite, and re- 
 sorts to the bottle as a remedy for his disease, or 
 the confirmed opium-eater, who finds the narcotic 
 necessary to allay the nervous turmoil which his 
 vicious habit has produced — it is an appeal to an 
 exciting cause to counteract its effects; to a 
 blind impulse, or an unprincipled intrigue, to lead 
 
 % to the discovery of truth and the remedy for in- 
 justice. By party influence wrongs often go un- 
 redressed, and truth is long -perverted and dis- 
 armed. It is a fearful thing when that power 
 becomes so concentrated as to control the intel- 
 lects of the masses and place their resistless in- 
 fluence in the hands of weak or unscrupulous 
 men. The disturbing energy is felt long after the 
 causes have ceased to be active. The ocean, 
 roused by the tempest, heaves with destructive 
 fury after the winds have subsided. The heav- 
 ens are calm, but the waves still rise mountain 
 high, and did not memory fix the cause, phi- 
 losophy would be at a loss to determine it. 
 The ship which outrides the storm, because the 
 very winds which lashed the ocean into fury, en- 
 abled the mariner to trim his vessel and keep be- 
 fore it, has been wrecked in the succeeding calm 
 by the ground-swell, for there was no breeze to 
 waft it from the dangerous shore. The calamities 
 and the overthrow of governments are unskillfully 
 referred to those causes which at first view seem 
 proximate and operative. They are themselves 
 the result of previous evils — evils which, either 
 from a want of skill or honesty in the Adminis- 
 tration, have become a part of the system and pro- 
 duce its destruction. It is a great mistake that 
 the ruin of a people, or the overthrow of a gov- 
 ernment, is the mere result of action in legislative 
 halls, or a victory on the battle-field. 
 
 Unwise and unjust legislation are the effects, and 
 not the cause. A people must be hopelessly ig- 
 norant who will fail to correct the first, or deplo- 
 rably depraved who would tolerate the last. It is 
 the last act of oppression which produces revolu- 
 tion — the insufferable pressure of distress which 
 arrays men iH rebellion. But the sanguinary con- 
 flict which closes the existence of a government, 
 
 ' has been caused by aggressions and injuries accu- 
 mulating and exasperating, until the existing state 
 of things is as full of actual evil as any which 
 even the battle-field can bring. Nothing but great 
 evils ever break up governments; for nothing is so 
 much desired by the masses as tranquillity and re- 
 pose. Ambitious rulers, or the hope of plunder, 
 may make external wars; but domestic disorgan- 
 ization is produced only by a deep sense of injus- 
 tice — a feeling which causes incurable alienation 
 between the government and the people. Thus 
 
 in every government where the people constitute 
 an important element in the administration, op- 
 pression must have become terrific before revolu- 
 tion has been adopted as a remedy. The fierce 
 and successful uprising of the people against the 
 First Charles and the Second James were but 
 manifestations of a deep discontent arising from 
 long mal-administration. No one would respect 
 the sagacity of the statesman who should charge 
 the revolution under Cromwell to the ultraism of 
 those who resisted the collection of ship-money, 
 or the enormities of the Star Chamber. We could 
 find no person at this day who would denounce as 
 disorganizers those who drove off James, snatched 
 the ermine from Jeffries, and hailed the Prince of 
 Orange as a deliverer. No statesman, no discreet 
 reader of history, can refer these events to imme- 
 diate acts of oppression. Patience was exhausted 
 by a long-continued course of injustice; hope of 
 redress was extinguished, and the principle of 
 resistance called into high activity, which had 
 before that time been manifested only by remon- 
 strance and complaint. 
 
 Sir, the principle of loyalty to the government 
 has a powerful sway over the human heart. It is 
 a most important element in patriotism itself, and, 
 like filial affection, can be destroyed by none but 
 mighty causes. This is true, whether it be a 
 government created by the people, like our own — 
 whose majesty is seen and felt in the laws by 
 which they choose to bind themselves — or whether 
 it be a government of any other kind. Patriot- 
 ism — a higher principle than the love of a mere 
 locality — draws the affections of the heart to that 
 source of power which dispenses peace, justice, 
 security and repose; and those affections can never 
 be diverted from that direction except by gross 
 and outrageous wrong, insufferable and degrading 
 injury. It becomes us to inquire why this dis- 
 turbing anxiety among ourselves? What has 
 clouded our horizon ? What has transformed this 
 hall, once the scene of calm deliberation, into the 
 theatre of fierce debate? What disturbing ele- 
 ment is that which mingles itself in every act of 
 this House, marring its harmony and destroying 
 its dignity? Why has the anomaly of our disor- 
 ganization at the present session of Congress ex- 
 cited the apprehension of a large portion of our 
 countrymen, and, I had almost said, the disgust 
 of all? Why the intense interest in the election 
 of an officer of this House, whose station derives 
 most of its consequence from the petty emolu- 
 ments which pertain to it? Surely no event of 
 recent occurrence is the cause. Nothing which 
 has sprung up suddenly in our midst could have 
 produced such results. The prophet's gourd 
 sprang up in a night, but it perished as soon; but 
 these scenes of exasperation and strife follow each 
 other in quick succession, each more abiding in 
 its effects and more menacing in its character. 
 Sir, it is a melancholy truth that there is a deep 
 and fixed alienation among the people of this Re- 
 public, which has at last been marked by a geo- 
 graphical line. A feeling of settled hostility does 
 exist^ and he is reckless of the influence of facts 
 who does not perceive it. 
 
 A gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Schenck] some 
 days since declared, that when it became the 
 settled policy of the people of this Republic that 
 no man from the slaveholding States would vote 
 for one in the non-slaveholding States, and vice 
 
4 
 
 versa, this Union was dissolved. That event 
 would not dissolve the Union. No, sir, the effi- 
 cient cause would, have long preceded it. Such 
 hostile feeling would be the consequence of policy 
 long anterior; and that gentleman, should he lire 
 to see such a result, mi^ht perhaps find in his own 
 votes on the Wilmot proviso, ^uid kindred meas- 
 ures, at least one of the principal elements in this 
 deplorable state of things. 
 
 I am aware, sir, that it belongs to the policy of 
 those who pursue a system of wrong and oppres- 
 sion to divert attention from themselves, and fix 
 ihe blame of disturbance and disorder upon the 
 Wionged and oppressed. An old device, but one 
 thas has lost no charms in the eyes of the unscru- 
 pulous. It is still dangerous in perverting or in 
 concealing the truth. To rebuke and restrain the 
 complaints of those who are aggrieved, is, with 
 great complacency, denominated conservatism, 
 whilst their murmurs and remonstrances are de- 
 nounced as ultraism and impracticability. The 
 oppressed are clamorous, and attract observa- 
 tion; they are plundered, and they remonstrate; 
 they are unjustly used, and they complain. The 
 complacent wrong-doer calls himself a conservative, 
 because he has no cause to be dissatisfied with the 
 amount of his plunder, and deprecates a change of 
 things, which would decrease his gains. Wrapped 
 in the mantle of his own good feelings, he wonders 
 why any of his fellow-citizens should complain 
 of rights curtailed, when, by that operation, his 
 own are so much increased. We know that power 
 can purchase parasites and demagogues; that the 
 masses who receive the plunder are easily per- 
 suaded that complaints are mere clamor, and all 
 show of resistance a wicked disregard of the obli- 
 gations of society. Some twenty years since 
 we passed through the first act in this drama of 
 plunder; but the deed wasdisguised. A protective 
 tariff, by legislation, transferred, on a magnificent 
 scale, the money of the agriculturalists to the cof- 
 fers of the manufacturers, and the expenditure of 
 much the larger portion of the revenue at the North 
 created a constant balance of trade in their favor 
 against the South, thus curtailing our profits and 
 preventing the growth of our commercial cities. 
 Menaced resistance compelled a relaxation; but 
 rapacity knows no pause, and in our days we wit- 
 ness the open purpose of plundering the whole do- 
 main for partial distribution. To do this, the in- 
 stitution of domestic slavery must be assailed and 
 weakened, and all the exasperating appliances 
 which have been adopted to consummate it are 
 pressed with unrelenting tenacity. 
 
 With these facts to guide we can be at no loss 
 to answer the inquiry, What are the causes of 
 agitation and discontent? We find the first in the 
 laws enacted by the non-slaveholding States, pre- 
 venting and discouraging the recapture of fugitives, 
 laws expressly against the letter and the spirit of 
 the Constitution. The attempt to emancipate 
 slaves in this District, the forts, arsenals, and 
 dock-yards belonging to the United States by ces- 
 sion from the Slates in which they are located. 
 The purpose by the proviso to exclude slave- 
 holders from all the territories of the United" Slates; 
 or by a more compendious measure, the forcible 
 manufacture by Executive interference of States 
 out of territorial domain with this exclusion in the 
 constitution, and their unceremonious introduc- 
 tion into this Confederacy. All these measures 
 
 indicate an undisguised purpose for the total eman- 
 cipation of slaves throughout the United States as 
 well as the territories. A purpose which, so far 
 from being concealed, was boldly announced in 
 the Senate during the last Congress by the late 
 Senator from New York, [Mr. Dix.] He said 
 that, the policy and the design of those who op- 
 posed the extension of slavery by the proviso was 
 to " surround the slave States with a cordon of 
 free States and starve slavery out." The meaning 
 of which ominous warning can only be this: to 
 compress the white and black race within such a 
 narrow compass that the white race must abandon 
 their country to blacks, or come under their polit- 
 ical control by the mere force of numbers. A de- 
 gradation aggravated by the most refined cruelty, 
 a policy to overwhelm and ruin the South, which 
 has no parallel in its enormity but the cool malig- 
 nity with which it is announced. 
 
 These are the causes of agitation. These causes 
 exist and are continually increasing in aggravation. 
 Let us now enquire who are the agitators and dis- 
 turbers? And here, sir, as in the whole course of 
 my remarks, 1 shall abstain from any declaration 
 unaccompanied with proof. I mean to be respectful, 
 and if compelled to speak strongly, I undertake to 
 speak no more strongly than well-ascertained facts 
 demand. I answer the question, who are the agi- 
 tators ? by averring that the advocates of those of- 
 fensive measures are alone to be blamed for the 
 disturbance of our repose, the destruction of our 
 tranquillity. 
 
 The committee is indebted to the honorable 
 member from Indiana [Mr. Fitch] for an enter- 
 tainment with which he favored them in the re- 
 marks submitted on yesterday. He made a dis- 
 claimer of any pretension to the character of a 
 constitutional lawyer, which he might have spared 
 himself; for, before the conclusion of his remarks, 
 1 presume that no member of thecommittee would 
 have harbored such a suspicion. But there was 
 one character in the farce for which he exhibited 
 most striking qualifications, and for which his 
 former pursuits had eminently fitted him. I very 
 much question whether there has ever been a more 
 happy personification of the mock-doctor than the 
 honorable member has given us on that occasion. 
 He lectured upon monomania with the unction of 
 one deeply experienced in its symptoms, and left 
 none in doubt of his experimental knowledge of 
 the malady. With a wit which was chiefly derived 
 from the stores of memory and historical allusions 
 founded on authority which justly entitled them to 
 the character of fancy sketches, he lectured south- 
 ern gentlemen for their impudence, and with the 
 ex cathedra manner of one who has been in the 
 habit of teaching with authority, recommended re- 
 straints upon the personal liberty of some of us 
 lest our freaks of insanity should ^e mischievous. 
 
 With the deep acumen of one well informed in 
 the history of the country, he advised us of the 
 fact that the ordinance of 1787 was a precedent to 
 justify legislation on the subject of slavery in 'the 
 Territories by Congress. Doubtless, posterity 
 will acknowledge the obligation for this discovery. 
 We had always supposed that it was prior to the 
 existence of Congress or the Constitution, an ord- 
 inance or treaty made by the old thirteen before 
 the adoption of the Constitution, which on its face, 
 purports to be junior to the ordinance. But this 
 is the age of light, progress, and discovery. His 
 
quotation from the Scottish bard would have been 
 peculiarly appropriate to himself, if he had re- 
 membered a most remarkable piece of history in 
 his own State, of recent occurrence. Perhaps it has 
 occurred too lately to be remembered. On the 
 12th of January, 1850, the Legislature of Indiana 
 passed an act directing the Governor to procure a 
 suitable block of marble from a quarry in that 
 State, to be placed in the Washington Monument, 
 which is now building in this city. Upon it, by 
 his direction, the following inscription is placed : 
 *« Indiana knows no North — no South — nothing 
 but the Union." On the 19th of the same month 
 the same Legislature passed resolutions instructing 
 their Senators, and requesting her Representatives 
 to vote for the Wilmot proviso as a part of any 
 bills which may be presented to Congress estab- 
 lishing governments in the territory recently ac- 
 quired from Mexico. Now, sir, who but one 
 deeply affected with monomania could look upon 
 these two incidents, so completely cotemporane- 
 ous, without being struck with their absurd in- 
 consistency ? The inscription, to keep pace with 
 the resolutions, should have read — "Indiana knows 
 the North, but knows no South, and nothing of 
 the Union founded on the Constitution." Alas! — 
 No rim can hold licentious wickedness, 
 W»en down the tide he holds his fierce career: 
 We may as well send precepts to Leviathan 
 To come ashore. 
 
 I shall speak of the proviso policy as unchanged ; 
 for although its aspect does present some varia- 
 tions, yet the purpose is the same. The recent 
 vote, laying the resolutions of the gentleman from 
 Ohio [Mr. Root] on the table, indicates no de- 
 termination to abandon the proviso. The change 
 was too sudden to be sincere, or it grew out of 
 the fact, that the resolution was enlarged so as to 
 include California. The resolutions presented by 
 that gentlemen a few days before, to instruct the 
 Committee on Territories to report bills for the 
 government of the territory east of the Sierre 
 Nevada, excluding slavery therefrom, was sub- 
 jected at once to a motion to lay them on the table. 
 The House refused to do so by a majority about 
 as large as that which laid them on the table after 
 their amendment so as to include California. Cali- 
 fornia was knocking at the door with a constitution 
 excluding slavery; and the instructions asked for 
 would give up that advantage. It would be most 
 easy to explain that vote to the satisfaction of the 
 most determined proviso Free Soil constituency. 
 It was a vote to give proviso territorial govern- 
 ments to the territory east of the Sierre Nevada, 
 and hold on to the ehance3 of the admission of 
 California. When California was included, to lay 
 on the table left the chances the same for the ter- 
 ritorial bills, (for, however reported, the proviso 
 could be attached,) and the advantage of position 
 which the restrictive constitution of California has, 
 still retained. 
 
 If we ever were at any loss upon that subject, our 
 doubts are removed by the announcement of the 
 gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Baker] that it was a 
 great mistake that the proviso was abandoned. He 
 said that when it was presented to the House as a 
 specific proposition this would be manifest. So 
 there ie«s no purpose to give up the proviso, and a 
 fixed determination to hold on to any advantages 
 arising from the position of California. They 
 would be unskillful tactitions indeed who would 
 
 fail to secure such advantages by parliamentary 
 adroitness. If California is admitted under the 
 constitution on our table, the most effectual pro- 
 viso is enacted. If territorial governments are 
 given to the country east of the Sierra Nevada, the 
 proviso will be attached to the bills; if withheld, 
 the masterly inactivity in appearance, but Execu- 
 tive interference in fact, which is the policy of the 
 President, will speedily settle all this question 
 asainst the South. I saw through the whole mat- 
 ter when the vote was given. I was constrained 
 to smile at the mistake, that intimidation had any- 
 thing to do with the apparent change of vote; it 
 was dexterity, it was skillful management, to make 
 great progress towards the consummation of the 
 slavery restriction, without exciting apprehension 
 — to give the South the appearance of victory, in 
 order that this concession might ensure ultimate 
 and overwhelming defeat. The excited South 
 must be amused, must be diverted, and this cheap 
 device, costing nothing and worth nothing to us, is 
 resorted to for that purpose. It would be amusing, 
 if it were not so insulting to our understandings, to 
 examine the various expedients v/hich have been 
 resorted to to make southern men submissive to 
 the policy which must end in their ruin. And 
 here I would refer to some incidents in our history 
 which ought never to be overlooked. 
 
 I pass by the surrender of the Northwestern 
 Territory without a consideration, and the Mis- 
 souri compromise. The first was a treaty made 
 before the Constitution, and the last, though un- 
 constitutional and oppressive to the South, has 
 been so long acquiesced in as to be tolerated on 
 that account. At least no southern statesman is 
 now disposed to disturb it. I come to more recent 
 events as affecting the state of the Union, and giv- 
 ing color and character to the transactions in which 
 we find ourselves the actors. I refer to flagrant 
 and open violations of the Constitution which are 
 justified and maintained by parties to the contract, 
 as well as those concerning the constitutionality of 
 which a doubt has been raised only to justify a 
 tyrannical majority in inflicting wrong. Can any 
 provision of the Constitution be plainer than that 
 which requires the surrender of fugitives from la- 
 bor, or, in plain language, runaway slaves? The 
 courts have so decided, and the common sense of 
 mankind recognizes the simple provision in all its 
 force and effect? The Constitution requires each 
 member of State Legislatures and all the offi- 
 cers of State to take a solemn oath to maintain its 
 provisions. With this oath upon their consciences 
 they have enacted laws violating this provision, 
 and given protection to the fugitive — denying the 
 owner their State courts, forbidding citizens to aid 
 in the recovery, yea, making such aid a highly 
 penal offence. This disregard of the sanction of 
 an oath in the passage of the law is consumma- 
 ted in its execution, and popular opinion sustains 
 the outrage. Can a more conclusive evidence be 
 given of total demoralization in communities ? Can 
 more overwhelming proof be adduced of a disre- 
 gard of the Constitution, the bond of union. Yes, 
 there is yet a stronger — a more humiliating proof. 
 It is found in this, that the authors of these un- 
 righteous laws, so far from rebuke, meet with ap- 
 plause; instead of censure, secure political eleva- 
 tion as a reward for their moral dereliction. The 
 Senate of the United States have now at least two 
 members recently elected to that body from two of 
 
the largest States in the Confederacy, who are dis- 
 tinguished for their bold and unscrupulous opin- 
 ions upon this subject. The one from New York 
 favored the country with his views in a speech at 
 Cleveland, Ohio, in which he derided and scoffed 
 at the constitutional rights of the slaveholder, and 
 he immediately thereafter was rewarded with his 
 seat in the Senate. He is a leader of the New 
 York Whigs. The other, from Ohio, whose letter, 
 with which we are ail ftimiliar, and his open coop- 
 eration with abolition conventions for years past, 
 have given him deservedly the position of a leader 
 of that party, rejoices in his position as one of the 
 Free Democracy. He, too, has received his reward, 
 and occupies a seat in the Senate. This, sir, is 
 the worst sign of the times. These movements 
 are made in the face of a most perilous excitement 
 of the public mind at the South, and as if in scorn 
 and contempt to ourremonstrancesand complaints. 
 
 I doubt not but many members of this House 
 from those States would gladly have prevented 
 the enactment of those laws, and the pursuit of a 
 policy which must end in hostility and exaspera- 
 tion. But the current is too strong; those who in 
 former times, even in the weaker state of abolition 
 feeling, have stood by the Constitution, have been 
 struck down for their integrity, or gone over to the 
 enemy. To the few that now remain, 1 attach a 
 value like that given for the last volume of the 
 Sybil's books. May they be in like manner ap- 
 preciated at home, and win the honorable distinc- 
 tion to which they are entitled by their merit and 
 integrity. I hope this, at least. But, sir, we have 
 very little reason for the hope that this pressure 
 from without will cease, or be mitigated. An hon- 
 orable member from Connecticut, (Mr. Cleve- 
 land,] now before me, was compelled, in order to 
 secure his election, to accept the nomination of 
 the Free Soil Abolition Convention, the ultra 
 Liberty men of his district, a nomination rejected 
 by his Whig competitor. He adopted, at their 
 instance, the Buffalo platform, and by the union of 
 the two kinds of Democracy, obtained his seat. I 
 have his letter before me to their Convention, in 
 which he fully accepts the terms, and by which he 
 secured their votes. If he desires it, f will read 
 the letter. 
 
 Sir, we are compelled to hear ourselves and our 
 institutions denounced — the northern press teems 
 with assaults upon the whole South; and when 
 exhausted patience causes us to speak as becomes 
 men, we are denounced, and the act of the wrong- 
 doer palliated. Their executive messages, their 
 legislative resolutions, urge on the aggressive ad- 
 vance of the Free Soil and Abolition party. The 
 The tables of both Houses are loaded with such 
 manifestos. Those of the Legislature of Vermont, 
 in advance of all heretofore passed, actually claim 
 the right to abolish slavery in the States admit- 
 ted since the adoption of the'Constitution; and yet 
 the popular current sets stronger, and presses with 
 a mightier force. Nothing stays its progress — no 
 road to honor so sure as to float on its waves — no 
 policy so certain of securing popular favour, as an 
 utter disregard of the rights of equals in this union 
 of States. When rulers, from ignorance, corrup- 
 tion, or any other cause, have failed to fulfill the 
 high trust reposed in them by the people who 
 elected them, there is a remedy in the hands of 
 that people, which may restore confidence and 
 punish unfaithfulness. But woe to that country 
 
 where public sentiment is corrupted at its source; 
 where wicked and fanatical men have so de- 
 bauched the public conscience as to justify moral 
 obliquity. 
 
 It is an insult to our understandings to say tha't 
 a few individuals whose reason has yielded to mo- 
 nomania, or a handful of hypocrites who profess 
 motives which have no place in their hearts, are 
 the sole agitators in the non-slavehohling States. 
 We are told, I know, that southern statesmen, 
 southern hotspurs and agitators, are the irritating 
 sauses of this great excitement.' Why, then, does 
 it control the votes of northern gentlemen here? 
 Why do they vote for the proviso, and all its kin- 
 dred measures, directed at the institutions of the 
 South ? With a few exceptions on this side, who 
 in this House vote against any of the abolition 
 movements here, when presented in a practical 
 shape? Refer to the vote of last, session on the 
 resolutions of the gentleman from New York, 
 [Mr. Gott,] the bill of the member from Ohio, 
 [Mr. Gjddings.] and the question is answered at 
 once. The organization of parties, as Whig and 
 Democratic, is sternly maintained for some pur- 
 poses, (I may not say what,) but within that or- 
 ganization there is yet another — a league to war 
 against the institutions and the rights of the South; 
 and northern Whigs and northern Democrats vie 
 with each other in manifesting their zeal in this 
 crusade. I was the other day much interested to 
 observe the composing effect produced by this 
 common purpose. After a fierce debate which 
 took place between three gentlemen on this floor, 
 one from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] assailed the former 
 Speaker [Mr. Winthrop] for the organization of 
 the committees in the last Congress. His col- 
 league [Mr. Schenck] defended the late Speaker, 
 who endorsed his defence. Upon the issue as to 
 the amount of conservatism and freesoilism, and 
 the extent to which the late Speaker adopted free- 
 soil opinions, the debate became animated, and the 
 parties grew warm. But the excitement was soon 
 extinguished; an occasion of sympathy soon pre- 
 sented itself; a place where their feelings could 
 mingle like the waters of the sweet vale of Avoca, 
 renowned in song. Another gentleman from Ohio 
 [Mr. Root] introduced a resolution to instruct 
 the Committee on Territories to report bills for 
 the government of our domain east of the Sierra 
 Nevada, including New Mexico, and excluding 
 slavery therein. As a test vote, some gentleman 
 moved to lay that resolution on the table. This 
 was to those chafed combatants that refreshing 
 valley, they all then voted against laying the reso- 
 lution on the table, and their hearts, like those po- 
 etic waters, were mingled in peace. 
 
 Sir, free-soilism and its consequences consti- 
 tute the true basis of a great party organization in 
 this House, and I may add, in the country. None 
 can suppose that we who look upon such scenes 
 as that just described are so unsophisticated as not 
 to understand it. There are some in both houses 
 of Congress, and doubtless many of their constit- 
 uents, who duly appreciate our constitutional 
 rights, and do their utmost to secure them. To 
 such I now distinctly declare 1 have no reference 
 in my remarks. I admire and honor them the 
 more for the firmness and candor with which they 
 act in the face of a misguided, a perverted public 
 opinion. I mean no disrespect to any. For I 
 presume that no gentleman can be offended when 
 
I fairly state his political creed. I mean nothing 
 offensive when I denominate all Wilmot proviso 
 men, or those who advocate its kindred measures, 
 Free Soilers. Mr. Webster claims for the northern 
 Whig party the honor of being the true Free Soil 
 party. He congratulates them that the Buffalo 
 platform, though having some rotten planks, (free 
 trade and subtreasury, I suppose,) gives him and 
 them a secure place to stand upon in the great 
 crusade for " free soil, free labor and free people." 
 The two sections of the northern Democratic party 
 seem to have amalgated almost entirely upon the 
 free soil question, so far as the proviso is concern- 
 ed, and here in this House present a front more 
 nearly united than any party or any other issue. 
 
 I know that there are very many Free Soilers 
 who disavow with propriety the name of abolition- 
 ists. They are content with preventing the ex- 
 tension of the institution of slavery into new ter- 
 ritories, whilst the abolitionists purpose to destroy 
 it where it exists. The friends of the proviso policy 
 would besiege the South with their hosts, and 
 keep them within their fortress. The aboliiionists 
 lead on the assault upon the fortress itself, to carry 
 it by storm. Should they fail in the attack, they 
 have a refuge in the impregnable position of those, 
 who although disclaiming to be their allies in 
 name, are their allies in fact. It is time that this 
 fact was fully understood. There is a Northern 
 Whig, and there is also a Northern Democratic 
 party. This organization relates to themselves. 
 But there is a Free Soil party, absorbing every 
 shade of opinion which opposes the institution of 
 domestic slavery, including by far the greater por- 
 tion of both these great parties. This last organi- 
 zation relates to the South, to us of the South and 
 our interests. Nor can it be otherwise. In the 
 nonslaveholding States there are three orders of 
 those, who, whilst they include a vast numerical 
 majority, present all the phases of opinion upon 
 the slavery question. First, those who consider 
 slavery a mortal sin against the Divine law — pol- 
 luting and corrupting to the whole people in any 
 way connected therewith, and, as if under the 
 command of heaven, they stand pledged for its 
 extermination. They admit the power of no hu- 
 man laws, the obligations of no constitutional pro- 
 vision, as any restraint upon their efforts to abolish 
 it. A second class declare it to be a great and a 
 heinous crime against the natural rights of man — 
 a crime, however, countenanced by the laws and 
 allowed by the Constitution. Against the continu- 
 ance of this criminal license they stand pledged to 
 employ all their powers and unite all their strength; 
 to repeal the laws which allow its perpetuation, 
 and to alter the Constitution which gives it pro- 
 tection. 
 
 There is a third and as yet more numerous class 
 who consider slavery a great political evil, which 
 ought not to be extended, but ought to be cur- 
 tailed. Now we know that argument is wasted 
 and time mis-spent in addressing the understand- 
 ings of the two classes first named. Nothing is 
 more unavailing than a legal argument or a de- 
 monstration in political economy when opposed by 
 a moral feeling in those to whom it is addressed. 
 If the feeling be sincere, conscience resists effec- 
 tually the force of demonstration; if insincere, the 
 task is yet more hopeless, because truth can have 
 no legitimate influence. These parties must in- 
 crease, because religious fanaticism and excited 
 
 sympathies for wrongs, either real or supposed, 
 move with resistless power upon the human heart. 
 You may address reasons to the third class, and 
 they may be convinced so far at least as to leave 
 us to our own evil of slavery, but they cannot con- 
 sent to its extension; a conclusion in which they 
 all concur. From this third class, who, to say 
 the most for them, are not the most active in op- 
 position to southern interests, all the recruits to 
 the first named must come. And they have gone 
 over to them with fearful rapidity. In vain does 
 the still small .voice of reason utter its conclu- 
 sions; the storm of passion, the raging of phren- 
 sied excitement overwhelm its whispers — and all 
 are drawn by the same impulse to the same po- 
 sition. % 
 
 These, sir, are the causes of agitation and dis- 
 turbance, — deeply seated in the nature of things, 
 and belonging to the case. I again ask, who are 
 the agitators? — who the disturbers? It is mani- 
 fest that southern statesmen and southern States 
 have not been aggressive. The Missouri compro- 
 mise gave away slave territory without considera- 
 tion. A settlement of the question, as it was 
 hoped, unjust to the South, but acquiesced in as 
 the price of peace. The history of the past and 
 present events expose the delusion. Was the 
 South aggressive here? Has the South violated 
 this compromise, or made an attempt to do so? 
 Under cover of the right of petition, the question 
 of the abolition of slavery in this District and else- 
 where, was agitated in Congress. The right of 
 petition, secured in the Constitution, was for the 
 redress of grievances, not for inflicting wrongs — to 
 obtain the rights of the petitioners ■unjustly withheld, 
 not for the destruction of the property of others, 
 property guarantied by the Constitution. Was 
 the South aggressive here? The appropriation of 
 the entire public domain to the citizens of the non- 
 slaveholding States, an inflexible adherence of a 
 numerical majority to the Wilmot-proviso policy, 
 although the whole South most solemnly declares 
 that the act will assuredly produce a separation 
 from the Confederacy. Is the South aggressive 
 here? The assertion of not only the right, but 
 the duty of Congress to abolish slavery in this 
 District, the forts, arsenals, and dock-yards, within 
 the southern and slaveholding States, where prop- 
 erty has been ceded to the Federal Government for 
 purposes of defence, although the South has with 
 great unanimity pronounced solemnly that dis- 
 union must be the consequence. Is the South ag- 
 gressive here? The deliberate nullification of a 
 solemn provision of the Constitution, not only by 
 declining legislation, but by positive enactment of 
 State laws, which prevent the execution of the 
 provision relating to fugitive slaves, thus, in fact, 
 affording protection to kidnappers and a bounty 
 to thieves. Is the South aggressive in this? The 
 recenf assertion by the Legislature of Vermont 
 that Congress has power over, and ought to inter- 
 fere with, slavery in those States which have been 
 admitted since the adoption of the Constitution; 
 thus exposing all the southwest to this desolating 
 power. Is the South aggressive in this? And, as 
 if this were not sufficient cause of exasperation, , 
 the superadded usurpation of the Executive in the 
 case of California — a State called into existence by 
 Executive power, excluding the South by a con- 
 stitutional provision, under a government which, 
 to say the least of it, was revolutionary and in. 
 
8 
 
 defiance of authority. Grasping at one effort, the 
 whole Pacific coast, and appropriating- jis advanta- 
 ges to all butthose whose swords aided in winning 
 the possession, or whose blood stained its soil, 1 
 ask, is the South aggressive here? No, sir; the 
 South has never been aggressive on the North. I 
 challenge the records of history or the memory of 
 man for the instance. That history, in its instruct- 
 ive annals, will perpetuate the evidence of for- 
 bearance unequalled — loyalty to the Union un- 
 paralleled, and devotion to the Constitution which 
 knows no equal. This patience, this loyal senti- 
 ment, this enduring attachment to the Union, under 
 such provoking injuries, has produced the convic- 
 tion on the minds of those who wrong us, that we 
 are not in earnest in our warnings — not determined 
 in our purposes of resistance. Perhaps we in 
 some measure deserve this manifestation of con- 
 temptuous incredulity. Those who have offered 
 insult with impunity, may sometimes safely calcu- 
 late on the pusillanimity of those who have been 
 insulted. It may, however, be true, that our pa- 
 triotic attachment to the Constitution, the only 
 bond of union, cannot be appreciated by those, 
 whose frequent violations of its requisitions have 
 rendered them insensible to its obligations. 
 
 Unscrupulous men are apt to forget that there is 
 any such restraint as principle, any such monitor 
 in the human bosom as conscience. Sir, it is 
 because we believe that disunion is better than 
 emancipation, that any result is preferable to the 
 attempt to give equality to the two races by legisla- 
 tion — a belief openly expressed and found fixed in 
 every southern mind — which has induced those 
 who pursue a policy directed to the production of 
 those results, to call us disunionists. The army of 
 Wilmot-proviso free soilers have surrounded us 
 with a numerical majority. They hold their po- 
 sition and send on bands of armed abolitionists as 
 skirmishers to bring on the battle. If successful, 
 they will claim the honor of negro emancipation. 
 Whilst the struggle lasts, they reproach the com- 
 batants as the causes of disorder. And if their 
 allies are discomfited they will have to bear the 
 blame of the assault. We are told that ultra 
 southern statesmen and northern abolitionists 
 agree in desiring disunion. And this taunting re- 
 mark is rung through all the changes in order to 
 discredit all southern men who speak of resist- 
 ance. It is true that the open abolitionists, both 
 here and among their constituency in the non- 
 slaveholding States, do advocate disunion, as a 
 duty which they owe to God and man, because of 
 certain conscientious convictions as regards the 
 sin of slavery. No concession short of universal 
 emancipation will satisfy them, both in States and 
 Territories. They deny the obligations of the 
 Constitution and the Union which it creates, and 
 inculcate its abrogation, enjoin disobedience to its 
 authority, because it tolerates slavery and recog- 
 nizes the relation arising therefrom. They de- 
 clare that no faith should be kept with slave- 
 holders, and that the Union and the Constitution 
 defiles them with deadly sin. They turn their 
 backs upon the Union as an evil per se, and 
 trample on the Constitution as acknowledging the 
 obligation in this Government to protect slavery 
 by its guarantees. 
 
 Southern men agree with them that the Consti- 
 tution does recognize and protect domestic slavery; 
 that the institution was a most important element 
 
 \ 
 
 in its formation, and that all of those guarantees 
 were adopted with reference to the rights of slave- 
 holders. They demand the preservation of their 
 rights under the Constitution, and no further than 
 they are there declared. They charge that resis- 
 tance on their part, is no violation of the Consti- 
 tution or the Union; but a mere assertion of their 
 rights under both. An assertion which may 
 amount to violence, because, by the laws of nature 
 as well as of every social compact, it is a duty to 
 repel the aggressions of government, by a resis- 
 tance sufficient to overcome the force of the usur- 
 pation. Less than this, would be unsuccessful, 
 and make the usurpation more intolerable, because 
 unsuccessful resistance necessarily increases the 
 power that it was intended to restrain. The Abo- 
 litionist pursues disunion as an end to be desired; 
 the southern slaveholder looks to it as the conse- 
 quence of accumulated wrongs. The Abolitionist 
 is a mere fanatic; pursues it to gratify his consci- 
 entious scruples about other men's sins; if a 
 hypocite, as a means of obtaining power. The 
 southern men avoid it, until wrongs growing out 
 of the connection become less tolerable than dis- 
 union. The Abolitionists disavow the moral ob- 
 ligations growing out of the Constitution; south- 
 ern men stand upon the Constitution and ask no 
 higher boon than it secures. 
 
 The Abolitionists set fire to the dwelling in 
 which we have a common residence, and the 
 southern man is called an incendiary because he 
 will not continue to inhabit the burning house and 
 perish in the flames. And yet southern men are 
 insolently taunted with affiliation with those who 
 do wrong for the sake of wrong, and assail the 
 Constitution and the Union, in obedience to the 
 avowed maxims of their political creed. In one 
 thing, however, the Abolitionist has boasted, and 
 with some show of propriety. His assaults are 
 open, his purposes acknowledged. Whether sin- 
 cere or not, he is undisguised. That which was 
 a feeble faction, has become a controlling power; 
 and there are more than one member of both 
 Houses of this Congress who owe their seats here 
 to their votes. We know their purpose, and in 
 their conventions we see their numbers; and we 
 feel their power. We feel it, because the whole 
 strength of the Wilmot proviso party forms their 
 vanguard, and act with them. They unite in 
 seizing the public domain for the inheritance of 
 non-slaveholders. They stand by them in every 
 assault upon domestic slavery, whenever it is 
 pretended that Congress has a right to interfere. 
 The Abolitionists, content to dissolve the Union, 
 disavow the obligations of the "Constitution, and 
 take what they have in possession and set up for 
 themselves. In doing this, he is willing to leave 
 the South to the slaves and their sins to make 
 the best of it; whilst they thank God that they are 
 not as these publicans. They are at least willing 
 to depart without plundering — to leave us without 
 further degradation than that which they suppose 
 attaches to our institutions. But the party 
 advocating the proviso and equivalent, measures, 
 whether Whig or Democratic, claim to hold us to 
 a bond (the force of which they do not feel on them- 
 selves) to bind us as the Druid bound his victim, 
 and see us expire by the slow process of legisla- 
 tive torments. The Union is the ligature by 
 which we are to be held in position to be first 
 plundered and then degraded, and rendered insensi- 
 
9 
 
 ble to both by the repetition of injury; if resistance 
 be thought of, to be gravely cautioned as to the 
 consequences of treason. The Pacha of Egypt 
 sent down thousands to excavate the great canal, 
 who perished in making that monument of his 
 power. He claimed the right because his armies 
 enforced his commands. That command was as 
 just, and his right to enforce obedience as ample, 
 as is the power of a numerical majority to enforce 
 the proviso and its kindred measures. It is trne 
 his government was despotic, and acknowledged 
 no limitation or restraint but his will. The prin- 
 ciple which secured obedience was fear. The 
 proviso and anti-slavery party urge upon the 
 South loyalty to the Union as an incentive to sub- 
 mission, and the Constitution intended to secure 
 equal justice, tranquillity and repose as the justi- 
 fication of their aggressions. The Abolitionists 
 are open, the proviso party insidious and more 
 dangerous foes. The South, with one voice, de- 
 clares it and its kindred measures growing out of 
 intervention on the subject of slavery by Congress 
 as consummating the full measure of wrong, and 
 declare resistance to be duty. 1 cannot, I will not, 
 lower the standard which they have made. 
 
 Having then, sir, as I think, disclosed the causes 
 of agitation and discontent, and who are the agita- 
 tors and disturbers, I proceed to give my views as 
 to the real danger to the Union, point out the real 
 disunionists, and the only hope of averting the 
 calamity which is foreshadowed by coming events.* 
 I have before adverted to the great truth that the 
 overthrow of governments is not wisely referred 
 to those causes which seem most immediately 
 operative in the last act of the drama. Those 
 causes are themselves but the effects of prior and 
 powerful principles of disorganization, long in 
 operation, producing organic and incurable evil. 
 This is true, most painfully true, in relation to the 
 danger which now threatens the Union of this 
 Confederacy. The bond of union is the Consti- 
 tution. The objects of that Union are most fully 
 expressed in the preamble to the Constitution. 
 " We, the people of the United States, in order to 
 form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure^ 
 domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
 defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
 the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
 terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution fop- 
 the United States of America." The adoption of 
 that Constitution is the evidence of that Union. 
 The preservation of it guarantees the preservation 
 of that Union. It was adopted to limit the power 
 of numerical majorities. It was designed as the 
 protection for the safety of minorities. But, sir, 
 the restraints have not been sufficient, and to the 
 overwhelming influence of merely numerical ma- 
 jorities, much of the evil which we dread must be 
 in candor referred. For years the inconvenience 
 was not severely felt. Our Revolutionary fathers 
 fought for personal liberty, and the rights of pro- 
 perty, homogeneous in its nature and common to 
 every State in the republic. In such a state of 
 things the irstincts of self-preservation draw men 
 together. The same objects of pursuit and deliv- 
 erance from a common evil restrain any mis- 
 chievous tendencies in the power of a majority. 
 It is after liberty is secured and revenue is raised 
 by taxation — when the people become divided into 
 those who receive the patronage of government 
 and the emoluments of office, and those who pay 
 
 the taxes, that the lust of power invokes the aid 
 of majorities to sustain those who are in author- 
 ity. It is only because the receivers of the public 
 bounty have not become more powerful than the 
 contributors by taxation, that the full weight of 
 this evil has not been felt. Every pensioner on the 
 Treasury, every newly-created office, all projects 
 for large expenditure of public money on national 
 objects, add to the number and increase their 
 power. When they shall either by fraud or force 
 acquire a complete ascendancy, the oppression of 
 the tax payers will become terrific. This state of 
 things is rapidly approaching. The Presidential 
 election is scarcely any thing but a struggle for 
 the spoils of victory, with either party, and the 
 time is near at hand when a President in power 
 may hold over after the expiration of his term, 
 and by the force of patronage make good his po- 
 sition. In the necessity of the case, (for it is a 
 part of this system,) it has become a political 
 maxim that the majority must and have a right to 
 govern. Resistance is vain, for the majority is 
 omnipotent — a fatal mistake lying at the founda- 
 tion of things, subversive of all that is valuable, 
 and disavowed by the Constitution. No tyrant is 
 so inexorable as a numerical majority; none more 
 oppressive and inconsiderate, from whose domin- 
 ion despotism is an escape to be coveted and de- 
 sired. As a deliverance from this thraldom, con- 
 stitutions are adopted. To mitigate the horrors 
 of such a state, majorities in original conventions 
 have imposed restraints upon themselves by adopt- 
 ing constitutions for the protection of minorities. 
 We have seen that so far as the South is concerned 
 that protection is lost, and the reply to a demand 
 for justice is the policy and power of the majority. 
 It is claimed that they have a right to give an au- 
 thoritative construction to the Constitution; and that 
 this is a gross usurpation, is seen in the dexterity 
 with which each successful instance is urged as a 
 precedent to justify each succeeding encroachment 
 of that power. The Constitution itself, the pro- 
 tection of the minority, is, by the majority, per- 
 verted into an engine of oppression. 
 
 This force of numerical majorities has come 
 back with powerful impulse upon the Govern- 
 ment here. In seeking the elevation to the Presi- 
 dency, it has become a part of the tactics of some 
 ■aspirants to disclaim the exercise of the veto 
 power, to seek for success in the election. To 
 give up that restraint upon the will of majorities, 
 wisely provided by the Constitution to secure the 
 attainment of numerical majorities amongst the 
 people. The South, now the weaker — the minority 
 in the Government — feels oppressively this power 
 — sees here the prostration of the great conserv- 
 ative principle in the bond of union. This symp- 
 tom discloses organic disease in the system, and 
 one v^iich advances with fearful rapidity. As a 
 consequence of this doctrine, a new nomenclature 
 became necessary. New words were introduced; 
 wind names are often the gravest indications of the 
 'decline of liberty. Our Federal Government has 
 become a national Government, a term repudiated 
 by the framers of the Constitution. We speak of 
 national parties, national objects, as applicable to 
 our institutions. The French Republic was called 
 an- empire before Napoleon ceased to be first con^ 
 sul. He demonstrated the propriety of the name by 
 assuming the title and authority of emperor. This 
 impulse of a majority has truly perverted*our 
 
2, 
 
 10 
 
 Federal into a National Government. This great 
 central power overshadows the States, exercising 
 a control far exceeding, in force and energy, the 
 conception of its authors. They trembled, lest it 
 should be found too weak to withstand the en- 
 croachments of the States. They supposed that 
 they had created a trustee with communicated 
 powers. So thought the delegates to the conven- 
 tion who adopted the Federal Constitution in Vir- 
 ginia. They reported to their Legislature that 
 they had ratified a Constitution, which committed 
 powers to the Federal Government, and " which 
 could be resumed by the States when used to their 
 injury." A Government reflecting the power of 
 the States has been perverted into a means of pros- 
 trating State sovereignty. The creature aspires to 
 control the creator. Those who have administered 
 the Government, have inverted the order of things. 
 The machinery has been employed for purposes for 
 which it was not designed, and power, which was 
 intended to be salutary, has become mischievous. 
 We have, by a fearful progress, departed from the 
 simple ends for which the Union was formed, and 
 the great distraction which now exists is the ne- 
 cessary consequence. Year after year has the 
 Congress of the United States assumed new and 
 extended jurisdiction, until the trustee has become 
 the cestui) que trust, the agent the principal; and 
 all that was secured by the Constitution to the 
 States, is in process of absorption by the Govern- 
 ment here. And this is called the Union. Held 
 up as a subject of veneration so sacred, that the 
 deepest denunciations are hurled at those who 
 presume to inquire into the abuses practised under 
 its name. When a wanton majority here rush 
 over the barriers of the Constitution, and assail 
 our property,, and endanger our safety, and bring 
 the white man in the South to the level with the 
 negro, to our remonstrances for existing wrongs, 
 our warnings concerning those on future, are an- 
 swered with — Save the Union! When insult is 
 added to injury, to every declaration that the Con- 
 stitution has been violated, and the compact which 
 unitesus is broken, thereply is — Be patient — savethe 
 glorious Union! When a galling sense of injustice 
 from some new outrage excites southern repre- 
 sentatives to strong expressions of indignation, 
 they are denounced as disunionists. The atone- 
 ment is a pa;on to the Union, or a quotation from 
 Washington's Farewell Address. Sir, it is time 
 that this insidious game was ended, and that those 
 who perpetrate it, whether holding high stations, 
 or occupying those less elevated, should be rebuked 
 by the stern and solemn voice of truth. It is time 
 that justice should be heard above this idle clamor. 
 The bidders at the auction of popularity should 
 no longer be rewarded for cant, slang, and treach- 
 ery. Southern constituencies ought to know the 
 settled purpose, that under this great namej-r/te 
 Union — they are to be degraded by authority, 
 plundered by statute, and disfranchised by act of 
 Congress. It is by this abuse of the bond of 
 union, that it is really endangered; this prostitu- 
 tion of its influence, that it will forfeit respect. 
 
 Deeply, sir, ought we deplore the policy which 
 produces a spirit of distrust, and weakens the re- 
 gards between the citizens of our country on sec- 
 tional grounds. The attachment to the Constitu- 
 tion as a bond of union with us was once strong 
 and pervading. No one permitted himself to cal- 
 culate its value, or to speak of its destruction. 
 
 Although long convinced that it was of no com- 
 mercial value to the South, still, for other reasons, 
 as well as a principle of veneration for our ances- 
 tors, the feeling was ardent, deep, controlling. 
 But, sir, repeated injuries have done much to 
 change this state of things. That attachment to 
 the Union is now but little more than a sentiment 
 — cherished still, it is true, but rapidly yielding to 
 another sentiment, equally congenial to a southern - 
 heart. I refer to a determination to redress our 
 wrongs, whatever may be the consequences. Abo- 
 lition missionaries, incendiary pamphlets, northern 
 kidnappers, and all the appliances which can 
 either annoy our peace or endanger our property, 
 have alienated much of the regard once felt for our 
 fellow-citizens of the non-slaveholding States. We 
 are rapidly approaching the conviction, that in 
 feeling and in interest we are not one people. 
 Here, sir, is extreme danger to the Union. The 
 South has not spared the revenue of the Govern- 
 ment for the benefit of the North. From Lake 
 Superior to Lake Champlain; from the Canada 
 frontier to the mouth of the Delaware, light- 
 houses innumerable shine in the darkness, like 
 stars on the bosom of the wave. There are more 
 of those beacons — and with no greater necessity for 
 them — in the State of Maine, or either of the 
 maritime New England or Middle States, on either 
 of the lower border lakes, than from the entrance 
 of the Chesapeake to the mouth of the Rio 
 Grande. Your ports are protected with fortifica- 
 tions; your harbors improved at great expense — 
 rivers opened, roads constructed, lands given for 
 the purposes of internal improvements and educa- 
 cation — all by the acquiescence and approbation of 
 the South. Your fishermen receive bounties and 
 drawbacks from the public purses; and all that 
 liberality can conceive, has been cheerfully ac- 
 corded. Of this we have not yet complained. I 
 would not have mentioned these facts, but to place 
 in bold relief the contrast of the southern and 
 northern policy — the just liberality of the South, 
 and the wanton, reckless injustice of the North. 
 
 Not content with all these advantages, our insti- 
 tutions are assailed and the public domain monop- 
 olized, our safety and our property made the sub- 
 jects of fanatical and political experiments. Nor 
 is it deemed proper that we should be informed to 
 what extent this spirit is operative, or who are the 
 persons who make these assaults. If disorganiz- 
 ing and offensive resolutions are introduced here, 
 thrown as a firebrand into this House, we are 
 required to pass them by at the peril of being held 
 up to the country as disturbers of the peace. Sir, 
 when such incipient steps to our ruin are made in 
 this House, I am resolved to spare no effort to 
 show the people who are the friends of such meas- 
 ures. A direct vote shall be taken as long as we 
 can find those who will aid in the work. Insin- 
 cerity shall not find a dodging place, but the South 
 shall know who are these conservative friends of 
 .whom we hear so much. Their names shall goto 
 'posterity upon the record. They shall stand up 
 like open foes, not waylay the path with the assas- 
 sin's stiletto. Are gentlemen desirous to avoid the 
 infamy of the vote on the one hand, and yet more 
 afraid not to vote lest their constituents should be 
 incensed against them. Sir, if such be the state 
 of public opinion among their constituents, great, 
 very great, is the danger to the Union. - 
 
 The South has lost confidence in the justice of 
 
11 
 
 many of the non-slaveholding States as members 
 of this Confederacy. The loss of property in fugi- 
 tive slaves is enormous, the boldness of northern 
 kidnappers has increased beyond measure: the 
 whole Atlantic coast is exposed to northern ship- 
 ping, and even now the citizens of a portion of 
 North Carolina are holding conventions called 
 together to arrest this evil. A recent abduction of 
 slaves by a Boston ship is the exciting cause. 
 Experience has taught us that the attempt to re- 
 claim is usually abortive, always hazardous, and 
 sometimes fatal People, laws, and courts are 
 arrayed against them, and the power of the mob 
 in advance of all forbids the reclamation. Sir, this 
 outrageous disregard of the bond of union, has 
 alienated our feelings, and destroyed our confi- 
 dence. We may have fewer schools, less ostenta- 
 tious churches— ^make fewer prayers in public, and 
 less flourish about charity and benevolence: but 
 we have no code of ethics which makes either of 
 those commodities, or all of them together a set-off" 
 for the recognition of crime as an accomplishment, 
 or the protection of felons a duty. 
 
 Sir, the South has kept faith svith the North in 
 all things in which the covenant bound them. 
 They would gladly see a return on the part of 
 their fellow-citizens of that region to a sense of 
 obligation growing out of the constitution, but 
 they are well nigh hopeless, and for this reason I 
 repeat, great is the danger to the Union. There is 
 yet another ingredient in the cup of bitterness 
 prepared for us, and which by high authority we 
 are required to take without murmur. I allude to 
 the policy of this Administration in reference to 
 the California and New Mexico Territories. I do 
 not now propose to do more than make a reference 
 to this subject. At another time, when the Execu- 
 tive communication shall have been printed, and 
 the whole matter placed before us, I shall express 
 my views in relation thereto. I fully concur in 
 the conclusions of my able and distinguished 
 friend from Virginia, [Mr. Seddon] and take this 
 occasion to express my obligation to him for the 
 strong and eloquent developement of the subject 
 in his address to the House. But I do deplore 
 this whole transaction by the distinguished indi- 
 vidual who occupies the Executive mansion. I 
 speak of his connection with this measure with 
 regret — not with bitterness. I perceived months 
 ago that measures were in progress to exclude the 
 against him, in the first exclamation of grief and 
 citizens of the slaveholding States from this terri- 
 tory. The King of Israel, when Absalom rose up 
 agitation, exclaimed: '' Surely the hand of Joab is 
 in this matter.'? Sir, I felt from the first that we 
 had nothing to hope from a Prime Minister — a 
 Secretary of State — who had voted in the Senate 
 for the incorporation of the Wilmot proviso into 
 the Mexican treaty. He had voted to bind our 
 Government by treaty stipulations with Mexico, 
 to exclude the South from this domain acquired 
 by conquest and by purchase. Before the rains 
 and the dews had washed the blood-drops of the 
 fallen soldiers from the rocks and the sands to 
 exclude his family from a legacy purchased with 
 his life; to involve our country in an agreement 
 with Mexico that the territories conquered and 
 paid for should be reserved to destroy the iufiu- 
 ence, to break down the power of the southern 
 States. The attempt to pass the Wilmot proviso 
 is an act of open, stand-and-deliver robbery. The 
 
 Wilmot proviso is a bold cruiser, with a flag which 
 denotes the true character of the ship. The Cali- 
 fornia measure and the policy in relation to New 
 Mexico and Deseret, is a piratical craft with de- 
 ceptive colors — both, however, destined to the 
 same port, both plundering the South. This, with 
 great dexterity, inflicts a deeper, because a reme- - 
 diless injury. The proviso, applied to those terri- 
 tories, would be a death-blow to southern hopes, 
 an extinction of southern influence. This arrange- 
 ment is severing limb by lmb from the living 
 trunk; protracting suffering aggravated by a sense 
 of uneasy imbecility. Pilgrims, strangers, so- 
 journers, and foreigners from every clime, having 
 falsely assumed to be a people, have seized upon 
 the public domain, appropriated all they desired, 
 if not^by the advice, by the connivance of the 
 Government here. I say falsely assumed to be a 
 people, the term presupposes the existence of so- 
 cial organization. A people inhabiting and resi- 
 ding in a territory whose right to form a govern- 
 ment has been recognised by those possessing the 
 sovereignty — and who consent to withdraw their 
 sovereignty in order to the formation of a State 
 constitution without any other condition than that 
 it should be republican in its provisions. Not a 
 fortuitous, accidental accumulation of persons, 
 without fixed domicil or interest in the soil — tran- 
 sitory and unsettled. Here, sir, is danger to the 
 Union. In every usurpation, every violation of 
 the Constitution, there is danger — such a policy 
 persevered in must destroy it. , 
 
 I think I have shown the danger to the Union, 
 and whence it proceeds. It is seen and felt, for 
 the whole South is now moving to a convention of 
 slaveholding States, to be held at Nashville in June 
 next, to consider how to save the Union, but at all 
 events to save ourselves. A sense of injustice has 
 smitten the heart of the whole people, and the bit- 
 ter waters of strife are about to be substituted for 
 refreshing streams of patriotic affection. There is 
 imminent danger of disunion; nor can gentlemen 
 avoid the evidence of that fact by referring to our 
 prosperity as a people, and the great interest which 
 the South has in the preservation of the Union. 
 The South has an interest in the Constitution and 
 the Union. It is the continual claim which is made 
 for that interest which is denominated agitation by 
 those who withhold justice from us. We do not 
 desire to calculate in figures the value of the bond, 
 we only ask for its conditions, and then, in weal 
 or woe, prosperous or unfortunate, clothed with 
 honors or sunk into poverty, covered with glory 
 or trampled in the dust by the heel of conquering 
 foes, we stand by you and with you; 
 " For our fathers were like brothers, 
 In the brave days of old." 
 
 But it is no reply to our just complaints to say 
 that we^have become a prosperous and a great 
 people under the Union. It is true our Constitu- 
 tion would make any people great if its principles 
 are regarded in the administration of the Govern- 
 ment. Imperfectly as its guarantees have been 
 preserved, the elements of greatness in climate, 
 in soil, and natural advantages, with the energy 
 and enterprise of the people, have produced re- 
 sults which have no parallel in history. This is 
 true; but it is also true that our progress has been 
 greatly impeded, and the ends for which the Con- 
 stitution was adopted have been much obstructed 
 by a disregard of the wholesome restraints which 
 
12 
 
 it imposes. We have been prosperous notwith- 
 standing these impediments, and made rapid ad- 
 vances in spile of these drawbacks. It is not, 
 however, an evidence of prolonged existence in 
 prospect, that external indications of prosperity- 
 are exhibited by a people. The very means em- 
 ployed to acquire wealth and power, often contain 
 the elements of destruction. The policy which 
 accumulates the one and concentrates the other, 
 may be fatal to the continuance of the system. 
 This is strikingly true in reference to our Confed- 
 eracy. We are compelled to own the agency of 
 our State sovereignties in holding together and 
 sustaining our institutions. Their salutary check 
 has given all the stability which belongs to our 
 Government, and has delayed the disruption which 
 unconstitutional legislation must finally produce. 
 The concurrent majorities of two Houses, repre- 
 senting different constituencies, have in some meas- 
 ure restrained the desolating impulse of mere nu- 
 merical majorities upon the machinery of our 
 Federal Government. Circumstances already re- 
 ferred to, have however arisen, which have im- 
 paired the force of this restraint, and we look with 
 apprehension to the future. All tends to the vor- 
 tex of merely numerical majorities. Other causes 
 are also active to produce similar results, and in 
 proportion as they are efficient, the stability of our 
 institutions is endangered. Our apparent pros- 
 perity as a people affords no ground to calculate 
 on the protracted continuance of the Government. 
 The tree cloihed with verdue and flourishing with 
 apparent vigor, falls before a blast which seemed 
 not to have power to overthrow it. But a heart- 
 decay unsuspected by a casual observer is revealed 
 by its prostration. Organic disease both in men 
 and Governments does often exist without indica- 
 tions of the fatal termination which must and will 
 come. In our Government, sir, I fear the disease 
 is organic. This age of progress seems to be litlh 
 else than progress in evil, so far as the cause of 
 human rights is concerned. The great error of 
 the day, one most serious in its consequences is 
 assuming that it is the office of Government to 
 change social relations. Nothing is more mis- 
 chievously false. The only legitimate end of po- 
 litical organization is to preserve not to change or 
 create those relations — to preserve not to create 
 property. All valuable alterations suelTas do not 
 disturb the harmony of society, are the result of 
 time operating on relations already existing; sug- 
 gested by necessity and adopted gradually. Sir, 
 whilst there is nothing that we should value more 
 than a good government, there is nothing which 
 deserves a lower estimate than a bad one. And 
 the best form of government may be made the 
 worst by abusing its powers and perverting its ob- 
 jects. A good government properly administered 
 will transform the mostunpromising mate^ls into 
 a virtuous community, whilst one that is corrupt 
 and vicious will debauch public sentiment and 
 bring ruin on its institutions. Nothing is so pow- 
 erful in its influence on society, because nothing is 
 so universally present in all its relations. The 
 rights of persons and of property are subjected to 
 the unintermitted action of its authority, and it 
 colors and controls all the currents of social feel- 
 ing. It is a power to restrain vice and punish 
 crime, or to foster corruption and discountenance 
 virtue; a refreshing fountain to enliven and purify 
 all the channels of human intercourse, or a pol- 
 
 luting stream sending forth bitter waters to poison 
 and to destroy. Patriotism, with all its elevated 
 purposes, sustains and defends a good Government, 
 whilst rapacity and corruption are brought into 
 requisition to give energy and effect to a bad one. 
 Hence the high duty to maintain a Constitution, 
 which, having the principles of justice for its found- 
 ation, gives security, tranquillity, and repose; all 
 good men desire it, and none but wicked men per- 
 vert its powers to evil ends. He is a patriotic 
 statesman who adheres to the Constitution and its 
 benevolent purposes, whilst he is guilty of scarcely 
 less than treachery, who defeats those designs. The 
 best government, ignorantly or corruptly adminis- 
 tered, becomes the worst: good citizens regard 
 the fundamental laws with veneration, whilst those 
 who administer them make their loyalty to that 
 law the instrument of oppression. It is for this 
 reason, sir, that party organization exerts such 
 influence, and is so often invoked to quiet the de- 
 stractions of public feeling. Claiming to control 
 the minds as well as the actions of men, and settle 
 authoritatively the opinions of the masses, we are 
 not surprised that we are admonished of the high 
 necessity of preserving the organization of national 
 parties, — of adhering to that organization as a 
 means of preserving the Union. Sir, in order to 
 the formation of any party upon an honest basis, 
 the members of that party must have many opin> 
 ions in common, and direct their action by those 
 opinions. Any other state of things precludes the 
 idea of an honest organization, and fixes the fact 
 that its only object is the division of the spoils after 
 a party victory. Such party obligations may exist 
 with reference to this object, and at the same time 
 another common purpose and sympathy may 
 unite a large portion of each party in effecting most 
 important results. 
 
 There are such things as open questions, inde- 
 pendent of old party issues. This is true at the 
 present moment. A large majority — nearly all of 
 both Whigs and Democrats in the non-slavehold- 
 ing States in this House and elsewhere — concur in 
 the policy of restricting the institution of slavery 
 to its present territorial limits, and whenever the 
 Wilmot proviso, or an equivalent measure, or 
 even an abolition movement is made, are found 
 voting for such a line of policy. This open'ques- 
 tion amongst them closes the door against the 
 South, and our party divisions but increase our 
 inability to defend ourselves against a majority 
 here. It increases their power and reduces ours. 
 There are gentlemen' on this floor claiming to be 
 thorough and excellent Democrats, who adopt the 
 proviso as to the Territories, admit the power of 
 Congress over slavery in this District and wherever 
 it hasexclusive legislation, and vote for the exercise 
 of that power when occasion requires, who have 
 made no effort to reform State legislation on the 
 subject of fugitive slaves, who believe in the consti- 
 tutionality of internal improvements by the Fed- 
 eral Government, advocate specific duties, in a 
 tariff with the avowed purpose of protection, and 
 yet say they are good and true Democrats. 
 
 Now the Democratic party, where I have known 
 its creed, repudiate these doctrines; and I find myself 
 here agreeing with the gentlemen referred to only 
 on the Sub-treasury, anil a suitable disregard for 
 the ashes and memory of a defunct United Slates 
 Bank. With such elements as these to constitute 
 a party, we are gravely told that such an organiza- 
 
13 
 
 tion ought to be preserved as one of the most ap- 
 proved methods of saving the Union. This open ( 
 question concerningslaveryunitesNorthern Whigs j 
 and Democrats against the South, and produces j 
 the very measures which the whole South, by 
 governors, conventions, and legislatures, declare j 
 must cause a dissolution of the tie which binds the 
 States together: and yet fealty to party authority ; 
 demands our allegiance to consummate degradation j 
 and enforce submission. To advise such a con- 
 centration of party power must, if from Northern 
 sources, be arrogance of supposed conquest over us 
 — if from Southern men, or a Southern press, it 
 means nothing less than submission to dishonora- 
 ble inequality, and the Union it preserves owes its 
 existence to the calmness of despair. To inculcate 
 reverence for such an Union, to make pledges to 
 advocate " it under all circumstances, regarding 
 its dissolution as the greatest of all possible evils 
 that can befall the country," if coming from those 
 who make it the instrument of our oppression, is 
 insolence.; if from a Southern man or a Southern 
 press, is treason to their section, — dark, deadly 
 treason. 
 
 Sir, 1 own no party affiliations with those who 
 vote for a policy which is forever to fix upon me 
 and mine a condition of political inequality. 1 
 recognize no party ties nniting me to those whose 
 system of aggression has for its result the equali- 
 zation of the black and white races — which looks 
 even remotely to the possession of civil or social 
 equality of those races at the South at least 
 (amongst themselves it may be a matter of taste 
 with which it does not become us to interfere.) 
 Neither will I acknowledge party allegiance to 
 those who vote for or approve the VVilmot proviso, 
 or any equivalent measure, the abolition of slavery 
 in this District or elsewhere by Congress, or the 
 obstruction of the recapture of fugitive slaves by 
 State authority. My constituents have declared 
 disunion preferable to any of these results, and so 
 instructed me at the polls. It was the issue upon 
 which I was elected; and I frankly asked all who 
 had not made up their minds to approve of that 
 conclusion not to vote for me. I cannot, then, by 
 the recognition of any party arrangement, give 
 strength to such as pursue those objects with un- 
 remitting zeal. I claim no party affiliation with 
 the advocates of those measures, however strongly 
 party lines may be drawn. To do so is to betray 
 my trust, to dishonor my constituents, to acknowl- 
 edge the plunder and monopoly of our territory 
 a just distribution, kidnapping and the abduction 
 of our slaves a virtue, and perjury against the 
 Constitution in protecting runaway slaves by 
 statute, an accomplishment to be admired. It is 
 an insult to ask a southern man to own party ob- 
 ligations which promote the ruin of the South. I 
 hail every man, whether Whig or Democrat, from 
 the North or from the South, who, standing by 
 the guarantees of the Constitution, preserves the 
 rights of the South on this absorbing ques- 
 tion as belonging to the party organization to 
 which I acknowledge fealty and allegiance. I 
 pledge myself to cooperate with such, and such 
 alone, as thus resolve. Neither will I be diverted 
 from my purpose by questions raised concerning 
 the spoils of victory or the emoluments of office, 
 the exercise of power either in appointments or 
 removals, sympathy with foreign and suffering pat- 
 riots and reprobation of foreign despotism, or any 
 
 minor questions which do and have divided states- 
 men in their opinions. As well might we pause 
 when the envenomed serpent in his coil is about to 
 strike a fatal blow, to kill the insect which could 
 only rob me of a drop of blood. No, sir, I stand by 
 those of all parties who stand by the Constitution. 
 I recognise no political association with those who 
 violate and pervert it. We will know no political 
 friends but those who abide by its provisions, and 
 regard all as political enemies who deny us its pro- 
 tection. I cannot recognize a political association 
 with those, whose policy is directed to the destruc- 
 tion of eighteen hundred millions of dollars' worth 
 of property — the value of our southern slaves. 
 Ours by the Constitution, ours by rights, ours in a 
 great measure by purchase from those who now 
 threaten to destroy it. Whatever may be the con- 
 sequence of resistance, it is a struggle for our pro- 
 perty., our homes, our firesides, and our posterity, 
 and our position as men, our equality in this re- 
 public. 
 
 In showing, sir, the danger to the Union, I 
 think I have designated the disunionists. Not 
 southern men, who' are determined to save their 
 homes and their property, and their superiority to 
 a free race, to demand and to have his chartered 
 rights, but the invader of his rights, the destroyer 
 of his repose. Doubtless the emperors of Prussia 
 and of Austria do thus excuse all these cruelties by- 
 denouncing the patriotism of the Hungarians treas- 
 on, and the demand of their rights the suggestion 
 of hot-headed ultra-politicians. I say in all candor 
 and with all courtesy to the Abolitionists, you are 
 disunionists, for you are continually endeavoring 
 to destroy the value of property, to secure which 
 was the chief object of the Constitution and the 
 Union. I say to the Free Soilers of every shade of 
 opinion and of every political party, you are dis- 
 unionists, for you assert a claim to the whole 
 public domain for yourselves, irrespective of the 
 rights of a large portion of your follow-citizens, 
 equally entitled to its occupation under the Consti- 
 tution. I say to all who either here or elsewhere 
 approve of, or encourage legislative or other action 
 to prevent the recapture of fugitive slaves — or who 
 here deny the legislation necessary to make that 
 article in the Constitution which requires their de- 
 livery operative and efficient. You — you are dis- 
 unionists, for you pull out the corner-stone of the 
 Union, as one of your judges most tru!y and 
 solemnly declared — it is the assailant and not the 
 man who resists assault who breaks the peace. It 
 is the wrong-doer, and not he who only contends 
 lawfully for his rights, that is responsible for the 
 violence of the struggle. 
 
 What then, sir, must be the end of this state of 
 things ? What can save the country from discord 
 and the Federal Government from overthrow? 
 What, igtfhe language ofpoliticians, will satisfy the 
 South ?™l'he time was, sir, when all that was 
 demanded was forbearance on the part of the non- 
 slaveholdirg States as our equals in the Confeder- 
 acy. We simply asked, let us and our institutions 
 alone. But that time has past. Mississippi has 
 cast her banner to the breeze, and all the southern 
 States will wheel into line with this gallant young 
 sovereignty. In convention they will speak one 
 voice, but in tones which will remove the incre- 
 dulity of those who suppose that we are not in 
 earnest. In the bold, manly, and truthful mani- 
 festos of those States I see the resolve that all this 
 
14 
 
 difficulty must be settled now and forever. All 
 causes of alienation must be removed. The policy 
 which under any form of Federal legislation or 
 Executive intervention seizes for the non-slave- 
 holding States the public domain, must be given 
 up; the South will never be satisfied with an aban- 
 donmentofthe name whilstthe reality of the wrong 
 is still enforced — to be cheated and then laughed 
 at — ruined by indirection and consoled that the 
 proviso was not passed in name but forever fixed 
 u-pon them in effect. Abolition in this District, the 
 dock-yards, forts and arsenals must be no longer 
 urged, and State laws preventing or impeding the 
 capture and recovery of fugitives from labor must 
 be repealed. If the will of your constituents, the 
 state of public opinion at home, your own con- 
 sciences, or a sense of duty require you to refuse 
 these acts of justice, the evil is incurable. Sepa-- 
 ration will become inevitable. Our wrongs are 
 insupportable and can be tolerated no longer. But 
 remember, we cannot be turned aside from a de- 
 mand for redress by the cry of disunion; should it 
 really ensue, on your heads be the guilt, for we 
 strove to avert the calamity. " Equality or Inde- 
 pendence," is our motto and our watchword. This 
 we demand and this we will have. Political em- 
 pirics endeavor to paliate without removing the 
 disease in vain. Party ties are a rope of sand 
 when not strengthened by a common interest and 
 the sanctions of justice. They fall asunder at the 
 first touch without these elements of cohesion. 
 Hosannas to the Union afford no remedy, they only 
 awaken the recollection of what that Union was 
 in the better days of our early glory — 
 " When none were for a party, 
 
 When all were for the State; 
 
 The lauds were fairly portioned, 
 
 The spoils were fairly sold, 
 
 Before we warih'd in faction 
 
 Or in virtue had grown cold." 
 
 That Union, once our idol, is now a sword to 
 assault, not a shield to protect us. The distribu- 
 tion of Washington's Farewell Address will give 
 no relief from the pressure of wrongs inflicted and 
 rights withheld. He was in life our own, and 
 Washington, a slaveholder and a friend of our in- 
 stitutions, " dwelt amongst his people," and died 
 surrounded by his domestics. His memory is 
 too dear to the South for her to bring on it re- 
 proach; his example proclaimed to the world that 
 wrong and oppression are not the less galling be- 
 cause enforced by authority. He once owed his 
 allegiance to his king, held a commission in his 
 name, and fought battles to extend his empire. 
 When that king wronged his section of the 
 royal dominions, he led victorious armies against 
 him, and dissolved the union between the crown 
 and the colonies. Resistance to wrong has not 
 sent him to posterity as a disunionisf or a, traitor, 
 but as a patriot and a statesman. ^--^W^reeply re- 
 sent the abuse of his great name to sanction such 
 an unmanly course as submission to wanton usuf 
 pation. The perversion of his sentiments to give 
 respectability to such a policy is the deepest con- 
 spiracy against his fame and his glory. Com- 
 promises such as are offered can never restore 
 confidence. The South knows that every previous 
 compromise has been but an anti-slavery victory. 
 Kept by them in good faith, and violated by the 
 North. Made for no consideration but the hope 
 of peace, but in the event deepening the sense of 
 injury by a disregard of the conditions on which 
 
 they were adopted. It is in vain that we are 
 urged to further concessions, to adjust this diffi- 
 culty, to quiet the agitation. We had no part in 
 creating the trouble, and are unjustly called on to 
 make sacrifices to allay it. We cannot offer addi- 
 tional inducements to rapacity by rewarding its 
 clamors in hope of satisfying its cravings. The 
 compromise recently offered by the venerable 
 and distinguished Senator from Kentucky is but 
 another gilded pill containing the deadly poison. 
 Saying to the generous South, Give, give. 
 
 He had long before the introduction of his 
 resolutions of compromise left the South, without 
 doubt, as to his views of their rights in the territory 
 acquired from Mexico. In a letter addressed to 
 the free-soil convention at Cleveland in June last, 
 he fully disclosed his opposition to the introduc- 
 tion cf slaves into that territory, either by private 
 enterprise or the authority of Congress. Thus 
 giving the weight of his name and influence to 
 close forever all that rich domain against his 
 fellow-citizens of the South. His resolutions 
 ostensibly for compromise demand a gratuitous 
 concession altogether by the South of all, all, once 
 more. Once before, the South gave up all that was 
 asked, and now with a scheme of pacification pre- 
 sented by a statesman who identifies himself with 
 the proviso party in fact if not in name, we are 
 again required to give up all that is demanded for 
 an empty declaration about the District and fugi- 
 tive slaves, and the migration of slaves from State 
 to State — rights already secured by the' Consti- 
 tution but ruthlessly invaded. We must give up 
 the territory for the consideration of the North in 
 acknowledging rights which are plainly guaranteed 
 by the bond of Union. 
 
 Sir, none of these expedients will answer — the 
 South must and will have her rights without dimi- 
 nution. She can protect herself having all the 
 elements of prosperity; eight millions of people 
 have nothing to fear. No power on earth can 
 conquer us, none dare invade us. Climate, soil, 
 and position make us independent, and we will be 
 independent or equals in the Confederacy. We 
 demand our rights, and our whole rights under 
 the Constitution; we will have nothing less. As 
 a people none under Heaven have more to expect 
 or less to fear. 
 
 At one time in the history of the Republic, the 
 Gauls pushed their conquests to the gates of Rome. 
 Time after time they were bought off by the pub- 
 lic treasures. Those bribes expended, induced a 
 return to renew their demand. On the last occa- 
 sion the impoverished Commonwealth again com- 
 pounded for their deliverance — frequent exactions, 
 however, had brought them to an exhausted treas- 
 ury. To obtain safely they surrendered even reli- 
 gious scruples to.preserve the city from the horrors 
 of being sacked and plundered, and their houses 
 and their families from the brutality of a barbarous 
 soldiery — the treasures of the temple were brought 
 forth by the priests. The sacred scales told the 
 balance to be exact: and the demand of the fierce 
 Gaul was justly paid. But arrogant in his power, 
 he threw in his sword, and demanded that gold 
 should be heaped up and the balance restored. 
 This last outrage roused the young husbandman 
 Camellus, who, drawing his sword, declared that 
 in better times the Romans redeemed their country 
 with steel and not with gold. He rallied his coun- 
 trymen and expelled the invader. Learn, sir, the 
 
15 
 
 moral. Let the people of the non-slaveholding 
 States learn the moral. I conjure those who in- 
 vade our rights, by all the ties which bind a kin- 
 dred people together, to do justice. Throw not 
 the weight of political inequality, the desire of 
 degradation in the scale. Presume not on any 
 sentiment or loyalty to the Union which will cause 
 us to eive up the rights of our children. Drive 
 not an'exasperated .people to extremities. It you 
 dp on your heads be the guilt. I have warned 
 you. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ashland, Ju7ie 16, 18-19. 
 Gentlemen: [ received your official letter, in behalf of 
 the freemen of the Reserve, inviting me to unite with liiem, 
 at Cleveland, in celebrating the anniversary of the passage 
 of the ordinance of 17S7, on the 13th of July next. I con- 
 cur entirely in opinion as to the wisdom of that great meas- 
 ure, and lam glad that it has secured to the States, on which 
 it operates, an exemption from the evils of slavery. But the 
 event ol the passage of the ordinance has never, within my 
 knowledge, been celebrated in any one of the sixty-one 
 years which have since intervened. It is proposed for the 
 first time to commemorate it. It is impossible to disguise 
 the conviction that this purpose originates out of the ques- 
 tion now unfortunately agitating the whole Union, of the 
 introduction of slavery into New Mexico and California. 
 Whilst no one can be more opposed than I am to the exten- 
 sion of slavery into those new Territories, either by the au- 
 thority of Congress, or by individual enterprise, I should be 
 unwilling to do anything to increase the prevaijing excite- 
 ment. I hope that the question will be met in a spirit of 
 calmness and candor, and finally settled in a manner to add 
 strength and stability, instead of bringing any danger, to the 
 existence of the Union. In all our differences of opinion, 
 we should never cease to remember that we are fellow-citi- 
 zens of one common and glorious country, nor to exercise 
 mutual and friendly forbearance. 
 
 But. gentlemen, waiving all other considerations, indis- 
 pensable engagements will prevent my attendance on the 
 occasion to which you have done me the honor to invite me. 
 With great respect, I am 
 
 Your friend and obedient servant, 
 H.CLAY. 
 
 Hampton, March 17, 1849. 
 Gentlemen: 1 have the honor to acknowledge the re- 
 ceipt oi'your letter of the 14th instant, apprising me that a 
 Convention of Delegates representing the Free Democracy 
 of the third Congressional District, assembled at Norwich 
 on the J 3th instant, had designated me as their candidate 
 for th* office of Representative in the next Congress of the 
 United States, and enclosing a copy of the resolutions 
 adopted by that Convention. ' These resolutions I have read 
 and carefully considered. 
 
 The principles which they^declare, and Ve spirit pe_ 
 vading them, have my entire and hearty approbation. They 
 are in every sense of the word democratic and true. And I 
 rejoice to believe that they meet a warm response from the 
 honest hearts of the Democracy or Connecticut. Enter- 
 taining these views, I accept the nomination which the 
 friends of Free-soil in this Congressional District have so 
 generously tendered me. 
 
 I have long felt it to be the du'y of the General Govern- 
 ment to relieve itself, as well as the free States, of the 
 odium of upholding and sustaining the institution of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia, and in all other places. where 
 that Government is responsible for its existence and has ju- 
 risdiction over the subject. That Government has been too 
 long the friend of the slaveholder and the enemy of the' 
 slave. It has too long allowed the territory under its ex- 
 clusive jurisdiction to be oire of the principal markets for 
 the purchase and sale of human beings. It is : no\v lull time 
 that the reproach thus brought upon the whole country 
 should be wiped away. This cannot be done, excepting by 
 the abolition of slavery and the slave trade at the seat of 
 Government, and wherevei else Congress has the power to 
 abolish them. . 
 
 With the institution of slavery in the States, where it 
 now exists, Congress cannot constitutionally or rightfully 
 interfere. Those Stales alone are responsible for the ex- 
 istence of that institution within their borders, so long as 
 I the people of the free States do nothing to sustain it. Our 
 I duty to the slave States will be fully performed by abstain- 
 I ing from all legislative action on the subject of slavery 
 within their limits. But Congress has the power to 'pre- 
 vent the extension of slavery beyond the limits in which it 
 now exists, and should, under no circumstances, refuse or 
 omit to exercise that power. 
 
 I am happy to know that these sentiments pervade the 
 i masses of the Democracy of the North and the great West, and 
 ! that through its vital principle of progression, and its thorough 
 : identification with the spirit of the age, the Democratic party, 
 | in those vast sections of country, is fast unshackling itself f:om 
 I all connection with slavery, ani becoming truly free. [A por- 
 ; tionofthe letter referring to cheap pos.age, &c, is here omit- 
 1 ted] 
 
 ! My position as the candidate of the Democratic Conven- 
 ! ton, holden at Norwich on the 15th ultimo, for the same 
 | office for which your Convention seKcted me, led me to a 
 very careful examination of the resolutions which you for- 
 wirded to me, and upon which I have here briefly ex- 
 • pressed invopinions; awl I was happy to find that the principles 
 '< embodied in those resolutions were so truly democratic that I 
 could accept your nomination without forfeiting the gener- 
 ous confidence of friewls who have hitherto stood by and sus- 
 tained me, and for whose partiality and kindness I cannevei 
 be too grateful. 
 
 For the nomination so generously tendered me by the 
 friends of Free Soil in this Congressional District, and foi 
 the flattering manner in which you have been pleased to 
 communicate it, I beg to expiess my grateful acknowl- 
 cd'ments, and am, with great respect, your friend and 
 servant; C F. CLEVELAND. 
 
 Messrs. E.Perkins and PrescottMay, Secretaries, $c 
 
 Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 
 
Photomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y, 
 
 PAT. JAN 21, 1908 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032722812 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION