YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

0)ajiJjaL flUeLstaf an. ^Lcmeiu..

EXTRACTS

FROM SOME OF THE

SPEECHES OF ME. WEBSTER,

ON THE SUBJECT OF

SHjAA^ERY;

TOGETHER WITH HIS

GREAT COMPROMISE SPEECH
ore i«a:A.DROi3: 7, isso, exc-tike.

AND THE

3EAWN UP BY MR. WEBSTEK.
TO WHICH IS ADDED THE
COIS^STITUTIO^^ OF THE Uls^TED STATES.
BOSTON:
WILLIAM CARTER & BROTHER, T WATER ST.
1861.

Ij^ The great issues growing out of the Slavery question, which is
now agitating the country, have, on different occasions, been stated by
Mr. Webster with bo much clearness and force, that it may be a useful
public service to present a few extracts from his speeches in a cheap
form, which relate to this subject.
We recommend, indeed, a careful perusal of the whole of his speeches
on this subject, but to many this is not possible.
We forbear to preface these extracts with any remarks of our own.
We prefer to let them speak for themselves, and we hope that in this
great crisis in our history, these words of America's greatest statesman
may carry with them the weight which belonged to aU his living utter
ances. C.

EXCLUSION OF SLAYERT FROM THE
TERRITORIES.

Extracts from Mr. Webster's Remarks in the Senate of the
United States, August 12, 1848.
•' The honorable member from Georgia (Mr. Berrien) has said that it
is a question interesting to the South and to the North, and one which
may well attract the attention of mankind.
" He has not stated any part of this too strongly ; it is such a question,
and without doubt it is a question which may well attract the attention
of mankind. On the subject involved in this debate the whole world is
not now asleep, — it is wide awake.
" It is a question of magnitude enough, of interest enough, to all the
civilized nations of the earth, to call from those who support the one
side or the other a statement of the grounds upon which they act.
"This Constitution, founded in 1787, and the government under it or
ganized in 1789, do recognize the existence of Slavery in certain States
then belonging to the Union, and a particular description of Slavery.
" This particular description of Slavery does not, I believe, now exist
in Europe, nor in any other portion of the habitable globe. It is not a
predial Slavery.
"It is a peculiar system of personal Slaveiy, by which the person who
is called ' Slave' is transferable, as a chattel, from hand to hand. I speak
of this as a fact, and that is the fact, and I will say further, that although
Slavery as a system of servitude attached to the earth exists in various
countries of Europe, I am not at the present moment aware of any place
on the globe in which this property of man in a human being, as a slave
transferable as a chattel, exists, except America."
" The Constitution of the United States recognizes it (Slavery) as an
existing fact, an existing relation between the inhabitants of the Southern
States. I do not call it an ' institution,' because that term is not appli
cable to it ; for that^seems to,. imply a voluntary establishment. When
I first came here it was a matter of frequent reproach to England, the
mother country, that Slavery had been entailed upon the colonies by her,
against their consent, and that which is now considered a cherished
' institution,' was then regarded as, I will not say an evil, but an entail
ment on the colonies by the policy of the mother country against their
wishes. At any rate it stands upon the Constitution. The Constitution
was adopted in 1788, and went into operation in 1789. W^hen it was
adopted the state of the country was this : Slavery existed in the South
ern States ; there was a very large extent of unoccupied territory, the
whole North-western Territory, which, it was understood, was destined
to be formed into States ; and it was then determined that no Slavery
C3)

4 MR. WEBSTER OX THE
should exist in this Territory. I gather now, as matter of inference from
the history of the time and the history of the debates, that the prevailing
motives with the North for agreeing to this recognition of the existence
of Slavery in the Southern States, and giving a reptresentation to those
States, founded in part upon tlieir slaves, rested on the supposition that
no acquisition oftei-ritory would be made to form new States on the
Southern frontier of this country, either by cession or conquest. No one
looked to any acquisition of new territory on the Southern or South
western frontier. The exclusion of Slavery from the North-western Ter
ritory, and the prospective abolition of the foreign slave trade, were
generally, the former unanimously, agreed to, and on the basis of these
considerations the South insisted that where Slavery existed it should
not be interfered with, and that it should have a certain ratio of repre
sentation in Congress. And now, sir, I am one, who, believing such to
be the understanding on which the Constitution was framed, mean to
abide by it."
" I have now stated, as I understand it, the condition of things upon the
adoption of the Constitution of the United States. What has happened
since ? Sir, it has happened that above and beyond all contemplation or
expectation of the original framers of the Constitution, or the people who
adopted it, foreign territory has been acquired by cession, first from
France, and then from Spain, on our Southern frontier. And what has
been the result? Five Slaveholding States have been created and
added to the Union, bringing ten Senators into this body, (I include
Texas, which I consider in the light of a foreign acquisition also ;) and up
to this hour in which I address you, not one Free State has been admitted
to the Union from all this acquired Territory.
(]Mr. Berrien in his seat.) Yes, Iowa.
"Iowa is not yet in the Union. Her senators are not here. When
she comes in there will be one to five; one Free State to five Slave
States formed out of new territories."
"Mr. President, what is the result of this ? We stand here now — at
least I do, for one — to say, that considering there have been already five
new Slaveholding States formed out of newly-acquired Territory,
and only one Non-Slaveholding State at most, I do not feel that I am
called on to go further. I do not feel the obligation to yield more. But
our friends of the South say. You deprive us of all our rights. We have
fought for this Territory, and you deny us participation in it. Let us
consider this question as it really is; and since the honorable gentleman
from Georgia proposes to leave the case to the enlightened and impartial
judgment of mankind, and as I agree with him that it is a case proper to
be considered by the enlightened part of mankind, let us see how the
matter in truth stands. Gentlemen who advocate the case which my
honorable friend from Georgia with so much ability sust.iins, declare that
we invade their rights, that we deprive them of a participation in the
enjoyment of Territories acquired by the common services and common
exertions of all. Is this true ? How deprive ? Of what do we deprive
.them? Why, they say that we deprive them of the privilege of can-y-
ing their slaves as slaves into tlie new Territories. Well, sir,Vliat is the
amount of that? They say that in- this way toe deprive them of the op
portunity of going into this acquired Territory with their property.

exclusion of slavery FEOir THE TERRITORIES. 5
Their ' property ' ? What do they me.an by ' property ' ? We certainly
do not deprive thetn of the privilege of going into these newly acquired
IWritories with cdl that, in the general estimate of human society, in the
general, and common, and universal understanding of manldnd, is
esteemed property. Not at all. The truth is just this. They have in
their own States peculiar laws, which create property in persons. They
have a system of local legislation on which Slavery rests ; while every
body agrees that it is against natural law, or at least against the common
understanding which prevails among men as to -nhat is natural law.
" I am not going into metaphysics, for tlierein I should encounter the
honorable member from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun,) and we should
find no end, ' in wandering mazes lost,' until after the time for the ad
journment of Congress. The Southern States have peculiar laws, and
by those laws there is property in slaves. This is purely local. The
real meaning, then, of Southern gentlemen, in maJcing this complaint ts,
t7iat they cannot go into the Territories of the I'nited States, carrying
with them their own peculiar local law, a law which creates property in
persons. This, according to their own statement, is all the ground of
complaint they have. Now, here, I think, gentlemen are unjust towards
us. How unjust they are, others will judge ; generations that will come
after us will judge. It will not be contended that this sort of personal
Slavery exists by general law. It exists only by local law. I do not
mean to deny the validity of that local law where" it is established, but I
say it is, after all, local law. It is nothing more. And wherever that local
law docs not extend, property in persons does not exist. Well, sir, what
is now the demand on the part of our Southern friends ? They say, 'We
will carry our local laws with us Avherever we go. We insist that Con
gress does us injustice unless it establishes in the Territory in wliich we
wish to go our own local law.'
" This demand I, for one, resist, and shcdl resist. It goes upon the
idea that there is an inequality, unless persons under this local law, and
holding property by authority of that law, can go into new territory and
there establish that local law, to the exclusion of the general law. Mr.
President, it was a maxim of the civil law.'tliat between Slavery and
Freedom, Freedom should always be presumed, and Slavery must always
be proved. If any question arose as to the status of an individual in
Rome, he was presumed to be free until he was proved to be a slave,
because Slavery is an exception to the general rule. Such, I suppose, is
the general law of mankind. An individual is to be presumed to be free
until a law can be produced which creates ownership in his person. I
do not dispute the force and validity of the local law, as I have already
said ; but I say it is a matter to be proved ; and, therefore, if individ
uals go into any part of the earth, it is to he proved that they are not
freemen, or else the presumption is that they are.
"Now, our friends seem to think that an inequality .arises from restr.iin-
ing them from going into the Territories, unless there be a law provided
which shall protect their ownership in persons. The assertion is that
we create an inequality. Is there nothing to be said on the other side
in relation to inequality ? Sir, from the date of this Constitution, and
in the coimcils that fonned and established this Constitution, and I sup
pose in all men's judgment since, it is received as a settled tmth, that
slave labor and free labor do not exist well together. I have before me
a declaration of Mr. 3Iason, in the Convention that formed the Coustitu-
1*

6 MR. WEBSTER ON THE
tion, to that effect. Mr. Mason, as is well known, was a distinguished
member from Virginia. He says that the objection to slave labor is, that
it puts free white labor in disrepute ; that it causes labor to be regarded
as derogatory to the character of the free white man, and that the free
white man despises to work, to use his expression, where slaves are em
ployed. This is a matter of great interest to the Free States, if it be true,
as to a great extent it certamly is, tliat wherever slave labor prevails,
free white labor is excluded or discouraged. I agree that slave labor
does not necessarily exclude free labor totally. There is free white la
bor in Virginia, Tennessee, and other States, where most of the labor is
done by slaves. But it necessarily loses something of its respectability
by the side of, and when' associated with, slave labor. Wherever labor
is mainly performed by slaves, it is regarded as degrading to freemen.
The freemen of the North, therefore, have a deep interest in keeping la
bor free, exclusively free, in the new Territories.
"But, sir, let us look further into this alleged inequality. There is no
pretence that Southern people may not go into territory which shall be
subject to the Ordinance of 1787. The only restraint is, that they shall
not carry slaves thither, and continue that relation. They say this shuts
them altogether out. Why, sir, there can be nothing more inaccurate in
point of fact than this statement. I understand that one half the people
who settled Illinois are people, or descendants of people, who came from
the Southern States. And I suppose that one third of the people of
Ohio are those, or descendants of those, who emigrated from the South ;
and I venture to say, that, in respect to those two States, they are at this
day settled by people of Southern origin in as great a proportion as they
are by people of Northern origin, according to the general numbers and
proportion of people, South and North. There are as many people from
the South, in proportion to the whole people of the South, in those
States, as there are from the North, in proportion to the whole people of
the North. There is, then, no exclusion of Southern people ; there is
only the exclusion of a peculiar local law. Neither in principle nor in
fact is there any inequality.
" The question now is, whether it is not competent to Congress, in the
exercise of a fair and just discretion, considering that there have been
five Slaveholding States added to this Union out of foreign acquisitions,
and as yet only one Free State, to prevent their further increase. That
is the question. I see no injustice in it. As to the j>ower of Congress,
I have nothing to add to what I said the other day. Congress has full
power over the subject. It may establish any such government, and any
such laws, in the Territories, as in its discretion it may see fit. It is sub
ject, of course, to the rules of justice and propriety; but it is under no
constitutional restraints.
"I have said that I shall consent to no extension of the area of Slavery
upon this continent, nor to any increase of slave representation in the
other house of Congress. I have now stated my reasons for my conduct
and my vote. We of the North have already gone, in this respect, far
beyond all that any Southern man could have expected, or did expect,
at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. I repeat the statement
of the fact of the creation of five new Slaveholding States out of newly
acquired territory. We have done that which, if those who framed the
Constitution had foreseen, they never would have agreed to slave repre
sentation. We have yielded thus far ; and we have now in the House

EXCLUSION OP SLAVERY FROM THE TERRITORIES. 7
of Representatives twenty persons voting upon this very question, and
upon all other questions, who are there only in virtue of the representa
tion of slaves.
"Let me conclude, therefore, by remarking, that, while I am willing to
present this as showing my own judgment and position, in regard to this
case, — and I beg it to be understood that I am speaking for no other than
myself, — and while I am willing to ofl'er it to the whole world as my own
justification, I rest on these propositions : First, That when this Con
stitution was adopted, nobody looked for any new acquisition of terri
tory to be fonned into Slavehokling States. Secondly, That the princi
ples of the Constitution prohibited, and were intended to prohibit, and
should be construed to prohibit, all interferente of the general govern
ment with Slavery as it existed, and as it still exists, in the States. And
then, looking to the operation of these new acquisitions, which have in
this great degree had the effect of strengthening that interest in the
South, by the addition of these five States, I feel that there is nothing
unjust, nothing of which any honest man can complain, if he is intelligent,
and I feel that there is nothing with which the civilized world, if they
take notice of so humble a person as myself, will reproach me, when I
say, as I said the other day, that I have made up my mind, for one, that
under no circumstances will I consent to the further extension of the
area of Slavery in the United States, or to the further increase of slave
representation in the House of Representatives."

From, Mr. Webster's Speech on the Admission of Texas,
December 22, 1845.
"Iq the first place, I have, on the deepest reflection, long ago come to
the conclusion, that it is of very dangerous tendency and doubtful con
sequences to enlarge the boundaries of this country, or the Territories
over which our laws are now established. There must be some limit to
the extent of our territory, if we would make our institutions permanent.
And this permanency forms the great subject of all my political efforts,
the paramount object of my political regard. The government is very
likely to be endangered, in my opinion, by a further enlargement of the
territorial surface, already so vast, over which it is extended.
" In the next place, I have always wished that this country should ex
hibit to the nations of the earth the example of a great, rich, and power
ful Republic, which is not possessed by a spirit of aggrandizement. It is
an example, I think, due from us to the world, in favor of the character
of republican government.
" In the next place, sir, I have to say, that while I hold, with as much
integrity, I tnist, and faithfulness, as any citizen of this country, to_ all
the original arrangements and compromises under which the Constitu
tion under which we now live was adopted, I never could, and never can,
persuade myself to be in favor of the admission of other States into the
Union as Slave States, with the inequalities which were allowed and ac
corded by the Constitution to the Slaveholding States then in existence.
I do not think that the Free States ever expected, or could expect, that

8 ME. WEBSTER ON THE
they would be called on to admit more Slave States, having the uneqiial
advantages arising to them from the mode of apportioning representation
under the existing Constitution.
" Sir, I have never made an effort, and never propose to make an effort —
I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an
effort — to disturb the arrangements, as originally made, by which the
various States came into the Union. But I cannot avoid considering it
quite a different question, when a proposition is made to admit new
States, and that they be allowed to come in with the same advantages
and inequalities which were agreed to in regard to the old. It may be
said, that, according to the provisions of the Constitution, new States are
to be admitted upon the same footing as the old States. It may be so ;
but it does not follow at all from that provision, that every Territory or
portion of country may at pleasure establish Slavery, and then say we
will become a portion of the Union, and will bring with us the principles
which we have thus adopted, and must be received on the same footing
as the old States. It will always be a question whether the other States
have not a right (and I think they have the clearest right) to require
that the State coming into the Union should come in upon an equality ;
and if the existence of Slavery be an impediment to coming in on an
equality, then the State proposing to come in should be required to re
move that inequality by aboUshing Slavery, or take the alternative of
being excluded.
" Now, I suppose that I should be very safe in saying, that if a propo
sition were made to introduce from the North or the North-west Terri
tories into this Union, under circumstances which would give them an
equivalent to that enjoyed by Slave States, — advantage and inequality,
that is to say, over the South, such as this admission gives to the South
over the North, — I take it for granted that there is not a gentleman in
this body from a Slaveholding State that would listen for one moment to
such a proposition. I therefore put my opposition, as well as on other
grounds, on the political ground that it deranges the balance of the Con
stitution, and creates inequality and unjust advantage against the North,
and in favor of the slaveholding country of the South. I repeat, that if
a proposition were now made for annexations from the North, and that
proposition contained such a preference, such a manifest inequality, as
that now before us, no one could hope that any gentleman from the
Southern States would hearken to it for a moment."

From Mr. Webster's Speech on the Mexican War, March 1, 1847.
" Mr. President, I must be indulged here in a short retrospection. In
the present posture of things and of parties, we may well look back upon
the past. Within a year or two after Texas had achieved its independ
ence, there were those who already spoke of its annexation to the United
States. Against that project I felt it to be my duty to take an early and
a decided course. Having occasion to address political friends in the
city of New York, in March, 1837, 1 expressed my sentiments as fully

EXCLUSION OF SLAVERY FROM THE TERRITORIES. «
and as strongly as I could. From those opinions I have never swerved.
From the first I saw nothing, and have seen nothing, but evil and dan
ger to arise to the country from such annexation. The prudence of Mr.
Van Buren stifled the project for a time ; but in the latter part of the
administration of IMr. Tyler it was revived. Su-, the transactions and
occurrences from that time onward, tUl the measiu-e was finally consum
mated in December, 1845, are matters of history and record. That his
tory and that record can neither be falsified nor erased. There they
stand, and must stand forever ; and they proclaim to the whole world,
and to all ages, that Texas was brought into this Union, Slavery and all,
only by means of the aid and active cooperation of those who now call
themselves the 'Northern Democracy ' of the United States ; in other
words, by those who assert their own right to be regarded as nearest and
dearest to the people, among all the fiublic men of the country. Where
was the honorable member from New York, where were his Northern
and Eastern friends, when Texas was pressing to get into the Union,
bringing slaves and Slavery with her? Where were they, I ask? Were
they standing up like men against slaves and Slavery ? Was the annex
ation of a new Slave State an object which ' Northern Democracy ' op
posed, or from which it averted its eyes with hoiTor ? Sir, the gentleman
fi'ora New York, and his friends, were counselling and assisting, aiding
and abetting the whole proceeding. Some of them were voting here as
eagerly as if the salvation of the country depended on bringing in another
Slave State. Others of us from the North opposed annexation as far as
we could. We remonstrated, we protested, we voted ; but the ' Northern
Democracy' helped to outvote us, to defeat us, to overwhelm us. And
they accomplished their purpose. Nay, more. The party in the North
which calls itself, by way of distinction and eminence, the 'Liberty
Party,' opposed, witli all its force, the election of the Whig candidate *
in 1844, when it had the power of assisting in and securing the election
of that candidate, and of preventing Mr. Polk's election ; and when it
was as clear and visible as the sun at noonday, that Mr. Polk's election
would bring Slaveholding Texas into the Union. No man can deny
this. And in the party of this 'Northern Democracy,' and in this 'Lib
erty Party' too, probably, are those, at this moment, who profess them
selves ready to meet all the consequences, to stand the chance of all
convulsions, to see the fountains of the great deep broken up, rather than
that new Slave States should be added to the Union ; but who, never
theless, will not join with us in a declaration against new States of any
character, thereby shutting the door forever against the further admission
of Slavery. '
"Here, sir, is a chapter of political inconsistency which demands the
consideration of the country, and is not unlikely to .attract the attention
of the age. If it be any thing but party attachment, carried, recklessly,
to every extent, and party antipathy maddened into insanity, I know not
how to describe it."
" Sir, I fear we are not yet arrived at the beginning of the end. .....
Will the North consent to a treaty bringing in territory subject to
Slavery? Will the South consent to a treaty bringing in territory
from which Slavery is excluded? Sir, the future is full of difiicul-
ties and full of dangers. We are suffering to pass the golden oppor-
• Mr. Clay.

10 MR. WEBSTER ON THE
tunity for securing harmony and the stability of the Constitution. We
appear to me to be rushing upon perils headlong, and with our eyes wide
open. But I put my trust in Providence, and in that good sense and
patriotism of the people, which will yet, I hope, be awakened before it is
too late."

From Mr. Webster's Speech on the Objects of the Mexican War,
March 23, 1848.
" But, sir, to speak more seriously, this war was waged for the object
of creating new States, on the Southern frontier of the United States,
out of Mexican territory, and with such population as could be found
resident thereupon. I have opposed this object. I am against all acces
sions of territory to form new States, And this is no matter of sentimen
tality, which I am to parade before mass meetings or before my constitu
ents at home. It is not a matter with me of declamation, or of regret,
or of expressed repugnance. It is a matter of firm, unchangeable pur
pose. I yield nothing to the force of circumstances that have occurred,
or that I can consider as likely to occur. And therefore I say, sir, that,
if I were asked to-day whether, for the sake of peace, I would take a
treaty for adding two new States to the Union on our Southern border,
I would say, No I distinctly. No ! And I wish every man in the United
States to understand that to be my judgment and my purpose,
" I said upon our Southern border, because the present proposition
takes that locality. I would say the same of the Western, the North
eastern, or of any other border. I resist to-day, and forever, and to the
end, any proposition to add any foreign territory. South or West, North
or East, to the States of this Union, as they are constitjited and held to
gether under the Constitution. I do not want the colonists of England
on the North ; and as little do I want the population of Mexico on the
South. I resist and reject all, .and all with equal resolution. Therefore
I say, that, if the question were put to me to-day, whether I would take
peace under the present state of the country, distressed as it is, durinc
the existence of a war odious as this Ls, tmder circumstances so afflictive as
now exist to humanity, and so disturbing to the business of those whom
I represent, I say still, if it were put to me whether I would have peace,
with new States, I would say. No ! no 1 "
" But then there is another consideration of vastly more general im
portance even than that ; more general, because it affects all the States
Free and Slaveholding ; and it is, that, if States formed out of Territo
ries thus thinly populated come into the Union, they necessarily and in
evitably break up the relation existing between the two branches of the
government, and destroy its balance. They break up the intended rela
tion between the Senate and the House of Representatives. If you brino-
in new States, any State that comes in must have two senators. She
may come in with fifty or sixty thousand people, or more. You may
have, from a particular State, more senators than you have rejirescnta-
tives. Can anything occur to disfigure and derange the form of govern
ment under which we live more signally than that ? Here would be a

EXCLUSION OP SLAVERY FROM THE TERRITORIES. 11
Senate bearing no proportion to the people, out of all relation to them,
by the addition of new States ; from some of them only one representa
tive, perhaps, and two senators, whereas the larger States may have ten,
fifteen, or even thirty representatives, and but two senators. The
Senate, augmented by these new senators coming from States
where there are few people, becomes an odious oligarchy. It holds
power without any adequate constituency. Sir, it is but ' borough-mon-
gering * upon a large scale. Now, I do not depend upon theory ; I ask
the Senate and the ¦countrj'' to look at facts, to see where we were when
we made our departure three years ago, and where we now are ; and I
leave it to the imagination to conjecture where we shall be.
" We admitted Texas ; one State for the present ; but, sir, if you refer
to the resolutions providing for the annexation of Texas, you find a pro
vision that it shall be in the power of Congress hereafter to make four
new States out of Texan territory. Present and prospectively, five new
States, with ten senators, msiy come into the Union out of Texas. Three
years ago we did this; we now propose to make two States. Undoubt
edly, if we take, as the President recommends, New Mexico and Califor
nia, there must then be four new senators. We shall then have provided
in these Territories out of the United States along our Southern borders,
for the creation of States enough to send fourteen Senators into this
chamber." " I say, sir, that, according to my conscientious conviction, we are now
fixing on the Constitution of the United States, and its frame of govern
ment, a monstrosity, a disfiguratipn, an enormity ! Sir, I hardly dare
trust myself I don't know but I may be under some delusion. It may
be the weakness of my eyes that forms this monstrous apparition. But
if I may trust myself, if I can persuade myself that I am in my right
mind, then it does appear to me that we in this Senate have been and
are acting, and are Ukely to be acting hereafter, and immediately, a part
which will form the most remarkable epoch in the history of our countiy,
I hold it to be enormous, flagrant, an outrage upon all the principles of
popular republican government, and on the elementary provisions of the
Constitution under which we live, and which we have sworn to support.
"But then, sir, what relieves the case from this enormity? What is
our reliance? Why, it is that we stipulate that these new States shall
only be brought in at a suitable time. And pray, what is to constitute
the suitableness of time? Who is to judge of it? I tell you, sir, that
suitable time will come when the preponderance of party power here
makes it necessary to bring in new States. Be assured it v^dll be a suit
able time when votes are wanted in this Senate. We have had some
little experience of that. Texas came in at a 'suitable time,' a very
suitable time! Texas was finally admitted in December, 1845. My
friend near me here, for whom I have a great regard, and whose acquaint
ance I have cultivated with pleasure,* took his seat in March, 1846, with
his colleague. In July, 1846, these two Texan votes tumed the balance
in the Senate, and overthrew the tariff of 1842, in my judgment the best
system of revenue ever estabUshed in this country. Gentlemen on the
opposite side think otherwise. They think it fortunate. They think
that was a suitable time, and they mean to take care that other times
• Mr. Kusk.

12 MR. WEBSTER ON SLAVE REPRESENTATION.
shall be equally suitable. I understand it perfectly well. That is the
difference of opinion between me and these honorable gentlemen. To
their policy, their objects, and their purposes the time was suitable, and
the aid was efficient and decisive.
"Sir, in 1850 perhaps a similar question may be agitated here. It is
not likely to be before that time, but agitated it will be then, unless a
change in the administration of the government shall take place. Ac
cording to my apprehension, looking at general results as flowing from
our established system of commerce and revenue, in two years from this
time we shall probably be engaged in a new revision of our system ; in
the work of establishing, if we can, a tariff of specific duties ; of protect
ing, if we can, our domestic industry and the manufactures of the coun
try ; in the work of preventing, if we can, the overwhelming flood of
foreign importations. Suppose that to be part of the future : that would
be exactly the 'suitable time,' if necessary, for two senators from New
Mexico to make their appearance here ! "
" I think I see a course adopted which is likely to turn the Constitution
of the land into a deformed monster, into a curse rather than a blessing ;
in fact, a frame of an unequal government, not founded on popular rep-
resentation„not founded on equality, but on the grossest inequality ; and
I think that this process will go on, or that there is danger that it will
go on, until this Union shall fall to pieces. I resist it to-day and always !
Whoever falters or whoever flies, I continue the contest !
" I know, sir, that all the portents are discouraging. Would to God I
could auspicate good influences ! Would to God that those who think
with me, and myself, could hope for stronger support ! Would that we
could stand where we desire to stand ! I see the signs are sinister. But
with few, or alone, my position is fixed. If there were time, I would
gladly awaken the countiy. I believe the country might be awakened,
although it may be too late. For myself, supported or unsupported, by
the blessing of God, I shall do my duty. I see well enough all the ad
verse indications. But I am sustained by a deep and a conscientious
sense of duty ; and while supported by that feeling, and while such great
interests are at stake, I defy auguries, and ask no omen but my country's

cause

I"

Extract from Mr, Webster's Speech at Springfield, Mass.,
September 29, 1847.
" There is no one who can complain of the North for resisting the in
crease of slave representation, because it gives power to the minority in
a manner inconsistent with the principles of our government. What is
past must stand ; what is established must stand ; and with the same
firmness with which I shall resist every plan to augment the slave repre
sentation, or to bring the Constitution into hazard by attempting to ex
tend our dominions, shall I contend to allow existing rights to remain.
" Sir, I can only say that, in my judgment, we are to use the first, and
the last, and every occasion which occurs, in maintaining our sentiments
against the extension of the Slave power."

MR. WEBSTER'S SPEECH
In the Senate of the United States, March 7, 1850, on the Slavery
Compromise.

The Vice President. The resolutions submitted by the senator
from Kentucky were made the special order of the day at 12 o'clock.
On this subject the senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Walker) has the floor.
Mr. Walker. Mr. President, this vast audience has not assembled
to hear me ; and there is but one man, in my opinion, who can assemble
such an audience. They expect to hear him, and I feel it to be my duty,
as well as my pleasure, to give the floor, therefore, to the senator from
Massachusetts. I understand it is immaterial to liim upon which of
these questions he speaks, and therefore I will not move to postpone
the special order.
Mr. Webster. I beg to express my obligations to my friend from
Wisconsin, {Mr. Walker,) as well as to my friend from New York, (Mr.
Seward,) for then- comtesy in allowing me to address the Senate this
morning. Mr. President : I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man,
nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate
of the United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United
States ; a body not yet moved from its propriety, not lost to a just sense
of its own dignity, and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which
the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and heal
ing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in the midst of strong
agitations, and are surrounded by very considerable dangers to our
institutions of government. The imprisoned winds are let loose. The
East, the West, the North, and the stormy South, all combine to throw
the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to the skies, and to
disclose its profoundest depths. I do not affect to regard myself, Mr.
President, as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this combat of the
political elements ; but I have a duty to perform, and I mean to perform
it with fidelity — not without a sense of suiTOunding dangers, but not
without hope. I have a part to act, not for my own security or safety,
for I am looking out for no fragment upon which to float away from
the wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of the whole, and
the preservation of the whole ; and there is that which will keep me to
my duty during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars shall appear,
or shall not appear, for many days. I speak to-day for the preservation
of the Union. "Hear me for my cause." I speak to-day, out of a
solicitous and anxious heart, for the restoration to the country of that
quiet and that harmony which make the blessings of this Union so rich
and so dear to us all. These are the topics that I propose to myself to
2 (13)

14 speech of me. WEBSTER
discuss; these are the motives, and the sole motives, that influence me in
the wish to communicate my opinions to the Senate and the country;
and if I can do any thing, however little, for the promotion of these ends,
I shall have accomplished all that I desire.
Mr. President, it may not be amiss to recur very briefly to the events
which, equally sudden and extraordinary, have brought the political
condition of the country to what it now is. In May, 1846, the United
States declared war against Mexico. Her armies, then on the frontiers,
entered the provinces of that republic, met and defeated all her troops,
penetrated her mountain passes, and occupied her capital. The marine
force of the United States took possession of her forts and her towns on
the Atlantic and on the Pacific. In less than two years a treaty was
negotiated, by which Mexico ceded to the United States a vast terri
tory, extending seven or eight hundred miles along the shores of the
Pacific; reaching back over the mountains, and across the desert, and
until' it joined the frontier of the State of Texas. It so happened that
in the distracted and feeble state of the Mexican government, before the
declaration of war by the United States against Mexico had become
known in California, the people of California, under the lead of Amer
ican oflScers, overthrew the existing provincial government of California,
— the Mexican authorities, — and run up an independent flag. When
the news arrived at San Francisco that war had been declared by the
United States against Mexico, this independent flag was pulled down,
and the stars and stripes of this Union hoisted in its stead. So, sir,
before the war was over, the powers of the United States, military and
naval, had possession of San Francisco and Upper California ; and a
great rush of emigrants from various parts of the world took place into
California in 1846 and 1847. But now, behold another wonder.
In January of 1848, the Mormons, it is said, or some of them, made a
discovery of an extraordinary rich mine of gold — or, rather, of a very
great quantity of gold, hardly fit to be called a mine, for it was spread
near the smface — on the lower part of the South or American branch
of the Sacramento. They seem to have attempted to conceal their dis
covery for some time ; but soon another discovery, perhaps of greater
importance, was made of gold, in another part of the American branch
of the Sacramento, and near Sutter's Fort, as it is called. The fame of
these discoveries spread far and wide. They excited more and more the
spirit of emigration towards California, which had already been excited;
and persons crowded in hundreds, and flocked towards the Bay of San
Francisco. This, as I have said, took place in the winter and spring of
1848. _ The digging commenced in the spring of that year, and from
that time to this the work of searching for gold has been prosecuted
with a success not heretofore known in the hi.story of this globe. We
all know, sir, how incredulous the American public was at the accounts
which reached us at first of these discoveries; but we all know now that
these accounts received, and continued to receive, daily confirmation •
and down to the present moment I suppose the assurances are as strong^
after the experience of these sever.il months, of mines of gold apparently
inexhaustible in the regions near San Francisco, in California, as they
were at any period of the eariier dates of the accounts. It so happened,
sir, that, although in the time of peace it became a very important subject
for legislative consideration and legislative decision to provide a proper
tenitorial government for California, yet differences of opinion in the

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 15
counsels of the government prevented the establishment of any such
territorial government for California, at the last session of Congress,
Under this state of things, the inhabitants of San Francisco and Cali
fornia, — then amounting to a great number of people, — in the summer
of last year, thought it to be their duty to establish a local government.
Under the proclamation of General Riley, the people chose delegates
to a Convention : that Convention met at Monterey. They formed a
Constitution for the State of California ; and it was adopted by the
people of California in their primary assemblages. Desirous of immediate
connection with the United States, its senators were appointed and
representatives chosen, who have come hither, bringing with them the
authentic Constitution of the State of California ; and they now present
-themselves, asking, in behalf of their State, that the State may be admit
ted into this Union as one of the United States. This Constitution, sir,
contains an express prohibition against Slavery or involuntary servitude
in the State of California. It is said, and I suppose truly, that of the
members who composed that Convention, some sixteen were natives,
and had been residents of the Slaveholding States, about twenty-two
were from the Non-Slaveholding States, and the remaining ten members
were either native Californians or old settlers in that countiy. This
prohibition against Slavery, it is said, was inserted with entire unanimity.
Mr. Hale. Will the senator give way until order is restored?
The Vice President. The sergeant-at-arms will see that order is
restored, and no more persons admitted to the floor.
Mr. Cass. I trust the scene of the other d.ay will not be repeated.
The sergeant-at-arms must display more energy in suppressing this
disorder. Mr. Hale. The noise is outside of the door.
Mr. Webster. And it is this circumstance, sir, the prohibition of
Slavery by that Convention, which has contributed to raise — I do not say
it has wholly raised — the dispute as to the propriety of the admission of
California into the Union under this Constitution. It is not to be denied,
Mr. President — nobody thinks of denying — that, whatever reasons
were assigned at the commencement of the late war with Mexico, it was
prosecuted for the purpose of the acquisition of territory, and under the
alleged argument that the cession of territory ^^•as the only form in which
proper compensation could be made to the United States by Mexico for
the various claims and demands which the people of this country had
against that government. At any rate, it will be found that President
Polk's message, at the commencement of the session of December, 1847,
avowed that the war was to be prosecuted until some acquisition of terri
tory was made. And, as the acquisition was to be south of the line
of the United States, in w.nrm climates and countries, it was naturally,
I suppose, expected by the South, that whatever acquisitions were
made in that region would be added to the slaveholding portion of the
United States. Events have turned out as was not expected, and that
expectation has not been realized ; and therefore some degree of disap
pointment and surprise has resulted, of course. In other words, it is ob
vious that the question which has so long h.irassed the country, and at
som^ times very seriously alarmed the minds of wise and good men, has
come upon us for a fresh discussion — the question of Slavery in these
United States.
Now, sir, I propose — perhaps at the expense of some detail and con-

sequent detention of the Senate — to review, historically, this question of
Slavery, which, partly in consequence of its own mei'its, and partly, per
haps mostly, in the manner it is dLscussed in oue and the other portion of
the countiy, has been a source of so much alienation and unkind feeling
between the different portions of the Union. We all know, sir, that Sla
very has existed in the world from time immemorial. There was Slavery
in the earliest periods of history, in the Oriental nations. There was
Slavery among the Jews ; the theocratic government of that people made
no injunction against it. There was Slavery among the Greeks, and the
ingenious philosophy of the Greeks found, or sought to find, a justifica
tion for it exactly upon the grounds which have been assumed for such a
justification in this country; that is, a natural and original difference
among the races of mankind, the inferiority of the black or colored race
to the white. The Greeks justified their system of Slavery upon that
ground precisely. They held the African, and in some parts the Asiatic,
tribes to be inferior to the white race ; but they did not show, I think, by
any close process of logic, that, if this were true, the more intelligent
and the stronger had, therefore, a right to subjugate the weaker.
The more manly philosophy and jurisprudence of the Romans placed
the justification of Slavery on entirely different grounds.
The Roman jurists, from the first, and down to the fall of the empire,
admitted that Slavery was against the natural law, by which, as they main
tained, all men, of whatsoever clime, color, or capacity, were equal ; but
they justified Slavery, first, upon the ground and authority of the law of
nations — arguing, and arguing truly, that at that day the conventional
law of nations admitted that captives in war, whose lives, according to the
notious of the times, were at the absolute disposal of the captors, might,
in exchange for exemption from death, be made slaves for life, and that
such servitude might extend to their posterity. The jurists of Rome
also maintained that, by the civil law, there might be servitude — Slavery,
personal and hereditary ; first, by the voluntary act of an individual who
might sell himself into Slavery ; second, by his being received into a state
of Slavery by his creditors in satisfaction of a debt ; and, thirdly, by
being placed in a state of servitude or Slavery for crime. At the intro
duction of Christianity into the world, the Roman world was full of slaves,
and I suppose there is to be found no injunction against that relation
between man and man in the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or
of any of his apostles. The object of the instruction imparted to man
kind by the Founder of Christianity was to touch the heart, purify the
soul, and improve the lives of individual men. That object went directly
to the fii-st fountain of all political and all social relations of the human
race — the individual heart and mind of man.
Now, sir, upon the general nature, and character, and influence of Sla
very, there exists a wide difference between the Northern portion of this
countiy and the Southern. It is said on the one side that, if not the
subject of any injunction or direct prohibition in the New Testament,
Slavery is a wrong; that it is founded merely in the right of the strong
est ; and that it is an oppression, like all unjust wars, like all those con
flicts b-i- which a mighty nation subjects a weaker nation to their will ;
and that Slavery, in its nature, whatever may be said of it in the mod
ifications which have taken place, is not, in fact, according to the meek
spirit of the gospel. It is not kindly affectioned; it does not "seek an
other's, and not its own." It does not "let the oppressed go free,"

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 17
These are sentiments that are cherished, and recently with gi-eatly
augmented force, among the people of the Northern States. It has
taken hold of the reUgious sentiment of that part of the country, as it
has, more or less, taken hold of the religious feelings of a considerable
portion of mankind. The South, upon the other side, having been ac
customed to this relation between the two races all their lives, from their
bfrth — having been taught in general to treat the subjects of this bond
age with care and kindness — and I believe, in general, feeling for them
great care and kindness — have yet not taken this view of the subject
which I have mentioned. There are thousands of religious men, with
consciences as tender as any of their brethren at the North, who do not
see the unlawfulness of Slavery ; and there are more thousands, per
haps, that, whatsoever they may think of it in its origin, and as a matter
depending upon natural right, yet take things as they are, and, finding
Slavery to be an established relation of the society in which they live,
can see no way in which — let their opinions on the abstract question
be what they may — it is in the power of the present generation to re
lieve themselves from this relation. And in this respect candor obliges
me to say, that I believe they are just as conscientious, many of them,
and of the religious people all of them, as they are in the North in hold
ing different opinions.
Why, sir, the honorable senator from South Carolina, the other day,
aUuded to the separation of that great religious community, the Method
ist Episcopal Church. That separation was brought about by differ-
enc'as of opinion upon this peculiar subject of Slavery. I felt great
concern, as that dispute went on, about the result, and I was in hopes
that the difference of opinion might be adjusted, because I looked upon
that religious denomination as one of the great props of reUgion and
morals throughout the whole country, from Maine to Georgia. The re
sult was against my wishes and against my hopes. I have read all their
proceedings, and all their arguments, but I have never yet been able to
come to the conclusion that there was any real ground for that separa
tion ; in other words, that no good could be produced by that separation.
I must say I think there was some want of candor and charity. Sir,
when a question of this kind takes hold of the rehgious sentiments of
mankind, and comes to be discussed in religious assembhes of the clergy
and laity, there is always to be expected, or always to be feared, a great
degree of excitement. It is in the nature of man, manifested by his
whole history, that religious disputes are apt to become warm, and men's
strength of conviction is proportionate to their views of the magnitude
of the questions. In all such disputes there will sometimes men be
found with whom every thing is absolute — absolutely wrong, or abso
lutely right. They see the right clearly ; they think others ought so to see
it, and they are disposed to establish a broad line of distinction between
what is right and what is wrong. And they are not seldom willing to
establish that line upon their own convictions of the truth and the justice
of their own opinions ; and are willing to mark and guard that line, by
placing along it a series of dogmas, as lines of boundary are marked by
posts and stones. There are men who, with clear perceptions, as they
think, of their own duty, do not see how too hot a pursuit of one duty
may involve them in the violation of others, or how too Avarra an em-
bracement of one truth may lead to a disi-egard of other truths equally
important. As I heard it stated strongly, not many days ago, these peiv
2*

18 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
sons are disposed to mount upon some particular duty as upon a war
horse, and to drive furiously, on, and upon, and over all other duties that
may stand in the way. There are men who, in times of that sort, and
disputes of that sort, are of opinion that human duties may be ascer
tained with the exactness of mathematics. They deal with morals as
with mathematics, and they think what is right may be distinguished
from what is wrong with the precision of an algebraic equation. They
have, therefore, none too much charity towards others who differ from
them. They are apt, too, to think that nothing is good but what is per
fect, and that there are no compromises or modifications to be made in
submission to difference of opinion, or in deference to other men's judg
ment. If their perspicacious vision enables them to detect a spot on the
face of the sun, they think that a good reason why the sun should be
struck down from heaven. They prefer the chance of running into
utter darkness, to living in heavenly light, if that heavenly light be not
absolutely without any imperfection. There are impatient men — too
impatient always to give heed to the admonition of St. Paul, " that we
are not to do evil that good may come " — ;-too impatient to wait for the
slow progress of moral causes in the improvement of mankind. They
do not remember that the doctrines and tlje miracles of Jesus Christ
have, in eighteen hundred years, converted only a small portion of the
human race ; and among the nations that are converted to Christianity,
they forget how many vices and crimes, public and private, still prevail,
and that many of them — public crimes especially, which are offences
against the Christian religion — pass without exciting particular regret or
indignation. Thus wars are waged, and unjust wars. I do not deny
that there may be just wars. There certainly are ; but it was the remark
of an eminent person, not many years ago, on the other side of the At
lantic, that it was one of the greatest reproaches to human nature that
wars were sometimes necessary. The defence of nations sometimes
causes a war against the injustice of other nations.
Now, sir, in this state of sentiment upon the general nature of Slavery
lies the cause of a great portion of those unhappy divisions, exaspera
tions, and reproaches which find vent and support in different f>arts of
the Union. Slavery does exist in the United States. It did exist in
the States before the adoption of this Constitution, and at that time.
And now let us consider, sir, for a moment, what was the state of sen
timent. North and South, in regard to Slavery, at the time this Consti
tution was adopted, A remarkable change has taken place since ; but
what did the wise and great men of all parts of the countiy think of
Slavery? — in what estimation did they hold it then, when this Consti
tution was adopted ? Now, it will be found, sir, if we will carry our
selves by historical research back to that day, and ascertain men's
opinions by authentic records still existing among us, that there was no
gi-eat diversity of opinion between the North and the South upon the
subject of Slavery; and it will be found that both parts of the country
held it equally an evil — a moral and political evil. It will not be found
that either at the North or at the South there was much, though there
was some, invective against Slavery, as inhuman and cruel. The great
ground of objection to it was political; that it weakened the social
fabric ; that, taking the place of free labor, society was less strong and
labor was less productive ; and, therefore, we find, from all the eminent
men of the time, the clearest expression of their opinion that Slavery

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 19
was an evil. And they ascribed its existence here, not without truth,
and not without some acerbity of temper and force of language, to tho
injurious policy of the mother country, who, to favor the navigator, had
entailed these evils upon the colonies. I need hardly refer, sir, to the
publications of the day. They are matters of history on the record.
The eminent men, the most eminent men, and nearly all the conspicuous
politicians of the South, held the same sentiments — that Slavery was an
evil, a blight, a blast, a mildew, a scourge, and a curse. There are no
terms of reprobation of Slavery so vehement in the North of that day
as in the South. The North was not so much excited against it as the
South, and the reason is, I suppose, because there was much less at the
North, and the people did not see, or think they siiw, the evils so pronu-
nently as they were seen, or thought to be seen, at the South.
Then, sir, when this Constitution was framed, this was the light in
which the Convention viewed it. The Convention reflected the judgment
and sentiments of the great men of the South. A member of the other
house, whom I have not the honor to know, in a recent speech has col
lected extracts from these public documents. They prove the truth of
what I am saying, and the question then . was, how to deal with it, and
how to deal with it as an evil. Well, they came to this general result.
They thought that Slavery could not be continued in the country, if the
importation of slaves were made to cease, and therefore they provided
that after a certain period the importation might be prevented by the
act of the new government. Twenty years were proposed by some gen
tleman, — a Northern gentleman, I think,. — and many of the Southern
gentlemen opposed it as being too long. Mr. Madison especially was
something warm against it. He said it would bring too much of this
mischief into the country to allow the importation of slaves for such a
period. Because we must take along with us in the whole of this discus
sion, when we are considering the sentiments and opinions in which this
constitutional provision originated, that the conviction of all men was,
that, if the importation of slaves ceased, the white race would multiply
faster than the black race, and that Slavery would therefore gi-adually
wear out and expire. It may not be improper, here to allude to that, I
had almost said, celebrated opinion of Mr. Madison. You observe, sir,
that the term "slave" or "slavery" is not used in the Constitution. The
Constitution does not require that "fugitive slaves " shall be delivered
up."' It requires that " persons bound to sei-vice in one State, and escap
ing into another, shall be delivered up." Mr. Madison opposed the intro
duction of the term " slave " or " slavery " into the Constitution ; for he
said that he did not wish to see it recognized by the Constitution of the
United States of America, that there could be property in men. Now,
sir, all this took place at the Convention in 1787 ; but connected with
this — concurrent and contemporaneous — is another important trans
action not sufiiciently attended to. The Convention for fnaming this
Constitution assembled in Philadelphia in May, and sat until September,
1787. During all that time the Congress of the United States was in
session at New York, It was a matter of design, as we know, that the
Convention should not assemble in the same city where Congress was
holding its sessions. Almost all the public men of the countiy, there
fore, of distinction and eminence, were in one or the other of these two
assemblies; and I think it happened in some instances th.at the same
gentlemen were members of both. If I mistake not, such was the case

20 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
of Mr. Rufus King, then a member of Congress from Massachusetts, and
at the same time a member of the Convention to frame the Constitution
from that State. Now, it was in the summer of 1787, the very time
when the Convention in Philadelphia was framing this Constitution, that
the Congress in New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787. They
passed that Ordinance on the loth of July, 1787, at New York, the very
month, perhaps the very day, on which these questions about the im
portation of slaves and the character of Slavery were debated in the
Convention at Philadelphia. And, so far as we can now learn, there was
a perfect concurrence of opinion between these respective bodies ; and it
resulted in this Ordinance of 1787, excluding Slavery as appUed to all the
territory over which the Congress of the United States had jurisdiction,
and that was all the tenitory north-west of the Ohio. Three years
before, Virginia and other States had made a cession of that great teni
tory to the United States. And a most magnificent act it was. I never
reflect upon it without a disposition to do honor and justice — and jus
tice would be the highest honor — to Virginia for that act of cession of
her north-western territory. I will say, sir, it is one of her fairest claims
to the respect and gratitude of the United States, and that perhaps it is
only second to that other claim which attaches to her — that, from her
counsels, and from the intelligence and patriotism of her leading^ states
men, proceeded the first idea put into practice for the formation of a
general Constitution of the United States. Now, sir, the Ordinance of
1787 applied thus to the whole territory over which the Congress of the
United States had jurisdiction. It was adopted nearly three years before
the Constitution of the United States went into operation, because the
Ordinance took effect immediately on its passage; while the Constitution
of the United States, having been framed, was to be sent to the States
to be adopted by their Conventions, and then a government had to be
organized under it. This Ordinance, then, was in operation and force
when the Constitution was adopted, and this government put in motion
in April, 1789.
Mr. President, three things are quite clear as historical truths. One
is, that there was an expectation that on the ceasing of the importation
of slaves from Africa, Slavery would begin to run out. That was hoped
and expected. Another is, that, as far as there was any power in Con
gress to prevent the spread of Slavery in the United States, that power
was executed in the most absolute manner, and to the fullest extent.
An honorable member, whose health does not allow him to be here
to-day, —
A Senator. He is here. (Referring to Mr. Calhoun.)
Mr. Webster. I am very happy to hear that he is ; may he long be
in health and the enjoyment of it to serve his country, — said, the other
day, that he considered this Ordinance as the first in tlie series of meas
ures calculated to enfeeble the South, and dei^rive them of theit just
participation in the benefits and privileges of this government. He says
very properly that it was done under the old Confederation, and before
this Constitution went into effect ; but my present purpose is only to say,
Mr. President, that it was done with the entire and unanimous concur
rence of the whole South. Why, there it stands ! The vote of every
State in the Union was unanimous in favor of the Ordinance, with the
exception of a single individual vote, and that individual was a Northern
man. But, sir, the Ordinance abolishing, or rather prohibiting. Slavery

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 21
north-west of the Ohio has the hand and seal of every Southern member
in Congress. The other and third clear historical truth is, that the
Convention meant to leave Slavery, in the States, as they found it,
entirely under the control of the States.
This was the state of things, sir, and this the state of opinion, under
which those very import.int matters were an-anged, and those two impor
tant things done ; that is, the establishment of the Constitution, with a
recognition of Slavery as it existed in the States, and the establishment
of the Ordinance, prohibiting, to the full extent of all territory owned by
the United States, the introduction of Slavery into those Territories, and
the leaving to the States all power over Slavery in then- own limits.
And here, sir, we may pause. We may reflect for a moment upon the
entire coincidence and concurrence of sentiment between the North and
the South upon these questions at the period of the adoption of the
Constitution, But opinions, sir, have changed — greatly changed —
changed North, and changed South, Slavery is not regarded in the
South now as it was then. I see an honorable member of this body
paying me the honor of listening' to my remarks ; he brings to me, sir,
freshly and vividly, the sentiments of his great ancestor, so much dis
tinguished in his day and generation, so worthy to be succeeded by so
worthy a grandson, with all the sentiments he expressed in the Conven
tion of Philadelphia.
Here we may pause. There was, if not an entire unanimity, a general
concurrence of sentiment, running through the whole community, and
especially entertained by the eminent men of all portions of the country.
But soon a change began at the North and the South, and a severance
of opinion showed itself — the North growing much more warm and
strong against Slavery, and the South growing much more warm and
strong in its support. Sir, there is no generation of mankind whose
opinions are not subject to be influenced by what appears to them to be
their present, emergent, selfish, and exigent interest. I impute to the
South no particularly selfish view in the change which has come over her.
I impute to her certainly no dishonest view. All that has happened has
been natural. It has followed those causes which always influence the
human mind and operate upon it. What, then, have been the causes
which have created so new a feeling in favor of Slavery in the South —
which have changed the whole nomenclature of the South on the subject,
and from being thought of and described in the terms I have men
tioned and will not repeat, it has now become an institution, a cherished
institution, in that quarter ; no evil, no scourge, but a great religious,
social, and moral blessing, as I think I have heard it latterly described ?
I suppose this, sir, is owing to the sudden uprising and rapid growth of
the cotton plantations of the South. So far as any motive of honor,
justice, and general judgment could act, it was the cotton interest that
gave a new desire to promote Slavery, to spread it, and to use its labor.
I again say that that was produced by the causes which we must always
expect to produce like effects ; their whole interest became connected
with it. If we look back to the history of the commerce of this country,
at the early years of this government, what were our exports ? Cotton
was hardly, or but to a very Umited extent, known. The tables will
show that the exports of cotton for the years 1790 and '91 were not more
than forty or fifty thousand dollars a year. It has gone on increasing
rapidly, until it may now, perhaps, in a season of great product and high

22 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
prices, amount to a hundred millions of dollars. In the years I have
mentioned, there was more of wax, more of indigo, more of rice, more
of almost every article of export from the South, than of cotton. I think
I have heard it said, when Mr. Jay negotiated the treaty of 1794 with
England, he did not know that cotton was exported at all from the United
States ; and I have heard it said that, after the treaty which gave to the
United States the right to carry their own commodities to England, in
their own ships, the custom house in London refused to admit cotton,
upon an allegation that it could not be an American production, there
being, as they supposed, no cotton raised in America. They would
hardly think so now !
Well, sir, we know what followed. The age of cotton became a golden
age for our Southern brethren. It gratified their desire for improvement
and accumulation at the same time that it excited it. The desire grew
by what it fed upon, and there soon came to be an eagerness for other
ten-itory, a new area, or new areas, for the cultivation of the cotton crop,
and measures leading to this result were brought about, rapidly, one after
another, under the lead of Southern men at the head of the government,
they having a majority in both branches to accomplish their ends. The
honorable member from Carolina observed that there has been a majority
all along in favor of the North. If that be true, sir, the North has acted
either very liberally and kindly, or very weakly ; for they never exercised
that majority five times in the history of the government. Never.
Whether they were out-generalled, or whether it was owing to other
causes, I shall not stop to consider; but no man acquainted with the
history of the countiy can deny, that the general lead in the politics of
the country for three fourths of the period that has elapsed since the
adoption of the Constitution has been a Southern lead. In 1802, in pur
suit of the idea of opening a new cotton region, the United States
obtained a cession from Georgia of the whole of her western territory,
now embracing the rich and growing State of Alabama. In 1803
Louisiana was purchased from France, out of which the States of Louis
iana, Arkansas, and Missouri have been framed, as Slaveholding States.
In 1819 the cession of Florida was made, bringing another accession of
slaveholding property and territory. Sir, the honorable member from
South Carolina thought he saw in certain operations of the government,
such as the manner of collecting the revenue and the tendency of those
measures to promote emigration into the country, what accounts for the
more rapid growth of the North than the South. He thinks that more
rapid growth not the operation of time, but of the system of govern
ment established under this Constitution. That is a matter of opinion.
To a certain extent it may be so ; but it does seem to me that if any
operation of the government could be shown in any degree to have pro
moted the population, and growth, and wealth of the North, it is much
more sure that there are sundry important and distinct operations of the
government, about which no man can doubt, tending to promote, and
which absolutely have pi-omoted, the increase of the slave interest and
the slave territory of the South. Allow me to say that it was not time
that brought in Louisiana ; it was the act of men. It was not time that
brought in Florida; it was the act of men. And lastly, sir, to complete
those acts of men, which have contributed so much to enlarge the area
and the sphere of the institution of Slavery, Texas, great, and vast, and
inimitable Texas, was added to the Union, as a Slave State, in 1845 ;

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 2-3
and that, sir, pretty much closed the whole chapter, and settled the
whole account. That closed the whole chapter, that settled the wliole
account, because the annexation of Texas, upon the conditions and under
the guarantees upon which she was admitted, did not leave an acre of
land, capable of being cultivated by slave labor, between this Capitol and
the Rio Grande or the Nueces, or whatever is the proper boundary of
Texas — not an acre — not one. From that moment, the whole country,
from this place to the western boundary of Texas, was fixed, pledged,
fastened, decided, to be Slave Territory forever, by the solemn guarantees
of law. And I now say, sir, as the proposition ujion which I stand this
day, and upon the truth and firmness of which I intend to act until
it is overthrown, that there is not at this moment Avithin the United
States, or any Territory of the United States, a single foot of land, the
character of which, in regard to its being Freesoil Territory or Slave
Territory, is not fixed by some law, and some irrepealable law, beyond
the power of the action of this government. Now, is it not so with
respect to Texas ? Why, it is most manifestly so. The honorable mem
ber from South Carolina, at the time of the admission of Texas, held an
important post in the executive department of the government ; he was
Secretary of State. Another eminent person of great activity and
adroitness in affairs — I mean the late Secretary of the Treasury (Mr.
Walker) — was a leading member of this body, and took the lead in the
business of annexation ; and I must say they did their business faithfully
and thoroughly ; there was no botch left in it. They rounded it off, and
made as close joiner work as ever was put together. Resolutions of
annexation were brought into Congress fitly joined together — compact,
firm, efficient, conclusive upon the great object which they had in \ievr ;
and those resolutions passed.
Allow me to read the resolution. It is the third clause of the second
section of the resolution of the 1st of March, 1845, for the admission of
Texas, which appUes to this part of the case. That clause reads in these
words : —
" New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in
addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may
hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory
thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the
Federal Constitution. And such States as may be formed out of that
portion of said territory lying south of 36° 30' north latitude, commonly
knoAvn as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union
with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking admission
may desire ; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said
territory north of said Missouri compromise line. Slavery or involuntary
servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited."
Now, what is here stipulated, enacted, secured ? It is, that all Texas
south of 36° 30', which is nearly the whole of it, shall be admitted into
the Union as a Slave State. It was a Slave State, and therefore came
in as a Slave State ; and the guarantee is, that new States shall be made
out of it, and that such States as are foiTued out of that portion of
Texas lyino- south of 36' 30' may come in as Slave States to the number
of four, in "addition to the State then in existence, and admitted at that
time by these resolutions. I know no form of legislation which can
strengthen that. I know no mode of recognition that can add a tittle
of weight to it. I listened respectfully to the resolutions of my honor-

24 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
able friend from Tennessee, (Mr. Bell.) He proposed to recognize that
stipulation with Texas. But any additional recognition would weaken
the force of it, because it stands here on the ground of a contract, a
thing done for a consideration. It is a law founded on a contract with
Texas, and designed to cany that contract into effect. A recognition
founded not on any consideration or any contract would not be so strong
as it now stands on the face of the resolution. Now, I know no way, I
candidly confess, in which this government, acting in good faith, as I
tmst it always will, can relieve itself from that stipulation and pledge,
by any honest course of legislation whatever. And, therefore, I say
again that, so far as Texas is concerned — the whole of Texas south of
36° 30', which I suppose embraces all the Slave Tenitory — there is no
land, not an acre, the character of which is not established by law — a
law which cannot be repealed without the violation of a contract, and
plain disregard of the public faith.
I hope, sir, it is now apparent that my proposition, so far as Texas is
concerned, has been maintained ; and the provision in this article — and
it has been well suggested by my friend from Rhode Island that that
part of Texas which lies north of 34° of north latitude may be foi-med
into Free States — is dependent, in like manner, upon the consent of
Texas, herself a Slave State,
Well, now, sir, how came this ? How came it that within these walls,
where it is said by the honorable member from South Carolina, that the
Free States have a majority, this resolution of annexation, such as I have
described it, found a majority in both houses of Congress ? Why, sir,
it found that majority by the great addition of Northern votes added to
the entire Southern vote, or at least, nearly the whole of the Southern
votes. That majority was made up of Northern as well as of Southern
votes. In the House of Representatives it stood, I think, about eighty
Southern votes for the admission of Texas, and about fifty Northern
votes for the admission of Texas. In the Senate the vote stood for the
admission of Texas, twenty-seven, and twenty-five against it; and of
those twenty-seven votes, constituting a majority for the admission of
Texas in this body, no less than thirteen of them came from the Free
States — four of them were from New England. The whole of these
thirteen senators fi-om the Free States — within a fraction, you see, of
one half of all the votes in this body for the admission of Texas, with
its immeasurable extent of Slave Territory — were sent here by the
votes of Free States,
Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our history of political
events, political parties, and political men, as is afforded by this measure
for the admission of Texas, with this immense territory, that a bird can
not fly over in a week, [Laughter.] Sir, New England, with some of
her votes, supported this measure. Three fourths of the votes of liberty-
loving Connecticut went for it in the other house, and one half here.
There was one vote for it in Maine ; but, I am happy to say, not the
vote of the honorable member who addressed the Senate the day before
yesterday, (Mr. Hamlin,) and who was then a representative from Maine
in the other house ; but there was a vote or two from Maine — ay, and
there was one vote for it from Massachusetts, the gentleman then repre
senting and now living in the district in Avhich the prevalence of Free Soil
sentiment, for a couple of years or so, has defeated the choice of any
member to represent it in Congress. Sir, that body of Northern and

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE, 25
Eastern men, who gave those votes at that time, are now seen taking
upon themselves, in the nomenclature of politics, the appellation of tho
Northern Democracy. They undertook to wield the destinies of this
empire — if I may call a republic an empire ; and their policy wa.s, —
and they persisted in it, — to bring into this country aU the temtory they
could. They did it under pledges, absolute pledges to the slave inter
est in the case of Texas, and afterwards they lent their aid in bringing in
these new conquests. My honorable friend from Georgia, in March,
1847, moved the Senate to declare that the war ought not to be prose
cuted for acquisition, for conquest, for the dismemberment of Mexico,
The same Northern Democracy entirely voted against it. He did not
get a vote from them. It suited the views, the patriotism, the elevated
sentiments of the NortheiTi Democracy to bring in a world here, among
the mountains and valleys of California and New Mexico, or any other
part of Mexico, and then quarrel about it ; to bring it in, and then
endeavor to put upon it the saving grace of the Wilmot proviso. There
were two eminent and highly-respectable gentlemen from the North and
East, then leading gentlemen in this Senate : I refer — and I do so with
entire respect, fori entertain for both of those gentlemen in general high
regard — to Mr. DLx of New York, and Mr, Niles of Connecticut, who
voted for the admission of Texas. They would not have that vote any
other way than as it stood ; and they would not have it as it did stand.
I speak of the vote upon ithe annexation of Texas. Those two gentle
men would have the resolution of annexation just as it is, and they
voted for it just as it is, and their eyes were aU open to it. My honor
able friend, the member who addressed us the other day from South
Carolina, was then Secretary of State. His conespondence with Mr.
Murphy, the charge d'affaires of the United States in Texas, had been
published. That correspondence was all before those gentlemen, and
the Secretary had the boldness and candor to avow in that con-espond-
ence, that the great object sought by the annexation of Texas was to
strengthen the slave interest of the South. Why, sir, he said, in so
many words —
Mr. Calhoun. Will the honorable senator permit me to interrupt
him for a moment ?
Mr. Webster. Certainly.
Mr. Calhoun. I am very reluctant to interrupt the honorable gen
tleman ; but, upon a point of so much importance, I deem it right to put
myself rectus in curia. I did not put it upon the ground assumed by
the senator. I put it upon this ground — that Great Britain had an
nounced to this countiy, in so many words, that her object was to abol
ish Slavery in Texas, and through 'Texas to accomplish the abolishment
of Slavery in the United States and the world. The ground I put it
on was, that it would make an exposed frontier ; and, if Great Britain
succeeded in her object, it would be impossible that that frontier could
be secured against the aggression of the abolitionists ; and that this
government was bound, under the guarantees of the Constitution, to
protect us against such a state of things.
Mr. Webster, That comes, I suppose, sir, to exactly the same thing.
It was, that Texas must be obtained for the security of the slave interest
of the South.
Mr. Calhoun. Another view is very distinctly given.
Mr. Webster. That was the object set forth in the correspondence
3

26 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
of a worthy gentleman not now living, who preceded the honorable
member from South Carolina in that office. There repose on the files
of the Department of State, as I have occasion to know, strong letters
from Mr. Upshur to the United States minister in England, and I
believe there are some to the same minister from the honorable senator
himself, asserting to this effect the sentiments of this government, that
Great IJritain was expected not to interfere to take 'Texas out of the
hands of its then existing government, and make it a free country. But
my argument, my suggestion, is this — that those gentlemen who com
posed the Northern Democracy when Texas was brought into the Union,
saw, with all their eyes, that it was brought in as slave country, and
brought in for the purpose of being maintained as slave territory to the
Greek kalends. I rather think the honorable gentleman, who was then
Secretary of State, might, in some of his correspondence with Mr. Murphy,
have suggested that it was not expedient to say too much about this
object — that it might create some alarm. At any rate, Mr. Murphy wrote
to him that England was anxious to get rid of the Constitution of Texas,
because it was a Constitution establishing Slavery ; and that what the
United States had to do was, to aid the people of Texas in upholding
their Constitution ; but that nothing should be said that should offend
the fanatical men. But, sir, the honorable member did avow this object
himself, openly, boldly, and manfuUy ; he did not disguise his conduct
or his motives.
Mr. Calhoun, Never, never,
Mr. Webster. What he means he is very apt to say.
Mr. Calhoun, Always, always.
Mr. Webster. And I honor him for it. This admission of Texas
was in 1845. Then, in 1847, flagrante hello between the United States
and Mexico, the proposition I have mentioned was brought forward by
my friend from Georgia, and the Northern Democracy voted straight
ahead against it. Their remedy was to apply to the acquisitions, after
they should come in, the Wilmot proviso. What follows ? These two
gentlemen, worthy, and honorable, and influential men — and if they
had not been they could not have carried the measure — these two
gentlemen, members of this body, brought in Texas, and by their votes
they also prevented the passage of the resolution of the honorable
member from Georgia ; and then they went home, and took the lead in
the Free Soil party. And there they stand, sir ! They leave us here,
bound in honor and conscience by the resolutions of annexation — they
leave us here to take the odium of fulfilling the obligations in favor of
¦Slavery which they voted us into, or else the greater odium of vio
lating those obligations, while they are at home, making rousing and
capital speeches for Free Soil and no Slavery. [Laughter.] And
therefore I say, sir, that there is not a chapter in our history, respecting
public measures and pubUo men, more full of what should create sur
prise, more full of what does create, iu my mind, extreme mortification,
than that of the conduct of this Northern Democracy.
Mr. President, sometimes, when a man is found in a new relation to
things around him and to other men, he says the world has changed, and
that he has not changed. I believe, sir, that our self-respect leads us
often to make this declaration in regard to ourselves, when it is not
exactly true. An individual is more apt to change, perhaps, than all the
world around him. But under the present circumstances, and under the

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE.

27

responsibility which I know I incur by what I am now stating here, I
feel at liberty to recur to the various expressions and statements, made
at various times, of my own opinions and resolutions respecting the
admission of Texas, and all that has followed. Sir, as early as 1S36, or
in tho earlier part of 1837, a matter of conversation and correspondence
between myself and some private friends was this project of annexing
Texas to the United States ; and an honorable gentleman with whom I
have had a long acquaintance, a friend of mine, now perhaps in this
chamber, — I mean General Hamilton, of South Carolina, — Avas knowing
to that correspondence. I had A'oted for the recognition of Texan
independence, because I believed it Avas an existing fact, sui-prising and
astonishing as it was, and I Avished well to the ncAV republic; but I
manifested from the first utter ojjposition to bringing her, with her
territory, into the Union. I had occasion, sir, in 1837, to meet friends
in New York, on some political occasion, and I then stated my senti
ments upon the subject. It was the first time that I had occasion to
advert to it ; and I will ask a friend near me to do me the favor to read
an extract from the speech, for the Senate may find it rather tedious to
listen to the whole of it. It was delivered in Niblo's Garden in 1837.
Mr. Greene then read the following extract from the speech of the
honorable senator, to which he referred : —
" Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever possessed, Texas is likely
to be a Slaveholding country ; and I frankly avow my entire unwilling
ness to do any thing which shall extend the Slavery of the African race
on this continent, or add other Slaveholding States to the Union.
" When I say that I regard Slavery in itself as a great moral, social,
and political evil, I only use language which has been adopted by dis
tinguished men, themselves citizens of Slaveholding States
" I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its further exten
sion. We have Slavery already among us. The Constitution found it
among us; it recognized it, and gave it solemn guarantees.
" To the full extent of these guarantees we are all bound in honor, in
justice, and by the Constitution. All the stipulations contained in the
Constitution in favor of the Slaveholding States, Avhich are already in the
Union, ought to be fulfilled ; and, so far as depends on me, shall be ful
filled in the fulness of their spirit and to the exactness of their letter.
Slavery, as it exists in the States, is beyond the reach of Congress. It is
a concern of the States themselves. They have never submitted it to
Congress, and Congi-ess has no rightful power over it.
" I shall concur, therefore, in no act, no measure, no menace, no indica
tion of purpose which shall interfere, or threaten to interfere, with the
exclusive authority of the several States over the subject of SlaA'eiy, as it
exists within their respective Hmits. All this appears to me to be matter
of plain and imperative duty,
" But Avhen we come to speak of admitting new States, the subject
assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties are then
both different. , , . .
" I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of Texas to
the Union — no advantages to be derived from it ; and objections to it
of a strong, and, in my judgment, of a decisive character,"
Mr. Webster. I have nothing, sir, to add to, nor to take back from,
those sentiments. That, the Senate will perceive, was in 1837. The
purpose of immediately annexing Texas at that time was abandoned or

28 SPEECH OF ME. WEBSTER
postponed ; and it was not revived with any vigor for some years. In
the mean time it had so happened that I had become a member of the
Executive administration, and Avas for a short period in the Department
of State. The annexation of Texas Avas a subject of conversation — not
confidential — with the President and heads of department, as Avell as
with other public men. No serious attempt Avas then made, however, to
bring it about. I left the Department of State in May, 1843, and shortly
after I learned, though no way connected with official information, that
a design had been taken up of bringing in Texas, Avith her Slave Terri
tory and population, into the United States. I was here in Washington
at the time, and persons are now here who will remember that Ave had
an arranged meeting for conversation upon it. I went home to Massa
chusetts and proclaimed the existence of that purpose ; but I could get
no audience, and but little attention. Some did not believe it, and somie
were too much engaged in their own pursuits to give it any heed. They
had gone to their farms or to their merchandise, and it was impossible to
arouse any sentiment in New England or in Massachusetts that should
combine the two great political parties against this annexation ; and, in
deed, there was no hope of bringing the Northern Democracy into that
view, for the leaning was all the other way. But, sir, even Avith Whigs,
and leading Whigs, I am ashamed to say, there was a great indifference
towards the admission of Texas with Slave Territory into this Union. It
went on, I was then out of Congress, The annexation resolutions
passed the 1st of March, 1845, The Legislature of Texas complied Avith
the conditions, and accepted the guarantees ; for the phraseology of the
language of the resolution is, that Texas is to come in "upon the condi
tions and under the guarantees herein prescribed." I happened to be re
turned to the Senate in March, 1845, and was here in December, 1845,
when the acceptance by Texas of the conditions proposed by Congress
was laid before us by the President, and an act for the consummation
of the connection was laid before the two houses. The connection was
not completed. A final law, doing the deed of annexation ultimately
and finally, had not been passed ; and when it was upon its final passage
here, I expressed my opposition to it, and recorded my vote in the nega
tive ; and there the vote stands, Avith the observations that I made upon
that occasion. It has happened that between 1837 and this time, on
various occasions and opportunities, I have expressed my entire opposi
tion to the admission of Slave States, or the acquisition of new Slave
Territories, to be added to the United States, I know, sir, no change
in my own sentiments or my own purposes in that respect, I will now
again ask my friend from Rhode Island to read another extract from a
speech of mine, made at a Whig Convention in Springfield, Massachu
setts, in the month of September, 1847,
Mr. Greene here read the fblloAving extract : —
" We hear much just now of a panacea for the dangers and evUs of
Slavery and slave annexation, which they call the ' IVtlmot Proviso'
That certainly is a just sentiment, but it is not a sentiment to found any
new party upon. It is not a sentiment on which Massachusetts Whigs
differ. There is not a man in this hall who holds to it more firmly than
I do, nor one who adheres to it more than another,
" I feel some little interest in this matter, sir. Did not I commit my
self in 1838 to the whole doctrine, fully, entirely? And I must be per
mitted to say that I cannot quite consent that more recent discoveries
should claim the merit and take out a patent.

ox THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE. 29
" I deny the priority of their invention. Allow me to say, sir, it is
not their thunder. ....
" We are to use the first and last, and every occasion which oflcrs to
oppose the extension of slave power.
" But I speak of it here, as in Congress, as a political question, a ques
tion for statesmen to act upon. We must so regard it. I certainly do
not mean to say that it is less important in a moral point of view, that it
is not more important in many other points of view ; but, as a legislator,
or in any ofiicial capacity, I must look at it, consider it, and decide it as
a matter of political action."
Mr. AVebstee. On other occasions, in debates here, I have expressed
my determination to vote for no acquisition, or cession, or annexation,
North or South, East or West. My opinion has been, that we have
territory enough, and that Ave should follow the Spartan maxim, " Im
prove, adorn Avhat you have, seek no farther." I think that it Avas in
some observations that I made here on the three million loan bill that I
avowed that sentiment. In short, sir, the sentiment has been avoAved
quite as often, in as many places, and before as many assembhes, as any
humble sentiments of mine ought to be avowed.
But now that, under certain conditions, Texas is in, Avith all her terri
tories, as a Slave State, with a solemn pledge that if she is divided into
many States, those States may come in as Slave States south of 36° 30',
how are we to deal Avith this subject? I know no Avay of honorable
legislation, Avhen the proper time comes for the enactment, but to carry
into effect all that Ave haA-e stipulated to do. I do not entirely agree
with my honorable friend from Tennessee, (JMr. Bell,) that, as soon as the
time comes when she is entitled to another representative. Are should
create a new State. The rule in regard to it I take to be this : that,
when we have created new States out of Territories, we h.ive generally
gone upon the idea that when there is population enough to form a
State, — sixty thousand, or some such thing, — we would create a State ;
but it is quite a different thing Avhen a State is divided, and two or more
States made out of it. It does not follow, in such a case, that the same
rule of apportionment should be applied. That, hoAVCA-er, is a matter for
the consideration of Congress, Avhen the proper time arrives. I may not
then be here. I may have no A'ote to give on the occasion ; but I wish
it to be distinctly understood to-day, that, according to my view of the
matter, this government is solemnly pledged by law to create new States
out of Texas, with her consent, when her population shall justify such a
proceeding ; and, so far as such States are formed out of Texan territory
lying south of 36° 30', to let them come in as Slave States. That is the
meaning of the resolution which our friends, the Northern Democracy,
have left us to fulfil; and I, for one, mean to fulfil it, because I avUI not
violate the faith of the government.
NoAv, as to California and New Mexico, I hold Slavery to be excluded
from those Territories by a laAv even superior to that which admits and
sanctions it in Texas. I mean the laAv of Nature, — of physical geography,
— the laAV of the formation of the earth. That law settles forever, with
a strength beyond all terms of human enactment, that Slavery cannot
exist in California or New Mexico. L^nderstand me, sir; I mean Slavery
as Ave regard it ; slaves in gross, of the colored race, transferable by sale
and delivery like other property. I shall not discuss this point, but I
leave it to the learned gentlemen who have undertaken to discuss it; but
I suppose there is no slave of that description in California noAV. I
3*

30 SPEECH OF ME. WEBSTER
understand that /?eo« i'sw, a sort of penal servitude, exists there, or rather
a sort of voluntary sale of a man and his offspring for debt, as it is
arranged and exists in some parts of California and Ncav Mexico. But
Avhat I mean to say is, that African Slavery, as we see it among us, is as
utterly impossible to find itself, or to be found, in Mexico, as any other
natural impossibility. California and Ncav Mexico are Asiatic in their
formation and scenery. They are composed of vast ridges of mountains
of enormous height, Avith broken ridges and deep valleys. The sides of
these mountains are barren, entirely barren, their tops capped by peren
nial snow. There may be in California, now made free by its Constitu
tion, and no doubt there are, some tracts of valuable land. But it is not
so in Ncav Mexico. Pray, Avhat is the evidence Avhich every gentleman
must have obtained on this subject, from information sought by himself
or communicated by others ? I have inquired and read all I could find
in order to obtain information. What is there in Ncav Mexico that could
by any possibility induce any body to go there Avith slaves ? There are
some narrow strips of tillable land on the borders of the rivers ; but the
rivers themselves dry up before midsummer is gone. All that the people
can do is to raise some little articles, some little wheat for their tortillas,
and all that by irrigation. And who expects to see a hundred black men
cultivating tobacco, corn, cotton, rice, or any thing else, on lands in New
Mexico made fertile only by irrigation ? I look upon it, therefore, as a
fixed fact, — to use an expression cunent at this day,, — that both Cali
fornia and New Mexico are destined to be free, so far as they are settled
at all, which I believe, especially in regard to New Mexico, Avill be A'eiy
little for a great length of time ; free by the arrangement of things by
the Power above us. I have, therefore, to say, in this respect also, that
this country is fixed for Freedom, to as many persons as shall CA'cr live
there, by as irrepealable and more irrepealable a laAV than the laAV that
attaches to the right of holding slaves in Texas ; and I will say further,
that if a resolution or a law Avere now before us to provide a territorial
government for New Mexico, I would not vote to put any prohibition
into it whatever. The use of such a prohibition would be idle, as it re
spects any effect it Avould have upon the territory ; and I would not take
pains to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature, nor to reenact the Avill of God.
And I would put in no Wilmot proviso for the purpose of a taunt or a
reproach. I Avould put into it no evidence of the votes' of superior
power, to Avound the pride, even whether a just pride, a rational pride,
or an in-ational pride — to Avound the pride of the gentlemen Avho belono-
to the Southern States. I have no such object, no such purpose. They
would think it a taunt, an indignity; they would think it to be an
act taking away from them what they regard a proper equality of privi
lege ; and Avhether they expect to reaUze any benefit from it or not, they
Avould think it a theoretic wrong; that something more or less deroo-a-
tory to their character and their rights had taken place. I propose^'to
inflict no such wound upon any body, unless something essentially im
portant to the country, and efficient to the preservation of liberty and
freedom, is to be effected. Therefore, I repeat, sir, — and I repeat it
because I wish it to be understood,— that I do not propose to address the
Senate often on this subject. I desfre to pour out all my heart in as
plain a manner as possible; and I say, again, that if a proposition were
now here for a government for New Mexico, and it was moved to insert
a provision for a prohibition of Slavery, I would not vote for it.
NoAV, Mr. President, I have established, so far as I proposed to go into

ON THE SLAA'ERY COIIPEOMISE. 31
any lino of observation to establish, the proposition Avith which I set out,
and upon Avhich I propose to stand or fall ; and that is, that the Avhole
territory of the States in the United States, or in the newly-acquired
territory of tho United States, has a fixed and settled character, now
fixed and settled by law, Avhich cannot be repealed in the case of Texas
Avithout a violation of public faith, and cannot be repealed by any human
poAver in regard to California or New Mexico; that, under one or other
of these laws, every foot of territory in the States or in the Territories
has noAV received a fixed and decided character.
Sir, if we were now maldng a goA'crnment for New Mexico, and any
body should propose a Wilmot proviso, I should treat it exactly as Mr.
Polk treated that provision for excluding Slavery from Oregon. Mr. Polk
Avas kuoAvn to be in opinion decidedly averse to the Wilmot proviso;
but he felt the necessity of estabhshing a government for the Territory
of Oregon, and though the proviso Avas there, he knew it would be
entirely nugatory ; and, since it must be entirely nugatory, since it took
away no right, no describable, no estimable, no weighable or tangible
right of the South, he said he would sign the bill for the sake of enacting
a laAV to form a government in that Territory, and let that entirely use
less, and, in that connection, entirely senseless, proviso remain. For
myself, I will say that we hear much of the annexation of Canada ; and if
there be any man, any of the Northern Democracy, or any one of the Free
Soil party, who supposes it necessary to insert a Wilmot proviso in a
Territorial government for New Mexico, that man Avill of course be of
opinion that it is necessary to protect the CA-erlasting snoAvs of Canada
from the foot of Slavery by the same overpowering wing of an act of
Congress. Sir, Avherever there is a particular good to be done, wherever
there is a foot of land to he stayed back from becoming Slave Territory,
I am ready to assert the principle of the exclusion of Slavery. I am
pledged to it from the year 1837; I have been pledged to it again and
again; and I Avill perform those pledges; but I will not do a thing
unnecessary, that wounds the feelings of others, or that does disgrace to
my own understanding.
Mr. President, in the excited times in Avhich we IIa'C, there is found to
exist a state of crimination and recrimination betAveen the North and
South. There are lists of grievances produced by each ; and those
grievances, real or supposed, alienate the minds of one portion of the
countiy from the other, exasperate the feelings, subdue the sense of fra
ternal connection, and patriotic love, and mutual regard. I shall bestow
a little attention, sir, upon these various grievances produced on the one
side and on the other. I begin with the complaints of the South. I
will not ansAver, further than I have, the general statements of the hon
orable senator from South Carolina, that the North has groAvn upon the
South in consequence of the manner of administering this government,
in the collecting of its revenues, and so forth. These are disputed topics,
and I have no inclination to enter into them. But I will state these
complaints, especially one complaint of the South, which has, in my
opinion, just foundation; and that is, that there has been found at the
North, among individuals, and among the legislators of the North, a dis
inclination to perform, fully, their constitutional duties in regard to the
return of persons bound to service, Avho have escaped into the Free
States. In that respect, it is my judgment that the South is right, and
the North is Avroug. Every member of eveiy Northern legislature is
bound, like every other officer in the country, by oath, to support the

32 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
Constitution of the United States ; and this article of the Constitution,
Avhicli says to these States, they shall deliver up fugitives from service,
is as binding in honor and conscience as any other article. No man ful
fils his duty in any legislature wiio sets himself to find excuses, evasions,
escapes from this constitutional obligation. I have always thought that
the Constitution addressed itself to the legislatures of the Stafes or to
the States themselves. It says that thos'e persons escaping to other
States shall be deUvered up ; and I confess I have always been of the
opinion that it was an injunction upon the States themselves. _ When it
is said that a person escaping into another State, and becoming there
fore within the jurisdiction of that State, shall be delivered up, it seems
to me the import of the passage is, that the State itself, in obedience to
the Constitution, shall cause him to be delivered up. That is my judg
ment. I have always entertained that opinion, and I entertain it now.
But wiien the subject, some years ago, was before the SiqDreme Court of
the United States, the majority of the judges held that the power to
cause fugitives from service to be delivered up was a power to be exer
cised under the authority of this government. I do not know, on the
whole, that it may not have been a fortunate decision. My habit is to
respect the result of judicial deliberations, and the solemnity of judicial
decisions. But as it noAV stands, the business of seeing that these fugi
tives are delivered up resides in the power of Congress and the national
judicature, and my friend at the head of the judiciary committee has a
bill on the subject noAV before the Senate, Avith some amendments to it,
which I propose to support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent.
And I desire to call the attention of lall sober-minded men, of all con
scientious men, in the North, of all men who are not carried away by
any fanatical idea, or by any false idea whatever, to their constitutional
obligations. I put it to all the sober and sound minds at the North, as
a question of morals and a question of conscience, What right have they,
hi their legislative capacity, or any other, to endeavor to get round this
Constitution, to embarrass the free exercise of the rights secured by the
Constitution to the persons whose slaves escape from them ? None at
all ; none at all. Neither in the forum of conscience, nor before the fiice
of the Constitution, are they justified, in my opinion. Of course it is a
matter for their consideration. They probably, in the turmoil of the
times, have not stopped to consider of this ; they have folloAved what
seems to be the current of thought and of motives, as the occasion arose,
and neglected to investigate fully the real question, and to consider their
constitutional obligations ; as I am sure, if they did consider, they Avould
fulfil them with alacrity. Therefore I repeat, sir, that there is a ground
of complaint against the North, well founded, Avhich ought to be re
moved, which it is now in the power of the different departments of this
government to remove, which calls for the enactment of proper laws .au
thorizing the judicature of this government, in the several States, to do
all that is necessary for the recapture of fugitive slaves, and for the
restoration of them to those Avho claim them. Wherever I go, and
wherever I speak on this subject, — and w hen I speak here I desire to
speak to the whole North,— I say that the South has been injured in
this respect, and has a right to complain ; and the North has been too
careless of Avhat I think the Constitution peremptorily and emphatically
enjoins upon it as a duty.
Complaint has been made against certain resolutions that emanate
from legislatures at the North, and are sent here to us, not only on the

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROIHSE. 33
subject of Slavery iu this District, but sometimes recommending Con
gress to consider the means of abolishing Slavery in tho States, I
should be very sorry to bo called upon to present any resolutions here
which could not be referable to any committee or any power in Con
gress ; and therefore I should be A'ery unwilling to receive from Massa
chusetts instructions to present resolutions expressing any opinion
whatever upon Slavery as it exists at the present moment in the States,
for two reasons : because, first, I do not consider that the legislature of
Massachusetts has any thing to do Avith it ; and next, I do not consider
that I, as her representative here, have any thing to do Avith it. Sir, it
has become, in my opinion, quite too common ; and if the legislatures of
the States do not like that opinion, they have a great deal more power
to put it down than I have to uphold it. It has become, m my opinion,
quite too common a practice for the State legislatures to present reso
lutions here on all subjects, and to instruct us here on all subjects.
There is no public man that requires instruction more than I do, or who
requires information more than I do, or desires it more heartily ; but I
do not like to have it come in too imperative a shape, I took notice,
with pleasure, of some remarks upon this subject, made the other day in
the Senate of Massachusetts, by a young man of talent and character,
from whom the best hopes may be entertained. I mean Mr. Hillard,
He told the Sena<;e of Massachusetts that he would vote for no instruc
tions whatever to be forwarded to members of Congress, nor for any
resolutions to be offered expressive of the sense of Massachusetts as to
what their members of Congress ought to do. He said that ho saw no
propriety in one set of pubho servants giving instructions and reading
lectures to another set of public servants. "To their oAvn master all of
them must stand or fall, and that master is their constituents. I wish
these sentiments could become more common, a great deal more com
mon. I have never entered into the question, and never shall, about the
binding force of instructions. I will, howcA-er, simply say this : If there
be any matter of interest pending in this body, while I am a member of
it, in Avhich Blassaehusetts has an interest of her own not adverse to the
general interest of the countiy, I shall pursue her instructions with glad
ness of heart, and with all the efficiency which I can bring it. But if
the question be one which affects her interest, and at the same time
affects the interests of all other States, I shall no more regard her politi
cal wishes or instructions than I would regard the Avishes of a man Avho
might appoint me an arbiter or referee to decide some question of im-
ortant private right, and Avho might instruct me to decide in his favor.
f ever there Avas a government upon earth, it is this government, — if
ever there Avas a body upon earth, it is this body, — Avhich should consider
itself as composed by agreement of all, appointed by some, but organ
ized by the general consent of all, sitting here under the solemn obliga
tions of oath and conscience to do that Avhich they think is best for the
good of the Avhole.
Then, sir, there are these abolition societies, of which I am unwilling
to speak, but in regard to which I have very clear notions and opinions.
I do not think them useful. I think their operations for the last twenty
years have jsroduced nothing good or valuable. At the same time, I
knoAV tliousfmds of them are honest and good men; perfectly Avell-mean-
ing men. Thoy have excited feelings — they think they must do some
thing for the cause of liberty, and in their sphere of action they do. not
see Avbat else they can do, than to contribute to an abolition press oi* an

S

34 SPEECH OF MR. WJiliSrjKlS

abolition society, or to pay an abolition lecturer. I do not mean to im
pute gross motives even to the leaders of these societies, but I am not
bUnd to the consequences. I cannot but see Avhat mischiefs their inter-,
ference with the South has produced. And is it not plain to every man ?
Let any gentleman Avho doubts of that, recur to the debates in the Vir
ginia House of Delegates in 1832, and he Avill see with Avhat freedom a
proposition made by Mr. Randolph, for the gradual abolition of Slavery,
was discussed in that body. Every one spoke of Slavery as he thought;
very ignominious and disparaging names and epithets were applied to it.
The debates in the House of Delegates on that occasion, I believe, Avere
all published. They were read by every colored man Avho could read,
and if there were any Avho could not read, those debates Avere read to
them by others. At that time Virginia Avas not unAvilling nor afraid to
discuss this question, and to let that part of her population knoAV as much
of it as they could learn. That Avas in 1832. As has been said by the
honorable member from Carolina, these abolition societies commenced
their course of action in 1835. It is said — I do not know how true it
maybe — that they sent incendiary publications into the Slave States;
at any event, they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very strong
feeling ; in other words, they created great agitation in the North against
Southern Slavery. Well, Avhat was the result ? The bonds of the slaves
Avere bound more firmly than before ; their rivets were more strongly
fastened. Public opinion, Avhich in Virginia had begun to be exhibited
against Slavery, and Avas opening out for the discussion of the question,
drew back and shut itself up in its castle. I wish to knoAV whether any
body in Virginia can, now, talk as Mr. Randolph, Governor McDoAvell,
and others talked there, openly, and sent their remarks to the press, in
1832. We all know the fact, and Ave all know the cause ; and every thing
that this agitating people have done has been, not to enlarge, but to re
strain ; not to set free, but to bind faster the slave population of the
South. That is my judgment. Sir, as I have said, I knoAv many aboli
tionists in my own neighborhood, very honest, good people, misled, as I
think, by strange enthusiasm; but they wish to do something, and they
are called on to contribute, and they do contribute ; and it is my firm
opinion this day, that Avithin the last twenty years, as much money has
been collected and p.aid to the abolition societies, abolition presses, and
abolition lecturers, as would purchase the freedom of every slaA'e man,
Avoman, and child in the State of Maryland, and send them all to Liberia.
I have no doubt of it. But I have yet to learn that the benevolence of
these abolition societies has at any time taken that particular turn,
[Laughter.] Again, sir, the violence of the press is complained of The press vio
lent! Why, sir, the press is Aiolent every Avhere. There are outrageous
reproaches in the North against the South, and there are reproaches in
not much better taste in the South against the North. Sir, the extrem
ists in both parts of this country are violent ; they mistake loud and
violent talk for eloquence and for reason. They think that he Avho t.alks
loudest reasons the best. And this Ave must expect, Avhen the press is
free — as it is here, and I trust always will be — for, with all its licen
tiousness, and all its evil, the entire and absolute freedom of the press is
essential to the preservation of government on the basis of a free Consti
tution. Wherever it exists, there will be foolish paragraphs and violent
paragraphs in the press, as there are, I am sorry to say, foolish speeches
and violent speeches in both houses of Congress. In truth, sir, I must

ON THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE, 35
say that, in my opinion, the vernacular tongue of the country has become
greatly vitiated, depraved, and corrupted by the style of our Congres
sional debates. [Laughter.] And if it were possible for our debates in
Congress to vitiate the principles of the people as much as they have
depraved their taste, I should cry out, " God save the Republic ! "
Well, in all this I see no solid grievance ; no grievance presented by
the South, within the redress of the government, but the single one to
which I have referred ; and that is, the Avant of a proper regard to the
injunction of the Constitu*^ion for the delivery of fugitive slaves.
There are also complaints of the North against the South. I need not
go over them particularly. The first and gravest is, that the North
adopted the Constitution, recognizing the existence of Slavery in the
States, and recognizing the right, to a certain extent, of representation
of the slaves in Congress, under a state of sentiment and expectation
which do not now exist ; and that, by events, by circumstances, by the
eagerness of the South to acquire territory and extend their slave popu
lation, the North finds itself — in regard to the influence of the South
and the North, of the Free States and the Slave States — Avhere it never
did expect to find itself when they entered the compact of the Constitu
tion, They complain, therefore, that, instead of Slavery being regarded
as an evil, as it was then — an evil which all hoped would be extin
guished gradually — it is noAV regarded by the South as an institution
to be cherished, and presei-A'ed, and extended ; an institution Avhich the
South has already extended to the utmost of her power by the acquisi
tion of new territory. Well, then, passing from that, every body in the
North reads ; and every body reads Avhatsoever the newspapers contain ;
and the newspapers — some of them, especially those presses to which I
have alluded — are careful to spread about among the people every re
proachful sentiment uttered by any Southern man bearing at all against
the North ; every thing that is calculated to exasperate, to aUenate ; and
there are many such things, as every body will admit, from the South,
or some portion of it, which are spread abroad among the reading peo
ple ; and they do exasperate, and alienate, and produce a most mischievous
effect upon the public mind at the North. Sir, I would not notice things
of this sort appearing in obscure quarters ; but one thing has occurred
in this debate Avhich struck me very forcibly. An honorable member
from Louisiana addressed us the other day on this subject. I suppose
there is not a more amiable and Avorthy gentleman in this chamber —
nor a gentleman who would be more sIoav to give offence to any body ;
and he did not mean in his remarks to give offence. But Avhat did he
say ? Why, sir, he took pains to rnn a contrast between the slaves of
the South and the laboring people of the North, giving the preference, in
all points of condition, and comfort, and hajjpiness, to the slaves of the
South. The honorable member, doubtless, did not suppose that he gave
any offence, or did any injustice. He was merely expressing his opinion.
But does he know how remarks of that sort Avill be receiA'ed by the labor
ing people of the North ? Why, Avho are the laboring people of the
North ? They are the North. They are the people who cultivate their
own farms Avith their own hands ; freeholders, educated men, independent
men. Let me say, sir, that five sixths of the whole property of the North
is in the hands of the laborers of the North ; they cultivate their farms ;
they educate their children ; they provide the means of independence ;
if they are not freeholders, they earn wages ; these Avages accumulate,
are turned into cajjital, into new freeholds, and small capitalists are ere-

36 SPEECH OF MR. AVEBSTEE
ated. That is the case, and such the course of things Avith us, among
the industrious and frugal. And Avhat can these people think, when so
respectable and worthy a gentleman as the member from Louisiana un
dertakes to prove thtit the absolute ignorance and the abject Sl.avery of
the South is more in conformity Avith the high purposes and destiny of
immortal, rational, human beings, than the educated, the inde]3endcnt,
free laborers of the North ? There is a more tangible and irritating
cause of gricA'ance at the North. Free blacks are constantly employed
in the vessels of the North, generally as cooks or steAvards. When the
A-essel arrives, these free colored men are taken on shore by the police or
municipal authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison, till the vessel is
again ready to sail. This is not only iriitating, but exceedingly incon
venient in practice, and seems altogether impracticable and oppressive.
Mr. Hoar's mission, some time ago, to South Carolina, Avas a Avell-intended
effort to remove this cause of complaint. The North thinks such im
prisonments illegal and unconstitutional. As the cases occur constantly
and frequently, they think it a great grievance.
Now, sir, so far as any of these grievances have their foundation in
matters of laAV, they can be redressed, and ought to_ be redressed ; and
so far as they have their foundation in matters of opinion, in sentiment,
in mutual crimination and recrimination, all that Ave can do is, to en
deavor to allay the agitation, and cultivate a better feehng and more
fraternal sentiments between the South and the North.
Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard from every member
on this floor declarations of opinion that this Union should never be
dissolved, than the declarations of opinion, that, in any case, under the
pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution Avas possible. I hear
Avith pain, and anguish, .and distress, the Avord secession, especially Avhen
it falls from the lips of those Avho are eminently patriotic, and knoAvn to
the country, and knoAvn all over the world, for their political services.
Secession ! Peaceable secession ! Sir, your eyes and mine are never
destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country
Avithout conA'ulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of the great
deep Avithont ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish — I beg every
body's pardon — as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he Avho sees
these States now revolving in harmony around a common centre, expect
ing to see them quit their places, and fly off, without convulsion, may
look, the next hour, to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres,
and jostle against each other in the realms of space Avithout producing
the crash of the universe. There can be no such thing as a peaceable
secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is the great
Constitution under wiiich we live here, covering this Avhole countiy —
is it to be thawed and melted aAvay by secession, as the snoAvs on the
mountain melt under the influence of a Aernal sun — disappear almost
unobserved, and die off"? No, sir! No, sir! I Avill not state Avhat
might produce the disruption of the States ; but, sir, I see it as phainly
as I see the sun in heaven — I see that disruption must produce such a
war as I Avill not describe in its twofold character !
Peaceable secession ! peaceable secession ! The concurrent agreement
of all the meinbei-s of this great republic to separate ! A voluntary
separation, Avith alimony on one side and on the other ! Why, Avhat
Avould be the result? Where is the lino to be dr.aAvn? What States
are to secede ? What is to remain American ? What am I to be ?
An American no longer ? Where is the flag of the rcj^ublic to remain ?

ON THE SLAVEEY C0AIPR0MI3E, 87
Wliere is the eagle still to tOAver ? or is he to coAver, and shriek, and fall
to the ground ? Why, sir, our ancestors — our fithcrs and our grand
fathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us with prolonged
lives — would rebuke and reproach us ; and our children and our grand
children would cry out shame upon us, if we of this generation should
dishonor these ensigns of the power of the government and the harmony
of the Union which is every day felt among us Avith so much joy and
gratitude. What is to become of the army ? What is to become of the
navy? What is to become of the public lands? How is each of the
thirty States to defend itself? I know, although the idea has not been
stated distinctly. There is to be a Southern Confederacy. I do not
mean, when I allude to this statement, that any one seriously contem
plates such a state of things. I do not mean to s.ay that it is true, but I
have heard it suggested elsewhere, that that idea has originated in a
design to separate. I am sorry, sir, that it has ever been thought o^
talked of, or dreamed of, in the Avildest flights of human imagination.
But the idea must be of a separation including the Slave States upon
one side, and the Free States on the other. Sir, there is not — I may
express myself too strongly, perhaps, but some things, some moral things,
are almost as impossible as other natural or physical things ; and I hold
the idea of a separation of these States, those 'that are Free to form one
government, and those that are Slaveholding to form another, as a moral
impossibility. We could not separate the States by any such line, if we
were to draw it. We could not sit down here to-day, and draw a line
of separation that would satisfy any five men in the country. There
are natural causes that would keep and tie us together ; and there are
social and domestic relations whicli Ave could not break if we would, and
which we should not if Ave could. Sir, nobody can look over the face
of this countiy at the present moment — nobody can see where its pop
ulation is the most dense and growing — without being ready to admit,
and compelled to admit, that ere long America will be in the valley of
the Mississippi.
Well, noAv, sir, I beg to inquire what the wildest enthusiast has to say
on the posslbihty of cutting off that river, and leaving Free States at its
source and its branches, and Slave States down near its mouth. Pray,
sir, pray, sir, let me say to the people of this country, that these things
are Avorthy of their pondering and of their consideration. Here, sir, are
five millions of freemen in the Free States north of the River Ohio ; can
any body suppose that this population can be severed by a line that
divides them from the territory of a foreign and an alien government,
doAvn somewhere — the Lord knows Avhere — upon the lower banks of the
Mississippi ? What Avould become of Missouri ? Will she join the arron-
dissement of the Slave States ? Shall the man from the YelloAV Stone
and the Platte River be connected, in the new republic, with the man
Avho lives on the southern extremity of the Cape of Florida, Sir, I am
ashamed to pursue this line of remark. I dislike it ; I have an utter dis
gust for it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, Avar,
pestilence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of secession. To
break up — to break up this great government — to dismember this great
country — to astouish Europe with an act of folly such as Europe for
two centuries has never beheld in any government! No, sir; no, sir!
There will be no secession. Gentlemen are not serious when they t.alk
of secession.
Sir, I hear there is to be a ConA^ention held at Nashville. I am bound
4

38 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
to believe, that, if worthy gentlemen meet at Nashville in_ Convention,
their object Avill be to adopt counsels conciliatory — to advise the South
to forbearance and moderation, and to advise the North to forbearance
and moderation, and to inculcate principles of brotherly love and aft'ec-
tion, and attachment to the Constitution of the countiy as it now is. I
beUeve, if the Convention meet at all, it Avill be for this purpose ; for cer
tainly, if they meet for any purpose hostile to the Union, they have been
singularly inappropriate in their selection of a place. I remember, sir,
that Avhen the treaty Avas concluded between P>ance and England at the
peace of Amiens, a stern old Englishman, and an orator, who disliked
the terms of the peace as ignominious to England, said in the House of
Commons, that, if King William could know the terms of that treaty,
he would turn in his colBn. Let me commend the saying of Mr. Wind
ham, in all its emphasis and all its force, to any persons Avho shall meet
at Nashville for the purpose of concerting measures for the overthrow of
the Union of this country over the bones of AndrcAV Jackson.
Sir, I wish to make two remarks, and hasten to a conclusion. I wish
to say, in regard to Texas, that if it should be hereafter at any time
the pleasure of the government of Texas to cede to the United States
a portion, larger or smaller, of her territory which lies adjacent to New
Mexico, and north of 34"' of north latitude, to be formed into Free States,
for a fair equivalent in money, or in the payment of her debt, I think it
an object well worthy the consideration of Congress, and I shall be happy
to concur in it myself, if I should be in the public councils of the countiy
at the time.
I have one other remark to make. In my observations upon SlaA'ery,
as it has existed in the country, and as it now exists, I have expressed
no opinion of the mode of its extinguishment or amelioration. 1 wiU
say, however, though I have nothing to propose on that subject, because
I do not deem myself competent as other gentlemen to consider it, that
if any gentleman from the South shall propose a scheme of colonization,
to be carried on by this government, upon a large scale, for the transpor
tation of free colored people to any colony, or any place In the world, I
should be quite disposed to incur almost any degree of expense to accom
plish that object. Nay, sir, following an example set here more than
twenty years ago by a great man, then a senator from New York, I
would return to Virginia — and through her, for the benefit of the whole
South — the money received from the lands and territories ceded by her
to this government, for any such purpose as to relieve, in whole or in
part, or in any Avay to diminish or deal beneficially Avith the free colored
population of the Southern States. I have said that I honor Virginia
for her cession of this territory. There have been received into the
treasury of the United States eighty millions of dollars, the proceeds of
the sales of public lands ceded by Virginia. If the residue should be sold
at the same rate, the Avhole aggregate will exceed two hundred millions
of dollars. If Virginia and the South see fit to adopt any proposition to
relieve themselves from the free people of color among them, they have my
free consent that the government shall pay them any sura of money out
of its proceeds Avhich may be adequate to the purpose.
And now, Mr. President, I draAv these observations to a close. I have
spoken freely, and I meant to do so. I have sought to make no display ;
I have sought to enliven the occasion by no animated discussion ; nor
have I attempted any train of elaborate argument. I have sought only
to speak my sentiments, fully and at large,' being desirous, once and for

ON THE SL.VVERT COMPP.OAIISE. 39
all, to let the Senate know, .and to let the countiy know, the opinions and
Bcntliiients which I entertain on all these subjects. These opinions are
not likely to be suddenly changed. If there be any future service
that I can render to the countiy, consistently with these sentiments and
opinions, I sh.all cheerfully render it. If theVe be not, I shall still be glad
to have had an opportunity to disburden ray conscience from the bottom
of my heart, and to make known every political sentiment that therein
exists. And npw, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibility or utility
of secession, instead of dwelling In these caverns of darkness, instead of
groping with those ideas so full of all that is horrid and horrible, let us
come out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh airs of Liberty and
Union ; let us cherish those hopes which belong to us ; let us devote our
selves to those great objects that are fit for our consideration and our
action ; let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the importance
of the duties that devolve upon us ; let our comprehension be as broad
as the country for Avhich we act, our aspirations as high as its certain
destiny ; let us not be pygmies in a case that calls for men. Never did
there devolve on any generation of men higher trusts than now devolve
upon us for the preservation of this Constitution, and the harmony and
peace of all who are destined to live under it. Let us make our genera
tion one of the strongest and the brightest links in that golden chain
which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people of all the States
to this Constitution, for ages to come. It is a great popular constitu
tional government, guarded by legislation, by laAV, by judicature, and
defended by the whole affections of the people. No monarchical throne
presses these States together ; no iron chain of despotic power encircles
them ; they live and stand upon a goA-eniment popular in its form,
representative in its character, founded upon principles of equality, and
calculated, we hope, to last forever. In all its history it has been benef
icent ; it has trodden down no man's liberty ; it has crushed no State.
Its daily respiration is liberty and patriotism ; its yet youthful veins all
full of enterprise, courage, .and honorable love of glory and renown.
Large before, the country lias now, by recent events, become vastly
laro-er. This republic now extends, with a A'ast breadth, across the Avhole
continent. The two great seas of the world wash the one and the other
shore. We realize, on a mighty scale, the beautiful description of the
ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles : —
" Now the broad shield complete the nrti-t crowned
AVith his last hand, and poured the ocean round ;
In livings silver seemed the waves to roll,
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole."
Mr. Calhoun. I rise to correct Avhat I conceive to be an error of the
distinguished senator from Massachusetts, as to the motives Avhich
induced the acquisition of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. He attributed
it to the great growth of cotton, and the desire of the Southern people
to get an extension of territory, with the view of cultivating it with
more profit than they could in a compact and crowded settlement.
Now, Mr. President, the history of those acquisitions, I think, Avas not
correctlv given. It is Avell knoAvn that the acquisition of Florida was
the result of an Indian war. The Seminole Indians residing along the
line attacked one of our fortresses ; troops Avere ordered out ; they were
driven back ; and, under the command of General Jackson, Pensacola
and St. Marks Avere seized. It was these acts, and not the desire for the

40 s SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
extended cultivation of cotton, which led to the acquisition of Florida,
I admit that there h.ad boon for a long time a desire on the j)art of the
South, and of the administration, I believe, to acquire Florida; but it
was very different from the reason assigned by the honorable senator.
There Avere collected together four tribes of Indians, — the Creeks, the
Choct.aws, the Chlckasaws, and the Cherokees, about thirty thousand
Avarriors, — Avho held connection, almost the whole of them, with the
Spanish authorities in Florida, and canied on a trade perpetually with
them. It was well known that a most pernicious influence was thus
exercised over them; and it Avas the desire of preventing conflict
between the Indi.ans and ourselves in the South, as I believe, Avhich
induced the acquisition of Florida. I come now to Louisiana. We Avell
know that the immediate cause for the acquisition of Louisiana was the
suspen.sion of our right of deposit at New Orleans. Under a treaty
Avith Spain Ave had a right to the navigation of the river as far as New
Orleans, and a right to make deposits in the port of Ncav Orleans.
The Spanish authorities interrupted that right, and that interruption
produced a great agitation at the West, and, I may say, through
out the AA'hole United States. The gentlemen then in opposition, a
highly respectable party, — the old Federal party, Avhich I have never
said a word of disrespect in regard to, — if I mistake not, took the lead
in a desire to resort to arms to acquire that territory. Mr. Jefferson,
more prudent, desired to procure it by purchase. A purchase Avas made,
in order to remoA^e the difficulty, and to give an outlet to the West to
the ocean. That was the immediate cause of the acquisition of Lou
isiana. NoAV, sir, Ave come to Texas. Perhaps no gentleman had more
to do with the acquisition of Texas than myself; and I aver, Mr. Pres
ident, that I would have been among the A'ery last individuals in the
United States to have made any movement at that time for the acqui
sition of Texas ; and I go further : if I know myself, I was incapable of
acquiring any territory simply on the ground that it Avas to be an
enlargement of Slave Territory, I Avould just as freely have acquired it
if- it had been on the Northern as on the Southern side. No, sir; very
different motives actuated me. I kncAv at a very early period — I avIU
not go into the history of it — the British government had given en
couragement to the abolitionists of the United States, Avho Avere repre
sented at the World's Convention. The question of the abolition of
SlaA-ery was agitated in that Convention. One gentleman stated that
Mr. Adiims informed him that if the British government AvLshed to
abolish Slavery in the United States, they must begin with Texas.
A commission Avas sent from this World's Convention to the British
Secretary of State, Lord Aberdeen ; and it so happened that a gentleman
was present when the intervicAv took place betAveen Lord Aberdeen and
the committee, who gave me a full account of it shortly after it occurred.
Lord Aberdeen fell into the project, and gave full encouragement to the
abolitionists. Well, sir, it is well known that Lord Aberdeen W'as a very
direct, and, in my opinion, a very honest and worthy man ; and Avhen
Mr. Pakenham Avas sent to negotiate Avith regard to Oregon, and inci
dentally Avith respect to Texas, he Avas ordered to read a declaration to
this government, stating that the British government Avas anxious to put
an end to Slavery all over the world, commencing at Texas. It Is Avell
known, further, that at that very time a negotl.ation was o-olnf on
between France and England to accomplish that object, and our o'overii-
ment Avas throAvn by stratagem out of the negotiation; and that" object

ON THE SLAVEEY COMPROAIISE. 41
was, first, to induce Mexico to acknoAvledge the independence of Texas
upon the ground that she Avould abolish it. All these are matters of
history ; and Avhere is the man so blind — I am sure the senator from
Massachusetts is not so Wind — as not to see tliat if the project of Great
Britain had been successful, the whole frontier of the States of Louisiana
and Arkansas, and the adjacent States, would have been exposed to the
inroads of British emissaries. Sir, so far as I was concerned, I put it
exclusively upon that ground. I never Avould run into the folly of
reannexatlon, which I always held to be absurd. Nor, sir, Avould I put
it upon the ground— Avhich I might Avell have put it — of commercial
and manufacturing considerations ; because those were not my motive
piincifjlcs, and I chose to assign what were. So far as commerce and
manufactures Avere concerned, I would not have moved in the matter at
that early period.
_ The senator objects that many Northern gentlemen voted for annexa
tion. Why, sir, it Avas natural that they should be desirous of fulfilling
the obligations of the Constitution ; and besides, what man at that time
doubted that the Missouri compromise line w-oiild be adopted, and that
the territory would fall entirely to the South? All that Northern men
asked for at that time was the extension of that line. Their course, in
my opinion, was eminently correct and patriotic.
Now, Mr. President, having made these corrections, I must go back a
little fiirther, and correct a statement Avhich I think the senator has left
very defective, relative to the Ordinance of 1787. He states, very cor
rectly, that it commenced under the old Confederation ; that it was after
wards confirmed by Congress ; that Congress was sitting in New York
at the time, Avhile the Convention sat in Philadelphia ; and that there
was concert of action. I h.ave not looked into the Ordinance A-eiy re
cently ; but my memory Avill serve me thus far, that Mr. Jefferson intro
duced his first proposition to exclude Slavery in 1784. There was a vote
taken upon it, and I think on that vote CA'ery Southern senator voted
against it ; but I am not certain of it. One thing I am certain of, that
it Avas three years before the Ordinance could pass. It Avas sturdily re
sisted down to 1787 ; and wdien it was passed, as I have good reason to
believe, it was upon a principle of conijjromise : first, that the Ordinance
should contain a proAision similar to the one jjut in the Constitution
with respect to fugitive slaves ; and next, that it should be inserted in
the Constitution ; and this was the compromise upon which the prohibi
tion was inserted in the Ordinance of 1787. We thought we had an
indemnity in that ; but Ave made a great mistake. Of what possible
advantage has it been to us ? Violated faith has met us on every side,
and the advantage has been altogether in their favor. On the other
side, it has been throAvn open to a Northern population, to the entire
exclusion of the Southern. This was the leading measure which de
stroyed the compromise of the Constitution ; and then followed the Mis
souri compromise, which was carried mainly by Northern A'otes, although
noAV disavoAved and not respected by them. That was the next step,
and between these two causes the equilibrium has been broken.
Having made these remarks, let me say that I took great pleasure in
listening to the declarations of the honorable senator from Massachusetts
upon several points. He puts himself upon the fulfilment of the con-.
tract of Congress In the resolutions of Texas annexation, for the admis
sion of the four noAv States provided for by those resolutions to be
formed out of the territory of Texas, All that Avas manly, statesman-
4»

42 SPEECH OF MR. WEBSTER
like, and calculated to do good, because just. He went further; he
condemned, and rightfully condemned, — and in that he has shown great
firmness, — the course of the North relative to the stipulations of the Con
stitution for the restoration of fugitive slaves ; but permit me to say —
for I desire to be candid upon all subjects — that if the senator, together
with many friends on this side of the chamber, puts his confidence in
the bill which has been reported here, further to exte_nd_ the laws of
Congress upon this subject, it Avill prove fallacious. It is impossible to
execute any law of Congress until the people of the States shall
cooperate. I heard the gentleman with great pleasure say that he would not
vote for the Wilmot proviso, for he regarded such an act unnecessary,
considering that Nature had already excluded Slavery. As far as the
new acquisitions are concerned, I am disposed to leave them to be dis
posed of as the hand of Nature shall determine. It is what I ahvays
have insisted upon. Leave that portion of the country more natural to
a Non-Slaveholding population to be filled by that description of pop
ulation ; and leave that portion into Avhich Slavery would naturally go,
to be filled by a SlaA-eholding population — destroying artificial lines;
though perhaps they may be better than none. Mr. Jefferson spoke like
a prophet of the effect of the Missouri compromise line. I am willing
to leave it for Nature to settle ; and to organize governments for the
Tenitoiies, giving all free scope to enter and prepare themselves to par
ticipate in their priAileges. We Avant, sir, nothing but justice. When
the gentleman says that he is willing to leave it to Nature, I understand
he is willing to remove all impediments, whether real or imaginary.
It is consummate folly to assert that the Mexican law prohibiting Slavery
in California and New Mexico is in force ; and I have always regarded
it so.
No man would feel more happy than myself to believe that this Union
formed by our ancestors should live forever. Looking back to the long
course of forty years' service here, I have the consolation to believe that
I have never done one act which Avould Aveaken it ; that I have done
full justice to all sections. And if I have CA'cr been exposed to the
imputation of a contrary motive, it is because I have been Avilling
to defend my section from unconstitutional encroachments. But I can
not agree with the senator from Massachusetts that this Union cannot
be dissolved. Am I to understand him that no degree of oppression,
no outrage, no broken faith, can produce the destruction of this Union ?
Why, sir, if that becomes a fixed fact, it will itself become the great in
strument of producing oppression, outrage, and broken faith. No, sir,
the Union can be broken. Great moral causes will break it if they go
on, and it can only be preserved by justice, good faith, and a rigid
adherence to the Constitution.
Mr. Webster. Mr. President, a single word in reply to the honor
able member from South Carolina. My distance from the honorable
member, and the crowded state of the room, prevented me from hearing
the whole of his remarks. I have only one or two observations to
make ; and, to begin, I first notice the honorable member's last remark.
He asks me if I hold the breaking up of the I^nion by any such thing
as the voluntary secession of States as an impossibility, I knoAV, sir,
this Union can be broken up ; CA'ciy gOA'ernment can be ; and I admit
that there may be such a degree of oppression as Avill Avarrnnt resistance
and a forcible severance. That is revolution ! Of that ultimate rioht

ON THE SLAVERY C0MPE0MI.?E. 43
of revolution I have not been speaking. I know that that l.aAv of neces
sity does exist. I forbear from going further, because I do not wish to
run into a discussion of the nature of this government. The honorable
member and myself have broken lances sufiiciently often before on that
subject. Mr. Calhoun. I have no desire to do it noAV.
Mr. Webster. I presume the gentleman has not, and I have quite as
little. The gentleman refers to the occasions on Avhich these great ac
quisitions Avere made to territory on the Southern side. Why, undoubt
edly, wise and skilful public men, having an object to accomplish, may
take advantage of occasions. Indian wars are an occasion ; a fear of the
occupation of Texas by the British was an occasion ; but when the
occasion came, under the pressure of Avhich, or under the justification
of which the thing could be done, it Avas done, and done skilfully. Let
me say one thing further; and that is, that if Ska veiy Avere abolished,
as it Avas supposed to have been, throughout all Mexico, before the
revolution and the establishment of the Texan goveniment, then, if it
were desirable to have possession of Texas by purchase, as a means of
preventing its becoming a British possession, I suppose that object could
have been secured by making it a Free Territory of the United States,
as Avell as a Slave Territory,
Sir, in my great desire not toprolong this debate, I have omitted what I
intended to Scay on a particular question under the motion of the honor
able senator from Missouri, proposing an amendment to the resolution
of the honorable member from Illinois ; and that is, upon the propriety
and expediency of admitting California, under all circumstances, just as
she is. The more general subjects involved in this question are now be
fore the Senate under the resolutions of the honorable member from
Kentucky. I will say that I feel under great obligations to that honor
able member for introducing the subject, and for the very lucid speech
which he made, and which has been so much read throughout the Avhole
countiy. I am also under great obligations to the honorable member
from Tennessee, for the light which he has shed upon this subject; and,
in some respects, it will be seen that I differ very little from the leading
subjects submitted by either of those honorable gentlemen.
Now, sir, when the direct question of the admission of Califoraia shall
be before the Senate, I propose — but not before every other gentleman
Avho has a wish to address the Senate shall have gi-atified that desire —
to say something upon the boundaries of California, upon the Constitution
of California, and upon the expediency, under all the circumstances, of
admitting her Avith that Constitution.
Mr. Calhoun. One AVord, and I have done ; and that word is, that,
notwithstanding the acquisition of the vast tenitory of Texas repre
sented by the senator from Massachusetts, it is the fact that all that
addition to our territory made it by no means equal to what the Northern
States had excluded us from before that acquisition. The territory lying
west between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains is three fourths
of the whole of Louisiana ; and that Avhich lies between the Mississippi
and the Ohio, added to that, makes a much greater extent of territory
than Florida, and Texas, and that portion of Louisiana that has fallen to
our share.
Mr, Walker moved the postponement of the further consideration
of the resolutions until to-morrow, Avhich Avas agreed to.

MR. WEBSTER'S BOSTON MEMORIAL.

The Committee appointed by a vote of a meeting holden in the State
House on the 3d instant, to prepare a Memorial to Congress on the
subject of the Prohibition of Slavery in the new States, submit the
following : — (Signed,) Daniel Webster,
Geoegb Blake,
Josiah Quincy,
James T, Austin,
Boston, Dec 15, 1819. John Gaxlison^.

MEMORIAL.
To the Senate and House of JRepresentatives of the United States, in
Congress assembled :
The undersigned, inhabitants of Boston and its vicinity, beg leave
most respectfully and humbly to represent : That the question of the
introduction of Slavery into the new States to be formed on the west
side of the Mis.sissippi River, appears to them to be a question of the
last importance to the future welfare of the United States. If the
progress of this great evil is ever to be arrested, it seems to the under
signed that this is the time to arrest it. A false step taken now cannot
be retraced ; and it appears to us that the happiness of unborn millions
rests on the measures which Congress may, on this occasion, adopt.
Considering this as no local question, nor a question to be decided by a
temporary expediency, but as involving great interests of the Avhole of
the United States, and affecting deeply and essentially those objects of
common defence, general Avelfare, and the perpetuation of the blessings
of liberty, for wiiich the Constitution itself was formed, Ave have pre
sumed, in this way, to offer our sentiments and express our wishes to the
National Legislature. And as various reasons have been suggested
against prohibiting Slavery in the new States, it may perhaps be per
mitted to us to state our reasons, both for believing that Congress
possesses the constitutional power to make such prohibition a condition,
on tho admission of a ncAV State into the Union, and that it is just and
proper that they should exercise that power.
And, in the first place, as to the constitutional authority of Congress.
The Constitution of the United States has .declared that "the Congress
shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and reguhatlons
respecting the Territory, or other property belonging to the United
States, and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to
prejudice the claims of the United States, or of any particular State,"
It is very Avell known that the saving in this clause of the claims of any
particular State Avas designed to apply to claims by the then existing
(44)

ME. webstee's boston memoeial. 45
States, of territory Avhich was also claimed by the United States as their
own property. It has, therefore, no bearing on the present question.
The power, then, of Congress over its own Tenitories is, by the very
terms of the Constitution, unlimited. It may make all "needful rules
and regulations;" which of course include all such regulations as it.'* oAvn
vIcAvs of policy or expediency shall from time to time dictate. If, therre-
fore, in its judgment, it be needful for the benefit of a Territory to enact
a prohibition of Slavery, it would seem to be as much xnithin its jyower
of legislation as any other ordinary act of local policy. Its sovereignty
being complete and universal, as to the Territory, il may exercise over
it the most ample jurisdiction in every respect. It possesses in this view
all the authority which any State Legislature possesses over its own ter
ritory; and if a State tegislature may, in its discretion, abolish or
prohibit Slavery Avithin its own limits, in virtue of its general legislative
authority, for the same reason Congress also may exercise the like
authority over its own Territories. And that a State. Legislature, unless
restrained by some constitutional provision, may so do, is unquestionable,
and has been established by general practice.
Upon the whole, the memorialists would respectfully submit that the
terms of the Constitution, as well as the practice of the governments
under it, must, as they humbly conceive, entirely justify the conclusion,
that Congress may prohibit the further introduction of Slavery into its
own Territories, and also make such prohibition a condition of the admis
sion of any new State into the Union.
If the constitutional power of Congress to make the proposed prohibition
be satisfactorily shown, the justice and policy of such prohibition seem
to the undersigned to be supported by plain and strong reasons. The
permission of SlaA'ery in a new State necessarily draws after it an exten
sion of that inequality of representation which already exists in regard
to the original States. It cannot be expected, that those of the original
States which do not hold slaves, can look on such an extension as being
poUtically just. As between the original States, the representation rests
on compact and plighted faith ; and your memorialists haA^e no Avish that
that compact should be disturbed, or that plighted faith in the slightest
degree violated. But the subject assumes an entirely different character
when a new State proposes to be admitted. With her there is no com
pact, arid no faith plighted; and Avhere is the reason that she should
come into the Union with more than an equal share of political impor
tance and political power? Already the ratio of representation, estab
lished by the Constitution, has given to the States holding slaves twenty
members in the House of Representatives more than they would have
been entitled to, except under the particular provision of the Constitu
tion. In all probability, this number Avill be doubled in thirty years.
Under these circumstances, we deem it not an nnreason.able expectation
that the inhabitants of Missouri should propose to come into the Union,
renouncing the right in question, and estabhshing a Constitution pro
hibiting it forever. Without dwelling on this topic, Ave have still thought
it our duty to present it to the consideration of Congress. We present
it with a deep and earnest feeling of its importance, and Ave respectfully
solicit for it the full consideration of the National Legislature.
Your memorialists were not Avithout the hope, that the time had at
length arrived, when the inconvenience and the danger of this descrip-

46 ME. AVEBSTEE's boston MEMORIAti.
tion of population had become apparent, in all parts of this country, and
in .all parts of the civilized world. It might have been hoped that the
new States themselves would have had such a view of tlieir own perma
nent interests and prosjierity, as would have led them to prohibit its
extension and increase. The Avonderful increase and prosperity of the
States north of the Ohio is unquestionably to be ascribed in a great
measure to the consequences of the Ordinance of 1787, and fcAV, indeed,
are the occasions, in the history of nations, in wiiich so much can be done,
by a single act, for the benefit of future generations, as Avas done by that
Ordinance, and as may now be done by the Congress of the United States.
We appeal to the justice and the wisdom of the tiational councils, t02')revent
the further progress of a great and serious evil. We appeal to those
who look forward to the remote consequences of their measures, andwho
cannot balance a temporary or trifling convenience, if there were such,
against a permanent growing and desolating evil.
We cannot forbear to remind the two houses of Congress that the
early and decisive measures adopted by the American government for
the abolition of the slave trade are among the proudest memorials of
our nation's glory. That Slavery was ever tolerated in the Re])ubllc is,
as yet, to be attributed to the policy of another government. No impu
tation, thus far, rests on any portion of the American Confederacy. The
Missouri Territory is a new countiy. If its extensive and fertile fields
shall be opened as a market for slaA^es, the government will seem to
become a party to a traffic, which, in so many acts, through so many
yeai-s, it has denounced as impolitic, unchristian, inhuman. To enact
laAVS to punish the traffic, and at the same time to tempt cu]:ildity and
avarice by the allurements of an insatiable market, is inconsistent and
irreconcILable Government, by such a course, Avould only defeat its
own purposes, and render nugatory its own measures. Nor can the laws
derive support from the manners of the people, if the poAver of moral
sentiment be Aveakened by enjoying, under the permission of govern
ment, great facilities to commit offences. The laws of the United States
have denounced heavy penalties against the traffic in slaves, because such
traffic is deemed unjust and inhuman. We appeal to the spirit of these
laws; Ave appeal to this justice and humanity; we ask Avhether they
ought not to operate on the present occasion Avith all their force? We
have a strong feeling of the injustice of any toleration of Slavery. Cir
cumstances have entailed It on a portion of our community, Avhich can
not be immediately relieved from it without consequences more injurious
than the suffering of the evil. But to permit it in a nexo country, where
yet no habits are formed which render it indispensable, what is 'it but to
encourage that rapacity and fraud and violence, against vjhich we have
so long p)ointed the denunciatio7is of oicrj}encd code ? What is it hut to
tarnish the piroud fame of the country? What is it hut to throw suspi
cion on its good faith, and to render questionable cdl its prof essions of
regard for the rights of humanity and the liberties of mankind?
As inhabitants of a free country; as citizens of a great and rising Re
public; as members of a Christian community; as living in a hbera! and
enlightened age, and as feeling ourselves called u]ion by the dictates of
religion and humanity ; wc have presumed to offer our sentiments to
Congress on this question, with a solicitude for the event far beyond
what a common occasion could inspire.

APPENDIX.

The following suggestions applicable to our National Crisis at this
moment are taken from a letter of Hon. B. F. Thomas (of Massachusetts)
to a friend : —
" The best thing that can be done with the remains of the statute of 1855 is to lay
them upon the altar of the country. It does not requh-e a great sacrifice ; and it is
our country.
Incapable of substantial legal good, they do much political and moral evil.
They are not, in their spirit, loyal to the Union. They tend to bring into conflict
our relations to the State and the United States, to which we are alike bound, and
must be alike faithful.
They are unjust to the citizens of the United States, who feel that they must obey
the laws of the United States, and that the State cannot fairly subject them to any
disability or distrust even for such fidelity.
They disturb the ft-iendly relations which would otherwise exist between us and
the friends of the Union in the Southei-n States.
They strengthen the hands, they encourage the hearts, of the enemies of the
Union. They are made the occasion, if not the cause, the pretence, if not the
reason, for the attempts to sever that Union. They furnish a pretext, a seeming
apology, for treason.
The ground of objection to these statutes is their apparent design to obstruct a
law of the United States, — an iron law, it maybe, but a law. Their real and
humane purpose was to give to the rights of the feeble and humble the protection
which the law of the United States failed to give. They can legally effect neither
the apparent design nor their real purpose. And the difficulty, in my judgment, is
intrinsic, and results from the fact, that a law of the United States, held to be valid
by the judiciary of the United States, is the supreme law of the courts of Massachu
setts ; and no State law can either get over it or around it.
The only place to seek the modification of the Fugitive Slave Law is on the floor
of Congress ; and we need not desjjair of such a result. The just and reasonable
modifications to be efiected are, that the alleged fugitive shall, from the time of his
arrest, be in the custody of the courts of the United States, both in the State where
he is seized and that to which he is returned ; that, before he shall be delivered into
the custody of the claimant, he shall have the right to trial by jury, freely and with
out purchase, under rules of evidence to be prescribed by Congress ; the most
essential of which would be the presumption of freedom, and the right to meet the
witnesses against him face to face.
(«)

48 APPENDIX,
Having done what may faiiiy be required of us, ¦we may inquire Avhat may fairly
he required of others,
I have already stated the issue before the country. It must be settled now. Let
us not deceive ourselves. Let us not disguise the real dangers before us. If
seces.^ion is insisted on, civil w.Ar is inevitable.
We were Colonies of Great Britain, — separate, distinct, jealous Colonies. Under
the oppression of the mother country, we grew and ripened into one national life.
By the declaration of independence, the Colonies became, not separate and distinct
nations, but one nation. Under the Continental Congress, the Revolutionary Gov
ernment, even under the Confederation, the great attributes of sovereignty were in
the United States, thirteen States, one nation, — E pluribus wium.
'To all general purposes' (says Mr. Jay in the Federalist) 'we have uni
formly been one people j each indiridual citizen every where enjoying the satfie
national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation, -we have made peace and
Trar ; as a nation, we have vanquished our common enemies ; as a nation, we have
formed alliances and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and' conven
tions with foreign states,' (Federalist, No. 2.)
The 'people of the United States, to form a more perfect union, to establish
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity,*
ordained and established the Constitution of the United States. They established a
government, ¦with no provision for its termination, without limitation of time, for
themselves and their posterity — a government clothed with specific powers, but in
its sphere supreme. There is no clause or word in the Constitution which looks to
separation. The government established by the Constitution is a perpetual govern
ment, with provisions for its amendment, none for its destruction ; with a door for
new States to come in, but none for old ones to go out.
You may recollect, that in the Convention of the people of New York, called to
act upon the adoption of the Constitution, Mr. Lansing moved to annex to the rati
fication a reservation of the right of New York to Avithdraw from the Union within
a certain number of years, if the amendments proposed by the New York Conven
tion were not adopted. Hamilton declared the reservation Avas inconsistent with
the Constitution, and would not be a ratification. He wrote to Madison for his
opinion upon the possibility of the State being received on that plan. Madison
wrote, that the adoption, with reservation of a right to withdraw, would not make
New York a member of the Union, and that she could not be received on that basis.
' The Constitution requires an adoption in toto and forever.^
South Carolina has, it is said, seceded. It is quite plain, from the discussions of
the Convention, that there is no man in her borders that knows what secession
means, or what South Carolina is after secession. If she is the nation of South
Carolina, can any one tell us when and by what process she became so ? She had
not, before the Constitution ¦was adopted, the attributes of a nation. Has she ac
quired them while under the Constitution, while every strictly national function has
been exercised by a government paramount to her own ? The people of this coun
try are not to be beguiled by words : they will look at things. Secession has no
legal meaning. It is but another name for rebellion or revolution : whether rebellion
or revolution, must depend upon its success or failure. If it be any thing, it is but
a process by which a State may forego all the privileges of the Union, learing her
people still liable to all its obligations and duties.

APPENDIX. 49
No provision of the Constitution, no law of the United States, is abrogated or
affected by the ' Ordinance ' of South Carolina. No citizen of the Unite°d States
in South Carolina is exempted from any the least of his duties under the Constitu
tion and laws of the United States. The Constitution" and laws of the United States
act directly upon him, and not through the State upon him. They are the supreme
law i and the act of the State, ordinance, or statute, which conflicts with that su
preme law, shrivels into a nullity. To attempt to defeat it by a resolution is folly.
To attempt to defeat the National Government by organized resistance, by force of
arms, is treason. To kill an officer of the United States when in the discharge of
his legal duty is murder. This is plain language : we cannot afford to use° any
other. Secession is rebellion, without the manliness that should attend it. It is an
attempt to get .by legal craft what can only be got by force of arms. The Constitution
and Union are not to be shot doAvn by paper bullets ; and they are not statesmen
\rho think so.
Utterly denying the existence of any right of secession, I think, with Henry Qay,
' that the attempt to exercise it ought to be resisted to the last extremity.'
If the Constitution is a compact which every State is capable of breaking, Avhose
obligations every State may throw off at its pleasure, it is not worth preserving.
We beheve it, the great mass of the people of this country believe it, to be a wiser,
better, nobler thing, a frame of government capable of amendment in the mode
itself provides ; capable of being overthrown only by revolution, only by successful
revolution. Men may, it is true, for just cause, by revolution, change or overthrow
go\ernment. It is also true that men may maintain and uphold government for just
cause ; and it is Just cause when their only rational hopes of peace, of security, and
of well-regulated liberty, for themselves and their children, are bound up with it. I
am very sorry there are not other ways to vindicate the Constitution and the laws but
of force of arms ; but I see no way of meeting force but by force. If men tear down
from the fort of my country the flag of my country, I honestly beUeve that you and
I have a right to help restore it if we can — to give it again to the breeze, with all
its stripes and all its stars.
The duty of maintaining just government is as sacred and binding as that of
maintaining our hearths and altars : it is the same thing.
If it be said that it will be impossible to maintain the Union if other States secede,
the plain answer is, If it be impossible, our duty is at an end. But I do not believe
it impossible. Upon the simple issue, whether the laws of the Union are to be main
tained, and its flag upheld, nine tenths of the freemen of this country are with us.
The opinion of the civilized world is with us. Moreover, God governs in the affairs
of men, and will be with us as he was with our fathers.
There is a sensibility, which borders on fear, on this question of resort to force.
Freedom is a blessing : license is not Government is a necessity : a firm, vigorous
government is a necessity, ' Influence is not government,' (Washington.) That
only is government which can command obedience and enforce it. The existence of
society and of social order is possible on no other theory.
But what, you may ask, is the duty of the National Government, after such an
ordinance has been passed ? The general answer is obvious : What it was before it
was passed — to enforce h every part of the Union, South Carolina included, the
Constitution and laws of le United States. The National Government can never
know of such a thing as secession. She has no legal capacity to hear or compre
hend it. She can know of rebellion, and must govern herself accordingly.
5

50 APPEXDIX.
But what is practicable and reasonable in such an exigency ? All possible and
long-suffering forbearance consistent Avith the execution of the laws. But the reve
nue may and must be collected. No vessel can enter or leave ports of the United
States but in conformity to the laws. In places where the United States have ex
clusive jurisdiction by the cession of the State, the jurisdiction must be maintained.
But this will result in civil war. That war is already begun. No man loves peace
more than I do ; but I say deliberately, war, even civil Avar, is better than to give up
this glorious inheritance from our fathers, the noblest government on earth, without a
struggle, or to leave the struggle that belongs to us to our children. / see no rea
sonable liope for peace hut within the pale of the Constitution as it is, and in obedi
ence to its mandates.
I have no hope in saving the Union by amending the Constitution. The powers
of the National Government over every matter in dispute are ample. My only hope
is in the moderate, firm, just, and equitable administration of the Constitution as it
is. If we sever in peace, not many years will elapse before we shall have war.
Slavery will create greater causes of difference and strife after separation than now.
Demands will be made by tho Slave States for the extradition of fugitives from
service : the Free States will never consent. They will make discriminating duties
against us : the Free States will not submit. The Slave States will re-open the
African slave trade : we shall, ere long, unite with all Christian states to extermi
nate the traffic — to sweep it from the highway of nations,
I am, you well know, no partisan, and have had no connection with party politics
for many years. Upon full consideration of my duty in that regard, I voted for
Abraham Lincoln. I have no misgiving about that vote. In view of all that has
taken place, I would give it to him to-morrow with alacrity. If he pursues the
wise, moderate, and national course and policy which his past life, and opinions, and
his firm and manly character, lead me to expect, he will have my loyal, unwavering
support in the execution of his great, and, at this crisis, solemn and momentous
duty — that of executing in every part of this indivisible republic the Constitution
and laws of our yet glorious Union. I feel that, in my humble sphere, I can do
him no better service than to do what I may to remove all stumbling blocks from
his path. These statutes are among them.
Hoping for better things, seeking, in all the honorable ways of peace, the adjust
ment of our present difficulties, we ought to prepare for the worst. ' Faint hearts
are usually false hearts.' For our country, for our children, for the cause of well-
regulated Uberty, we have no right to do or suffer less than our fathers. It cost
seven years of suffering to secure these blessings. Seven years, if need be, will be
wisely spent in the struggle to maintain them. To suppose that the people of the
Free States will consent to give up such a government, and the infinite blessings it
secures to the country, Avithout a struggle, is the saddest of mistakes. This govern
ment is a great and sacred trust We shall be false to country, to freedom, to
humanity, if we consent to give it up till the struggle is seen to be utterly hopeless."
Boston-, January, 1861.

CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, es
tablish 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 for the United States of America.
ARTICLE L
Sect. L 1. All Legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Sect. IL 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in
each State shall have the quaUfications requisite for electors of the most numerous
branch of the State legislature.
2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of
twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the scA'^eral States
which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers,
which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including
those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three
fifths of all other persons. ¦ The actual enumeration shall be made within three
years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct The
number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each
State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made,
the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight,
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York six. New
Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, 'Virginia ten. North
Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive
authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.
5. The House • of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ;
and shall haA-e the sole power of impeachment.
Sect. III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Sena
tors from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each
Senator shall have one vote,
2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election,
they .shall be dinded, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the
Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of
the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expira
tion of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if
(31)

52 APPENDIX.
vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of
any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next
meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.
3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty
years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and Avho shall not, when
elected, be an inhabitant of that State for Avhich he shall be chosen.
4. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but
shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.
5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore,
in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi
dent of the United States.
6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachm.ents. When sitting
for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the
United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall pre.side ; and no person shall be con
victed without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.
7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than to removal
from office, and disquaUfication to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit,
under the United States ; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and
subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.
Sect. IV. 1, The times, places, and manner of holding , elections for Senators
and Representatives shall be prescribed irt each State by the legislature thereof; but
the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to
the places of choosing Senators.
2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such mee'ting
shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a dif
ferent day.
Sect. V, 1, Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifi
cations of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do
business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be author
ized to compel the attendance of absent members, iu such manner and under such
penalties as each House may provide,
2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, and punish its members
for disorderly behavior, and, Avith the concurrence of two third.s, expel a member,
3, Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, from time to time,
publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy ;
and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at
the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal,
4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of
the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in
which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Sect. VI. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the
United States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their re
spective Houses, and in going to, and returning from, the same ; and for any speech
or debate, in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place,
2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected,
be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall
have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, durin"-

APPEXDIX, 03
such time; and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a
member of either House during his continuance in office.
Sect. VIL 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Rep
resentatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other
bills. 2, Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the
Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United
States, If he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his ob
jections, to that House in which it shall have originated, Avho shall enter the objec
tions at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such recon
sideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the hill, it shall be sent,
together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be re
considered, and, if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law.
But in all such cases the A'otes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and
nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered
on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the
President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to
him, the same shall be a law, in Uke manner as if he had signed it, unless the
Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be
a law, 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and
House of Representatives may be necessary, (except on a question of adjournment,)
shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall
take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be re
passed by two thirds of the Senate and House of RepresentatiA-es, according to the
rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
Sect. VIII. The Congress shall have power, —
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debtSj. and
provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ; 6ut all
duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United State?:
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States :
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and
with the Indian tribes :
4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject
of bankruptcies, throughout the United States :
5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the
standard of weights and measures :
6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting tie securities and current coin
of the United States :
7. To establish post offices and post roads :
8, To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited
times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries :
9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court:
10, To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and
offences against the law of nations : . , , , .
11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and repnsal, and make rules con
cerning captures on land and water : , . , ^ ^-l ^
12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use
shall be for a longer term than two years : 5*

54

APPENDIX.

13. To provide and maintain a navy :
14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval
forces :
15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup
press insurrections, and repel invasions :
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for gov
erning such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States,
reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the au
thority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by Congress :
17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district
(not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the
acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States,
and to exercise like authority- over all places purchased by the consent of the legis
lature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines,
arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings : And,
18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu
tion the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the
government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
Sect. IX. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the
States, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Con
gress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight ; hut a tax or duty
may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each pei'son.
2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless
when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.
3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed.
4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the cen-
,sus or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
5. -No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. No prefer
ence shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one
State ovel those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be
obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.
6. No money -shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropria
tions made by law v and a regular statement and account of the receipts and ex
penditures of all pubKc money shall be published from time to time.
7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; and no person
holding any office of piafit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the
Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever,
from any king, prince, or forti^n state.
Sect. X. 1. No State shal» enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ;
grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any
thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attain
der, ex post facto law, or law impaiving the obligation of contracts ; or grant any
title of nobility.
2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on
imports or exports, except what may be absolutnly necessary for executing its in
spection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on
imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all
such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of tlie Congress. No State
shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or

APPENDIX. 55
ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another
State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such
imminent danger as will not admit of delay,
ARTICLE n.
Sect. I. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and to
gether with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows :
2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may di
rect, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representa
tives to Avhich the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Repre
sentative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States,
shall be appointed an elector.
3. [Annulled. See Amendments, Art. XIL]
4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day
on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the
United States.
5. No person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at
the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Presi
dent ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained
to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United
States. 6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resigna
tion, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall
devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of
removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President,
declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accord
ingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation,
which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall
have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument
from the United States, or any of them.
8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath
or affirmation :
9. " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect,
and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Sect. II. 1. The President shall he commander-in-chief of the army and navy
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the
actual service of the United States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the
principal officers in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to
the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and
pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to
make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall
nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint am
bassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all
other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise
provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law

66 APPENDIX.
vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President
alone, in the Courts of law, or in the heads of Departments.
3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen, dur
ing the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end
of their next session.
Sect. III. 1. He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he
shall judge necessary and e.xpedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene
both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with
respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shah
think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall
take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers
of the United States.
Sect. IV. 1. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason,
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, ARTICLE HI,
Sect, I, 1. The Judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Su
preme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time,
ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall
hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their
services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in
office. Sect. II. 1. The Judicial power shall' extend to all cases, in law and equity,
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or
which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other
public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ;
to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies be
tween two or more States ; between a State and citizens of another State ; between
citizens of different States ; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under
grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign
states, citizens, or subjects.
2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and
those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original juris
diction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have
appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such
regulations, as the Congress shall make.
3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and
such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ;
but when not committed within any State,' the trial shall be at such place, or places,
as the Congress may by law have directed.
Sect. III. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No
person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the
same overt act, or on confession in open court.
2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no
attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the
life of the person attainted.

APPENDIX, 57
ARTICLE IV.
Sect. I. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts,
records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may, by
general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall
be proved, and the effect thereof.
Sect. II, 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several States.
2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall
flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive
authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the
State having jurisdiction of the crime.
3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the la'ws thereof, escap
ing into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis
charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party
to whom such sers'ioe or labor may be due.
Sect. III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union, but
no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ;
nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States,
without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Con
gress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States ;
and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of
the United States, or of any particular State.
Sect. IV. 1. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and,
on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be
convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall
propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures
of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments,
which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of this Con
stitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or
by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification
may be proposed by the Congress ; provided that no amendment which may be
made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner
affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no
State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal sufirage in the Senate.
ARTICLE VL
1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of
this Constitution, shall be as vaUd against the United States under this Constitution
as under the confederation.
2. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority
of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every

68 APPENDIX,
State shall be bound thereby ; any thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to
the contrary notwithstanding.
3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United
States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support
this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to
any office or pubhc trust under the United States,
ARTICLE VIL
The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the estab
lishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE L
Congress shall make no law respecting an estabUshment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a re
dress of grievances.
ARTICLE H.
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
ARTICLE in.
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent
of the. owner ; nor, in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE IV.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particu
larly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
ARTICLE V.
No person shall he held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime,
unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in
the land or naval forces, or in the mihtia, when in actual service, in time of war, or
public danger ; nor shall any person be subject, for the same offence, to be twice put
in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, hberty, or property, without due
process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just
compensation. ARTICLE VL
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and
public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall
have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law ;

APPENDIX. 59
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with
the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his
favor ; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
ARTICLE VII.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars,
the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be
otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules
of the common law. ARTICLE Vni.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishments infiicted. ARTICLE IX.
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people.
ARTICLE X.
The powers not delegated to the United States' by the Constitution, nor prohibited
' by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
ARTICLE XL
The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any
suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by
citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.
ARTICLE XIL
1. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by- ballot for
President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of
the same State ¦nith themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted
for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President ; and
they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all per
sons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists
they shall sign, and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of
the United States, directed to the President of the Senate ; the President of the
Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all
the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest
number of votes for President shall he the President, if such number be a majority
of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority,
then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list
of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme
diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be
taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for
this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States,
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House
of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall
devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice
President shall act as President, as in the case of the death, or other constitutional
disability, of the President.
2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be

60 APPENDIX.
the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors
appointed : and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on
the list the Senate shall choose the Vice President ; a quorum for the purpose shall
consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole
number shall be necessary to a choice.
3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be
eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.

Note. The Constitution was adopted 17th September, 1787, by the unanimous consent
of the States present in the Convention appointed in pursuance of the resolution of the
Congress of the Confederation, of the 21st February, 1787, and was ratified by the Conven
tions of the several States, as follows, viz. : By convention of Delaware, 7th December, 1787 ;
Pennsylvania, 12th December, 1787 ; New Jersey, 18th December, 1787 ; Georgia, 2d Jan
uary, 1788 ; Connecticut, 9th January, 1788 ; Massachusetts, 6th February, 1788 ; Maryland,
28th April, 1788 ; South Carolina, 23d May, 1788 ; New Hampshire, 21st June, 1788 ; Vir
ginia, 26lh June, 1788 ; New York, 26th July, 1788 ; North Carolina, 21st November, 1789 ;
Khode Island, 29th May, 1790.
The first ten ot the Amendments were, proposed at the first session of the first Congress
of the United States, 25th September, 1789, and were finally ratified by the constitutional
number of States on the 15th day of December, 1791. The eleventh Amendment was pro
posed at the first session of the third Congress, 5th March, 1794, and was declared in a
message from the President of the United States to both Houses of Congress, dated 8th
January, 1798, to have been adopted by the constitutional number of States. The twelfth
Amendment was proposed at the first session of the eighth Congress, 12th December, 1803,
and was adopted by the constitutional number of States in 1804, according to a public notice
thereof by the Secretary of State, dated 25th September of the same year.

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