T -;
Mission of Republicans —Sectionalism of Modern
Democracy.
SPEECH
OF
ROBERT MoKNIGItT, OF PENN.
Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 24, 1860.
Icannot be expected,) that there are other strong reasons ap plicable to our situation and relations with other countries
which impose on us the obligations to cherish and sustain
our manufactures."
By Jackson, a Southern man, who says:
" While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they
t cuy  be so adjusted as to encourage manufacture.  Of these
objects of protection, the productions of our soil, our mines,
and our workshops, essential to national defence, occupy the
first rank."
These being the tenets of the Democratic
fathers, why  has modern  Democracy proved
faithless to such teachings, and attempted to
destroy the ancient landmarks in this, as in
other doctrines, once dear to their saints?  Is
it because  the principle of protection, when
carried out, increases the price of the articles
s o  protected to the consumer, and thus imposes
a burden grievous to be borne?
Such has recently been the cry of Southern
Democrats on this floor.   But though at first
blush specious and plausible, this objection  is
not tenable; and  its faluacy  has been often
proved here and elsewhere, showing that this
theory will not stand the test of truth and experience.  On the contrary, it has been fully
demonstrated that the inevitable result of protective duties on all articles which can be
manufactured at home is to start new estab.
lishments for their production, greatly increasing  the home  competition, and necessarily diminishing the price. If a duty be laid, deemed
by the capitalist adequate to justify him in
investing his capital, the investment is at once
made; provided, confidence is felt in th-e
permanency of the duty, which, after all, is
more important to him than a very high duty.
:And thus, where ten establishments have
been dragging out a siekly-existence,- one'hun.
dred start into life and vigor; while the old
e  
The House being in Committee of the Whole, and having
under consideration the bill to provide for the payment of
outstanding Treasury notes, to authorize a loan, to regulate
and fix the duties on imports, and for other purposes    Mr. McKNIGHT said: 
Mr. CHAIRMAN: It will hardly be denied that
the country is most independent, and conse quently most prosperous, which produces within
her own borders all articles needful  for the use
of              her citizens. Such, it has  long  been co ntend ed, should  be the policy of    this Government;
that, by a wholesome and beneficent system of
r               evenue laws, she shaould discriminate  inwfavor
of our  own labor and skill, over that of foreign
lands, a nd kindly foster      our  nascent    industry
untillit has crown wit    h the  gr    owth of  the coun try           t  to th e  full s tatu re of m anhoo d, when   it may
d    efiantly throw down t   he  gauntlet,  and c             hal l        eng e             all competitors.
This doctrine seems early to have impressed
our sta t           esmen, and w    e find it   pressed upon the
consid         eration  of C ong     ress from  the formation
of the G         overn  ment. First  by Wash ington, who
says:
h   Congress have repeatedly,      and not without success, directed  their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. The object    i       s of too mu ch  cons equen ce  not to insure
a continuance of their efforts in every way which shall appear eligible."
By Monroe, of Virginia, who says:
" Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic
and fostering care of the Government. Possessing, as we
do,  all the raw mate rials, the fruit of our own soi l a nd i ndu    stry,           we ought not to  depend, in the degree      we have done,
on supplies from other countries. While we are thus dependent, the sadden event of war, unsought and unexpected, cannot fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulties.
Equally important is it to provide a home market for our
raw materials. The preservration of our manufactures, then,
which depends on due encouragement, is connected with the
high interests of the nation. Satisfied I am, whatever may
be the abstract doctrine in favor of unrestricted commerce,
(provided all nations would concur in it, and it was not liable to be irterrupted by war, which has never occurred, and
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o   a rt icles free into that kingdom, but. lays hiigd
duties  on  all British  articles imported  into
France which compete with French  manufactures.  This treaty has not yet  been ratified
by the British Parliament, and is so unpalatable to Englishmen, that it probably never will
be.   To show that the view here taken is that
taken in England, I quote from an able writer
in the last Blackwood's Magazine, discussing
the Aniglo-Gallican treaty above cited:
,  Generally speaking, the market price will be fixed by
our own producers; and the only appreciable consequence
of the abolition of duties will be the loss to the revenue. But,
it may be asked, who will profit by the remission? We an swer, in this case, the foreign producer. There are, cor re c tly speaking, only three parties who can derive anyben efit from a remission of duty-the producer, the retailer,
and the cor,sumer.  In this case it is the producer, be he
Dutchman or Dane, that must be the gainer. He will not
lower the price of his cheese, butter, &c., because he knows
they command certain prices in the British market.  Like a
wise man, he will pocket the difference, and snigger at the
simplicity of the pudden-headed English, who are giving him
a bonus which he certainly had no reason to expect."
I fear some of our politicians would subject
themselves to the same contemptuous  epithet.
The maxim is current among political econ omists, that the only road to free trade is
through protection, as has been proved by the
article of nails.  But the objection  is often
made, that the tariff benefits only the manu facturer, and at the expense of the agricul turist.  This  is another fallacy.  Nowhere  is
there a better market for all the products of
the soil than in a manufacturing town, where
the teeming, thrifty population, in the daily re ceipt of their hard-earned wages, must be sup plied from the adjacent country.  Go into the
vicinity of these hives of industry, and ask the
tillers of the soil  (sneeringly called by the
Southern Democracy close-fisted farmers) when
they are most prosperous, and they will tell
you, when  the mills and  workshops  in the
L neighboring town are in full operation, and
they find a ready and remunerative  market
near their own door; and save the cost and
t   trouble of distant transportation, and  the  loss
by deterioration of produce in such transit to
a distant market.  Therefore it is that every
manufactory  benefits  the   agriculturist, by
a   creating a new demand and a reliable home
market, the very Best and surest for the prod  ucts of his farm.   And therefore it is that the
great producing States are deeply interested in
s   the growth and development of manufactures.
When, therefore, because of inadequate pro.  tection, the factories and mills must close, what
becomes  of the busy operatives  who toiled
,  and  prospered there?  Compelled  to earn a
. livelihood  for themselves  and families, while
our free-trade theorists are paying bounties to
F   foreign workmen, they must move to the count,  try, live on their small farms; and undertake to
f raise food sufficient to keep the wolf from their
F  doors; from consumers becoming  producers,
- and thus coming into direct competition with
- the farmer.  These facts and results are so pal l pable to our  people, that they are no ledger
ones with new vitality, increase the number
of their hands, working double sets night and
day, and vastly increasing their product. This
explains the apparent paradox, which the advocates of free trade never can or never will
undershand, that the imposition of a duty is not
a tax on the consumer. They persist in ignoring the fact, that, when an investment is already made in real estate, buildings, machinery, warehouse rent, teams, and all the
other v    aried adjunc  ts       to a manufactory, w it                h
the interest, taxes, and insurance, running
thereon, all the expenses must come out of
the product; and the greater that is, the more
is the expense distributed, and the price of the
article can be reduced, while the manufacturer
reaps the benefit of a ready market near at
hand.
The foreign producer, in order to compete
with this new condition of things, is compelled
to deliver his wares in our ports, if he hopes to
command the market, at the old prices, before
the increase of duty, and thus he is compelled
to pay that duty. This is not mere theory, but
is abundantly sustained by the facts under the
tariff of 1842, which, in the words of Henry
Clay, covered the country with blessings. If
any one doubts the result, let him refer to the
statistical tables, with the Secretary's report,
which are too voluminous for insertion here,
and he will find that the prices of coal, cottons,
prints, sheetings, cloths, carpets, and iron of
all kinds, manufactured in this country, ran
down gradually from the year 1841 to 1846,
when the Democratic tariff was passed; while
other articles, not manufactured here, and
therefore having little or no competition, such
as china, silk goods, gloves, tin plates, &c.,
actually advanced in price in the same period.
And although the then Secretary, R. J. Walk er, just before the passage of that bill, assured
the country, in his official report, that every ton of
coal mined in the United States cost $1.60 more
than it would under the free-trade system, he
must have overlooked the significant fact, that
the full price of a ton of coal, in the chief
marts of Pennsylvania, did not exceed that
amount. The tax paid by the consumer of
nails was put in the same report at $90 per
ton, the full price then paid for nails, which
now average some $60, and thus furnish a
signal proof of the correctness of the position
here taken. One would suppose these facts
were damaging to such a tneory. Not at all.
Carry out your theory in spite of facts, is the
rule. It is the Sangrado system over again,
under which the patients are bleeding to death.
These facts seem to be well known to the
French statesmen of this day, and especially
to their Emperor, that shrewd, sagacious man,
who controls alike the destiny and policy of
France, if not of all Europe. He has recently
concluded a commercial- treaty with M~r. Cob  den, the eminent free-trade champion, on be,
h]f of G~reat Britain, which admits French
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deceived by the illusions of free trade.  They
know that the supply increased by competition
causes a fall in the prices of manufactured articles; and that the same increased competition
creates increased demand for the products of
the soil, which must advance in price; and
thus the tariff unites this golden circle of blessins.
Such                        a simple proposition needs no  further
discussion; and I proceed to inquire, what is
the posture of modern Democracy on this vital
!Vestion?  Though  usually good  at dodging
these issues, especially in Pennsylvania, they
will hardly deny that "our own Dallas" gave
the casting vote in the Senate which repealed
the beneficent tariff of 1842, and that the revenue laws  since enforced,  and  appropriately
termed British tariffs, were passed and are sustained by them; and although the Democratic
President still continues, though  with  bated
breath, to send his message to Congress, recommending  specific duties, &c., he conveniently sends along with the bane of recommendation an antidote, in the report of his Secretary
of the Treasury, who  quietly flouts his chief,
and scouts at his suggestions, as absurd and
"exploded."   Yet he is permitted to retain his
place, and continue his official assaults on the
industry  of the  country,  while  Democratic
presses utter the stinging sarcasm, " why, the
President is opposed to the Administration! "
Shade of Jackson! I  Why does not the Executive fiat issue to the recusantSecretary-" Stand
not upon the order of your going, but go at
once I " 
But, says my colleague from the navy yard
district, [Mr. FLOgE.NCE,] in his recent speech:
II The resolution of the recent -Democratic Convention (at
Reading, Pennsylvania) has, at any rate, an unmistakable
meaning. It is, that the conviction of the Democra'ic party
remains unshaken in the wisdom and policy of adequate
protection of iron, coal, wool, and the other great staples of
the country. based upon the necessities of a reasonable revenue system of the General Government; and approving the
views of President Buchanan upon the subject of specific
duties, we earnestly desire our Representatives in Congress
to procure such modification of the existing laws as the lnwise legislation of the Republican party in 1857 renders absol-tely necessary for the prosperity of the great industrial
interests of Pennsylvania."
My colleague was right in saying that this
refreshingly cool resolution  " has  an unmistakable meaning."   There is no mistake that
it is another attempt, with face of brass, to
hoodwink and deceive the confiding Democracy
of Pennsylvania,  after the  Polk-Dallas  and
tariff-of-I 842 fashion: first, by deliberately falsifying the record as to the tariff of 1857, which
it is notorious that the  Democratic  Senate
forced on Congress that year in its expiring
momentsi and next, by roundly asserting that
the vaporing resolution of a Pennsylvania Conventidn on this subject is the conviction of the
Democratic party, which has heretofore planted
its heel on the neck of protection, and -crashed
out its vitality; ay, and will be found repeating
the operation again on this very bill, so far as
in them lies;~ though he and his two Democratic
colleagues  (for, in  his lug ubrio us phrase, " we
are but three, all told, ") may find i t convenient
to vote  with t he  friends of the tariff, especially
as t heir votes  are not needed, a  nd  canno t
change  the result. Provided, nevertheless, they
do not, as one of them [Mr. MONTGOMERY]  did
on the passage of the  act of 1857, get'hungry,
and leave th e Hall for the matter  of   fifte en
minutes, to ret s omething to   eat," just as the
vote was t a ken. Wh at  a re markab le fact, th at
man's appetite  sh ould seize and contr ol  him just
at the most inopportune juncture! Would it not
be better that a Democratic member of Congress  shoul d    endure  the  pangs  of h unger  " for
the  mat ter  of" a few hours, than  that his constituents should suffer for months and years  for
want of adequate reward for their labor'?
What a pity it is that tariff Democrats should,
like the Irishman's pigs, frisk about so much,
that they cannot be counted on the final vote.
But, says my colleague, further, of us Republicans:
"I believe it is their intention to force through this House
a tariff bill, which they hope and know the Senate will not
.ccept, and then they will cry that the Democratic Senate
has defeated the tariff."
Mr. Chairman, this is a remarkable vaticination. We do intend to perfect and pass the
present bill, in the hope of relieving the country, lifting its prostrate industry from the dust,
and starting the plow, the loom, and the
ergine; and if the Democratic Senate shal
see fit to arrest the passage of the bill, and
dash the cup of hope and bldssinz from the
lips of honest labor, rest assured we "will cry
that they have defeated the tariff." Ah! Sand
we will cry aloud, and spare not. But let me
tell my colleague  and his Democratic friends,
there is one effectual way to stop that cry, and
steal that thunder; and that is, by promptly
passing  this bill through the Senate, affixing
the Presidential sanction, and putting it into
operation, which may all be done within sixty
days. I invite the Democracy to that enter tainment, and shall be glad to make merry
with them, because this great question, too
lon( the foot-ball of contending parties, shall
have been removed from the political arena.
I await the issue. _
To secure  such  a consummation, I should
be glad to see Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee,  Missouri,  and North  Carolina, (l
would like to include Georgia, on the strength
of her former history, but, alas I I fear she is
joined to the Gulf squadron,) present a solid
front and cast a solid vote to secure protection
to that manufacturing industry, which, applied
to the vast resources of those great States,
would so decidedly advance their growth and
material prosperity.
What is needed by Virginia, with her vast
mineral wealth, her genial climate, her rich
soil, her noble rivers, her healthful mountain
slopes, her flourishing manufacturing cities of
Richmond and Wheeling} her borders laved
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to have  lived before your posterity, who  " are
wiser in their day  and  generation than  the
children of light I"
As part of the systematic machinery to secure
the success of this sectional party, we are every
four years treated to the same programme, as a
prelude to the Presidential election: officeholding and slave propaganidism must be perpetuated, or the Union  dissolved.   The same
complaints and threats against the North, because of an imputed, but purely imaginary
desire to interfere with the peculiar institution,
were  started by Mr. Calhoun, seized on by his
followers, and  over and over reiterated.   In
1849, these startling views were  put forth in a
high-sounding manifesto, to which were affixed the signatures of forty Southrons;  among
which, in addition to its author, Mr. Calhoun,
are pre-eminent those of Mr. Thompson of the
present Cabinet,  and  Senators  HUNTER' and
MASON of Virginia, JEFFERSON  DAVIS of Mississippi, FITZPATRICK of Alabama, SEBASTIAN
and JOHNSON of Arkansas, YULEE of Florida,
and IvERSON of Georgia, and the recent Democratic  candidate  for  Speaker,  Mr.  BococK.
Here first appeared the deliberate announcement of that irrepressible conflict, on account
of which such ear-splitting clamor has latterly
been directed against the Senator from New
York,  [Mr.  SEWARD,] who  probably  got his
phrase, if not his idea, from this Southern bulletin, which enunciated it its stronger terms and
more offensive shape than the famed Rochester
speech.   The latter speaks of ideas and principles-the Calhoun manifesto of conflict between
sections, e. g.:
W,  We address you on the most important subject over preseanted to your consideration.  We allude to the conflict between the two great sections of the Unlon, growing out of a
difiference of opinion in reference to the two races-European
and African, &c. The conflict commenced not long after the
ttacknowledgment of our independence, and has gradually increased, until it has arrayed the great body of the North
against the South on this most vital subject.  In the progress
of this conflict, aggression has followed aggression, and encroachment encroachment, until they have reached a point
where a regard for peace and safety will not permit us to
remain lobgor silent."
Now,  what  says  Mr. Benton  about these
imaginary evils and trumped-up charges against
the North? and I cite his opinion here, because it fully answers and confutes the silly
charges of modern Democracy:
"The manifesto contained a long list of grievances, as formidable in number as those which had impelled the separation from Great Britain, but so frivolous and imaginary in
substance, that no one could now repeat them without recourse to the paper. But past or present encroachments
were too light and apocryphal to rouse a nation; something
more stirring was wanted; and for that purpose time and
imagination, the future and invention, were to be placed in
requisition. The abolition of slavery in the States; the
emancipation of the slaves all over the South; the conflict
between the white and black races the whites the slaves
of the blacksuch were the future terrors and horrors to
be visited upon the slave States, if not arrested by an instant
and adequate remedy.'-2 Bentoh's Thirty Years View, 734.
"Now, this certain emancipation of slaves in the States
was a pure and simple invention of Mr. Calhoun, not only
without evidence, but against evidence-  contradicted by
every species of human action, negative and positive,before
and since. Far from attacking slavery in the States, the
free States have co-operated to extend the area of slavery
by the Ohio and the ocean, and her magnificent net-work of railways providing her citizens with ready access to market, and, lastly,
the clustering memories of her once proud
position as first of American  States; what
needs she to enable her to recover and maintain that position, but free labor?  It is well
known, and gratifying, that her manufactures
are developing and extending, and, if we may
judge from the homespun garb in which some
of her Representatives are clad this session, a
new impetus is about to be given to her home
manufactures. True, the suit of one of them
[Governo          r  SMITH]  is a  littl e c oars e   in   texture,
while it is slyly whispered, that if all the material therein m   ad       e in N ew En gl and, or in  old
England,  and  imported through  Northern
po         rts, were withd rawn, it would fall to the
g        round, and strip            it     s wearer of his reliance on
Virginia garments; yet  " w     e       must no t despise
t he d       ay of sm all     th ings."
I much f ear th at this great          industrial interest is         destine d          to b e absorbed by  the negro
question, which, like Aaron's rod, swallows all
m   inor  ones, and which, having completely sectionalized the        D       emo cracy, is rapidly converting
that once powerful party into mere propagandists of slavery.  Already they have succumbed
to the yoke of their Southern rulers, and proved
recrean        t          to the faith of their Democratic fathers.
Already thy  seem to have abandoned all
thought of legislation to better the condition
of the  white man,             and      to   have bent  all     their
efforts and aims to foster and diffuse human
bondage.  -And yet, these self-styled Democrats, who are everlastingly advancing the
black flag under which they are enlisted, and
whose only shibboleth is slavery, have the assurance to designate the friends of white labor
as Black Republicans; and such is the polite
prefix, used not only by the party organs, but
on the floor of this Chamber, and even in the
United States Senate, where dignity should
reign. I beg to remind the Black Democracy
of the old adage, about " the pot calling the
kettle black," and to recommend its self-application.
Yet this party, which has scarce a foothold in
any State north of Mason and Dixon, but whose
whole strength is based on and derived from
slavery and the intensest sectionalism, raise the
cry against the Republicans, and call us sec tional! Wherein do we differ from the Democratic fathers-from Washington, Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe? In no whit as regards
human bondage being an evil, and therefore to
be circumscribed, rather than (as now claimed
by the new lights) a blessing to be diffused and
perpetuated. For, say Senators MASON and
DAVIs:
" It is true, our fathers looked upon slavery as an evil,
and hoped to see it ended, but if they had lived now, with
our' light and experience, they would change their views,
and look upon it as a blessing, which ennobles both the mas ter and the slave."
Mistaken sires! how sad has been your lot~
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in such States; witness the continued extinctions of Indian
title, which have so largely increased the available capacity
of the slave States.  So far from making war upon slave
States, several such States have been added to the Union, as
Texas and Florida, by the co-operation of free States.  Far
from passing any law to emancipate slaves in the States, no
Congress has ever existed that has seen a man who would
make such a motion in the House, or if made, would not be as
unanimously reected by one side of the House as the other; as
if the unanimity would not be the same, whether the whole
North went out and let the South vote alone, or the whole
South went out and let the North alone vote.  Yet this in cendiary cry of abolishing slavery in the States has become
the staple of all subsequent agitators.  Every little agitator
now jumps upon it-jumps into a State the moment a free
Territory is mentioned-and repeats all the alarming stuff
invented by Mr. Calhoun, and as much more as his own in vention can add.  In the mean time, events daily affix the
brand of falsehood on these incendiary inventions.  Slave State Presidents are continually elected by free-State votes;
the price of slaves themselves, instead of sinking, as it would
if there was any real danger, is continually augmenting; and,
in fact, has reached a height, tho double of what it was be fore the alarming story of emancipation had begun. "-2 Benson'$ View, 735.
In addition to the opinions and counsels
herein  contained, something  further was  inti mated;  and  that soon  came in the shape of a
Southern Convention to dissolve the Union, and
a call from the Legislatures of South Carolina
and Mississippi, for another  Convention to put
the machinery of the United States South into
operation.   This Convention met in Nashville.
And soon after, Mississippi passed an act looking to representation in the Southern Congress,
on the ground that the National  Congress  legislated against  slavery and  the  constitutional
rights of the slaveholding States, on which  Mr.
Benton thus comments:
"Waiving the question whether these reasons, if true,
would be sufficient to justify this abrupt attempt to break
up the Union, an issue of fact can well be taken on their
truth.  It was an assertion without evidence, contrary to
the evidence, and contrary to fact. There was no such settled purpose to destroy slavery or subvert slavery in the
States, in the majority of Congress, nor in a minority, nor in
any half dozen members of Congress. It was calculated to
mislead and inflame the ignorant, and make them fly to disunion as the refuge against such an appalling catastrophe.
"But it was not a new declaration.  It was part and parcel of the original agitation of slavery, commenced in 1835,
and continued ever since. To destroy slavery in the States
has been the design attributed to the Northern States from 
that day to this, and is necessary to be kept up in order to
keep alive the slavery agitation in the slave States.  It has
received its constant and authoritative contradiction in the
conduct of those States at home, and in the acts of their Representatives in Congress, year in and year out; and continues to receive that contradiction continually, but without
having the least effect upon its repeti       tion and incessant   reiteration.  In the mean time, there is a fact visible in all the
slave States, which shows that, notwithstanding these twenty
years' repetition of the same assertion, there is no danger to
slavery in any slave State.  Property is timid, and slave
property above all; and the market is the test of safbty and
danger to all property.  Nobody gives full price for anything that is insecure, either in title or possession. All property, in danger from either cause, sinks in price when
brought to that infallible test.  Now, how is it with slave
property, tried by this unerring standard?   Has it been
sinking in price since the year 1835-since the year of the
first alarm manifesto in South Carolina, and the first of Mr.
Calhoun's twenty years' alarm speeches in the Senate?  On
the contrary, the price has been continually rising the whole
time, and is still rising, although it has attained a height incredible to have been predicted twenty years ago.
"But although the slavery alarm does not act on proporty, yet it acts on the feelings and passions of the people,
and excites sectional animosity, hatred for the Union, and
desire for separation.   The Nashville Convention, and the
call for the Southern Congress, were natural occasions to call
out these feelings; and most copiously did they flow."
Now, is not this an exact counterpart to all
'.the  allegations  and clamors, the  threats and
plots of the present day? Yet, after the style
of the old fable, our Southern brethren having
thus disturbed and muddied the pellucid stream
of our nation's history, ten years agone, now
come down to where we are calmly drinking,
and threaten our throats while imbibing that
perturbed water which flowed past them to us.
And since the absurd and peurile farce of
Helper's book is played out, they threaten they
will never submit to the inauguration of a Re publican President. Sir, if this threat had sub stance and being, and the right of the majority
to rule were denied, then have we no longer a
Republic-no longer a Union.
But to demonstrate still further that modern
Democracy is entirely sectional, looking only
South, and sacrificing the rights and interests
of the white man and of free labor to the de mands of the slave power, I ask attention to
the following votes, in the present Congress,
on great questions where the rights and
happiness of freemen were closely involved.
First on the homestead bill, which was to open
up the great West to the freeman, who could
settle on and cultivate a farm, which by reason
thereof should be to him a home forever; the
compensation to Government being, that the
wilderness would be broken up by the plowshare, and caused " to bring forth seed to the
sower and bread to the eater," and thus add
to the material wealth and prosperity of the
country.
On the final passage of this beneficent measure, on March 12, 1860, the vote was:
Yeas.   Nays.
Republicans - 86    none.
Democrats    -           e  -      22    49
South Americans   -    -    -    1    17
Anti-Lecompton Democrats   -    6   none.
115    66
The Republican party voting unanimously
for it, the Democrats more than two to one
against it; one only of their twenty-two yeas
being from a slave State, while, with that and
one other exception, [Mr. ETHERIDGE, of Tennessee,] the whole mouth voted nay; because
they knew it inured to the benefit of free labor
rather than slave, which is contrary to their
settled policy.
Agains, on the same day, an effort was made
to suspend the rules, in order to introduce the
tariff bill, which required a two-thirds vote.
That vote resulted as follows:
Because this modern Democracy voted twen
'k.
5
Yeas.
85
3
6
12
105
Nays.
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I none.
3
69
Republicans.
Democrats
Anti-Lecompton Democrats
South Americans - -
:.1 
J 1 s                  _
I i                    i  
6
purity of the ballot and popular sovereigntythat  charmed  phrase-with  her Wyandotte
Constitution, against the legality of which  no
objection is urged, modern Democracy  voted
more than  two to one to again exclude her,
and  again heap  wrong and insult upon  her..
This, too, just  before a Presidential election,
although they had grown hoarse in charging
that the Republicans  did  not want to admit
Kansas, but wished to keep her bleeding for
partisan purposes.  We  have done our part
towards removing this vexed  question from
politics; and now, if the Democratic majority
in the United States Senate shall strike hands
with us in the passage of this measure, another
root of bitterness will be at once removed.
This being the posture of that once powerful, national,  but  now sectional Democracy,
with  regard to these great questions, so vital
to our well-being as a nation, let us  ask what
are the principles and measures full high  ad vanced on their banners, in dark.and ominous
characters, in addition to free trade and polyg amy in the Territories?  They claim that Con gress has no power to forbid an evil or crime
in the Territories, though they are the lands of
the United States, and Congress  is the only
lawmaking power thereof.  As well deny to
the farmer the right to lay down regulations
for his farm, and to forbid thereon ill-behaved
hands, or a particular breed of cattle.  This
.doctrine of "no power" in Congress to prohibit
slavery was scouted  by the early fathers and
statesmen of all parties'; and it is now well
known that President Monroe took the opinion on this question of all his Cabinet,  in  1820;
and that Cabinet, of which Mr. Calhoun was a
member,  unanimously decided  that  Congress
had the power to exclude slavery.   Not until
1838 did.that gentleman change front, have a
new vision, and lay down the new dogma of no
power, which  was at once caught  up by  his
followers; and now, like the  small-pox, infects
the whole body of Democracy.   On this a new
heresy is now being  engrafted, namely, that
the Constitution, of its own strength, (ex pro prio vigore,) protects slavery in all the Territo ries of the United States; of which startling
doctrine, Mr. Bentua -than whom  there was
no abler, sounder, nor purer  Democrat,  nor
one more learned in the Constitution, history,
theory, and practice of the  Government-thus
speaks:
" A new dogma was invented to fit the case, that of the
transmigration of the Constitution-the slavery part of it  into the Territories, overriding and overruling all the anti  slavery laws which it found there, and planting'the institu  tion there under its own wing, and maintaining it beyond
the  po wer o f  cradication, either by Congress or the people
of the Territory. Before this dogma was proclaimed, efforts
were made to get the Constitution extended to these Terri  tories by act of Congress.  Failing in those attempts, the
difficulty Was leaped over by boldly assuming that the Con  stitution went of itself-that is to say, the slavery part of it.
In this exigency, Mr. Calhoun came out with his new and
supreme dogma of the transmigratory function of the Con  s t it ution in the ipsojeact, and the instantaneous transportl  tion of itself, in its slavery attributes, into all acquired terri
tories.
ty              to one against introducing the tariff, it was
thrown out; while the only vote among Republicalns against it, was that of the worthy
gentleman from New York, [General SpiNNER,]
an old free-trade Democrat, reared in the true
Democratic faith, where they do not look one
way and row the other; and who, being unable
to overcome the prejudices of early training,
(thoug-h sound and true in all other respects,)
stands here the one exception, which always
strengthens the general rule.
Next comes the vote, on the 5th instant, on
the bill to suppress polygamy in the Territories.
And here one would have supposed that even
the Democracy of the present day would have
been glad of the opportunity to leave slavery
out of view, and unite with the Republicans, as
patriots, statesmen, and Christians, in a welldirected effort to suppress bestiality, eradicate
an alarming malignant disease from the body
politic, stamp with condemnation a heinous
crime, and wipe out this foul blot from our national escutcheon. Mark how the hopes and
prayers of all Christendom were redeemed. Oi
the passage of the bill, the vote stood:
Yeas.  Nays.
Republicans  -                     103   none.
Democrats    -    -    -            22 56
South Americans          -    -    18       3
Anti-Lecompton Democrats          - 6       1
~149    60
How could modern Democracy, under the
control of the slavery propaganda, vote to con demn polygamy, which the Republican plat form had denounced side by side with slavery
as the " twin relics of barbarism I " And if, as
some of them said in debate, you condemned
and ostracised one twin, what was to-become of
the other, which must possess the necessary
attribute of twinhood, namely, resemblance?
Well might Parson Brownlow say'he was
curious to see the names of those sixty gentle men of easy virtue who voted no."
Lastly, regard the vote on the admission of
Kansas into the Union, taken on the:ll1th in stant:
Republi      can s           -  - 
.Democrats
South Americans
Anti-Lecompton Democrats
134    73
Here was outraged and bleeding Kansas,
so long the sport and foot-ball of politicians,
Which ha d b een knocking at the door         of th e
Union for four vears, and had been persistently
and contemptuously refused admission into the
family circle of sister States, but thrust away as
an outcast, and taunted as a drab. And now,
wh~en she again presents herself, in the comely
garb of freedom} decked with the ornaments of
Yeas.
. 103
. 22
3
6
-Nays.
none.
56
17
none.
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7:
"History cannot class higher than as a vagary of a dis  propagandists shall, as they hope, have a new
eased imagination, this imputed self-acting and self-extension
of the Constitution. The Constitution does nothing of itself, lease of power?  I so believe, and here prenot even in the States for which it was made. Every part  diet, that such will be found to be its meaning.
of it requires a law to put it into operation. No part of itAndwhy not?  If the new evangel be true,
can reach a Territory, unless imparted to it by act of Congress. Slavery, as a local institution, can only be estab- that slavery is a blessing to both master and
lished by a local legislative authority. It cannot transmi- slave, and that this is the best way to Christiangrate-annot carry along with it the law which protects it; ize Africa    bringing her      children
and if it could, what law would it carry? The code of the
ganaeiitac~nolcarhytlogwoildittchrly~thhehcodetoftieize Africa, by bringing her benighted children
State from which the emigrant went? Then there would be to our missionaries, instead of sending  the
as many slavery codes in the Territory as States furnishing missionaries to them, then the legitimate and
emigrants, and these codes all varying more or less; and some
of them in the essential nature of the property-the slave, I righteous inference must be, that the slave
in many States, being only a chattel interest, governed by  trade should be reopened.  For my single self,
the laws applicable to chattels; in others, as in Louisiana  I  be permitted to say  t cannot underand Kentucky, a real-estate interest, governed by the laws Imay be permitted to say that I cannot underwhich apply to landed property.  In a word, this dogma of stand how this new system can well work until
the self-extension of the slavery part of the Constitution to a I first see some plan for restoring the imported
Territory, is impracticable and prepostereus, and as novel
as unfounded."-2 Benton's Vw, pp. 713,714.        and Christianized Africans to those shores
Yet this miserable dogma is, and must be,                  Where Afric's sunny foluntains
.    >   2              X              Roll~~~~~~~~~~101 down their golden sands"the doctrine of the new Democratic  church; Rldn   the len hs u
and  will  either constitute a plank  in the  which, in view of the present hostility, South, to
Charleston platform-possibly at this moment  the Colonization Society can hardly be hoped.
being fitted in-or, if not, it will be becaue           ith the system of slavery in the slave
the managers do not wish to alarm the North-  States, we have neither the right nor desire
ern wing before the Presidential contest is de-  to interfere.  You of the South have the right
em   ingbefre  he  resdenialconestis e.to manage that among yourselves in your own
cided, in which case they will "palter to us in to manage that among yourselves in your own
a double sense," as in the Cincinnati platform.  way, without interference from abroad.   If
'there existed a calmer and better state of feelTurn your eyes for a moment to that gathering         t her   e existed a calmer and better state offeel                                                11ing between the sections of this Union, which
of the clans at Charleston, and see the scram- o  be haios  ften,   ic
bling and  bids for the nomination, among | ought to be harmonious and fraternal, instead
bling and bids for the nomination,.among'  
of realizing the description,
Democratic aspirants who will not object to    meng the description,
" Lands, intersected by a narrow frith,
have greatness thrust upon them, and to square              Abhor each other; and mountaina
their opinions accordingly.  How the Demo- |Mako enemies of nations,"
cratic Warwicks will set up one and pull down  we would cheerfully counsel with you as to
another, making and marring, until the supple  ameliorating the condition of those having imone shall be found to be moulded at will, like  mortal souls, and advancing them in the scale
clay in the hands of the potter, and finally of being; but in the present state of mistrust
merged  into the platform.   The scene may  we refrain, and merely tender our interest and
well remind us of the description of an old  sympathy in all well-directed efforts in that diraree show, where the conjurer blows his horn,  rection, while we condemn and deprecate every
and shouts in loudest voice: "Walk up, walk  movement which looks to a violent and bloody
up, gentlemen, and see the greatest wonder  solution of the great problem.  Yet, with these
that the world ever wondered  at-the three  convictions and views, we sat here for two
brothers, Hali, Muley, and Hassan.  Hali will months, subjected to studied misrepresentation
take a lighted candle, and jumnp down his and abuse; Southern members, with hollow
brother Muley's throat; Mfuley will, in his turn,  professions of attachment to the Union, making
take another lighted candle, and jump down  bitter speeches, reproachful andcalumnious tohis brother Hassan's throat; while Hiassan,  ward the majority of their countrymen, calcuthough encumbered by the weight of his two  lated to stir up the worst feelings, and create
brothers, Hiali and Muley, will take a third  estrangement leading to that dissolution which
lighted candle, turn a flip.flap, and jump down others more treasonably avowed, and all on
his own throat, leaving the spectators corn- the miserable pretextfthat some gentlemen in
pletely in the dark."   And such, I fear, will this nominally free country  had seen fit to
be the fate of the Democratic spectators of the  recommend a book.  Surely the familiar lines
Charleston Convention.  They will be in the  should henceforth read: Oh that mine enemy
dark until they get the cue, and their candidate  had recommended a book.   This, however, has
and platform will be alike-the very thing; and become  part of the usual Presidential prolight will begin to dawn.                         gramme; and frequentrepetition has detracted
Another doctrine dear to many of that party,  from its novelty and interest.
though few are bold enough to avow it openly,    But while we say, " hands off I" as regards
like the gentleman from Mississippi, [Governor the local regulation of your own institutions,
McRAE,] is that of reopening the African slave we should feel recreant to humanity, to civilitrade, with all its crimes, cruelties, and horrors. zation, to the enlightened spirit of the age, if
True, many of those interrogated here have we did not condemn and contest these new
said they are not in favor of opening it now; dogmas of the Calhoun or modern Democracy;
but I have failed to hear them clearly define if we did not seek to retain and secure to freethat little word "now," in this connection. dom and free labor that vast expanse of terriDoes it mean until after next election, and the tory which now attracts the husbandman and
'..-"ee
11
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"I,. I I
7
/ 11, 
9
the  vine-dresser.   The mission of the Repub- 1
lican party is to secure for this immense  area 
the multiplied blessings of freedom, always anticipated  and  desired  by the early fathers  of
the Republic, and advocated in glowing terms,
in these latter days, by Webster, Benton, and
Clay; the last of whom said, but ten years
ago:
" Coming, as I do, from a slave State,it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-rratured determination, that no power-no
earthly power-shall compel me to vote for the positive introduction of that line (that is, Missouri line, -6~ 30') into
new territory.
" Sir, while you reproach, and justly, too, our British ancestors for the introduction of this institution upon the continent of America, I am, for one, unwilling that the posterity of the present inhabitants of Califoraia and New Mexico
shall reproach us for doing just what we reproached Great
Britain ibr doing to us."
These are words fitly spoken, and should
have weight with all.  I trust that Republicans
will not long be subject to the  reproach  con
veyed in the remark made by a celebrated
Englishman, Mr. Cobden, who recently visited.
our shores, and listened to the debates in our
Halls of Congress, to this effect:
" That the Republicans advocated the most noble and admirable sentiments timidly, while modern Democracy put
forward the most shameful and revolting dogmas with perverted intellect and front of brass." 
If free thought and free speech shall be suppressed in the national Capitol, and the mighty
West, instead of being the abode of freemen,
and echoing the blows and songs of free labor,
shall be covered with the dark pall of human
bondage, then indeed will tie sun of our civilization have gone back on the dial.  Then, in
the words of the gifted Wirt:
" Our sun shall have gone down in infamy and crime in
the face of the world, and instead of being proud of our
country, as heretofore, we may well call  on the rocks and
mountains to fall upon us, and hide our shame from the face
of earth and heaven."
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.
REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.
HON. PRESTON KING, N.Y., Chairman.          HON. JOHN COVODE, PENN., Trearer.
"   J. W. GRIMES, IOWA.                I    "   E. G. SPAULDING, N.Y.
"   L. F. S. FOSTER, CONN.                  "   J. B. ALLEY, MASS.
On the part of the Senate.    "   DAVID KILGORE, INDIANA.
J. L. N. STRATTON, N.J.
E. B. WASHBURNE, ILLINOIS.        |On the part of the House of Res.
During the Presidential Campaign, Speeches and Documents will be supplied at the following reduced prices:
Eight pages, per hundred.....
Sixteen  "       ".....
Twenty-four      ".....
Address either of the above Committee.
GEORGE HARRINGTON, Sc6retary.
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