UC-NRLF 
 
. 
 
W. M . Titus 
 

THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD 
 
 WITH 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 GEORGE E. BAKEU 
 
 II .V 
 
 goto Oration 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS, BEOUGHT DOWN TO DATE 
 
 REDFIELD 
 
 34 B E E K M A N STREET 
 1860 
 
E415 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 
 
 BIT J. S. REDFIELD, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY C. C. 8AVA ;, 
 13 Chamber* Street, N. T. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES of men eminent for useful services to mankind require no 
 apology. The world would hare been far richer in noble influences, if it had 
 been oftener made familiar with the history of living great men ; for of 
 living eminence, it has been said, we cannot know too minutely or too much. 
 The story of every man who has accomplished a worthy work in himself, goes 
 to inspire other men, and to ennoble our common manhood. 
 
 The Memoir which follows, though written with heartfelt admiration of the 
 subject, has constantly aimed to avoid indiscriminate eulogy, and to present 
 a simple but complete record of Mr. Seward s life. 
 
 His Life is the Political History of the Country. Both, at the present 
 time, especially claim the attention and study of the American People. 
 
 A considerable portion of the volume has been appropriated to selections 
 from Mr. Seward s speeches and writings. Among these SELECTIONS will 
 be found extracts from his Addresses and Orations, his Executive Mes 
 sages, his Forensic Arguments, and his Speeches in the United States 
 Senate. These extracts, for greater convenience, have been arranged under 
 the following heads: INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, EDUCATION, FREEDOM, COM 
 MERGE, MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Room has been made, also, for Mr. Seward s Oration at Columbus, on 
 the "Destiny of America," for his two Speeches in the Senate on the 
 " Nebraska Question," and for his last great Speech on the " Admission of 
 Kansas," or " The State of the Country," entire. They were deemed too 
 important to be omitted or abridged. A number of extracts, of especial 
 interest, and of considerable length, it will be observed, have been included 
 
 M176661 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 in the Memoir ; among Which are several Arguments at the bar, on Inven 
 tion, on the Fugitive-Slave Law, in defence of William Freeman, and of 
 Abel F. Fitch and others ; the Speech at Cleveland, on the relative position 
 of parties on the Slavery question ; the vindication of John Quincy Adams ; 
 the Eulogium on James Tallmadge ; and the " Irrepressible Conflict." 
 
 Among the selections, also, the following may be particularly referred to 
 as especially interesting, and therefore quoted at more than usual length : 
 Address at Springfield, Mass., on the completion of the Western Railroad ; 
 Annual Messages relating to the Education of the Children of Exiles ; 
 Address at Yale College, on the American People, their Moral, Intellectual, 
 and Physical Development ; Argument in the Freeman Case, on Insanity ; 
 and Address before the American Institute, on the True Basis of American 
 Independence. 
 
 Recent events have given great interest and significance to many of Mr. 
 Seward s Speeches. The prophetic warnings which abound in his Speeches 
 on the Compromise Acts of 1850, appear now like sober history. Whoever 
 will compare his Speeches on the Abrogation of the Missouri Compromise in 
 1853, and on the Admission of Kansas in 1857- 60, with those of 1850, and 
 also with his earliest productions, can hardly fail to award him the praise 
 of consistency with himself, whatever judgment may be passed upon the 
 principles he has so faithfully defended. And, while all may not be ready 
 to allow that no errors have occurred in his public life, few w[ll contend that 
 any motive inconsistent with the highest regard for the interests of Human 
 Nature, or the honor^of his country, has ever influenced him. It may be, as 
 Mr. Seward himself has remarked, that in seeking to perfect the diffusion 
 of knowledge in desiring to raise from degradation less favored classes, 
 depressed by unequal laws or in aiming to carry into remote or sequestered 
 
 jgions the physical and commercial advantages enjoyed by more favored 
 districts, he has urged too earnestly what seemed to him to be the claims of 
 ^humanity, justice, and equity. But, while the verdict is not to be locked 
 -for in the passing hour, it is very manifest that a generous appreciation has 
 hitherto met all his efforts, from a large and steadily-increasing portion of 
 his fellow-citizens. To such we trust this volume will not be unwelcome. 
 
 , 1860. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE MEMOIR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SEWARD FAMILY. John Seward. Revolutionary Anecdote. 
 Samuel S. Seward. The S. S. Seward Institute. The Mother of 
 William H. Seward. Irish Lineage. Ireland and Irishmen. . .PAGE 18 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. Birthplace. Boyhood. School-Days. 
 His Father s Slave. Orange County. Goshen. Warwick. Flor 
 ida. Settlement. Scenery. George, James, and De Witt Clinton. 
 
 Anecdotes. Farmer s Hall Academy. Aaron Burr. Noah Web 
 ster. Young Seward enters Union College at Fifteen 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His College Life. Characteristics. Favorite Studies. Visits the South. 
 
 Becomes a Teacher. Slavery. Anecdotes. The Slave and the 
 Blind Horse. The Slave Mother. Return to College. The Adel- 
 phic, Philomathean, and Delphian Societies. Exciting Contests. 
 Triumph of Seward. Orator of the Adelphic Society. Graduates. 
 William Kent. Dr. Hickok. Professor Lewis. Seward appoint 
 ed to address Daniel D. Tompkins. His Relations with Dr. Nott 
 and his College Companions 20 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Enters the Law-Office of John Anthon as a Student, Completes his 
 Studies with John Duer and Ogden Hoffman. Admitted to the 
 Bar. Removes to Auburn. Associated with Judge Miller. Mar 
 riage. Children. Auburn, its Characteristics. Mr. Seward s Re 
 ligious Principles. His Early Devotion to Public Improvement. 
 Character as a Lawyer. John C. Spencer. Joshua A. Spencer. 
 Albert H. Tracy. John M. Hulbert. William M. Brown. Mr. 
 Seward s Success at the Bar 25 
 
O CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 His Political Predilections. His Father an ardent Democrat. The 
 Leaders of the Democratic Party unfaithful to Freedom. Mr. Sew- 
 ard takes Ground against Slavery. His Views and Course. His 
 Views of the Albany Regency in 1824. Delivers an Oral ion July 4, 
 1825. His Position then on Important Questions. Oration for 
 Greece. Eulogy on David Berdan. Young Men s Convention. 
 Mr. Seward presides. Favorable Impressions excited. John Q. 
 Adams and General Jackson. Anti-Masonic Excitement. Mr. Sew 
 ard nominated for Congress in 1828. Declines. Supports the Na 
 tional Republican Party. Nominated for the State Senate. Elected 29 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Seward enters the Senate of New York. Circumstances. His 
 Position and Course. His Maiden Speech. Militia Reforms. In 
 ternal Improvements. Imprisonment for Debt. Universal Educa 
 tion. Elections by the People. The United States Bank. Prison 
 for Females. Erie Railroad. Origin of the Whig Party. Banking. 
 
 Prison Reform. Corporations 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Presidential Election, 1832. Clay and Wirt. Mr. Seward s Course. 
 Visits Europe. Letters from Europe. Returns and resumes his 
 Seat in the Senate. Speech on the Removal of the Deposites. Gov 
 ernor Marcy s Loan Law. The Court of Errors. Mr. Seward as a 
 Judge. His Eulogium on Lafayette 40 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Nominated for Governor, 1834. Defeated. His large Vote. Deliv 
 ers an Address on Education and Internal Improvements at Auburn. 
 
 Appointed Agentof the Holland Land Company. Delivers a Dis 
 course on Education at Westfield, Chautauque County, July, 1837. 
 Triumph of the Whigs. New York and Erie Railroad. Mr. 
 Seward s Efforts in its Behalf. Second Nomination for Governor, 
 1838. Circumstances of the Canvass. Elected Governor. Com 
 plete Success of the Whigs, and Overthrow of the Regency 4ft 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Seward the First Whig Governor of New York. Peculiar Circum 
 stances. Mr. Seward s Course and Measures. His Devotion to Im 
 provements and Reforms. Agriculture. Education. The School 
 Controversy. Immigrant?. Law Reform. Decentralization of the 
 Regency Power. Reforms in the Banking System. Small-Bill Law. 
 
 Geological Survey. Notes on New York. Abolition of Impris 
 onment for Debt 52 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Governor Seward s Course in the Anti-Rent Difficulties. Vindication 
 by the Court of Appeals. Militia Reforms. Election Laws. Veto 
 of the Registry Act suppressed. Disturbances in Canada. The 
 M Leod Case. General Harrison. -Mr. Webster. Mr. Crittenden. 
 Mr. Fox. Mr. Van Buren. Willis Hall. John Tyler. Mr. 
 Seward s Firmness and Wisdom illustrated 60 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Governor Seward and the Canals. The Enlargement Question. Re 
 port of S. B. Ruggles. Mr. Flagg s Policy. The State Debt. 
 Financial Crisis. Erroneous Estimates by the Canal Commissioners 
 discovered. A General Panic. Suspension of the Public Works. 
 Governor Seward s Course. Resumption of the Public Works. His 
 Policy vindicated and re-established in 1854. Railroads: New 
 York and Erie; Hudson River; Pacific. Governor Seward s Plans 
 on the Eve of Completion 68 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Governor Seward s Exercise of the Pardoning Power. Pardon Cases. 
 The Insane Murderer. Female Convicts. Juvenile Delinquents. 
 
 Benjamin Rathbun. John C. Colt. Catherine Wilkin*. The 
 Slaveholder. James Watson Webb and Thomas F. Marshall. The 
 Veto Power. Cases. Madame D Hauteville. Thurlow Weed. 
 The Registry Act. Suspension of Public Works. Refusal of the 
 Legislature to receive Governor Seward s Messages 76 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Governor Seward s Course on Questions relating to Slavery. Repeal 
 of the Nine-Months Law. The Lemmon Case. Jury Trial for Fugi 
 tive Slaves, State Officers prohibited from assisting in Arrest of 
 Fugitive Slaves. Recovery of Kidnapped Negroes. Solomon Nor 
 throp. African Suffrage. The Virginia Controversy. Extraordin- 
 arv Proceedings. Imprisonment of Colored Men in Slave States. 
 Governor Seward s Course. Resolves to decline a Re-Election. 
 General Harrison s Election in 1840. Mr. Clay s Nomination in 1844. 
 
 Governor Sewai-d s View. Annexation of Texas. Increase of 
 Anti-Slavery Votes. Defeat of the Whigs. Luther Bradish. Gov 
 ernor Bouck. Close of Governor Seward s Second Term 82 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Mr. Seward in Private Life. Receives John Quincy Adams at Auburn. 
 
 Their Intimate Relations. Death of John Quincy Adams. Mr. 
 Seward s Eulogy. Address at Union College in 1843. Repeated 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 at Amherst Mr. Seward as an Advocate. Practice at the Bar. 
 United States Courts. Patent Causes. Invention. Extract from 
 Argument. Criminal Cases. Liberty of the Press. Cooper vs. 
 Greeley. Capital Trial at Cooperstown. Fugitive Slave Trial 
 Extract from Argument Eulogy on O Connell. Extract 90 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The "Wyatt and Freeman Cases. Massacre of the Van Nest Family. 
 Extraordinary Excitement Conviction of Wyatt Trial of Free 
 man. Unprecedented Proceedings. John Van Buren. Mr. Sew- 
 ard s Defence of Wyatt and Freeman. Scenes in Court. Popular 
 Feeling. Denunciations of the Press. The Verdict. Extract from 
 Mr. Seward s Argument Sentence of Freeman. Strange Scene. 
 Mr. Seward s Bill of Exceptions. New Trial granted. Death of 
 Freeman. Change in Public Opinion. Review of the Case 99 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Trial of Abel F. Fitch and Others for Conspiracy at Detroit in 1851. 
 
 Fifty Pel-sons indicted. Michigan Central Railroad Company. 
 Mr. Seward s Defence. Extract from his Argument Character of 
 Mr. Seward s Professional Labors. Liberty of the Press. Fugitive 
 Slave Law. Rights of Inventors. His Views of Libel-Suits 115 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Mr. Seward recalled to Public Life. Retrospect. Organization of the 
 Native American Party. Burning of Catholic Churches. Mr. Sew 
 ard s Course. Henry Clay. Annexation of Texas. War with Mex 
 ico. The Oregon Question. Hunkers and Barnburners. Constitu 
 tional Convention, 1846. Mr. Seward s Views. Internal Improve 
 ments. Right of Suffrage. Decentralization. Presidential Election, 
 1848. General Taylor. The Canvass. Mr. Seward s Speeches. 
 His Speech at Cleveland. Extract The Whig Platform in 1848. 
 Freedom and Slavery. Speeches in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
 and New York. General Taylor, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Webster. Mr. 
 Seward s Estimate of the Presidency 120 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 President Taylor. Mr. Seward elected Senator. Visits Washington. 
 
 Effort for Freedom. His Relations with General Taylor. Cali 
 fornia. New Mexico. The Higher Law. The Compromise. 
 Freedom in District of Columbia. French Spoliations. The Public 
 Lands. Kossuth. Smith O Brien. Thomas F. Meagher. Freedom 
 in Europe. American Steam Navigation. Survey of the Arctic and 
 Pacific Ocean. American Fisheries. Visit to Vermont Agricul 
 tural Address. Extract Visit to Canada. Montreal. Quebec.. . 131 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Presidential Election of 1852. Review of the Slavery Contest of 
 1850. Mr. Seward s Opposition. Mr. Clay. Mr. Webster. Gen 
 eral Cass. General Taylor s Position. Mr. Seward supports it. 
 Denounced as an Agitator. Utah and New Mexico. The Fugitive 
 Slave Bill. The Compromisers. Death of President Taylor. Mr. 
 Fillmore. His Course and "Coalition with the Democrats. Mr. Sew- 
 ard s Opposition. The Baltimore Conventions of 1852, Democratic 
 and Whig. Franklin Pierce. General Scott Millard Fillmore. 
 Daniel Webster. Platform for Slavery. Position of Mr. Seward s 
 Friends. Mr. Webster s Course. His Death. Triumph of the 
 Democrats. Election of Franklin Pierc. Overthrow of the Whigs. 
 
 Defeat of General Scott. Effect upon Mr. Seward 141 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 XXXTId Congress, Second Session 1852- 53. Mr. Seward s Speeches. 
 
 John Q.uincy Adams and General Cass. Vindication of Mr. Adams. 
 John C. Calhoun. The Monroe Doctrine. Annexation of Cuba. 
 
 Mr. Seward s Views. Mexico and the Continental Railroad. 
 Suspension of Duty on Railroad Iron. Extract from Mr. Seward s 
 Speech on Railroads. Texas and her Creditors. Oration at Colum 
 bus. The Destiny of America. Address before the American Insti 
 tute. The True Basis of American Independence. Eulogium on 
 James Tallmadge 150 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 XXXIIId Congress. Nebraska. Inauguration of President Pierce. 
 High Expectations of Beneficent Legislation. Revision of the Tariff. 
 The Homestead. Pacific Railroad. Disappointment. Introduc 
 tion of the Nebraska Bill by Mr. Douglas. Veto of the Bill for Re 
 lief of the Insane. The Nebraska Biil. Fruit of the Compromise 
 Measures of 1850. Senators Everett, Chase, Sumner, Truman Smith, 
 Wade, Bell, Houston, and Fessenden. Mr, Seward s Letter to the 
 New York Merchants. His Position. His First Speech. Second 
 Speech. Passage of the Bill. Effect of Mr. Seward s Speeches on 
 the Country. His Speech on the Reception of a Remonstrance from 
 3050 Clergymen. The Right of Petition vindicated. The Gadsden 
 Treaty. Tlie Reciprocity Treaty. Review of Mr. Seward s Course 
 in the Senate. Eulogium on Henry Clay. Eulogium on Daniel 
 Webster. Debates in the Senate. Address before the Phi Beta 
 Kappa Society of Yale College. Honorary Degree of Doctor of 
 Laws conferred upon Mr. Seward. His Relations to the Whig Party 
 
 and tc Mr. Fillmore s Administration. Conclusion 161 
 
 1* 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 Second Session XXXIIId Congress 1854- 55. Mr. Seward s re-election 
 to the Senate. Speeches at Albany and Buffalo. Oration at Plymouth, 
 Dec. 22, 1855 170 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 The XXXlVth Congress 1855- 56. Kansas Affhirs. The Suraner As 
 sault. Army Bill. Speeches at Detroit, Oswego, and Auburn. 
 Election of President. The Dred Scott Decision. Re-organization of 
 Supreme Court 174 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The XXXVth Congress 1857-58- Great Number and Variety of 
 Speeches. The Lecomptou Controversy. Army for Utah. Mr. Se 
 ward s Course. British Aggressions. Oregon and Minnesota. Albany 
 Bridge. Speeches at Rochester and Rome. The Irrepressible Con 
 flict. . . 178 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Second Session of XXXVth Congress, 1858-59. The Homestead Bill. 
 Mr. Seward and Mr. Wade. Indiana Senators. Mr. Seward s 
 Speech. The Thirty Million Bill. Cuba. Tfce Pacific Rail Road 184 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 European Tour. Mr. Seward s Departure and Return. Demonstrations 
 and Speeches. His reception at Auburn. The XXXVIth Congress 
 1859- 60 Mr. Seward s Return from Europe, and Appearance in the 
 Senate. The Great Excitement. His Great Speech on the Admission 
 of Kansas, and the State of the Country. Conclusion 186 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE SELECTIONS. 
 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Internal Improvement the Policy of the Founders of the Republic. 
 Extracts from Annual Messages. Internal Improvement Wise and 
 Beneficent. Internal Improvement the Real Source of the Prosperity 
 of New York, and the only Sure Bond of Union of the States. The 
 Suspension of the Public Works of New York condemned and their 
 Resumption recommended. Extract from Annual Message, 1842. 
 New York and Masachussetts. Address at the Celebration of the 
 Completion of the "Western Rail Road, between Boston and Albany, at 
 Springfield, 1842 192 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The Proper Range of Popular Education. Address at Westfield, r*. Y., 
 1833. Popular Education a Leveller. Address at Sunday -School 
 Celebration, 1839. Female Education. Improvement of Popular 
 Education must begin not with the Government, but with the Peo 
 ple. Education preferable to Conquest. Speeches in the Senate. 
 The Bible the Basis of Republican Institutions. Annual Messages 
 to the Legislature. The System of Public Schools defective. 
 Amendment proposed. "Education of the Children of Exiles. New 
 York Public School Society 200 
 
 FREEDOM. 
 
 John Quincy Adams. Eulogy before the Court of Chancery. Mutual 
 Rights and Duties of Nations. Speeches in the Senate. The Right 
 of Petition. Remonstrance of 3050 Clergymen of New England 
 against the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Political Equality. 
 Religious Intolerance. Intolerance. Louis Kossuth. The Trib 
 unal of Public Opinion. The Shade of Franklin. Congressional 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 Compromises. The Recaption of Fugitive Slaves in the Free States. 
 
 Speeches in the Senate on the Compromises of 1850. The Fugi 
 tive Slave Law of 1793 Unconstitutional and Void. Argument in 
 the United States Supreme Courts. Extradition of Fugitives. 
 Emancipation in the District of Columbia. Admission of New Slave 
 States. Uses of the National Domain. The Higher Law. Slavery 
 in the New Territories. Apprehensions of Disunion Groundless. 
 Slavery. The Slavery Question can never be settled by Compro 
 mises. Moderation 219 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 Public Faith. Speeches in the Senate. French Spoliations. Ameri 
 can Enterprise. American Steam Navigation. Collins Steamers. 
 The Whale Fisheries. Commerce on the Pacific. A Continental 
 Railroad to the Pacific 276 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The American People. Their Moral and Intellectual Development. 
 Address at Yale College, July, 1854. Insanity. Argument in De 
 fence of William Freeman, Auburn, July, 1846. Insanity. Some 
 of its Causes and Circumstances. The Wrongs of the Negro. The 
 Indians. Speech of an Onondaga Chief. Governor Seward s Reply. 
 
 Letter. Reply to the Colored Citizens of Albany, January, 1843. 
 
 Speech in the Senate of New York, February, 1831. The Militia 
 System. Reforms proposed. Speech in the Senate of the United 
 States, 1852. The Public Domain. The Homestead Principle. 
 The Whig Party. The Albany Regency in 1824. Secret Political 
 Societies. Relief of the Indigent Insane. The Union and the States. 
 Speech on the President s Veto. The True Basis of American In 
 dependence. Address before the American Institute. Peace 291 
 
 ORATIONS AND SPEECHES. 
 
 The Destiny of America. An Oration delivered at the Dedication of 
 Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, September 14, 1853. Nebraska 
 and Kansas. Freedom and Public Faith. The Abrogation of the 
 Missouri Compromise. Speeches in the Senate of the United States. 
 Speech on the Admission of Kansas, Feb. 29, 1860 325 
 
 SEE INDEX. . . , . 429 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SEWARD FAMILY. 
 
 THE ancestors of WILLIAM HEXRY SEWARD were of 
 Welsh extraction. The first of that name in America em 
 igrated from Wales during the reign of Queen Ann, and set 
 tled in Connecticut. A branch of the family, from which Mr. 
 Seward is descended, removed to Morris county, N. J., 
 about the year 1740. This branch again divided, one por 
 tion of which removed to Virginia, where it is still found 
 in considerable numbers, as well as in Georgia and Ken 
 tucky. His paternal grandfather, John Seward, resided in 
 Sussex county, in that state, where he sustained a high rep 
 utation for enterprise, integrity, and ability. On the break 
 ing out of the Revolution, he became a prominent leader of 
 the whig party, and on more than one occasion during the 
 long struggle, was engaged in active service. His dwel 
 ling is defined on all the maps of the American col 
 onies of that period. Being a zealous partisan he be 
 came the object of especial jealousy on the part of the loy 
 alists. The following anecdote is among the traditions of 
 the family. While General Washington s headquarters 
 wereatMorristown, Colonel Seward s residence was on the 
 lines. Various plots were resorted to by the torics to cir- 
 
14 * TTrR-SEWAllD FAMILY. 
 
 cumvent and capture him. One day a man of rather sus 
 picious appearance, on a horse without saddle or bridle, 
 approached the house and upon being hailed by Colonel 
 Seward replied that he brought a message from General 
 Washington requiring Colonel Seward to hasten to head 
 quarters. He was asked if he had a written order. His 
 reply was in the negative. Colonel Seward then charged 
 him with being a tory, whereupon he applied his whip to 
 his horse and rode off at full speed. Colonel Seward seized 
 his rifle and with unerring aim brought him to the ground. 
 He lived long enough to confess that he was sent by a party 
 of loyalists to decoy the colonel from his house that he 
 might be waylaid and his, house destroyed. He died in 
 1799, leaving a family of ten children. His son, Samuel 
 S. Seward, received an academic and professional educa 
 tion, instead of a share in the paternal inheritance. Hav 
 ing completed his studies, he established himself in the 
 practice of medicine in his native place, and soon after be 
 came connected in marriage with Mary Jennings, the 
 daughter of Isaac Jennings, of Goshen, New York. 
 
 Removing to Florida, a village in the town of Warwick, 
 in Orange county, N. Y., in the year 1795, he combined a 
 large mercantile business with an extensive range of pro 
 fessional practice, both of which he carried on successfully 
 for the space of twenty years. He retired from active 
 business in 1815, and devoted himself to the cultivation of 
 the estate, of which, by constant industry and economy, he 
 had become the owner. Dr. Seward was a man of more 
 than common intellect, of excellent business talents, and of 
 strict probity. After his withdrawal from business, he was 
 in the habit of lending money to a considerable extent 
 among the farmers in his neighborhood ; and it is said that 
 no man was ever excused from paying the lawful interest 
 on his loans that no man was permitted to pay him more 
 than that interest and that no man who paid his interest 
 punctually wns ever required to pay any part of the priri 
 
THE SEWARD FAMILY. 15 
 
 cipal. He was a zealous advocate of republican principles, 
 and exerted a leading influence in the affairs of the party. 
 In 1804, he was elected to the legislature, and during the 
 continuance of the republicans in power, he was never with 
 out one or more offices of public trust. Although not a 
 member of the legal profession, he was appointed first 
 judge of Orange county, in 1815, which office he held for 
 seventeen years. His exercise of the judicial functions was 
 marked by discretion, impartiality, and promptness, and 
 he is remembered to this day as one of the best judges the 
 county ever had. After a visit to Europe, he lived in the 
 enjoyment of universal respect until 1849, when he died 
 in a ripe old age. Dr. Seward was the friend of religion, 
 education, and public improvement. He founded the 
 " S. S. Seward Institute," jit Florida, an excellent high 
 school for young persons of both sexes. He endowed this 
 seminary with a permanent fund of $20,000, and continued 
 its steadfast friend until the close of his life. 
 
 The wife of Dr. Seward was Mary Jennings, whose fam 
 ily had emigrated from Ireland at an early day. She was 
 a woman of a clear and vigorous understanding, with sin 
 gular cheerfulness of temper, and while devoted with un 
 tiring industry to the interests of her family, was a model 
 of hospitality, charity, and self-forgetfulness. She died in 
 1843. 
 
 The subject of this memoir never forgot that he had Irish 
 blood in his veins. This fact serves to explain, in part, 
 the strong attachment he has always cherished for the Irish 
 population of our country. While travelling through Ire 
 land in 1833, his indignation was greatly aroused by the 
 sight of the oppressions inflicted on the people by the Brit 
 ish government. He ascribed a large share of the miseries 
 of that unhappy country to its political mismanagement, 
 and especially to the annihilation of its parliament, by the 
 act of union. In writing home from Ireland, he expresses 
 himself in the following terms : 
 
16 IRISH LINEAGE. 
 
 "But all this glory has departed. The very shadow (and for a long time 
 the Irish parliament was but the shadow) of independence has vanished ; 
 Ireland has surrendered the individuality of her national existence, to share, 
 like a younger sister, that of England. The walls of the parliament-house 
 remain in all their primitive grandeur, to reproach the degeneracy of her 
 statesmen. While traversing its apartments, I reverted to the debate when 
 the degenerate representatives surrendered their parliament; and I thought 
 that had I occupied a place there, I would have seen English armies wade 
 in blood over my country, before I would have assented to so disgraceful a 
 union. Something might have been spared, after the deed was consum 
 mated, to the wounded pride of the Irish people. The parliament-house 
 ought to have been closed, and left in gloomy solitude, a monument to re 
 mind the people that they once had a country. But this was too great a 
 concession for the economy of the English administration of affairs in Ireland. 
 They who build palaces and monuments with a profuse hand, on the other 
 side of the channel, sold the Irish Capitol, and it was forthwith converted 
 into a hall for money-changers. I confess that overleaping all the obsta 
 cles which are deemed by many well-wishers of Ireland insurmountable, I 
 wish the repeal of the union. I will not believe that if relieved of that op 
 pressive act, she does not possess the ability to govern herself." 
 
 In a private letter written by Mr. Seward in 1840, to a 
 gentleman who had taken strong exceptions to his senti 
 ments in relation to Irishmen, the following passage occurs, 
 in regard to the Irish lineage of his mother. After defend 
 ing the character of the Irish from some severe charges 
 made by his correspondent, and alluding to their many 
 virtues, he says : 
 
 "If this confession of faith seems strange to you, permit me to explain 
 that I could not believe otherwise, without doing dishonor to a mother em 
 inent for many virtues, and to the memories of humble ancestors, whose 
 names will not be saved from obscurity by the record of any extraordinary 
 
BIRTHPLACE. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 
 
 WILLIAM HEXRY SEWARD was born in Floriue,., Orange 
 Co., N. Y., May 16, 1801. The house in which hij parents 
 then resided is still standing ; but the village-church and 
 schoolhouse, where his youthful feet were wont to tread, have 
 given place to more modern structures. A venerable for 
 est-tree on the ancient homestead still overshadows a clear, 
 babbling spring of water, which William was in the habit 
 of frequenting in his school-boy days, with his books, for 
 the purpose of reading and study in its cool and pleasant 
 retirement. His boyhood is well remembered by the aged 
 inhabitants of his native village. They love to recall their 
 predictions of the future eminence of the studious lad, whose 
 diligence and zeal had already attracted their attention. 
 The colored servant, then a slave of his father s, who led 
 him in infancy, and shared his juvenile sports, still lives to 
 rejoice in the bounty of her young companion, who has given 
 a comfortable home for her old age, in memory of their 
 early attachment. 
 
 The subject of our narrative entered upon life amid ex 
 ternal circumstances adapted to cherish and develop the 
 higher elements of his nature. Orange county contains 
 within its borders West Point, Fort Putnam, Fort Mont 
 gomery, Minisink, Newburgh, Washington s headquarters, 
 and other places famous in the annals of the Revolu 
 tion. It has also been the birthplace or residence of many 
 distinguished men, among whom may be named George 
 Clinton, James Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Cadwallader C. 
 
18 SCHOOL DAYS. 
 
 Golden, General Belknap, James Burt, Robert Armstrong, 
 John Duer, Ogden Hoffman, Samuel B. Betts, Samuel J. 
 Wilkin, and others. The town of Warwick originally with 
 several other towns composed a part of the town of Goshen, 
 having been set off from that town in 1788. It was settled 
 directly or indirectly as early as 1703. A part of the town 
 was called Florida or Floriday as early as 1738. The 
 origin of this name is not clearly known, but it was proba 
 bly derived from the Latin word Floridus signifying cov 
 ered or red with flowers. The local scenery of Florida is 
 scarcely surpassed in the country for beauty and magnifi 
 cence. On each side, mountains of impressive grandeur 
 rear their blue summits into the skies, while the broad and 
 fertile valleys, watered by numerous rivulets and miniature 
 lakes, enriched by genial and appropriate culture, and smi 
 ling in joyous abundance, complete the majestic and lovely 
 panorama. The people of Florida, unlike the inhabitants 
 of most other towns in that part of the state, were origi 
 nally emigrants from New England. They were accord 
 ingly imbued witli much of the stern and lofty spirit of the 
 Puritans, while their descendants still retained many of 
 their habits and feelings. Brought up amidst such sublime 
 and ennobling scenes of nature inheriting from a worthy 
 ancestry the purest sentiments of honor and patriotism 
 imbibing, with his mother s milk, the love of truth, freedom, 
 and equality the mind of young Seward early received a 
 powerful impulse toward the career of beneficent greatness, 
 which has amply fulfilled the prophetic anticipations of his 
 youthful associates and admirers. 
 
 One of the first acts remembered by the friends of young 
 William Henry, was in no small degree significant of his 
 juvenile tendencies. He ran away to school most truants 
 run in the opposite direction. His taste for books was dis 
 played at an early age. They were his favorite compan 
 ions, and he was seldom seen without a volume in his hands. 
 His thirst for knowledge, once nearly cost him his life. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OP HIS BOYHOOD. 19 
 
 When about twelve years of age, returning near nightfall 
 from a pasture on his father s farm, driving home the cows, 
 he read a book as he walked, giving an occasional look to 
 his charge, that was travelling quietly before him. A party 
 of boys espied the abstracted herdsman, and disturbed his 
 studious reveries with a volley of small stones. Resolved 
 not to be disturbed in his reading by the missiles of his 
 thoughtless companions, he turned his back toward them, 
 and walked backward with his eye intently fixed upon his 
 book. In a short time, he insensibly diverged from the 
 path, and missing the bridge over a small creek, was thrown 
 into the water. An elder brother, who had witnessed the 
 accident, drew him from the stream in a state of uncon 
 sciousness, and he was fortunately restored without serious 
 injury. 
 
 His precocious intellect, and his docile, cheerful disposi 
 tion, led his parents to decide on giving him a superior ed 
 ucation to that received by the other members of the family. 
 The common school system had not yet been established 
 in the state of New York, and he attended several different 
 schools in the vicinity of his father s residence, until the 
 age of nine years. At this period, he was sent to Farmers 
 Hall Academy, at Goshen, which then boasted of having 
 had the celebrated Aaron Burr and Noah Webster among 
 its pupils. The records of the " Classical Society" of 
 Goshen, and of the " Goshen Club," still exist, showing 
 young Seward to have been an active member of each 
 the constitutions and minutes of proceedings being mostly 
 in his handwriting. Among the principal exercises of these 
 two societies, were declamation, debates, and composi 
 tions. In nearly all the debates which are noticed, Seward 
 has a part, and then as now he was generally found on the 
 right side. He pursued his studies at this seminary, and 
 at an academy afterward established in Florida, until the 
 year 1816. He was now but fifteen years of age, when he 
 was presented for admission to Union College, Schenec- 
 
20 COLLEGE LIFE. 
 
 tady. The thin, pale, sandy-visaged boy was found quali 
 fied for the junior class, but on account of his extreme 
 youth was persuaded to enter the sophomore. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS COLLEGE LIFE VISIT TO THE SOUTH DR. NOTT. 
 
 THE college career of young Seward, as related by his 
 contemporaries, gave brilliant indication of the rare quali 
 ties for which he has since become distinguished. The 
 traits of the future legislator and statesman were foreshad 
 owed in the character of the modest youth during his period 
 of academic retirement. Even then he displayed the manly 
 originality of conception the sturdy independence of pur 
 pose the firm adherence to his convictions of right the 
 intrepid assertion of high moral principles the careful 
 examination of a cause before appearing in its defence 
 the sympathy, with the weak and oppressed and the in 
 tellectual vigilance and assiduity in the pursuit of truth 
 which have formed such conspicuous and admirable features 
 in his public career. 
 
 His favorite studies in college were rhetoric, moral phi 
 losophy, and the ancient classics. It was his custom to rise 
 at four o clock in the morning, and prepare all the lessons 
 of the day. At night, while the other students were en 
 gaged in getting ready the exercises of the next morning, 
 he devoted his leisure to general reading, and literary 
 compositions for class declamation or debates in society 
 meetings. 
 
 In the year 1819, Seward, who was then in the senior 
 class, and in the eighteenth year of his age, withdrew from 
 college for about a year, passing six months of the time as 
 
VISIT TO THE SOUTH. 21 
 
 a teacher at the south. The spectacle of slavery could not 
 fail to make a deep impression on his mind. He witnessed 
 scenes which aroused him to reflection on the subject, and 
 produced the hostility to every form of oppression, which 
 has since become ingrained in his character. One of the 
 many incidents which occurred to him may be related in 
 this place. 
 
 While travelling in the interior of the state, he approached 
 a stream spanned by a dilapidated bridge, that had become 
 almost impassable. He forded the river with no little dif 
 ficulty, and met on the opposite side a negro woman with 
 an old blind and worn-out horse, bearing a bag of corn to 
 mill. The poor slave was in tears, and manifested great 
 distress of mind. She was afraid to venture on the bridge, 
 and the stream seemed too rapid and violent for the strength 
 of her horse. She was reluctant to return to her master, 
 without fulfilling her errand, being fearful of punishment. 
 The heart of the young northerner was moved. He went 
 to her assistance, and attempted to lead the horse across 
 the bridge. But the wretched beast was not equal to the 
 effort. He made a false step, and falling partly through, 
 became wedged in among the plank and timbers. Seward 
 tried in vain to extricate him. Despairing of success, he 
 mounted his own horse, rode to the master s residence, and 
 informed him of the accident, and attempted to excuse the 
 slave. In return for his kindness, he was met with a vol 
 ley of imprecations on himself, the slave, the horse, the 
 bridge, and all parties and things concerned. His disgust 
 at this adventure taught him a lesson of wisdom, which he 
 never forgot.* 
 
 * Another incident is related in one of his speeches as having occurred 
 during a subsequent visit to the south, and he has been heard to remark 
 that it contains the whole story of slavery : "Resting one day at an inn in 
 Virginia, 1 saw a woman blind and decrepit with age, turning the ponder 
 ous wheel of a machine on the lawn, and overheard this conversation be 
 tween her and my fellow-traveller: Is not that very hard work? Why 
 yes. mistress, but I must do something, and this is all I can do now I am so 
 
22 COLLEGE INCIDENTS. 
 
 Returning to college in 1820, lie found the students in 
 state of great excitement. They had hitherto been divided 
 into two literary societies, the Philomathean and the Adel- 
 phic, between which an earnest, but not unfriendly rivalry 
 subsisted. The former was the most popular with the stu 
 dents, while the latter claimed the most diligent scholars. 
 Young Seward was a member of the Adclphic, and entered 
 into the interests of the society with characteristic zeal. 
 During his absence, some twenty or thirty students from 
 the southern states had left Princeton college and entered 
 Union. These attached themselves to the Philomathean 
 society, giving it a great superiority in numbers over its 
 rival. Questions soon arose in the society, on which the 
 members divided geographically. The southern students 
 were left in a minority, and obtaining a charter from the 
 college faculty, organized a third society called the Del 
 phian institute. Their secession weakened the Philoma 
 thean, and was generally regarded by the older members 
 of the rival society as a triumph on their side. The young 
 er Adelphics, however, took a different view, favoring the 
 Philomatheans, on the ground that the secession was fac 
 tious and sectional. Seward, whose experience at the south, 
 wid popularity with all classes in college, served to qualify 
 Jiim for the office, virtually became umpire between the two 
 parties. After an impartial hearing of the question, he de 
 cided in favor of the Philomatheans, and against the Del 
 phian institute thus siding with the sophomores and fresh- 
 inen, in opposition to the views of his own classmates. He 
 thereby incurred no small odium. The faction, which he 
 
 old. How old are you? I don t know; past sixty they tell me. 
 Have you a husband ? I don t know, mistress. Have you ever had a 
 husband? Yes, I was married. Where is your husband? I don t 
 know; he was sold. Have you children? I don t know; they were 
 sold. How many? Six. Have you never heard from any of them 
 since they were sold? No, mistress. Do you not find it hard to bear 
 up under such afflictions as these? Why yes, mistress, but God doe* 
 what he thinks best with us. " 
 
COLLEGE TRIUMPHS. 23 
 
 had condemned, caused him to be arraigned, with a view 
 to his expulsion from the Adelphic society. The members 
 resolved themselves into a court, while a prominent mem 
 ber of his own class acted as public prosecutor. Seward 
 conducted his own defence. After the testimony was com 
 pleted, he summed up the merits of the case, closing a pow 
 erful argument with a thrilling recital of his course through 
 out the controversy. Declaring that he was indifferent to 
 what might be said of him by the public prosecutor that 
 he had no wish to know who voted for and who against him 
 and that he would not embarrass the vote of any mem 
 ber by his presence, or by inquiry about his vote at any 
 time afterward he abruptly left the chamber in which the 
 trial was held. In half an hour, the rush of students from 
 the hall showed that the case was decided. . Soon his room 
 was crowded with sophomores and freshmen, ardent with 
 victory, and loud in congratulations that the prosecution 
 had been voted down. The cause of law and order was 
 sustained against the seceders, and the integrity of the 
 union in Union college fully vindicated. 
 
 There was still another trial in college for the young 
 student. Three commencement orators were to be appoint 
 ed by the Adelphic society. This appointment was deemed 
 the highest college honor. Seward was a prominent can 
 didate. His scholarship, his eloquence, and his character, 
 presented equally strong claims in his favor. But the hos 
 tile faction among the friends of the Delphian institute, es 
 tablished a vigorous opposition. An earnest canvass was 
 maintained for several weeks. No pains were spared to 
 defeat the election of Seward. The choice was at length 
 made, and he gained a decided triumph. The subject of 
 his oration was, " The Integrity of the American Union." 
 This was a chaste and manly performance, replete with 
 vigorous sense and patriotic feeling. It was listened to 
 with enthusiasm by an intelligent audience, and called forth 
 warm commendations in the public prints. 
 
24 GOVERNOR TOMPKIXS DR. NOTT 
 
 Seward graduated among the most distinguished scholars 
 in his class. He shared his academic honors with several, 
 who have since arisen to eminence in different walks of 
 literature and public life. Of these, we need only mention 
 the names of Hon. William Kent, who inherits the legal 
 mind and rare attainments of his father, the celebrated 
 chancellor ; Rev. Dr. Hickok, now vice-president of Union 
 college, and as an erudite and profound metaphysician, 
 without an equal among American scholars ; and Rev. 
 Taylor Lewis, professor of Greek in Union college, distin 
 guished no less as an adroit and energetic controversialist, 
 than as a classical scholar of consummate accomplishments. 
 
 An incident, showing his standing in the college, and his 
 early development of talent, was thus described by a public 
 journal, many years since : 
 
 "The year 1820 was, as our readers will remember, the epoch of the great 
 contest between Torupkins and Clinton. The interest excited by this strug 
 gle pervaded all classes and ages of the community, and it was not in the 
 glowing temperament of William II. Seward to remain neutral. He was 
 naturally from his education and early association, on the side of Tompkins, 
 and his zeal was quickened by personal intercourse with this amiable and 
 fascinating man, with whom to have an interview with an individual was 
 to acquire and fix a friend. Seward was appointed to address the vice- 
 president on his visit to Schenectady on behalf of the young republicans of 
 the college. His speech was so much above the common run of political 
 harangues, as to excite general and lasting interest. He lived in the re 
 membrance of Daniel D. Tompkins, until he himself ceased to live; and his 
 friends will recollect the fervent kindness with which he was wont to recur 
 to this eloquent and generous effort of his youthful champion/ 
 
 The relations of young Seward with Dr. Nott, the vener 
 able and excellent president of Union college, were inti 
 mate and cordial, throughout his academic course, and have 
 continued to be of affectionate confidence to the present 
 time. It is believed that Mr. Seward has seldom acted on 
 any important public question, without availing himself of 
 the experience and sagacity of his venerated friend, whose 
 counsels, we need not say, have always been on the side of 
 nobleness and humanity. Nor, we may add, has Mr. Sew- 
 
REMOVAL TO AUBURN. 25 
 
 ard Tailed to preserve the attachment of his early friends. 
 The companions of his school and college days, as well as 
 those of his professional life, have ever been among his 
 foremost supporters, as a public man. And he never for 
 sakes a friend or a cause, that he has once espoused. No 
 reproach can shake his fidelity to objects, of whose worth 
 he has become persuaded. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 LAW STUDIES REMOVAL TO AUBURN FAMILY RELIGIOUS 
 PRINCIPLES CHARACTER AS A LAWYER. 
 
 SOON after taking his degree at Union college, Mr. Sew- 
 ard entered the office of John Anthon, Esq., of the city of 
 New York, as a student at law. He carried the habits of 
 early rising and faithful application, which he had main 
 tained during his college life, into his professional studies. 
 He thoroughly mastered every elementary book which was 
 put into his hands, making a written analysis of its con 
 tents. Completing his legal preparation with John Duer 
 and Ogden Hoffman, Esquires, in Groshen, N. Y., he was 
 admitted to the bar of the supreme court at Utica in 1822. 
 For six months previous to his admission he had been asso 
 ciated in practice with Mr. Hoffman. 
 
 In January, 1823, Mr. Seward took up his residence in 
 Auburn, and formed a connection in business with the Hon. 
 Elijah Miller, a distinguished member of the legal profes 
 sion, and at that time first judge of Cayuga county. Judge 
 Miller, who had acquired a competency in a large and suc 
 cessful practice, was desirous of retiring from active pro 
 fessional pursuits, and discovering signs of great promise in 
 young Seward, took him into his confidence, and proved 
 a devoted and efficient friend. 
 
26 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Mr. Seward, in 1824, married his youngest daughter, 
 Frances Adeline Miller. As this lady is still living, we 
 can only say that the connection has been a singularly for 
 tunate one in all respects. Four children compose their 
 family ; Augustus, a lieutenant in the United States army, 
 and devoted to its scientific pursuits, Frederick, who has 
 chosen the editorial profession, and a boy and girl yet in 
 childhood. One daughter, " fondly loved," was therefore, 
 perhaps, " early lost." 
 
 The town of Auburn, which Mr. Seward selected as a 
 residence, is in the heart of one of the most fertile and de 
 lightful regions in central New York. Its growth has been 
 rapid and healthful. Within a few years the primeval for 
 est has given place to a populous city. Its inhabitants are 
 distinguished for their intelligence, enterprise, and refine 
 ment. Free from the pride of wealth and the pretensions 
 of aristocracy, they present an attractive example of genu 
 ine republican equality. In some degree these character 
 istics are no doubt due to the influence of Mr. Seward and 
 his estimable family. During a residence of more than 
 thirty years, he has won the unqualified respect and confi 
 dence of his townsmen. Moving in the highest circles of 
 society, he has never avoided friendly intercourse with the 
 most obscure and lowly. The patron of struggling merit 
 
 cherishing a deep interest in all social and philanthropic 
 movements watchful to aid the unfortunate and forsaken 
 
 and ever ready to devote his time, his talents, and his 
 pecuniary means, to the defence of the wronged and op 
 pressed of every caste and color he has gained the lasting 
 gratitude and love of the people with whom, for over a 
 quarter of a century, he has lived as a neighbor and fellow- 
 citizen. 
 
 Although free from all taint of sectarianism, Mr. Seward 
 cherishes a strong attachment to the protestant episcopal 
 church, of which he became a member in 1837. He has 
 been frequently called to attend ecclesiastical conventions 
 
CHARACTER AS A LAWYER. 27 
 
 of that body. At the anniversary of the American Bible 
 Society in 1839, he was called to act as one of the vice- 
 presidents, and in his address on that occasion he expresses 
 the following sentiment in regard to the Bible : 
 
 "I know not how long a republican government can flourish among a 
 great people who have not the Bible ; the experiment has never been tried : 
 but this I do know that the existing government of this country never could 
 have had existence but for the Bible. And further I do in my conscience 
 believe that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible could be found 
 in every family of the land its republican institutions would be perpetual." 
 
 With his devotion to the cause of public improvement, he 
 has been the patron of churches, schools, and benevolent in 
 stitutions, liberally contributing his money for their support, 
 and his counsels for their direction. 
 
 After establishing himself in Auburn, Mr. Seward be 
 came interested in the military affairs of the neighborhood, 
 and was soon honored with various military offices. Ac 
 cepting the colonelcy of a regiment, he acquired wide dis 
 tinction and still higher promotion by his zeal and discipline. 
 Without personal military ambition, he was an ardent friend 
 of a well-regulated militia system for the preservation of 
 order and the defence of the country. He was an excellent 
 tactician, and an accomplished commander, while his win 
 ning qualities as a man secured the friendship of all around 
 him, who were engaged in the same department of public 
 service. 
 
 From the commencement of his practice as a lawyer, Mr. 
 Seward was always in the habit of arguing his own cases, 
 instead of employing older counsellors, as is often done by 
 young advocates. In the management of a case he sparingly 
 refers to the authority of recorded decisions, but stating the 
 general principles of law applicable to the question, and ar 
 ranging the facts in the simplest order, enforces his argu 
 ments by a priori reasonings, and shows the basis of his 
 position in natural equity. As a professional rule, he gives 
 his aid to a weaker party against a stronger, even without 
 compensation, whether his client be right or wrong ; but if 
 
28 EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 
 
 a stronger party claims his services against a weaker, he 
 does not engage in the suit without a clear conviction of 
 its justice, whatever be the compensation. During the 
 whole course of his practice he has never been known to 
 act for a man against a woman ; and was never but once 
 engaged in a cause against the accused ; and that was 
 an instance of extreme outrage by a man upon a young 
 woman. 
 
 The legal career of Mr. Scward is illustrated with no 
 less justice than vigor in the following sketch of his early 
 professional life, written several years since for one of the 
 periodicals of the day : 
 
 "The practice of the law in the country must not be estimated by the 
 practice in the city. Each has its own advantages and difficulties; it is the 
 peculiarity of the former, that it at once brings to the test, and to the pub 
 lic view, the intrinsic qualities of the man. The crowded bar, the long-de 
 ferred opportunity, the deference to age and experience, the overshadowing 
 reputation of the seniors of the profession, and the innumerable natural or 
 conventional impediments, which so long keep back, and so often depress 
 the young aspirant with us, are felt in a very mitigated degree in the interior. 
 The candidate for distinction is there summoned at once to the arena: 
 naked steel is around him; 1 he is thrown upon his own talents, energies, 
 and resources, and he stands and falls as in his native and unaided strength. 
 To have stood this trial successfully, and, after eleven years of arduous 
 labors, to have risen to the very foremost rank of his profession, as did 
 Mr. Seward, is in itself an unerring indication of the high character of the 
 object of these remarks. In all our courts, and in causes of every descrip 
 tion, his talents have been exercised and admired. He has stood forward 
 and distinguished himself with such men as John C. Spencer, Joshua A. 
 Spencer, Albert IT. Tracy, and their contemporaries of the West, for whom 
 competition, if not pre-eminence, may be challenged with the Athletes of 
 the bar in any other section of the state or of the country. Property, 
 liberty, and life, have been committed to the integrity and ability of this 
 young man of thirty. three, and he has never faltered in his trust, nor 
 failed in an emergency, nor left unfulfilled an expectation/ 
 
 His most formidable competitors at the Auburn bar, 
 during the commencement of his practice, were Hon. John 
 M. Hulbert and William Brown, Esqs. Both these distin 
 guished men were accomplished scholars, erudite jurists, 
 and powerful advocates. At this time they were in the 
 
POLITICAL SYMPATHIES. 29 
 
 dazzling flush of professional success. The brilliancy of 
 their fame threw most of their rivals into the shade. Many 
 excellent members of the bar had been deterred by their 
 eminence from attempting to vie with them in the courts. 
 But upon a man like Mr. Seward, their influence was of a 
 contrary nature. Their intellectual predominance only 
 aroused his emulation ; nor did he suffer by the comparison. 
 Possessing a native independence of mind, he was early 
 accustomed to original thought. This habit was strength 
 ened by severe discipline. Attaching a due value to the 
 suggestions of others, he still relied upon himself. Con 
 nected with this trait of character, was a rigid habit of 
 industry ; he studied while others slept. The time whicli 
 most men give to recreation he devoted to strenuous toil. 
 With such qualifications, Mr. Seward soon entered upon an 
 extensive and successful practice. His fame grew with his 
 years, until he fills a sphere which is surpassed in brilliancy 
 and importance by that of few of his contemporaries, incon- 
 testably ranking with the first lawyers of the Union 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POLITICS SLAVERY YOUNG MEN S CONVENTION ANTI- 
 MASONRY STATE SENATOR. 
 
 THE attention of Mr. Seward was early drawn to politi 
 cal affairs. His father was an ardent champion of the 
 Jeffersonian democracy. The traditionary instincts and 
 early prepossessions of the son were strongly in favor of 
 the same principles. Mr. Seward, accordingly, sympa 
 thized with the democratic party, believing that it embod 
 ied the spirit of popular freedom to a greater extent than 
 any other party of the day. He was early undeceived 
 by experience. Discovering that, under the pretence of 
 
30 VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 
 
 democracy, the leaders of the party were bent on personal 
 interests, irrespective of the rights of humanity and the 
 public good, he left them at once and for ever. He has 
 attached but -slight importance to mere party names. The 
 diffusion of genuine republican sentiments among the peo 
 ple, and their practical realization in the institutions and 
 laws of his country, have been the leading objects of his 
 political life. 
 
 Mr. Seward first had occasion to express his convictions 
 on the subject of slavery during the protracted struggle on 
 the admission of Missouri into the Union. He perceived, 
 at that early period, the subserviency to southern influence 
 and dictation which prevailed in the democratic party in 
 the state of New York. From that day to the present, his 
 life has been devoted to the principles of liberty. In his 
 view, freedom is national, and slavery sectional. With 
 him the purpose of the Union is to establish the blessings 
 of equality, justice, and humanity ; not to enlarge the area 
 of bondage and oppression. His hostility to slavery has 
 not been the result of policy, but of principle of the 
 strongest conviction of its inherent injustice, and its ten 
 dency to corrupt and destroy the noblest institutions of the 
 country. His rule of action on the subject has been uni 
 form from the commencement of his political career. He 
 has never suffered the fear of consequences to silence his 
 voice in defence of freedom, when any practical benefit 
 was at stake ; but he has strictly avoided every act that 
 was adapted to inflict a needless wound upon an opponent, 
 or to foment an unprofitable excitement. 
 
 In his measures witli regard to slavery, Mr. Seward has 
 been no fanatic. Detesting the institution, he has waged 
 against it an honorable warfare. But he has refrained, 
 with scrupulous care, from infringing on the constitutional 
 rights of slaveholders, or depriving them of any privilege 
 to which they are entitled by law. This is the extent of 
 his concessions. He refuses to accord any advantage be- 
 
THE ALBANY REGENCY. 31 
 
 yond legal enactment to an institution which violates the 
 first principles of natural right. 
 
 His position on this sifbject was clearly defined in his 
 California speech.* 
 
 "I feel assured that slavery must give way, and will give way, to the sal 
 utary instructions of economy, and to the ripening influences of humanity ; 
 that emancipation is inevitable, and is near; that it may be hastened or 
 hindered ; and that whether it be peaceful or violent depends upon the 
 question whether it be hastened or hindered; that all measures which fortify 
 slavery or extend it, tend to the consummation of violence; all that check 
 its extension and abate its strength, tend to its peaceful extirpation. But 
 I will adopt none but lawful, constitutional, and peaceful means, to secure 
 even that end; and none such can I or will I forego. Nor do I know any 
 important or responsible political body that proposes to do more than this. 
 No free state claims to extend its legislation into a slave state. None claims 
 that Congress shall usurp power to abolish slavery in the slave states. None 
 claims that any violent, unconstitutional, or unlawful measure shall be em 
 braced. And on the other hand, if we offer no scheme or plan for the 
 adoption of the slave states, with the assent and co-operation of Congress, it 
 is only because the slave states are unwilling as yet to receive such sugges 
 tion?, or even to entertain the question of emancipation in any form." 
 
 Mr. Seward s first public action of a political character 
 was in 1824. In October of that year, he drew up the 
 address of the republican convention of Cayuga county to 
 the people. f In this document, he gave a brief history of 
 the origin and designs of the Albany regency a clique of 
 political leaders, w r hich once exerted a great and most in 
 jurious influence in the state of New York. He exposed 
 its system of machinery its opposition to the electoral 
 law, placing the appointment of presidential electors in the 
 hands of the people, although solemnly pledged to its sup 
 port and its intrigues to prevent the election of John 
 Quincy Adarns to the presidency, and to secure the ultimate 
 election of Martin Yan Buren. The opposition to the Al 
 bany regency, thus boldly commenced by the young politi 
 cian, was finally crowned with complete success. The 
 sources of its influence were destroyed, and the power, 
 
 * Soc " Work- of William H. Sewnrd," Vol. I, p. 51. f See Vol. III., p. 335. 
 
32 ORATIONS AND SPEECHES. 
 
 which had been centralized in its organization, was restored 
 to the possession of the people. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1825, Mr. Seward delivered an an 
 niversary oration at Auburn.* The Missouri Compromise 
 and the Tariff of 1824 had recently elicited threats of nul 
 lification at the south. In this oration, Mr. Seward took 
 the same position on several important political questions, 
 which he has maintained to the present day. He argued 
 the capacity of the government for the extension of empire, 
 asserting the perpetuity of the Union on the same grounds 
 that have been advanced in his later productions. An 
 nouncing his devotion to the great principles of emancipa 
 tion, he insisted that the United States should be a " city of 
 refuge" for the oppressed and down-trodden of every nation. 
 
 In 1826 and 1827, the Greek revolution awakened a gen 
 eral sympathy in the United States. A meeting of citizens 
 of Auburn was held in February, 1827, for the purpose of 
 rendering aid to the struggling Greeks. Mr. Seward was 
 invited to deliver a speech on this occasion.! The subject 
 was congenial to his feelings, and he gladly consented to 
 the request. With characteristic eloquence, he defended 
 the cause of liberty in other lands asserting its claims on 
 American sympathy, in the same line of argument which he 
 afterward reproduced in behalf of Ireland and Hungary. 
 His vigorous and glowing appeal was met by the people to 
 whom it was addressed with a munificent liberality which 
 was elsewhere without a parallel. 
 
 In July, 1828, Mr. Seward was invited by the members 
 of the Adelphic society of Union college, to deliver a eulo 
 gy on David Berdan, J a member of the society, who died on 
 his passage from London to Boston, July 20, 1827. It was 
 a sincere and eloquent tribute to the memory of an esteemed 
 companion and friend. The monument erected to young 
 Berdan, still forms an interesting object to those who visit 
 the college grounds at Schenectady. 
 
 * See Vol. III., p 193. f See Vol. III., p. 197. \ See Vol. III., p. 117 
 
NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. 88 
 
 The year 1828 is distinguished as the period when the 
 young men of our country first made an effort to exert a 
 personal influence on national politics. A convention of 
 the young men of New York in favor of the re-election of 
 John Quincy Adams to the presidency was held at Utica, 
 oil the 12th of August. It was one of the largest political 
 conventions ever assembled in the Empire state. Four 
 hundred delegates, in the flower and freshness of youth, 
 were present at the session, which continued for several 
 days. Mr. Seward was called to preside over its delibera 
 tions. He fulfilled the duties of the office with marked 
 ability. Though only twenty-seven years of age, he exhib 
 ited a dignity, decision, and courtesy, which would have 
 done honor to an experienced statesman. He left a singu 
 larly favorable impression on the minds of his colleagues, 
 who, with scarcely an exception, have adhered to the polit 
 ical principles of that convention, until the present time. 
 Many of the most prominent men in New York date their 
 interest in politics from the young men s state convention, 
 and have since exerted an influence which led to a decisive 
 change in the policy and relation of parties in the state. 
 
 The election of General Jackson to the presidency in 
 1828 dissolved the national republican party in Western 
 New York, with which Mr. Seward, as an ardent supporter 
 of John Quincy Adams, had been identified. Meantime, 
 the anti-masonic party had risen into consequence, and 
 though of local origin, and acting in a limited field, for sev 
 eral years, it formed the only opposition in Western New 
 York to the Albany regency and the Jackson administra 
 tion. In 1828, this party tendered a nomination as mem 
 ber of Congress to Mr. Seward, which he declined, on ac 
 count of the obligation that he felt to support the national 
 republican party. On the overthrow of the latter party, 
 Mr. Seward and his friends, sympathizing with the citizens 
 who were engaged in vindicating the supremacy of the laws, 
 naturally united with the anti-masons, as affording the best 
 
 2* 
 
34 ELECTION TO THE STATE SENATE. 
 
 position for a successful resistance of the national and state 
 administrations. Among his political associates at that 
 time, were Frederic Whittlesey, Thurlow Weed, Francis 
 Granger, John C. Spencer, Millard Fillmore, and other dis 
 tinguished public men of the present day. 
 
 In 1830, Mr. Seward was nominated by the anti-masonic 
 party as a candidate for the state senate, from the seventh 
 district, comprising, at that time, the counties of Onondaga, 
 Cayuga, Cortland, Seneca, Ontario, Wayne, and Yates. 
 The nomination was unexpected, but he did not feel at lib 
 erty to decline it. Although the district had given a large 
 Jackson majority the preceding year, and the anti-masonic 
 candidate for governor, Francis Granger, was defeated, at 
 the same election, by a majority of eight thousand, Mr. 
 Seward was elected to the senate by the handsome majority 
 of two thousand votes. In Cayuga county, where he re 
 sided, the democratic party had long enjoyed a decided as 
 cendency, but still a majority of the senatorial votes were 
 cast for Mr. Seward. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STATE SENATOR THE ALBANY REGENCY CANALS BANKS 
 
 MILITIA UNITED STATES BANK PRISONS CORPORATIONS. 
 
 MR. SEWARD took his seat in the state senate, in January, 
 1831. This was his first election to civil office. He had 
 always regarded the career of a statesman, as affording 
 scope for the accomplishment of noble deeds in behalf of 
 freedom and humanity. Hence, he cheerfully exchanged 
 the routine of legal practice for the functions of the legisla 
 tor. He was, probably, the youngest member that ever 
 entered the New York senate, having not yet completed 
 his twenty-ninth year. In spite of his youth, he soon at- 
 
COURSE IN THE SENATE. 35 
 
 tained an honorable distinction among his colleagues. With 
 an almost juvenile ardor of temperament, inspired with a 
 generous ambition, cherishing the deepest sentiments of pa 
 triotism and philanthropy, a champion of liberty and popu 
 lar rights, despising the vulgar arts of hackneyed politicians, 
 and filled with an enthusiastic faith in the ultimate triumph 
 of truth and justice Mr. Seward came into the senate of 
 his native state, a new man, fresh from the living masses 
 of the people, and breathed over that body a spirit of vital 
 ity and progress, of which the influence remains to the pres 
 ent day. His course at once assumed the character of 
 boldness and originality which it still sustains. It was not 
 shaped in accordance with traditional prescriptions, but 
 following the impulses of an inventive mind, sought to de- 
 velop new measures of public good, and larger enfranchise 
 ments for the people. 
 
 The circumstances, however, under which Mr. Seward 
 entered the senate were adapted to discourage an ingenu 
 ous and earnest spirit. The Jackson party were in posses 
 sion of unlimited sway. Wielding the vast patronage of 
 the federal and state governments, their influence was as 
 extensive as it was pernicious. The Albany regency, knit 
 into a unit by the passion for office and its attending emol 
 uments, ruled tho state with an iron rod. With the ap 
 pointing power, to a great degree, in their hands control 
 ling the currency by their connection with the banks 
 retaining well-disciplined emissaries in every county and 
 town to carry their plans into effect this central junta 
 had but to touch the springs at Albany, to produce any de 
 sired movement in the remotest corner of the state. A 
 large majority of the legislature were the supple tools of 
 the regency, ready to enact such measures as might be 
 deemed necessary to maintain the preponderance already 
 secured. 
 
 Mr. Seward threw himself fearlessly into the opposition, 
 He soon became its acknowledged leader. Among ths 
 
36 EARLY EFFORTS FOR REFORMS. 
 
 debates in which he took a prominent part, were those re 
 lating to internal improvements and universal education. 
 He labored strenuously in behalf of the common school sy_s_- 
 tem. He urged the abolition of imprisonment for debt (1 the 
 melioration^)? prison discipline, and the establishment of a 
 separate penitentiary for female convicts . The_con struc- 
 tioa_QfJtho Chenanga canal 
 
 He opposed the transfer of the salt duties from the canal 
 fund to the general fund, but voted for their reduction. 
 He sustained the bill for making the stockholders in com 
 mercial companies personally liable, but not in manufactur 
 ing companies. He opposed increasing the salaries of the 
 higher judicial officers, and introduced important amend- 
 ,ments of the law in relation to surrogates. But few bank 
 charters obtained his vote. Governor Marcy s great loan 
 law* met with his vehement opposition. He made a pow 
 erful speech against executive interference with the United 
 States bank, and against the removal of the deposites ;f 
 while he supported General Jackson s measure in regard 
 to southern nullification. Mr. Seward was one of the ear 
 liest friends of the New York und Erie railroad ;$ lending 
 it his aid in all its vicissitudes, until it was at length 
 
 O 
 
 brought to a triumphant completion. 
 
 Mr. Seward s first parliamentary effort was his speech 
 on the militia bill, delivered on the 7th of February, 1831. 
 In this speech, he proposed a thorough revision of the mili 
 tia system, substituting volunteer uniformed companies for 
 the general performance of military duty. His views were 
 characterized by the far-reaching wisdom, the lively sense 
 of the progressive wants of the age, which have often placed 
 him in advance of his compeers, as an advocate of benefi 
 cent reforms. At first his suggestions failed to command 
 assent ; but they awakened discussion ; and nearly twenty 
 years afterward were adopted in substance. 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 37. f See Vol. L, p. 14. 
 
 \ See Vol. II F.. p. 30fi. See Vol. I., p. 1, nlso p.307of this volume. 
 
REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. 87 
 
 In March of the same year, a bill was introduced author 
 izing an appropriation to collect materials for a colonial 
 history of New York. It was supported by Mr. Seward 
 in a brief but earnest speech. He maintained that the offi 
 cial documents, relating to the early history of the state, 
 contained in the archives of several European governments, 
 especially of Great Britain, Holland, and France, should 
 be collected by competent agents and embodied in a colo 
 nial history. His plan was adopted, and subsequently car 
 ried into effect during his administration as governor. The 
 result was the publication of four large volumes of the Docu 
 mentary History of New York, which appeared during the 
 administration of his successors, Governors Fish and Hunt. 
 
 The next important speech of Mr. Seward was on the 
 election of mayor of the city of New York.* This was de 
 livered on the 23d of April. Under the first constitution 
 the mayors and recorders of cities were chosen by the 
 council of appointment at Albany. Under the new consti 
 tution of 1821, mayors were chosen by the common council, 
 and recorders were appointed by the governor and senate. 
 The new charter of New York gave the mayor a veto on 
 the acts of the common council. A petition was presented 
 to the legislature by the citizens for a change in the consti 
 tution, giving the election of mayor directly to the people. 
 This was opposed by the dominant party. They brought 
 in a resolution providing that mayors should be chosen in 
 sucli manner as the legislature should direct. Mr. Seward 
 .took decided ground in favor of the New York petition. 
 Arguing on the merits of the question, he contended that 
 not only in New York, but in all cities, the mayors should 
 be chosen by the people. This was in accordance with his 
 democratic principles, which have always led him to claim 
 the largest extent of privilege for the people. His views 
 were finally adopted in the legislature of the state. 
 
 During the same session he materially aided the bill for 
 
 * See Vol. L, j>. 10. 
 
THE UNITED STATES BANK. 
 
 the abolition of imprisonment for debt, which at length 
 passed ; while the measure was fully completed, as will be 
 seen in the sequel, under his subsequent administration. 
 
 At the close of the session Mr. Seward was appointed to 
 draw up the address to the people of the minority of the 
 legislature. In this address* he reviewed the financial 
 condition of the state, and exposed the mismanagement of 
 the treasury. He showed the radical defects of the safety 
 fund system, which under partisan control gave the govern 
 ment of the state to the Albany regency. This monopoly, 
 was overthrown by the whigs on their accession to power 
 in 1837, and the freedom of banking, under suitable safe 
 guards, permitted to all citizens. The controversy between 
 New York and New Jersey was at that time a source of 
 much excitement. The address exposed the conduct of the 
 executive, showing that it amounted to virtual nullification. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1831, Mr. Seward delivered an anni 
 versary orationf before the citizens of Syracuse. He took 
 for his subject, The Prospects of the United States. In a 
 strain of masculine eloquence, he defended the American 
 people against the charge of national vanity and presump 
 tion, and uttered a stirring appeal for the cultivation of 
 public virtue and the spirit of devotion to the Union. 
 
 The meeting of the legislature in 1832 again found Mr. 
 Seward at his post. He entered, with his habitual zeal, 
 upon the great questions which then agitated the public 
 mind. Relying upon the soundness of his principles, he 
 boldly maintained the conflict against a majority so over 
 whelming, that, to a less ardent temperament than his own, 
 opposition would have seemed hopeless. 
 
 A resolution was brought into the senate, at the com 
 mencement of the session, against renewing the charter of 
 the United States bank. Soon after, a substitute was pro 
 posed, declaring the necessity of a national bank for the 
 collection of the public revenue, and the preservation of a 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 338. f See Vol. III., p. 200. 
 
PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS. 39 
 
 sound and uniform currency. On the 31st of January, Mr. 
 Seward delivered a speech in support of the proposed sub 
 stitute. This was his first elaborate effort in the legisla 
 ture. Having given a minute history of the United States, 
 he discussed the fiscal system of the government, and 
 exposed the fallacy of Gen. Jackson s objections to the 
 renewal of the bank charter. His line of argument was 
 substantially the same as that pursued by Mr. Clay and Mr. 
 Webster in the United States senate. His speech produced 
 a marked, sensation throughout the country. The question 
 was new and exciting ; it took strong hold of public feel 
 ing, and great satisfaction was expressed by the opponents 
 of the federal administration on the appearance of this 
 powerful appeal in its favor. Combined with the discus 
 sions on internal improvements and state banks, the speech 
 of Mr. Seward and that of Mr. Maynard, on the same sub 
 ject, had the effect of concentrating the opposition to the 
 Albany regency and Jackson s administration, in an organ 
 ized system. This was the origin of the political body which 
 two years afterward, took the name of the Whig Party. 
 
 On the 20th of March, the question came up on the 
 establishment of a separate penitentiary for female convicts. 
 In his speech on this subject, Mr. Seward took the broad 
 est grounds of Christian philanthropy. He argued that 
 the imprisonment of women in penitentiaries adapted only 
 to the other sex, and under the exclusive management of 
 men, was inhuman, and at war with the benevolent spirit 
 of the age. He showed the benefits which the convicts 
 would derive from the kind and judicious care of persons 
 of their own sex. The prison, he maintained, should be 
 made a house of refuge, rather than a place of punishment, 
 where its unfortunate inmates might find protection from 
 the wrongs they had received, in most cases at the hands 
 of men ; where they might receive instruction and guid 
 ance be inspired with new hopes, and prepared to return 
 to society with the prospect of honor and happiness. The 
 
40 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1832. 
 
 measure, which was carried, owed its success to the exer 
 tions of Mr. Seward, greatly aided, however, by the efficient 
 co-operation of Mr. M Donald of Westchester county. 
 
 In a speech during this session on granting a charter to 
 a whaling company, Mr. Seward made a vigorous attack on 
 the tendency of legislation to corporate monopolies for 
 banking, canals, railroads, and similar purposes. His 
 effects were not supported, and for a time proved unavail 
 ing. But the good seed has since ripened. The present 
 system of opening every branch of business to, voluntary 
 association, without legislative interference, is the fruit of 
 the principles he then maintained, and is an ample vindica 
 tion of their soundness and utility. 
 
 At the close of the session of 1832, Mr. Seward was 
 again appointed to prepare the address of the minority of 
 the legislature to their constituents. In this document he 
 resumed the discussion of the fiscal affairs of the state, 
 showing the abuses of the administration in management 
 of the public funds for political purposes, exposing the mis 
 conduct of the legislature in the incorporation of banking 
 monopolies, and predicting the ruin of the banks from the 
 policy pursued. His prophecy was in due time fulfilled. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 STATE SENATOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VISIT TO EU 
 ROPE RETURN TO THE SENATE REMOVAL OF DEPOS- 
 ITES COURT OF ERRORS LAFAYETTE. 
 
 IN the presidential campaign of 1832, Mr. Seward gave 
 his support to the electors who were to vote for either Mr. 
 WIRT or Mr. CLAY as their vote should prove effective. 
 He has since repeatedly supported Mr. Clay as a candidate 
 for the presidency, although it is known that he always 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE. 41 
 
 foresaw his defeat, and it is therefore questionable whether 
 that eminent statesman was ever his first choice. 
 
 At the legislative session for this year, Mr. Seward took 
 a still more prominent share in the proceedings of the sen 
 ate. The nomination of Mr. Tallmadge, then a member 
 of the senate, to the office of United States senator, called 
 forth the discussion of an important constitutional question. 
 A clause in the state constitution prohibited any member 
 of the legislature from receiving office at the hands of that 
 body, during the term for which he was elected. The 
 attorney-general, to whom the question of eligibility had 
 been submitted, decided in favor of Mr. Tallmadge. This 
 decision was controverted by Mr. Seward in a speech of 
 remarkable power of logic and eloquence. He was over 
 ruled by a strictly party vote ; but one can hardly read his 
 speech without being convinced that the appointment, made 
 for temporary political purposes, was a violation of the 
 constitution. 
 
 The nullification movements in the South were brought 
 before the attention of the senate in February, 1833. On 
 the 16th of that month, Mr. Seward introduced a series of 
 resolutions, maintaining that Congress should be governed 
 by a strict construction of the powers intrusted to the 
 general government. In his speech sustaining the reso 
 lutions, he rebuked the democratic party in the state for 
 their disposition to tamper with the principles of nullifi 
 cation, while professing to support Gen. Jackson s meas 
 ures, which threatened the nullifiers with the penalty of 
 treason. 
 
 During this session, Mr. Seward took part in the discus 
 sions on the navigation of the Hudson, and on the increase 
 of judicial salaries. 
 
 On the 1st of June, 1833, Mr. Seward sailed for Europe 
 in company with his father. They made a rapid tour 
 through parts of the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, 
 Switzerland, Sardinia, and France. During his absence ho 
 
42 LETTERS FROM EUROPE. 
 
 wrote home a series of letters,* describing the countries 
 that he visited, which were afterward published anony 
 mously in the Albany Evening Journal. After about forty 
 of the scries had appeared, their publication was arrested, 
 under circumstances which can not, perhaps, be better 
 explained than by inserting the following extract from the 
 Journal of that date : 
 
 "LETTERS FROM EUROPE. In reply to numerous inquiries for these letters, 
 it is proper to say that their publication was arrested by the veto of the 
 gentleman who wrote them. It is already known to some of our readers 
 that the author of these letters is the whig candidate for governor. They 
 were hastily written to several of his intimate friends, while making a tour 
 upon the continent. On his return, the friends of Mr. Seward earnestly 
 desired the publication of these letters in a more durable form, but this 
 was declined. After much importunity, however, he yielded a reluctant 
 consent to their anonymous publication in the Evening Journal. The 
 series, thus commenced, were continued, contributing to the interest of our 
 readers, and adding new names to our subscription, until the whig state 
 convention placed their author in a new relation to the public; when, un 
 willing, we suppose, to superadd to other offences the heinous one of wri 
 ting Letters from Europe, he desired us to suspend their publication. 
 
 "From this decision of the author, our readers have appealed to the edi 
 tor. Having read a portion of these letters, they insist upon the publica 
 tion of the entire series. They do not, nor can we discover, in the whig 
 nomination for governor, a sufficient reason for cutting off this source of 
 interest and instruction. And besides, the assent of the author to the publi 
 cation of the whole series, having been obtained before his nomination for 
 governor, we insist that he has not now the right to revoke it. 
 
 "Under these circumstances, and at the general solicitation of our read 
 ers, we take the responsibility of resuming the publication of our Letters 
 from Europe. It is due, however, to Mr. Seward, to say, that they were 
 written solely for the gratification of his own family and a few intimate 
 friends, without the slightest expectation that they would ever be given to 
 the public. If any of his political opponents should think proper to find 
 fault witli these letters, we shall respectfully inquire who among them pos 
 sesses (he industry and the talent to have travelled through England, Ire 
 land, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and France, within a period 
 of less than three months, and produce nearly eighty letters (filling upward 
 of nine hundred manuscript pages) of equal interest and intelligence?" 
 
 These letters exhibit a refined taste, great acuteness of 
 observation, and a genial sympathy with the grand and 
 
 * See Vol. in. 
 
THE REMOVAL OP THE DEPOSITES. 43 
 
 beautiful in nature. The reputation of the writer was en 
 hanced by the avowal of their authorship. 
 
 Mr. Seward returned from his European tour in season 
 to take his seat in the senate, at the opening of the session 
 of 1834. The public attention was occupied with impor 
 tant questions both of national and of state politics. In 
 the controversy relating to the United States bank, Mr. 
 Seward took a leading part, and by his vigorous and elo 
 quent appeals produced a strong impression upon the pub 
 lic mind. 
 
 The removal of the deposites by Gen. Jackson took 
 place in September, 1833. Mr. Van Buren was then vice- 
 president, and in order to promote his claims to the presi 
 dency, it was deemed essential to obtain the approval of 
 the New York legislature for the measures of Gen. Jack 
 son. Joint resolutions were accordingly introduced by 
 the administration party in January, 1834, approving the 
 removal of the deposites, instructing the senators and rep 
 resentatives in Congress to oppose the renewal of the bank 
 charter, and ascribing the financial distress of the country to 
 the influence of .that institution. These resolutions passed 
 the assembly by a large majority. Not a voice was raised 
 in opposition to them. In the senate, however, they met 
 with a different reception. With a deep conviction of 
 duty, and in spite of the remonstrance of his friends, Mr. 
 Seward broke the ominous silence, and, in an elaborate 
 speech,* opposed the passage of the resolutions. This 
 speech, which was, on the whole, the most powerful effort 
 of his intellect and legislative experience during his career 
 in the New York senate, occupied a part of two days in 
 the delivery. It was forcible and conclusive in argument, 
 pointed and brilliant in expression, and adorned with the 
 appropriate embellishments of historical and classic illus 
 tration. Its effect, not only on the senate, but throughout 
 the state, was of so decided a character, that several sen- 
 
 * See Vol. L, p. 14. 
 
44 GOVERNOR MARCY S LOAX-BILL. 
 
 ators of the opposite party attempted to set aside its influ 
 ence by formal replies. This called forth Mr. Seward in a 
 rejoinder on the 24th of January, on which occasion he 
 indulged in a severity of remark to which he was not ac 
 customed, and for the only time in his public life, noticed the 
 personal attacks of which he had been made the subject. 
 
 The evils which Mr. Seward had predicted in conse 
 quence of the removal of the deposites, spread over the 
 country with fearful rapidity. Before the close of the ses 
 sion, a severe financial pressure was felt everywhere. 
 Commencing among the mercantile classes, it soon extended 
 to every department of business and industry. Public 
 meetings were called to express the prevailing dissatisfac 
 tion, and to avert further calamity. Committees were ap 
 pointed to implore relief of the president and Congress. 
 As a suitable measure to alleviate the general pecuniary 
 distress, Governor Marcy recommended the issue of six 
 millions of stock, to be sold on account of the state. A 
 bill to this effect was introduced into the legislature, 
 providing that four millions of the avails of this stock 
 should be loaned to safety-fund banks, and the remainder 
 to individuals, on bond and mortgage. Mr. Seward de 
 nounced the measure in an admirable speech,* delivered on 
 the 10th of April, 1834. The design of the bill was to 
 operate favorably for the administration at the ensuing fall 
 election. This resulted in the re-election of Gov. Marcy ; 
 no stock was issued, and the measure, having accomplished 
 its purpose, passed into oblivion. 
 
 The last speech of Mr. Seward in the senate related to 
 the chartered rights of the city of Albany. It was a tem 
 perate and logical performance, but failed to prevent the 
 passage of a law, which in his view, was a violation of the 
 rights of the city. At the close of the session, he was for 
 the third time designated to draw up the usual addressf of 
 the minority of the legislature to the people of the state. 
 
 * See Vol. I., p 37. f See V()1 - 1IT -> P- 3 *9- 
 
THE COURT OF ERRORS. 45 
 
 The two great parties on national and state questions were 
 now fully organized. A general trial of strength was to be 
 made in the approaching election. The result of this strug 
 gle would indicate the probable issue of the presidential 
 election which was to take place in 1836. The address, 
 accordingly, went into a thorough exposition and defence 
 of the whig policy, and with this document, were concluded 
 the services of Mr. Seward in the legislature of New York. 
 The court of errors, which was the court of final appeal 
 in New York, from 1775 to 1846, was an institution copied 
 from the English house of lords. It consisted of the chan 
 cellor, the judges of the supreme court, and the members 
 of the senate. In the case of appeals from chancery, the 
 chancellor gave his reasons for the decree he had made, 
 but did not vote. In acting on judgments of the supreme 
 court, the judges explained the grounds of their decision, 
 but did not vote. Mr. Seward, although at that time the 
 youngest member of the court, took a leading part in its 
 proceedings. His course was distinguished for its indepen 
 dence, although he never forgot the courtesy due to his sen 
 iors. With remarkable power of analysis and accuracy of 
 research, he made himself master of every case, that was 
 presented for decision. An opinion pronounced by him in 
 the case of Parks vs. Jackson affords an illustration of his 
 character as a judge. In that case,* a technical rule had 
 been applied by the supreme court, in such a manner as to 
 deprive tenants of valuable estates for which they had con 
 tracted and paid in good faith. The reasons for this decis 
 ion were assigned by Mr. Justice Nelson, of the supreme 
 court, afterward chief justice, and now a judge of the Uni 
 ted States supreme court. Chancellor Walworth followed 
 in an opinion, in which he defended the judgment of the 
 supreme court. Mr. Seward then arose and delivered an 
 adverse opinion, and on the question being taken on rever 
 sing the judgment, all the members of the court, with the 
 
 * Wendell s Report*, Vol. XI, p. 456. 
 
46 CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. 
 
 exception of the chancellor, voted in the affirmative. This 
 seems to have been a case where the technicalities of the 
 law came in conflict with justice. Mr. Seward, prompted 
 by a noble sentiment of right, vindicated the claims of jus 
 tice, against the arbitrary rules of law, carrying the whole 
 court with him, in spite of their previous intentions. 
 
 On the 16th of July, 1834, Mr. Seward delivered a eulo 
 gy* on the life and character of Lafayette, before the citi 
 zens of Auburn. This was a chaste and beautiful produc 
 tion. It presented an admirable analysis of the character 
 of Lafayette, with a discriminating review of the principles 
 of the American Revolution, and of the successive phases of 
 French politics from the death of Louis XVI. An account 
 of a recent personal conversation between Mr. Seward and 
 Lafayette, added greatly to the interest of the discourse. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR DEFEAT AGENT OF HOLLAND 
 
 LAND COMPANY EDUCATION INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD CANDIDATE FOR 
 GOVERNOR ELECTION. 
 
 As the autumn of 1884 approached, when the election of 
 governor was to be made by the people, the whig party 
 were in anxious search of a suitable candidate for the im 
 portant crisis. They were not wanting in men, whose po 
 litical experience, distinguished ability, and brilliant repu 
 tation, eminently qualified them for the office. Of these, 
 some had already been candidates and had suffered defeat. 
 Others lacked the elements of popularity that were essen 
 tial to success. The general impression of the party favor 
 ed the selection of a new man. The younger portion of 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 25. 
 
EDUCATION AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 47 
 
 the wliigs were earnestly desirous that the candidate should 
 be taken from their ranks. Mr. Seward s distinguished sen 
 atorial career had made him prominent before the party 
 and the state. His bold attacks on the policy of the ad 
 ministration had won the gratitude and the admiration of 
 the wliigs. It was mainly through his efforts, that the party 
 had been organized, and no one was better fitted than him 
 self to take the position of their acknowledged leader. 
 
 Accordingly, at the whig state convention held in Utica, 
 September 13, 1834, Mr. Seward was nominated as a can 
 didate for governor. The election came, and he was de 
 feated. The result showed that the whig party had not 
 been able to put forth its full strength. It had not yet 
 gained confidence in its own power to cope with a party 
 that had never been overthrown, and was sustained by the 
 monetary influence of the state and the vast patronage of 
 the national government. Mr. Seward received a flattering 
 vote, and led his ticket in all the counties, but Governor 
 Marcy was re-elected by a majority of about ten thousand. 
 
 Mr. Seward, having escaped the claims of public life, re 
 sumed the practice of his profession at the commencement 
 of the year 1835. Nor did he lose his interest in the great 
 political questions of the day. He still labored, with un 
 shrinking fidelity, in support of the party to which he was 
 attached, and of which, by a large proportion, he was re 
 garded as the head. 
 
 On the 3d of October, 1835, he delivered an address* at 
 Auburn on Education and Internal Improvements. This 
 production was remarkable for its anticipations of the prog 
 ress of the state, and its lucid exposition of the principles 
 of government, which he afterward carried into effect, 
 during his administration as chief magistrate. 
 
 In July, 1836, Mr. Seward established himself in West- 
 field, Chautauque county, for the purpose of assuming an 
 agency to quiet the troubles between the landlords and ten- 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 128. 
 
48 EDUCATION OF FEMALES. 
 
 ants of the Holland company. Serious difficulties had 
 arisen among the settlers on the tract of the company, and 
 the services of Mr. Seward seemed important for the restor 
 ation of tranquillity. A change of scene also it was hoped, 
 would prove favorable to his health, which had become im 
 paired by his assiduous professional labors. The manner 
 in which he conducted this agency subjected him to much 
 reproach in a subsequent political canvass. But of this 
 we shall have occasion to treat in another place.* 
 
 The election for governor in 1886 resulted in favor of 
 Mr. Marcy, who received a majority of nearly 40,000 votes 
 over the whig candidate, Mr. Jesse Bucl. Meantime, Mr. 
 Seward continued his agency, and his professional toil, with 
 extraordinary success. His growing fame produced no 
 abatement of his industry, and he devoted himself to the 
 interests of his clients with the same earnestness and zeal 
 which he had exhibited in his political efforts on the floor 
 of the senate. During this period he prepared several es 
 says, which display genuine literary merit, no less than a 
 spirit of enlarged and comprehensive statesmanship. 
 
 Mr. Seward received an invitation to deliver a discourse 
 on Education! at Westfield in July, 1837. He accepted 
 the service, which he performed with signal ability. The 
 discourse was a clear and eloquent defence of the principle 
 of universal education. It maintained the duty of giving 
 public instruction to all classes of the people, irrespective 
 of condition or circumstances. In regard to the education 
 of females, it claimed for woman the highest standard of 
 \literary attainment, challenging for her the same intellec 
 tual advantages that were enjoyed by the other sex. 
 
 At a meeting of the whigs of Cayuga county, October 11, 
 1837, Mr. Seward delivered a speech of masterly ability. 
 The state of the country called forth his most vigorous elo 
 quence. The commercial revulsion, which he had so long 
 
 * Sec Letters to the citizens of Chautauque county., Vol. III. 
 f See Vol. III., p. 13G. 
 
THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. 49 
 
 predicted, was sweeping over the land. Disastrous experi 
 ence gave ample confirmation to the principles of the whigs. 
 In his speech on this occasion, Mr. Seward earnestly ap 
 pealed to the people to redress their wrongs at the ballot- 
 box. This was only one of many efforts during the canvass. 
 He was indefatigable in his exertions, which were now 
 crowned with the most brilliant success. The election re 
 sulted in the total overthrow of the Albany regency. The 
 whigs gained a triumphant victory throughout the state, 
 electing six out of eight new senators, and one hundred of 
 the one hundred and twenty-eight members of the assembly. 
 
 The New York and Erie railroad was originally under 
 taken by a company chartered while Mr. Seward was a 
 member of the senate. He voted against the charter, not 
 through hostility to the construction of the road, but on the 
 ground that so great an enterprise could not be effected by 
 a corporation, and that the road when completed should 
 pass into the hands of the state, like the Erie canal, for the 
 public benefit. His vote being misrepresented in the elec 
 tion of 1834, he corrected the error in a letter to a commit 
 tee,* declaring himself unreservedly in favor of that great 
 work. As he had predicted, the enterprise languished until 
 1837, when it was abandoned by the regency and its party 
 in the legislature. It was still sustained by the whig ma 
 jority in the assembly, whose policy, however, was rejected 
 by a regency senate. 
 
 A convention of the friends of the railroad was held at 
 Elmira on the 17th of October, 1837, at which Mr. Seward 
 was present. He was the first citizen, living in a portion 
 of the state not immediately interested in the enterprise, 
 who gave it his personal support. At the request of the 
 convention, he prepared an addressf on the subject to the 
 people of the state of New York, in which he gave a brief 
 history of the road, and urged the adoption of efficient 
 measures for its speedy completion. He placed the resump- 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 417. " f See \VL III., \\ 306. 
 
50 THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY. 
 
 tion of the work on the same broad principles of policy 
 which pervaded his subsequent administration. On the 
 strength of such reasonings, the whig party throughout the 
 state gradually yielded their aid to the project, and at 
 length rejoiced in the completion of the truly magnificent 
 structure. 
 
 __ At the whig state convention in 1838, the names of Wil 
 liam H. Seward and Luther Bradish were presented to the 
 electors of the state for governor and lieutenant-governor. 
 The previous defeat of Mr. Seward had not in the least de 
 gree weakened the confidence of his friends. They knew 
 that it was not owing to personal causes, but to the posi 
 tion of parties ; and hence were anxious again to present 
 his claims for the suffrages of the people. Great impor 
 tance was attached to the election by both political parties, 
 on account of its bearing on the presidential campaign of 
 1840. The canvass labored under peculiar difficulties. 
 During a season of great pecuniary embarrassment, Mr. 
 Seward had conducted the affairs of the Holland Land 
 Company to the eve of a prosperous close. His agency in 
 Chautauque county had been managed with discretion and 
 kindness ; but it did not fail to be used by his political op 
 ponents as an instrument of reproach. Hoping to alienate 
 the whigs from their favorite candidate, they charged him 
 with fraud, injustice, and oppression, in his treatment of 
 the settlers, averring that he had employed his official power 
 in the agency for his own private emolument, and the ben 
 efit of land speculators. Mr. Seward was silent in regard 
 to these calumnies, until they had awakened a painful anx 
 iety toward the close of the canvass. He then published 
 his letter to the citizens of Chautauque county,* which, by 
 its clear and cogent statements, put an effectual stop to the 
 slanders that were in circulation and gave him popular 
 strength never enjoyed before. 
 
 The slavery question was another perplexing element in 
 
 Sec Vol. HI., p. 457. 
 
TRIUMPH OF THE WHIG PARTY. 51 
 
 this canvass. The yet distant prospect of the annexation 
 of Texas was viewed with alarm by the friends of liberty 
 at the north. It renewed the discussion of slavery, which 
 had not entered into political movements since the Missouri 
 compromise in 1820. A portion of the citizens of New 
 York, headed by William Jay and Gerrit Smith, had ad 
 dressed letters to the several candidates for office, intended 
 to draw out their views on the subject of slavery. The 
 mass of all parties at that time regarded this course of ac 
 tion with profound disgust. The candidates of the regency 
 party did not hesitate to give a negative answer to the ques 
 tions that had been propounded. The whigs were thought to 
 be placed in an inconvenient dilemma. Mr. Seward s an 
 swer* was at once frank and sagacious. While he expressed 
 without reserve his devotion to human freedom, he limited 
 his aims by a regard to prevailing opinions, and a sense of 
 what was practicable in the attainment of right. His reply 
 did not compromise his popularity, as had been hoped by 
 his opponents. 
 
 The election was warmly contested. With the regency 
 the struggle was for life or death. No measures were neg 
 lected on their part to defeat the candidates of the whigs. 
 Every species of objection was urged against Mr. Seward. 
 The gravest and the most trivial charges were alike brought 
 to bear on the canvass. Among other things he was ac 
 cused of the " atrocious crime" of being a young man, as 
 he was but thirty-three when first nominated for governor, 
 and at this time but thirty-seven. The election took place 
 in November, and in spite of unexpected disasters to the 
 whig cause in all other states, the " young man" was tri 
 umphantly elected. Mr. Seward s majority reached to 
 10,421. The whig party carried the state in every depart 
 ment, and secured a complete ascendency of political 
 power. 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 426. 
 
52 APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GOVERNOR CIRCUMSTANCES MEASURES SCHOOLS CATH 
 OLICS NATIVE-AMERICANS FOREIGNERS LAW REFORM 
 
 DECENTRALIZATION BANKING IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT 
 
 MR. SEWARD was the first whig governor of New York. 
 With the exception of De Witt Clinton, lie was the only 
 one who had ever been elected in opposition to the Albany 
 regency. The party which had virtually dictated the pol 
 icy of the state for nearly fifty years was thus effectually 
 destroyed, and a new development of principles was to be 
 realized under the administration of William H. Seward. 
 
 In entering upon the executive office, Gov. Seward was 
 surrounded with peculiar difficulties. The business of the 
 country had been prostrated by the revulsions of 1836. 
 His political friends looked with confidence to his adminis 
 tration for the financial relief of the public. The whigs, 
 moreover, were in power for the first time. Numerous and 
 excited applicants eagerly pressed their claims for office. 
 In this crisis, Gov. Seward conducted with great modera 
 tion and impartiality. Cautious in making promises, he 
 rejected no application without substantial reasons, which 
 he never took pains to conceal. His frankness in render 
 ing all necessary explanations to a disappointed candidate 
 was equal to the wise reserve with which he abstained from 
 giving undue encouragement.* In this judicious course, 
 however, he did not avoid offence. Applicants were more 
 numerous than offices. Of course, some must be disap 
 pointed. And of these, some rallied around rival states 
 men. Gov. Seward thus incurred the opposition of several 
 
 * See Official Correspondence, Vol. II., p. 589. 
 
AGRICULTURE EDUCATION. 53 
 
 prominent members of the whig party, who, naturally 
 enough, adopted principles different from his own. 
 
 Nor did his election bring the political contest in the 
 state of New York to a close. An important battle had 
 been won, but the campaign was not completed. Never 
 did party zeal run to a greater height than during the 
 period of his administration. In describing his official 
 career, we shall do little more than indicate the principles 
 by which it was inspired, as delivered in his messages and 
 other executive papers. 
 
 Among the measures to which the attention of Gov. Sew- 
 ard was early directed, was the completion of a lunatic 
 asylum, and the adoption of a judicious and humane system 
 for the treatment of the insane. Before his retirement from 
 office, his suggestions in this behalf were carried into suc 
 cessful operation. Frequently visiting this and other chari 
 ties of the state, he recommended them to the patronage of 
 the legislature, as well by his example as his counsels. 
 
 In the exercise of the pardoning power, Gov. Seward 
 exercised, we think, a greater degree of wisdom than most 
 of his predecessors. At the same time he labored for the 
 introduction of milder forms of punishment in the peniten 
 tiaries, substituting moral discipline for the lash. These 
 reforms were afterward adopted by the legislature. 
 
 The interests of agriculture always received the fostering 
 care of Gov. Seward. He was anxious for the establish 
 ment of an agricultural department in the state, with a 
 view to the especial promotion of that important source of 
 public prosperity. His efforts for that measure, however, 
 were not seconded by the legislature, and have remained 
 to this day without direct fruit. 
 
 Upon the accession of Gov. Seward to office, the system 
 of normal schools, in connection with academies and com 
 mon-school libraries, had been partially established. These 
 measures received his cordial and efficient support. At 
 his suggestion, a system of visitation and inspection of 
 
54 EDUCATION AND THE CATHOLICS. 
 
 9 
 
 common schools was adopted by the legislature, although 
 it has failed to be earned into full effect, much to the 
 detriment of the cause of popular education. 
 
 In his messages, Gov. Seward took the ground that the 
 welfare of the state demanded the education of all its chil 
 dren,* not as a matter of charity, but of justice and public 
 safety. The defects in the public schools of New York 
 city led him to recommend a modification of the system, 
 and the ultimate substitution of the plan which prevailed 
 in the rest of the state. A prejudice, partaking of both a 
 national and religious character, had come down from the 
 colonial period against foreigners, and especially against 
 catholics. It was this class of the population that would 
 be most directly benefited by the change in the city schools. 
 It was proposed to admit catholic teachers with the same 
 facilities as others. An alarm was at once raised through 
 out the state. The protestant cause was declared to be in 
 danger, from the undue ascendency of the catholics. Reli 
 gious bigotry was thus excited. The hostility of both 
 protestant clergy and laity was arrayed against the gov 
 ernor. He was labelled in effigy in New York. The press 
 teemed with abuse of his person and measures. Meantime 
 his political opponents, who had always professed to be 
 more friendly to foreigners and catholics than the whigs, 
 did not fail to take advantage of the popular jealousy for 
 the promotion of their views. The whigs, on the other 
 hand, who were accustomed to contend with naturalized 
 foreigners at the polls, were unwilling to accord them any 
 privileges. Between the two parties, Gov. Seward was 
 obliged to maintain the contemplated reform on its own 
 merits. His influence was greatly impaired by the general 
 impression that the measures in question were not only un 
 tenable in themselves, but that they had their origin in sin 
 ister political purposes. This impression, however, was 
 
 * See Ann. Messages, Vol. II., pp. 206, 216, 278; also page 212 of this vol. 
 
THE SCHOOL CONTROVERSY. 55 
 
 wholly unfounded, and did great injustice to Gov. Seward. 
 His efforts in behalf of the children of catholics sprang from 
 a deep conviction of the importance of education to all 
 men, without regard to condition or circumstances.* Du 
 ring his travels in Ireland in 1833, he saw the effect of 
 British policy in depriving the catholic population of the 
 means of instruction. The people, thus kept in abject igno 
 rance, were more easily made the victims of oppression and 
 tyranny, and more liable to become seditious and treason 
 able. This spectacle produced a strong impression on his 
 mind. He became anxious that the catholics in America 
 should be put in possession of the advantages of education, 
 and so be assimilated to the native population.! 
 
 The controversy on the school question continued through 
 out the whole of Gov. Seward s administration. It affected 
 his popularity so much as to deprive him of about two 
 thousand votes on his re-election. The result, however, 
 has shown his far-reaching sagacity. Like many other 
 measures proposed by Gov. Seward, this was in advance 
 of public opinion, but has since commended itself to the 
 good sense of the people. At the first session of the legis 
 lature, after his retirement from office, his plan for the 
 education of all classes of children, not excluding those of 
 foreigners and catholics, was adopted by decisive majori 
 ties. No doubt has since arisen as to the utility of the 
 measure, except on the part of those whose religious 
 scruples had led them to decline a participation in its 
 advantages. 
 
 His attention was first called to this question by the fact, 
 that the annual school returns from New York showed that 
 there were about twenty-five thousand children in that city 
 who did not attend school, and were thus left exposed to 
 the allurements of vice and crime. 
 
 * See General Correspondence. Letters to Bishop Hughes and others, 
 Vol. IIL 
 f See Letters from Europe, Vol. IIL 
 
56 LAW REFORM. 
 
 Along with these efforts of Gov. Seward in behalf of 
 educational reform, he was also actively engaged in. the 
 removal of the prejudices between native Americans and 
 adopted citizens. His recommendations to successive legis 
 latures for abolishing the legal disabilities under which 
 foreigners labored were, with more or less reluctance, ulti 
 mately adopted.* 
 
 The city of New York was at that time just beginning 
 to be crowded with immigrants, who poured into the coun 
 try from foreign lands. Overtaken by poverty and disease, 
 they served to fill the almshouses and the prisons. Their 
 overflowing numbers increased the amount both of wretch 
 edness and of crime. In order to lessen the evil, a tax 
 upon immigrants was recommended by the mayor of New 
 York. The proposal met with general favor. Under these 
 circumstances, the public was astounded by the suggestions 
 of Gov. Seward for the encouragement of immigration. He 
 maintained that the surplus labor of foreign lands should 
 be employed to advantage in developing the natural re 
 sources of this country. Instead of shutting our doors upon 
 the down-trodden immigrant, he insisted that we should 
 welcome him to a share in our industry and citizenship. 
 This generous and humane policy, however, was vehemently 
 condemned. It subjected its author to great reproach. 
 Still, as in the case of the school reform, his measures were 
 finally adopted by the state. In 1847 they were made the 
 subject of discussion in the legislature, and, having passed 
 that body, have since been a part of the established policy 
 of New York. 
 
 The courts of law and of chancery in the state of New 
 York had, from time immemorial, been subject to a variety 
 of expensive delays. Organized on the model of the Eng 
 lish system, the higher courts consisted of judges, a chan 
 cellor, and a vice-chancellor, appointed by the governor 
 and senate, and holding office until sixty years of age. In 
 
 * See Anminl Messages, Vol. IT. 
 
DECENTRALIZATION. 57 
 
 the common-pleas the judges were appointed for five years 
 by the same power. The legal practice was marked by all 
 the prolixity, technicalities, and superfluous expense of the 
 English courts. The judiciary and the banking powers 
 were combined with overpowering and overshadowing influ 
 ences by the Albany regency. Gov. Seward exerted all 
 his influence in favor of reform. He was opposed by both 
 the bar and the judiciary. In opposition to their combined 
 efforts, he secured the passage of bills in the legislature 
 for reducing the expenses, and simplifying the practice in 
 all the courts of the state. Nor did he stop with this 
 measure for the relief of the public. He urged a complete 
 reform in the constitution of the courts. His plan involved 
 the abolition of the court of chancery, and a new organiza 
 tion of the supreme courts and the common pleas. The 
 legislature did not receive his suggestions with favor ; but 
 they did not fail to exert a salutary influence on the public 
 mind. No one can doubt that they prepared the way for 
 the radical change in the constitution effected in 1846. 
 Under this arrangement, the court of chancery, after an 
 existence of over one hundred and fifty years, was abol 
 ished, and all judicial offices made elective by the people. 
 
 It was the desire of Governor Seward from the com 
 mencement of his official career, to effect the decentraliza 
 tion of the political power in the state. By the existing 
 laws, the judges of common pleas were associated in the 
 respective counties with the board of supervisors in the ap 
 pointment of commissioners of deeds, superintendents of the 
 poor, and other county officers. The boards of supervisors 
 were usually divided in politics, and hence the appoint 
 ments were in fact decided by the central power at Albany, 
 from which the judges received their offices. At the rec 
 ommendation of Governor Seward the appointing power 
 was withdrawn from the judges, and the election of most 
 of these offices given to the people. His efforts for redu 
 cing the emoluments of several favorites in public office were 
 
58 SMALL BILLS AGRICULTURE. 
 
 partially sanctioned by the legislature. But his recommen 
 dation to abolish the offices of inspector of various branches 
 of produce and manufacture was not adopted until after the 
 close of his administration. 
 
 The safety-fund system, of which Governor Seward had 
 always been a decided opponent, exploded in 1837. A 
 general banking law, passed by the whig assembly of 1838, 
 gave the liberty of banking to any voluntary association of 
 citizens. The new system, however, was at first defective 
 in its details. Many of the banks under this organization 
 failed, producing a loss to the bill-holders. During Gov 
 ernor Seward s administration, the law was revised, and 
 with successive improvements, has become the settled 
 policy of the state, and has also been adopted by several 
 other states of the Union. 
 
 A warm discussion arose during this period, in regard to 
 the minimum denomination of bank paper to be used as a 
 circulating medium. In accordance with the views of Gen 
 eral Jackson, bills under five dollars were prohibited by 
 the legislature of 1837. The senate of 1838 refused to re 
 peal this law. At the recommendation of Governor Seward 
 in 1839, the act was repealed by the whig legislature and 
 no attempt has been made to restore it since. 
 
 The geological survey of the state, which had been com 
 menced pursuant to an act of the legislature in 1836, was 
 brought to a completion, under the auspices of Governor 
 Seward. At his suggestion, the legislature appropriated 
 funds from time to time for its prosecution, and established 
 a depository for the preservation of specimens illustrative 
 of the natural history of the state. This, he recommended 
 should be made the foundation for a system of popular in 
 struction in the natural sciences, with a view to the improve 
 ment of agriculture. The spirit of his suggestion has been 
 carried into effect by the state agricultural society, in its 
 system of popular lectures and discussions which are held 
 in the Geological museum at Albanv. 
 
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 59 
 
 The results of the geological survey were embodied in a 
 series of quarto volumes, which ultimately reached the num 
 ber of thirteen. Governor Seward prepared an elaborate 
 introduction to the work, consisting of a review of the set 
 tlement, progress, and condition of the state of New York, 
 somewhat on the plan of Mr. Jefferson s " Notes on Virgin 
 ia." This historical essay is written in a style of admirable 
 clearness and fluency, abounding in recondite and valuable 
 information, and pervaded by an elevated tone of patriotism 
 and humanity. It appears in the Works of Mr. Seward 
 under the title of " Notes on New York."* 
 
 The abolition of imprisonment for debt, effected in 1832, 
 did not reach the class of non-resident debtors, or those 
 held by process issuing from the United States courts. 
 Governor Seward was opposed, both from feeling and prin 
 ciple, to depriving unfortunate debtors of their liberty and 
 of the opportunity to provide for their families. He had 
 not been long in the executive office, when he procured the 
 passage of laws, which swept away these relics of barbar 
 ism from the jurisprudence of the state. 
 
 * See Vol. IT., p. 9 to 180. 
 
GO ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GOVERNOR, CONTINUED ANTI-RENT TROUBLES ELECTIONS 
 REGISTRY ACT CANADIAN DISTURBANCES THE M<LEOD 
 CASE EXCITEMENT. 
 
 IN general, the laws of the state were faithfully execu 
 ted during Governor Seward s administration. There was, 
 however, an exception. In the counties of Albany and 
 Rensselaer, was a tract of land, fifty miles square, lying 
 on both sides of the Hudson river, which was claimed to 
 have been granted by the Dutch government, at an early 
 day to the Van Rensselaer family, and which was originally 
 denominated the manor of " Rensselaerwyck." The lands 
 on this tract had not been granted in fee to settlers, as 
 elsewhere, but had been farmed out on perpetual leases, 
 securing annuities to the proprietor (denominated the Pa- 
 troon), payable in kind and in labor, and containing cove 
 nants, raising charges upon alienation. The late patroon, 
 Hon. Stephen Yan Rensselaer, had allowed numerous ar 
 rearages of rent to remain uncollected for many years. At 
 his decease, his heirs .demanded payment of these arrear 
 ages. The tenants refused to comply. Diiferenccs grow 
 ing out of these matters, which extended back through a 
 period of near fifty years, ripened, in 1839, into discontents, 
 popular outbreaks, and open resistance of the laws. Refu 
 sing to tamper with such violent proceedings for a moment, 
 Governor Seward issued his proclamation,* calling upon 
 the discontented to reflect upon the nature and consequences 
 of their unlawful acts, and apply to the legislature for re 
 dress of their grievances, pledging himself to grant them 
 
 * Seo Vol. IF., p. 302. 
 
VINDICATION OF GOVERNOR SEWAKD. 61 
 
 every aid in his power, in bringing their complaints before 
 that body. This proclamation was accompanied by the or 
 ganization and despatch of a military force, which, acting 
 under the authority of the sheriff , attended him until he 
 had executed the legal processes in his hands, including 
 those against the individuals who had resisted the laws. 
 
 In announcing these measures to the legislature in his 
 annual message, in 1840,* Governor Seward discussed the 
 nature of the tenures out of which the disturbances had 
 arisen, and recommended that efforts should be made for 
 the removal of the difficulty which threatened to be lasting 
 and serious in its consequences. He urged a compromise 
 of the conflicting claims of landlord and tenant, with their 
 consent, and without injustice to cither party. The recom 
 mendation was adopted, and Hugh Maxwell and Gary V. 
 Sackett, Esqs., were appointed commissioners to effect, if 
 possible, a satisfactory adjustment. After examining the 
 subject, and hearing all the parties, the commissioners de 
 cided on the basis of an adjustment, which they recom 
 mended for the adoption of the litigants. The tenants as 
 sented. But the landlord, under mistaken advice, refused 
 the proffered terms, and insisted on the rights secured in 
 his leases. So the settlement failed. 
 
 During the residue of Governor Seward s administration, 
 the laws were executed throughout the discontented re 
 gions, as in the other parts of the state. But the contro 
 versy between the proprietors of the Rensselaer manor and 
 the tenants, still continued, and has not been settled to the 
 present time. Loud complaints were made against the 
 governor for what was alleged to be an unjust concession 
 to the claims of the tenants, in treating the restraints on 
 alienation and other features in these cases, as illegal and 
 inexpedient. Since Governor Seward s retirement from 
 the executive office, armed resistance has been more than 
 once renewed, and a ruinous litigation has never been sus- 
 
 * S.-e V>1. T!.. p. 219 
 
62 REFORM IN ELECTION LAWS. 
 
 pended. The court of appeals has recently vindicated the 
 views of Governor Seward, by declaring the restraints upon 
 alienation, illegal and void. 
 
 This affair furnishes another instance of Governor Sew- 
 ayd s clear forecast and sound wisdom, in the adoption of 
 measures for the removal of existing evils. For the time 
 being, owing to a want of equally enlarged views, his rec 
 ommendations have been discarded. But time vindicates 
 their soundness. In the present case, after the subject had 
 been litigated, discussed, and argued for years, before le 
 gislatures and courts, the decision was finally made in con 
 formity with the views he had originally urged upon the 
 parties interested. 
 
 In his earlier years. Governor Seward, as we have seen, 
 devoted considerable attention to military affairs. During 
 his administration, he labored for the accomplishment of 
 certain reforms in the militia system, which he had urged 
 while a member of the senate. Its unequal operation was 
 regarded by him as an infringement of personal rights, and 
 a great public evil. He endeavored to relieve the members 
 of the society of Friends, and other persons who declined 
 performing military duty from religious scruples. This 
 measure was not adopted by the legislature. But he did 
 not fail to use the pardoning power of the executive in be 
 half of those, who had incurred the penalty of the law, in 
 obedience to their consciences. In this course, Governor 
 Seward was true to the enlarged and liberal sentiments, 
 which he had long cherished, in regard to religious free 
 dom.* It was one of his strongest convictions, that no class 
 of citizens should suffer from legal disabilities, on account 
 of matters of conscience. Here, too, his views, at last, re 
 ceived the sanction of public opinion, and the changes in 
 the militia system, which he had urged in his messages, be 
 came the policy of the state. 
 
 Previously to 1841, the elections in New York occupied 
 
 * See Miscellaneous Correspondence, Vol. III., p. 481. 
 
THE REGISTRY ACT. 63 
 
 
 
 three days a single board of inspectors receiving all the 
 votes in each town or ward. This arrangement occasioned 
 numerous inconveniences. In the larger cities, especially, 
 it gave rise to a system of frauds and combinations, impair 
 ing the purity of elections, and impeding the voter in the 
 exercise of his political rights. Violent contests took place 
 at the polls, which often resulted in the destruction of the 
 ballot-box. Every one acknowledged and deplored the 
 evil. It was not so easy, however, to discover the remedy. 
 The whigs were in favor of an act of registration ; but this 
 was regarded by the opposite party as a scheme to deprive 
 the poorer classes of the exercise of suffrage. As the sup 
 port of both the great political parties of the day was essen 
 tial to the success of the measure, the whigs modified their 
 demands, limiting the call for a registry to the city of New 
 York. Governor Seward could not give this course his 
 approval. He was opposed to all partial, invidious legis 
 lation. Nor could he be convinced of the practicability of 
 the measure, in the existing state of feeling. He accord 
 ingly dissuaded his friends from urging the passage of such 
 an act. In its place, he recommended the division of towns 
 and wards into election districts, each containing not more 
 than five hundred voters, and the limitation of the time for 
 holding elections to a single day. These suggestions were 
 accepted by the whigs, who then formed a majority of the 
 legislature. But under the influence of members from New 
 York, they added a provision for a registry act in that city. 
 Governor Seward was thus again brought into collision 
 with his political friends. He prepared a veto message,* 
 presenting his objections to the feature of the bill establish 
 ing a registry. On consultation, however, with the whigs, 
 it was found that even if the bill should not pass in spite of 
 the veto, yet the party would be convulsed by the conse 
 quent excitement, and incur the hazard of yielding the con 
 trol of the state to their political opponents. The governor 
 
 "- See Vol. IT., p. 379. 
 
64 CANADIAN DISTURBANCES. 
 
 was thus induced to suppress the veto and approve the bill, 
 frankly stating to the legislature his objections to the fea 
 ture in question, and predicting its ultimate effect. An 
 election was held under the new law, in the following au 
 tumn. The city of New York returned a democratic ma 
 jority, induced by the new provision. The legislature at 
 once repealed it by a unanimous vote. The other provis 
 ions of the law still remain in force. 
 
 The patriot disturbance in Canada which occurred in 
 1837, awakened deep interest among the people of the 
 United States, who lived adjacent to the frontier. A mili 
 tary corps was organized to aid the Canadians in their 
 struggle for independence. The federal government adopt 
 ed stringent measures to enforce the neutrality laws. Du 
 ring these excitements an event took place which threatened 
 serious embarrassment to the relations of the United States 
 with Great Britain. On the night of December 29, 1837, 
 an armed force from Canada crossed the Niagara river, at 
 tacked a party of American citizens, who were then asleep 
 in the steamboat Caroline, lying in the river at Schlosser. 
 One man was killed ; the rest were driven ashore. Having 
 cut out the steamboat, the invaders set her on lire, towed 
 her into the current of the stream and sent her flaming over 
 Niagara Falls. This outrage everywhere excited the deep 
 est indignation. In the border counties especially, the 
 people were almost in a frenzy of passion. 
 
 Three years after this occurrence, in the winter of 1840, 
 a citizen of Canada, named Alexander M Leod, while on a 
 visit to Niagara county, was said to have boasted that lie was 
 an active member of the party which destroyed the Caro 
 line. As he was known to be a warm loyalist, the assertion 
 was readily believed. He was arrested on the charge of ar 
 son, and committed to jail. In due course of law he was sub 
 sequently indicted for that crime, and detained for trial. 
 Upon this the British minister at "Washington, Mr. Fox, 
 made a reclamation on Mr. Van Buren, then president of 
 
THE M LEOD CASE. 65 
 
 the United States, in behalf of the prisoner. He insisted 
 that the destruction of the Caroline was an act of war, for 
 which the British government should be held responsible, 
 and not a private individual. Hence he protested against 
 the trial of M Leod, and demanded his release from impris 
 onment. The president did not assent to the position of 
 Mr. Fox ; he maintained that the act was a violation of the 
 jurisdiction of New York, and of the United States in time 
 of peace. Even assuming the views of Mr. Fox to be cor 
 rect, the matter belonged to the courts of New York for 
 judicial examination, with which the federal government 
 could not interfere. 
 
 The decision of Mr. Van Buren was immediately commu 
 nicated to Governor Seward, while Mr. Fox, on the other 
 hand, submitted the subject for instruction to his govern 
 ment at home. Governor Seward promptly and dispassion 
 ately replied to the president accepting his decision on the 
 part of New York. This reply did not reach Washington 
 until after the 4th of March, 1841, when the administration 
 had passed into the hands of General Harrison. The affair 
 was accordingly intrusted to Mr. Webster, the secretary 
 of state under the new president. 
 
 Meantime Governor Seward had despatched the attorney- 
 general of the state, Hon. Willis Hall, to Niagara, in order 
 to ascertain the facts relative to the transaction. The result 
 of the investigation convinced the governor that the evidence 
 was insufficient to sustain the indictment, as it appeared 
 that M Leod was not even on the American side of the river 
 during the night on which the Caroline was destroyed. 
 
 Mr. Fox was instructed by his government to insist on 
 the positions which lie had assumed. He accordingly de 
 manded the surrender of M Leod, menacing the president 
 with hostilities in case of non-compliance. In reply to Mr. 
 Fox, General Harrison conceded that M Leod could not bo 
 held to trial for the alleged offence, thus confirming the 
 views of the British government. This decision was com- 
 
66 THE M LEOD CASE THE TRIAL. 
 
 municatcd to Governor Seward, in a letter from the secre 
 tary of state, through Mr. Crittenden, the attorney-general 
 of the United States, who announced the wish of the presi 
 dent that a nolle prosequi should be entered, and a stop 
 put to further proceedings. Mr. Crittenden was despatched 
 by the president to Niagara county, with directions to ap 
 pear in court in behalf of M Leod, and to urge upon Gov 
 ernor Seward the entering of a nolle prosequi. In conver 
 sing upon the subject, Mr. Crittenden informed Governor 
 Seward, that Great Britain would declare war against the 
 United States unless the surrender of M Leod took place. 
 It appeared, however, on further explanation, that the re 
 taliation threatened by Great Britain was made contingent 
 not on the detention, nor on the trial, nor even on the con 
 viction of M Leod, but on his execution. This view was 
 sustained by the correspondence with Mr. Fox. Governor 
 Seward then informed Mr. Crittenden of the course he 
 should pursue. In the first place, it was not probable that 
 M Leod would be convicted, as there was no proof of his 
 guilt but if convicted, he could not be executed without 
 the governor s consent ; and inasmuch as both governments 
 agreed that his conviction would be an infringement of in 
 ternational law, however he might differ from that opinion, 
 he should feel bound to release the prisoner from his sen 
 tence. He added, moreover, that all the questions belong 
 ing to the case, must come under the cognizance of the 
 state court, and therefore it was necessary for the trial to 
 proceed. But this course involved no risk of compromising 
 our relations with Great Britain,for the reasons already stated. 
 The trial, accordingly, was postponed. Mr. Crittenden 
 returned to Washington to lay the views of Governor Sew 
 ard before the president and his cabinet. It was under 
 stood that, if these views were not approved, the subject 
 should receive further examination. But the sudden death 
 of General Harrison, and the consequent dissolution of the 
 cabinet, left the matter as it was. 
 
THE M LEOD CASE THE RESULT. 67 
 
 Meantime, Joshua A. Spencer, Esq., who had been al 
 ready retained as counsel for M Leod, was appointed United 
 States district attorney for the northern district of New 
 York, although against the earnest remonstrances of Gov 
 ernor Scward. At the succeeding term of the supreme 
 court, Mr. Spencer appeared with instructions from the 
 president, and demanded M Lcod s discharge from the in 
 dictment, without the formality of a trial. The motion was 
 resisted by Willis Hall, Esq., in behalf of the state, under 
 the direction of the governor. After elaborate arguments 
 on both sides, the demand for M Leod s release was denied, 
 sustaining the ground taken by President Van Buren and 
 Governor Seward in opposition to the views of President 
 Tyler. 
 
 In spite of the fact that war was suspended, not on the 
 trial, but on the execution of M Leod, the public mind was 
 greatly excited by the fear of a collision with Great Brit 
 ain. Governor Seward was reproached, in many political 
 and commercial circles, with pursuing recklessly a course 
 that tended to plunge the two nations in war. But this had 
 no effect on his determination. He was convinced of the 
 justice of his measures, and resolutely proceeded to carry 
 them into effect. 
 
 At length the time for holding the court arrived. It was 
 convened at Utica, remote from the immediate scene of ex 
 citement. On trial before a learned and impartial judge, 
 M Leod was acquitted, for want of evidence that he was 
 concerned in the outrage. He was then sent into the Brit 
 ish territory by Governor Seward, under an escort, and 
 safely delivered on the north side of the Niagara river. 
 
 This critical transaction affords a fresh illustration of 
 Governor Seward s firmness and sagacity. Had he listened 
 to the advisers whose fears dictated to their judgment, and 
 followed the cowardly policy of President x Tyler, he would 
 have disgraced both the state and the nation in the eyes of 
 the world. But his bold and manly course sustained the 
 
68 ENLARGEMENT OF THE ERIE CANAL. 
 
 honor of the country. The fortunate conclusion of the affair 
 restored the public mind to tranquillity, and strengthened 
 the administration of the state in the esteem of the people.* 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GOVERNOR, CONTINUED CANALS ENLARGEMENT FINAN 
 CIAL CRISIS PANIC SUSPENSION OF PUBLIC WORKS 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 THE Erie and Chain plain canals were completed in 1825. 
 This great enterprise of internal improvements had been 
 brought to a prosperous completion by De Witt Clinton, 
 against the strenuous opposition of the Albany regency. 
 But even before these works were finished, it was seen that 
 they could not attain the objects of their construction with 
 out the addition of lateral canals, connecting with the Sus- 
 quehanna and other rivers on the south, and with Lake On 
 tario on the north. The Erie canal was but forty feet wide, 
 and four feet deep. It was soon evident, that, instead of a 
 canal of such limited capacity, a ship-canal was necessary 
 to unite the navigation of the lakes with that of Hudson 
 river. As early as 1835, it was found necessary to replace 
 the locks and other structures of the Erie canal. At the 
 same time, the state debt incurred in its construction, and 
 that of the Champlain canal, had been virtually paid. Un 
 der these favorable circumstances, the legislature voted the 
 enlargement of the Erie canal, on a scale to be fixed by the 
 canal board. The scale adopted was seventy feet wide and 
 seven feet deep, with double instead of single locks, as be 
 fore used. But the act limited the expenditures for the en 
 largement to the annual surplus of the tolls after deducting a 
 large amount for the general purposes of the state treasury. 
 
 * See Correspondence, Vol. IT., pp. 547-586. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 69 
 
 Iii 1836, the construction of the Genesee Valley and the 
 Black River canals was decided on by the legislature. 
 These works were intended as branches of the system of 
 internal improvements which had previously been com 
 pleted, including the Oswego, Seneca, and Cayuga and 
 Crooked Lake and Chenango canals. A loan of three mil 
 lions of dollars had been made, during the same year, to 
 the New York and Erie Railroad Company, for the aid of 
 their enterprise. The next year saw the progress of all 
 these works, while the canal commissioners recommended 
 a more vigorous prosecution of the enlargement of the Erie 
 canal. The recommendation was urgently renewed by Gov 
 ernor Marcy and the canal commissioners in 1838. But the 
 state was then suffering from a commercial revulsion. The 
 comptroller, Mr. Flagg, indirectly opposed the recommend 
 ations, in a report insisting on the necessity of taxation for 
 the support of the treasury. This report was answered by 
 Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, chairman of the committee of 
 ways and means in the assembly, who showed that the in 
 crease of tolls on the canals would sustain a loan of thirty 
 millions of dollars, reimbursing it in twenty years, or of forty 
 millions of dollars, reimbursing it in twenty-eight years. In 
 accordance with this estimate, the legislature, in 1838, made 
 an appropriation of four millions of dollars for the prosecu 
 tion of the enlargement, and authorized the loan of eight 
 hundred thousand dollars on the credit of the state, in aid 
 of the Central and other railroads. 
 
 Such was the condition of internal improvements in the 
 state, when Mr. Seward entered upon the executive office 
 on the first of January, 1839. The state debt was then 
 eleven millions of dollars ; but there were four millions of 
 dollars in the treasury available for the public works, re 
 ducing the actual debt to about seven millions of dollars. 
 Governor Seward vigorously followed upr the legislative 
 policy of 1838. He recommended that measures should 
 be adopted to secure the enlargement of the Erie canal, 
 
70 FINANCIAL CRISIS AND PANIC. 
 
 and the completion of the lateral canals, before the year 
 1845. 
 
 The report of Mr. Flagg, the comptroller, who retired 
 on the coming in of the whig administration, presented an 
 alarming picture of debt, taxation, and bankruptcy, as the 
 consequences of perseverance in the public works. Mr. 
 Flagg was supported by the opposition party in the legisla 
 ture and throughout the state, while Governor Seward was 
 sustained by the whigs with great unanimity. 
 
 To increase the embarrassments of the whig administra 
 tion, and to shake the public confidence in the ability of 
 the state to complete the system in which it was engaged, 
 it was now discovered that the canal commissioners who 
 had recommended the new enterprises had made too low an 
 estimate of their cost, which, instead of fifteen millions, 
 three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, for the en 
 largement of the Erie and the construction of the Gencsce 
 Valley and the Black River canals, would amount to thirty 
 millions, four hundred and forty-four thousand dollars. 
 
 The people were alarmed by this unexpected announce 
 ment. Oppressed by pecuniary difficulties in every depart 
 ment of business, the public was divided in opinion. The 
 whigs maintained the wisdom and necessity of completing 
 the public works in spite of the errors of the estimate. But 
 the opposing party condemned the policy in very decided 
 terms. They predicted an insupportable burden of taxa 
 tion, and ultimate repudiation as its inevitable consequence. 
 This was the great issue between the two parties during 
 the whole of Governor Seward s administration. 
 
 A crisis at length came. The failure of Pennsylvania, 
 Michigan, Illinois, Mississippi, Maryland, and other states 
 which had largely engaged in schemes of internal improve 
 ment, produced in 1841 a general depreciation of American 
 credit in Europe. The stocks of New York, which had 
 been pledged abroad, were returned, glutting the market 
 in our commercial cities. The capitalists became alarmed. 
 
SUSPENSION OP THE PUBLIC WORKS. 71 
 
 With a view to prevent a further decline in securities, they 
 combined with the opposition party against the prosecution 
 of the public works. Their measures were met by Gov 
 ernor Seward with decided resistance. In his messages to 
 the legislature, he forcibly remonstrated against suspending 
 the improvements already commenced. Maintaining that, 
 in spite of the fall of public credit abroad, the true policy 
 of the state was unchanged, he clearly set forth the evils 
 that would ensue from the abandonment of the enterprise. 
 But it was all in vain. Political managers took advantage 
 of the prevailing panic to counteract the policy of the gov 
 ernor. The moneyed interest chimed in. His sagacious 
 admonitions were unheeded, and the legislature, in 1842, 
 put a stop to the progress of internal improvement. In his 
 message, at the extra session of 184^2, he thus alludes to 
 the sudden and humiliating close of these prosperous and 
 well-directed enterprises : 
 
 "For the first time in the quarter of a century which has elapsed since 
 the ground was broken for the Erie canal, a governor of the state of New 
 York, in meeting the legislature, finds himself unable to announce the con 
 tinued progress of improvement. The officers charged with the care of the 
 public works have arrested all proceedings in the enlargement of the Erie 
 canal and the construction of the auxiliary works. The New York and 
 Erie railroad, with the exception of forty-six miles from the eastern termi 
 nation, lies in unfinished fragments throughout the long line of southern 
 counties stretching four hundred miles from the "VValkill to Lake Erie. The 
 Genesee Valley canal, excepting the portion between Dansville and Roch 
 ester, lies in hopeless abandonment. The Black River canal, which was 
 more than two thirds completed during the last year, has been left wholly 
 unavailable. As if this were not enough, two railroads, toward the con 
 struction of which the state had contributed half a million of dollars, and 
 public-spirited citizens large sums in addition, have been brought to a forced 
 sale, and sacrificed with almost total loss to the treasury, without yielding 
 any indemnity to the stockholders, and without even securing a guaranty 
 that the people would be permitted to enjoy the use of the improvements." 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs on the first of January, 
 1843, when Governor Seward resigned the administration 
 of the state into the hands of his successor. A convention 
 was called in 184G to revise the constitution, containing a 
 
72 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF GOVERNOR SEWARD s POLICY. 
 
 large democratic majority. It incorporated provisions in 
 the constitution, prohibiting the enlargement of the public 
 works, except under stringent, and, as it was thought at 
 the time, impracticable conditions. Still the canals, ex 
 ceeding the largest estimates of the late whig administra 
 tion, furnished the means for a gradual prosecution of the 
 contemplated improvements until 1850. The whigs being 
 in power at that time, it was ascertained that the sum of 
 nine millions of dollars would suffice to complete the public 
 works- on the original plan. Et was also ascertained that 
 this object could be accomplished without pledging the 
 credit of the state, by a simple transfer of the surplus tolls 
 of the canals for a short term of years. Daniel Webster, 
 John C. Spencer, and other eminent jurists, to whom the 
 question had been submitted, expressed the opinion that 
 such a measure would be in accordance with the provisions 
 of the constitution. After a vehement party struggle, the 
 legislature of 1851 decided on its adoption. The adverse 
 party brought the question before the state courts, which 
 finally declared that the law was unconstitutional. Still, 
 few can now doubt the wisdom of the policy maintained by 
 Governor Seward.* It only remains to determine how the 
 constitutional prohibitions of 1846, as expounded by the 
 court of appeals, shall be modified so as to allow the speedy 
 attainment of the great object. f 
 
 The agency of Governor Seward in behalf of internal iin- 
 
 * See Vol. II., pp. 183-212. 
 
 \ Since the above was written, Governor Se ward s views linve been sig 
 nally vindicated by the legislature and the people, and his policy re-estab 
 lished. By an amendment of the constitution, the proposed enlargement is 
 to be speedily accomplished, the legislature of 1854 having passed the 
 amendment by an almost unanimous vote. In the senate the nyes were 
 twenty-nine, and the nays none; absent three. In the assembly there were 
 one hundred and fifteen ayee, and one nay; absent twelve. The voice of 
 the people, sanctioning the act of the legislature, was no less emphatic. 
 The amendment, having been submitted to the people at a special election, 
 was confirmed by the following voto: for the amendment, 185,802; against 
 the amendment, 60,556. 
 
RAILROADS PROJECTED. 73 
 
 provements was by no means limited to the canal system. 
 Upon his accession to the executive office, railroads were a 
 recent invention. They had been adopted only to a com 
 paratively small extent in any part of the United States. 
 They still met with a strenuous opposition from many of the 
 leading NCAV York politicians. The only railroads in the 
 state were the Harlem, eight miles in length, and the Alba 
 ny and Utica, ninety-five miles in length. Great efforts had 
 been made to extend the latter road from Utica toward the 
 west ; but popular prejudice and pecuniary embarrassment 
 were too strong for the corporations. The construction of 
 the New York and Erie railroad had been abandoned ; but 
 Governor Seward from the first was an earnest advocate of 
 the improvement. With almost prophetic sagacity, he con 
 stantly predicted the success of this new mode of locomo 
 tion. His zeal in its behalf excited alarm in the conserva 
 tive, commercial, and political circles. 
 
 In his annual message in 1839,* he expressed himself in 
 the following words : 
 
 "This wonderful agent [steam] has achieved, almost unobserved, a new 
 triumph, which is destined to effect incalculable results in the social system. 
 This is its application to locomotion upon the land. Time and money are 
 convertible. Husbandry of the one is economy of the other, and either is 
 equivalent to the economy of labor. Railroads effect a saving of time and 
 money; and, notwithstanding all the incredulity and opposition they en 
 counter, they will henceforth be among the common auxiliaries of enter 
 prise. Happily it is not in our power to fetter the energies of other states, 
 although we may repress our own. This useful invention, like all others, 
 will be adopted by them, although it gain no favor from us; and they who 
 are willing that New York shall have no railroads, must be ready to see all 
 the streams of prosperity seek other channels, and our state sink into the 
 condition of Venice, prostrate and powerless, among the monuments of her 
 earlier greatness. A glance at the map would render obvious the utility of 
 three great lines of communication, by railroads, between the Hudson river 
 and the borders of the state. One of these would traverse several of the 
 northern counties, and reach with its branches to Lake Ontario and the St. 
 Lawrence. A second, keeping the vicinity of the Erie canal, would con 
 nect Albany and Buffalo. A third would stretch through the southern 
 counties, from New York to Lake Erie." 
 
 * See Vol. IT., p. 183. 
 
 4 
 
74 NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. 
 
 These confident predictions have since become magnifi 
 cent realities. In his messages and speeches, Governor 
 Seward also urged the construction of a railroad on the 
 banks of the Hudson, from New York to Albany. Indeed, 
 they often manifest not a little impatience with the skepti 
 cism and want of public spirit which discouraged the 
 undertaking of such an important enterprise. 
 
 In a speech delivered at Elmira in 1850, on the comple 
 tion of the New York and Erie railroad, Governor Seward 
 related some curious personal reminiscences, in regard to 
 the progress of internal improvements. The chef d aeuvre 
 of his college life, he remarked, was an essay prepared in 
 1820 against the Erie canal, then in course of construction 
 under the auspices of De Witt Clinton. He attempted to 
 prove that the canal could never be completed or, if 
 completed, that it would be the ruin of the state. In five 
 years from that time the canal was finished, and boats 
 placed on its surface, from tide-water to Lake Erie. Just 
 nineteen years after the production of that essay, he found 
 himself in the place of De Witt Clinton, urging the en 
 largement of the canal to double its original capacity, and 
 the construction of three lines of railroad, between substan 
 tially the same termini, to supply the deficiency of the 
 canal for transporting the commerce of the state. These 
 recommendations were regarded by the public as even still 
 more visionary than the schemes of Governor Clinton had 
 been in his estimation. But, notwithstanding the popular 
 incredulity, on retiring from office at the end of four years, 
 he had the satisfaction of seeing the aggregate length of 
 the railroads of the state increased from one hundred to 
 eight hundred miles.* 
 
 Nor has the devotion of Governor Seward to the cause 
 
 * The directors of the New York and Erie railroad company, in token 
 of their appreciation of Governor Seward s services, presented him with a 
 formal vote of thanks on his retirement from office, with a ticket elegantly 
 engraved on silver for the free passage of himself and family on the road 
 during life. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 75 
 
 of internal improvements been confined in its operation to 
 the state of New York. He has never failed to cherish a 
 deep interest in whatever was adapted to increase the busi 
 ness advantages, and promote the permanent welfare of the 
 people in every portion of the Union. 
 
 In a recent speech in the senate, while advocating a 
 railroad to the Pacific ocean, he thus reviews the progress 
 already made in internal improvements : 
 
 "What are two thousand miles of railroad for the people of the United 
 States to make, who, within eighteen years past, have made twelve thou 
 sand miles! The railroads which have been made in the state of New 
 York alone have an aggregate length of two thousand three hundred and 
 one miles, exceeding the distance from Lake Erie to the Pacific ocean. 
 And if you add the canals, the chain would reach from the banks of the 
 Hudson river to the shores of the Pacific ocean. The railroads already 
 made in the United States, if drawn out into one lengthened chain, would 
 reach from Liverpool to Canton. The railroads which have been made, 
 and are now being made, in the United States, if stretched continuously 
 along, would more than encircle the globe. Again, I shall be told of the 
 cost of this railroad. And what will be its cost? One hundred millions 
 of dollars. A cost not exceeding the revenue of the government of the 
 United States for two years only a cost not exceeding the revenue of the 
 federal and state governments for one year. One hundred millions of dol 
 lars; why, we have offered that sum for one island in the Caribbean sea! 
 One hundred millions of dollars; why, New York city spent one sixth of 
 that sum in supplying itself with water, and grew all the while! One 
 hundred millions of dollars; the state of New York has already spent, in 
 making canals and railroads, one hundred and thirteen millions* and pros 
 pered while spending it as never state or nation prospered before. That 
 one hundred millions of dollars, if it should never be directly reimbursed, 
 will be indirectly replaced within ten years, by the economy which it 
 would enable us to practise in the transportation of the army, and of the 
 supplies of the army and navy over it, not to speak of the still more impor 
 tant benefits of bringing the public domain into cultivation, and into in 
 creased value, and developing rapidly the mineral wealth of California, which 
 can be only imperfectly realized now, because labor on that side of the 
 continent is worth four dollars a-day, while it is worth but one here. 
 
 As we write these lines (1854), we see the whole stu 
 pendous scheme recommended by Governor Seward on the 
 eve of completion, in spite of commercial and political 
 obstacles. 
 
76 THE PARDONING POWER. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GOVERNOR, CONTINUED THE PARDONING POWER BENJAMIN 
 
 RATHBUN JOHN C. COLT VETO POWER D lIAUTEVILLE 
 
 CASE THURLOW WEED REGISTRY ACT. 
 
 WE have already alluded to the exercise of the pardon 
 ing power by Governor Seward. As the subject is one of 
 such deep interest, we will here more fully illustrate the 
 principles which guided his course in this respect.* Com 
 bining a natural generosity and tenderness of feeling with 
 a lofty sense of justice, lie could not permit his sympathy 
 with the unfortunate to weaken his energy in the execution 
 of laws, which were intimately connected with the order 
 and safety of society. He allowed no conviction, ascer 
 tained to be unjust, to stand on any pretence. 
 
 An insane man who had committed homicide in Rensse- 
 laer county, under circumstances of revolting cruelty, was 
 induced by the court, the public prosecutor, and his OAVH 
 counsel, to plead guilty to an indictment for murder. He 
 was sentenced to be executed, under an arrangement be 
 tween them, that, in consequence of thus pleading, the sen 
 tence of death should be commuted to confinement in 
 the statcprison for life. The court and counsel urged the 
 governor to adopt that course, on the ground that the pub 
 lic safety and public opinion both required the confinement 
 of the offender. The governor answered that a man too 
 insane to be executed was too insane to be imprisoned for 
 life, and discharged the oifender at once. 
 
 No woman, not abandoned to vice and crime, was suf 
 fered to endure the full punishment prescribed by the law. 
 * See Vol. II., p. 615. 
 
BENJAMIN RATHBUN JOHN C. COLT. 77 
 
 And it must be a pleasant recollection to Governor Seward, 
 that in no instance was a woman so pardoned ever after 
 ward convicted of crime. Juvenile delinquents were par 
 doned for first offences not very atrocious. But, in these 
 cases, preliminary arrangements were made through the 
 agency of their friends, for their removal from the scenes 
 of their temptations, and their establishment in pursuits 
 favorable to their reformation. 
 
 The possession of social advantages, instead of aiding 
 offenders to procure pardon, was always regarded as an 
 objection. On the other hand, great allowance was made 
 for ignorance, orphanage, or social neglect, as presenting 
 incentives to crime. 
 
 In the well-known case of Benjamin Rathbun,* whose 
 forgeries were understood to have amounted to the sum of 
 one million five hundred thousand dollars, pardon was ear 
 nestly demanded on the ground of extenuating circum 
 stances, and the social position of the criminal. His case 
 was warmly pressed. Petitions for a commutation of pun 
 ishment were signed by more than ten thousand persons, 
 of all parties and ranks. But, closing his eyes to every 
 consideration but the claims of justice and the integrity of 
 the law, and believing their vindication, in such a case, to 
 be highly important, Governor Seward steadfastly refused 
 all entreaties to extend pardon, although urged by strong 
 political and personal friends. At the same time, pardons 
 were granted to ignorant and obscure persons who had 
 committed forgeries and larcenies for trivial amounts, un 
 der the excuse of absolute want, in their own case, or that 
 of their families. The discrimination against John C. 
 Colt,t whose case excited deep interest at the time, pro 
 ceeded upon similar grounds. 
 
 Nor did Governor Seward allow the pardoning power in 
 his hands, to become converted to purposes of oppression. 
 It is gratifying to know, that while the popular approbation 
 
 * See Vol. IT., p. 630. f See Vol. II., p. C46. 
 
78 EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY. 
 
 of his administration in other respects, owing generally to 
 political rancor, was delayed until the prejudices and pas 
 sions of the day had subsided, no such delay occurred in 
 regard to his conduct in the matter of pardons. His acts 
 in this department of his duty, generally received immediate 
 and wide-spread commendation. But what probably was 
 esteemed by him as more important, was the approving tes 
 timony of his own mind. We can hardly conceive of a 
 higher pleasure than he must have experienced in writing 
 the following letter to Catharine Wilkins (a convict he had 
 pardoned), unless it was surpassed by his satisfaction in 
 learning how effectual the letter had been in saving her to 
 whom it was addressed. 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, May 1, 1839. 
 
 You have been convicted of Grand Larceny and have been adjudged to 
 suffer imprisonment in the stateprison for three years. You were made 
 known to benevolent individuals in this city .by your crime and the conse 
 quent trial upon it. These gentlemen have made unsparing exertions to 
 ascertain your real name and history and to call your distant friends to 
 your aid. Those friends when informed of your unhappy situation have 
 only answered that they were too humble to exercise any influence in your 
 behalf and too poor even to visit you in your distress. Whatever willing 
 ness I might have had to interpose for your relief you must be aware that 
 it has been accidental, if it is not rather to be regarded as providential, that 
 those gentlemen were moved to solicit that interference. But you ought 
 also to understand that executive interference was by no means to have 
 been expected, even upon such solicitation as has prevailed in your behalf. 
 Very many applications have been made to me for pardon after conviction 
 and before the sentence was carried into execution. I have granted none 
 under such circumstances where I was not satisfied that the conviction was 
 iinjust Yours is a case of manifest and confessed guilt You are pardoned, 
 ft is because you are young; because this is your first exposure to the law; 
 because you are a woman and a stranger, and it may in charity be believed 
 that your virtue would have resisted temptation had not want and seduc 
 tion combined to effect your ruin. If confined to a stateprison your good 
 name would be irretrievable and the associates to which you would be ex 
 posed would forbid all hope of reformation. I have thought it my duty to 
 accompany the pardon now freely sent to you with my advice that you re 
 turn as speedily as possible to your aged and afflicted mother: that you jus 
 tify this extraordinary act of mercy by humble and persevering assiduity in 
 domestic duties which is the only way to regain the respect and confidence 
 of your friends and neighbors. If you will do this you will carry consola- 
 
JAMES WATSON WEBB. 79 
 
 tion to the hearts of your parents and I shall have the satisfaction of know 
 ing that I have not done injustice to the public in yielding, for once, to the 
 impulses of sympathy. 
 To CATHARINE WILKIXS. 
 
 A gentleman who had interested himself in this case in 
 passing through New Jersey, recently, found this young 
 woman there enjoying the entire respect of the community. 
 She drew the governor s letter from her bosom and said 
 that its advice had saved her from ruin and that it had 
 never been for one moment out of her immediate possession. 
 
 Governor Seward no doubt enjoyed a similar pleasure in 
 the surprise exhibited by a slaveholder, who applied for the 
 pardon of his slave, convicted of crime in New York, and 
 sent to the stateprison at Sing-Sing. The master urged 
 his petition on the ground that it would relieve the state 
 of the expense of the slave s imprisonment ; and he present 
 ed the record of a case where a slave had been thus par 
 doned by one of the governor s predecessors. Governor 
 Seward answered that notwithstanding the precedent, he 
 did not think it right to pervert a power intrusted to him 
 for purposes of humanity, to accomplish an act of oppression. 
 
 The same independence of character was manifested in 
 the case of James Watson Webb.* Colonel Webb had 
 fought a duel with Hon. Thomas F. Marshall, in the state 
 of Delaware, and was convicted under a law of this state, 
 passed as early as 1817, and sentenced to the stateprison. 
 There had been no attempt to enforce this law, except in 
 two cases which occurred immediately after its passage, and 
 in these instances, the offenders were pardoned by the gov 
 ernor who then filled the executive chair. Afterward the 
 law became obsolete, for want of public opinion to sustain 
 it. Duelling was still practised in the state of New York, 
 notwithstanding this law was on the pages of the statute- 
 book, and that too by men enjoying the highest distinctions 
 and honors, including De Witt Clinton himself. It is easy 
 
 * See Vol. IL, p 661. 
 
80 THE VETO POWER. 
 
 to see that if the offender in the duel with Marshall, had 
 been a political editor opposed to Governor Scward, the 
 enforcing of the conviction under such circumstances, would 
 have been regarded as an act of personal and political re 
 taliation. No one can suppose he would have enforced it 
 under such circumstances. But Colonel Webb, the offender 
 in this case, was a personal and political friend of Gover 
 nor Seward s, and his editorial controversies had made 
 many relentless enemies. Colonel Webb having, like many 
 others, maMe himself liable to the penalties of this law, 
 probably without being aware of its existence, those ene 
 mies, unconscious, without doubt, of the motives which in 
 fluenced them, demanded the rigorous application of the 
 obsolete statute. The governor showed, in this instance, 
 that lie was not afraid to do in the case of a friend, what 
 all men who knew his impartiality and magnanimity, would 
 have expected him to do toward an adversary. He par 
 doned Colonel Webb. In the case of Rathbun, he would 
 not pardon,* because, among other principal reasons, the 
 offender had moved in high circles and had powerful friends. 
 In the case of Webb, he pardoned notwithstanding he oc 
 cupied an elevated position and was surrounded by influen 
 tial friends. In both instances he showed his coolness and 
 courage in resisting popular clamor, when satisfied that 
 justice demanded such resistance. 
 
 Governor Seward s principles in the exercise of the veto 
 power, may be learned by reference to his messages* deliv 
 ered on the several occasions when he assumed its exercise. 
 The D Hauteville case will serve as an illustration. 
 
 A lady of large wealth, a resident of Boston, while trav 
 elling in Europe, had married a French gentleman, by the 
 name of D Hauteville, of greater respectability than of for 
 tune. One child was the fruit of this connection. She sep 
 arated from her husband, and returned to America, in 1840, 
 bringing her child with her. D Hauteville appeared in Bos- 
 
 * See Vol. IT., pp. r>7-i, 379, 426, <fee. 
 
THURLOW WEED. 81 
 
 ton, and demanded her return to Europe, insisting, in case 
 of refusal, on the custody of his child. The friends of the 
 lady, designing that she should take refuge in the state of 
 New York, procured a hurried passage of an act by the 
 legislature of this state, then in session, providing that 
 where an American woman should be married to a foreigner 
 who should propose to require her, with his children, to re 
 move to Europe, the court of chancery should have the 
 power to interpose and take charge of the children and 
 their fortune. A veto from Governor Seward arrested the 
 passage of this bill,* upon the ground that no nation could 
 wisely or justly make a discrimination in its laws regulating 
 parental or other domestic relations, on the ground of the 
 alienage of either of the parties a decision the wisdom 
 and soundness of which few can doubt. . 
 
 With the return of an opposition to the legislature, came, 
 of course, a desire for the beneiits to be derived from the 
 enjoyment of the state printing. An act was passed re 
 moving Thurlow Weed from the office of state printer, which 
 he held, under a contract authorized by law. Governor 
 Seward interposed his vetof promptly, on the ground of the 
 inhibition, in the constitution of the United States, of the pas 
 sage of laws by the states impairing the obligation of contracts. 
 
 But while he thus exercised the veto-power to arrest in 
 considerate and unconstitutional legislation, he declined 
 interfering in cases of pure legislative discretion, as has 
 been seen in his action on the New York registry bill, and 
 in his consent, against his own opinions, to the act of 1842, 
 suspending the public works. In such cases, however, he 
 insisted on the right of stating the grounds of his qualified 
 approval of bills, in the message communicating the execu 
 tive assent. It must be left to impartial public opinion, free 
 from the bias of temporary excitement, to decide between 
 him and the legislature, on their refusal to receive such 
 messages and enter them on their journal.^ 
 
 * See Vol. II., p. 374. f See Vol. II., p. 426. % See Vol. II., p. 411. 
 
 4* 
 
82 FUGITIVE SLAVES JURY-TRIAL. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 VIRGINIA CONTROVERSY COLORED VOTERS KIDNAP 
 PING NORTHRUP CASE ELECTION OF 1840 HENRY CLAY 
 
 POLITICAL AFFAIRS RENOMINATION DECLINED. 
 
 IN his administration of the state government, Governor 
 Seward took a firm and dignified attitude against the insti 
 tution of slavery. He labored to clear the statute-books 
 of every provision which authorized holding a man in slave 
 ry, in any form, or on any pretext. His devotion to the 
 principles of freedom at length accomplished the work which 
 had been so nobly commenced by the admirable statesman 
 John Jay, in 1795. The law, which permitted a master, 
 travelling through the state with his slaves, to retain them 
 for the space of nine months, was repealed through his in 
 fluence. It was this repeal by which the slaves in the re 
 cent Lemon case, who had been brought from Virginia to 
 the city of New York, in order to be shipped to Texas, were 
 saved from perpetual bondage. 
 
 Governor Seward also procured the passage of an act by 
 the legislature, allowing the benefit of a jury-trial to per 
 sons claimed as fugitive slaves. He defended this right 
 with his usual fervid eloquence, and it was mainly through 
 his efforts that it was incorporated in the policy of the state. 
 At a subsequent period, when the fugitive-slave bill was de 
 bated in the United States senate, he labored to have a sim 
 ilar provision engrafted in its details. 
 
 An act was also passed, at his instance, prohibiting state 
 officers from participating in actions for the recovery of fu 
 gitive slaves, and denying the use of the public jails for 
 
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 83 
 
 their detention. He held that these were actions under the 
 constitution and laws of the United States, and should, 
 therefore, be executed only by the United States marshals 
 and judges in United States courts, and that imprisonments 
 they might order should be in United States prisons, if such 
 could be found. Although the supreme court of the United 
 States pronounced these laws to be unconstitutional, they 
 were clearly founded on the eternal principles of right and 
 justice. They will form an enduring memorial of the wise 
 humanity of Governor Seward, and of his heartfelt devo 
 tion to the spirit of freedom, as embodied in the Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 It was through his agency, moreover, that a law was 
 enacted, in 1840, for the recovery of free colored citizens 
 of New York who should be kidnapped into slavery. This 
 law authorized the governor to employ an agent for the aid 
 of such persons, securing their restoration to liberty. It 
 was under the provisions of this act, that H. B. Northrup, 
 Esq., of Washington county, New York, in January, 1853, 
 procured the liberty of Solomon, a colored man, long a 
 member of his family, who twelve years ago had been in 
 veigled to the city of Washington, and there kidnapped and 
 sold into slavery. 
 
 Among Governor Scward s last official recommendations 
 to the legislature, was an amendment of the constitution of 
 the state, by which the freehold qualification required of 
 citizens of the African race, as a condition of exercising the 
 right of suffrage, should be abolished. He based this rec 
 ommendation on the principles of natural justice. And he 
 urged the necessity of granting the right of suffrage to ev 
 ery class of persons subject to the laws of the state, and 
 the safety with which it could be thus extended where a 
 system of universal education had already been established. 
 It is to be regretted that on the revision of the constitution, 
 in 1846, this recommendation was found to have anticipated 
 public sentiment for an indefinite period of time. But that 
 
84 THE VIRGINIA CASE. 
 
 Governor Seward s recommendation on this point will yet 
 be adopted and incorporated into the constitution of the 
 state, there can not be a doubt. 
 
 The course of Governor Seward in regard to these meas 
 ures was an agreeable surprise to the abolitionists, who had 
 failed to obtain any pledge from him during the preliminary 
 canvass. His noble position in the " Virginia case" was 
 adapted to win the admiration of every lover of freedom.* 
 
 The outlines of this case may be briefly given as follows : 
 In 1839, a vessel from Norfolk, Virginia, on arriving near 
 the port of New York, was found to contain a slave, who 
 had secreted himself in the hold. He was taken and con 
 veyed back to bondage. Three colored seamen belonging 
 to the vessel, who had expressed their sympathy with the 
 fugitive, were charged with having conveyed him out ol 
 the state by stealth. Affidavits were made to that effect in 
 Norfolk. A requisition, based on these affidavits, was made 
 by the lieutenant-governor of Virginia upon the governor of 
 New York, for the surrender of the accused, in accordance 
 with the provisions of the constitution of the United States, 
 and the act of Congress of 1793, concerning fugitives from 
 justice. Before the requisition was presented to Governor 
 Seward, the parties had been arrested in the city of New 
 York ; but, having been brought before Robert H. Morris, 
 the recorder of the city, on a writ of habeas corpus, were 
 discharged by him on the ground of the insufficiency of the 
 affidavits to justify their detention. The lieutenant-governor 
 of Virginia, however, persisted in the requisition, demand 
 ing that the governor of New York should surrender the 
 persons as fugitives from justice. Governor Seward replied 
 that they had been discharged from arrest in due course of 
 law, and that the affidavits in support of the requisition were 
 informal and insufficient. At the same time, he admitted 
 that these affidavits could be replaced by new affidavits, or 
 a formal indictment. Disdaining, however, to stand upon 
 
 * See "Virginia Controversy," Vol. IT., pp. 449516. 
 
FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE. 85 
 
 mere light technicalities in so grave a case, he met the ques 
 tion on the broad and universal principles which it involved. 
 He took the ground that the crimes contemplated by the 
 constitution of the United States, in its provisions authori 
 zing the demand of fugitives from justice, between the sev 
 eral states, were not such crimes as depended on the arbi 
 trary legislation of a particular state, but such as were mala 
 in sese crimes which could be determined by some com 
 mon standard, as the concurrent sense of the several states 
 the common law received by them all alike, or the uni 
 versal sentiment of civilized nations. No state, he argued, 
 could force a requisition upon another state, founded on an 
 act which was only criminal through its own legislation, 
 but, compared with general standards, was not only inno 
 cent, but humane and praiseworthy. Thus, the aiding of a 
 slave to escape from bondage was in itself an act of virtue 
 and humanity. No statute could pronounce such an act a 
 crime, without a perversion of both reason and justice. Still 
 further, though slavery was left by the constitution of the 
 United States to the exclusive jurisdiction of the states 
 where it existed, it was carefully excluded from federal 
 recognition. Hence no state was bound by the constitution 
 to recognise slavery or any of its incidents in another state, 
 so as to create an obligation for the surrendry of persons 
 charged with offences in violation of laws enacted by slave- 
 holding states for the maintenance of slavery. This rea-* 
 soning was applicable to all cases, and not alone to those 
 which grew out of slavery. By the laws of New York, for 
 instance, as in several other states, there was no legal im 
 prisonment for debt. But in Pennsylvania this barbarous 
 custom was still sanctioned by the laws : hence, in that 
 state, resistance by a debtor to a civil officer charged with 
 process was a felony. The governor of Pennsylvania had 
 made a requisition on Governor Seward, under the federal 
 constitution, for the surrender of a citizen of New York, 
 indicted in Pennsylvania, for resistance to a sheriff charged 
 
86 THE VIRGINIA CONTROVERSY. 
 
 with an execution against his person. Governor Seward 
 refused to comply with the requisition, on the principles be 
 fore stated. While the decision was acquiesced in by the 
 state of Pennsylvania, Virginia withheld its assent in the 
 case presented from that state. 
 
 A correspondence ensued, which continued during the 
 whole of Governor Seward s administration. The legisla 
 ture of Virginia appealed from the governor to the legis 
 lature of New York. The public mind was profoundly 
 moved by this novel and important discussion. Although 
 not made an affair of strict party division, the whig legisla 
 tures of New York, more or less explicitly, sustained the 
 position of the governor. 
 
 Upon the election of an opposition legislature in 1842, 
 the assembly took a different ground, and requested Gov 
 ernor Seward to communicate their opinion to the legisla 
 ture of Virginia. In a firm but respectful manner, he de 
 clined to comply with the request.* The soundness of his 
 views on this subject received a striking illustration in sub 
 sequent requisitions by the governors of Louisiana and 
 Georgia, demanding the surrendry of fugitive slaves on the 
 most frivolous pretexts as fugitives from justice ; in one case, 
 on the indictment of a female-slave for stealing the gown 
 on her back, valued, by the grand jury who found the indict 
 ment, at twelve and a half cents : and in the other, on the 
 indictment of a person for stealing a female-slave from her 
 master, and stealing the calico dress and trinkets worn 
 upon her person, when the entire transaction consisted, at 
 most, in his persuading the slave to make her escape from 
 bondage. 
 
 The state of Virginia, combined with other states, re 
 sorted to retaliatory measures designed to injure the com 
 merce of New York. But this produced no change in the 
 decision of Governor Seward, nor in public opinion, con 
 cerning the controversy. The judgment which will ulti- 
 
 * See Special Messages, Vol. IT., pp. 385-433. 
 
IMPRISONMENT OP COLORED CITIZENS. 87 
 
 mately be passed upon his conduct in this affair, by the 
 moral sentiment of mankind, is indicated in the construc 
 tion placed by the British ministry on the article of the 
 recent treaty in regard to the extradition of fugitives 
 from justice an article of similar purport to the extradi 
 tion article in the federal constitution. It was stated by 
 them in the house of commons, that they should not deem 
 themselves bound to surrender any person charged with a 
 crime which should appear to have been committed by the 
 offender in effecting his own escape, or that of another 
 from slavery. In connection with this subject, it may be 
 added that Governor Seward always maintained the uncon- 
 stitutionality of imprisoning colored citizens of the free 
 states in the slaveholding states, when not charged with 
 actual crime. In case of such imprisonment of citizens of 
 New York, he employed agents at the expense of the state 
 to obtain their restoration to freedom. 
 
 The condition of Governor Seward s private affairs, which 
 had been affected by the general depreciation of property 
 incident to the financial embarrassment of the country, 
 made his acceptance of a re-election in 1840 a matter of 
 personal sacrifice. But it was deemed necessary by his 
 political friends. His own mind regarded the subject in a 
 different light. He had been elected by a diminished ma 
 jority. Several hundreds of whig votes were given for 
 other candidates. To him this was a proof of dissatisfac 
 tion on the part of no inconsiderable number of persons ; 
 many had been disappointed in their hopes of office ; others 
 were alienated by his devotion to reform ; his policy in 
 regard to universal education was greatly misapprehended : 
 all these causes led him to doubt whether a division of the 
 party would not be produced by his remaining in the exec 
 utive chair, although no one, in fact, ever possessed a 
 stronger hold on the confidence of a great political party 
 than he did at that moment. Besides, Governor Seward 
 foresaw, more clearly than many of his friends, the progress 
 
88 PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS MR. CLAY. 
 
 of reaction in regard to internal improvements. The op 
 ponents of the policy were rapidly gaining ground ; it 
 would be necessary, at another election, to present a 
 candidate to the whig party against whom there was no 
 considerable prejudice. Accordingly, in January, 1841, 
 Governor Seward announced his determination, under no 
 circumstances, to again become a candidate for the exec 
 utive office. The announcement took the public by sur 
 prise, especially as it was made at a time when he was 
 regarded as having triumphed over all opposition, and 
 gained a firm footing as a leader of the whig party. His 
 last annual message* was considered the ablest official pro 
 duction of his pen. Nor is it too much to say that few, if 
 any, abler documents have ever issued from the executive 
 chair of New York. 
 
 The election of General Harrison in 1840, who had been 
 nominated for president, in preference to Mr. Clay, on the 
 ground of superior availability, induced the friends of the 
 latter distinguished leader to believe that he would have 
 been successful if lie had received the nomination. This 
 conviction, which became almost universal, produced a set 
 tled determination to secure Mr. Clay s nomination for the 
 canvass of 1844. The policy was to foreclose the question 
 by popular movements throughout the United States as 
 early as the spring of 1842. Governor Seward did not 
 assent to the wisdom of the plan. He yielded his private 
 views, however, to the prevailing sentiment of the whig 
 party. But he could not be persuaded to place himself at 
 the head of the movement, with the prospect of a rcriomi- 
 nation for governor. On the contrary, he frankly pointed 
 out to his friends the reasons against their course. The 
 question of the annexation of Texas, he argued, had be 
 come inevitable. Under the excitement produced by its 
 discussion, the anti-slavery interest had grown up in the 
 state, from one thousand in 1838, to two thousand five 
 
 * See Vol. IT., p. 297. 
 
LUTHER BRADISH WILLIAM C. BOUCK. 89 
 
 hundred in 1840, in opposition to General Harrison and 
 himself, neither of whom was regarded with special preju 
 dice by the political abolitionists. It was more than prob 
 able that the premature nomination of Mr. Clay, who was 
 already severely censured by the abolitionists, would in 
 crease their vote at the state election of 1842, from five 
 thousand to fifteen thousand, at the expense of the whig v 
 party. This would insure the loss of the state to the whigs, 
 as well as of the presidential election of 1844. 
 
 Other counsels, however, prevailed. Governor Seward 
 persisted in declining a renomination. Mr. Clay was the 
 avowed candidate of the whigs for the presidency. The 
 result was the. increase of the abolition vote to sixteen 
 thousand. The whigs were accordingly defeated. Their 
 candidate for governor, Hon. Luther Bradish a man of 
 unexceptionable character, well known to the public, and 
 universally popular lost his election by a decided vote.* 
 
 On the last day of Governor Seward s second official 
 term, his accounts with the treasury were definitely settled ; 
 and on the first day of January, 1848, having occupied the 
 executive chair four years, he introduced his successor, Gov 
 ernor Bouck, to the people of the capitol, exchanging with 
 him appropriate courtesies on the occasion of his inaugura 
 tion. These courtesies, so well adapted to allay animos 
 ities and to cultivate a better tone of feeling, were at that 
 time without precedent. They made a favorable impres 
 sion upon the public mind. With that successor, and all 
 others in the executive chair, of whatever politics, Gover 
 nor Seward maintained relations of mutual respect and 
 personal friendship. 
 
 How strong a hold his benevolent action, during his 
 official term, had taken upon the classes most generally 
 overlooked, neglected and oppressed, may be seen by refer 
 ring to his replies to letters and addresses elicited by his 
 retirement.! 
 
 * The mnjoiity for \\Tlinm C. Bouck was 22,000. f See Vol. III. 
 
RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE. 90 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE JOHN QUINCY ADAMS PROFESSIONAL LA 
 BORS PATENT CAUSES FREEDOM OF THE PRESS FUGI 
 TIVE SLATE CASE O CONNELL. 
 
 ON retiring from his official duties, Governor Seward 
 returned immediately to his residence in Auburn. In one 
 week s space of time, he was seen engaged with as much 
 calmness and assiduity in his profession, as if he had never 
 been removed out of it. Having enjoyed the honors of the 
 highest post in his native state, to the full satisfaction of a 
 noble ambition, and in a manner to leave the deep impress 
 of his character on its laws and institutions, he was not 
 only content, but anxious to turn again to the calls of a 
 profession, which he ever pursued with all the ardor of an 
 amateur. 
 
 In 1843, Governor Seward, in his retirement at Auburn, 
 had the gratification of a visit from Ex-President John 
 Quincy Adams, between whom and himself the most inti 
 mate relations of friendship had long existed. The meet 
 ing was one of great cordiality and affection. It has been 
 said, and we believe with truth, that on that, as well as on 
 other occasions, Mr. Adams expressed his confidence that 
 the great work of human rights, which he would be obliged 
 to leave unfinished, would devolve more completely on 
 Governor Seward than on any surviving statesman. Thus 
 far, at least, that expectation, so honorable to Governor 
 Seward, has not been disappointed. His published works 
 contain fragments of correspondence between Mr. Adams 
 and Governor Seward, together with orations and speeches 
 
EULOGY ON JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 91 
 
 by the latter, which, while they illustrate his own reverence 
 for Mr. Adams, have been regarded as presenting their 
 distinguished subject in his just attitude before the world. 
 
 On the occasion of Mr. Adams s death, Governor Seward 
 was invited by the legislature of New York to pronounce 
 a eulogy* on his character and services. It was one of the 
 most faithful and eloquent of the numerous discourses whicli 
 were prepared on that great national bereavement. Its 
 closing sentences, instituting a comparison between the 
 death scenes of Napoleon and Adams, are scarcely sur 
 passed in pathetic eloquence by any modern production. 
 Believing that a popular biography of that eminent states 
 man would be more useful, in disseminating and inculcating 
 his principles, than any other contributions that he could 
 make to his memory, Governor Seward applied himself to 
 the preparation of such a work. With the aid of a com 
 petent friend,! it was brought out in 1849, in the midst of 
 many absorbing professional engagements. The author s 
 expectations were fully realized. More than thirty-two 
 thousand copies of the work have been already published, 
 and its circulation has been continually increasing. 
 
 At the annual commencement of Union College in 1843, 
 Governor Seward was invited to deliver the address before 
 the Phi Beta Kappa Society, of which he is a member. He 
 accepted the appointment, and took for his theme, " The 
 Elements of Empire in America."! The address was wor 
 thy of his manly and vigorous intellect, and his extensive 
 literary attainments. It presented a comprehensive view 
 of the resources of the American Union, and pointed out 
 the grandeur of its destiny, under the principles of justice 
 and freedom on which it was founded. By special invita 
 tion, he repeated the address at the commencement of Am- 
 herst College, the same year. 
 
 During the ensuing six years, Governor Seward devoted 
 himself to the duties of his profession with brilliant and 
 
 See Vol. III., p. 75. f Rev. J. M. Austin. \ See Vol. III., p. 11. 
 
92 FORENSIC ARGUMENTS INVENTION. 
 
 growing success. At first, his practice was confined to the 
 various courts of the state, in which lie received liberal re 
 tainers for his services. After the lapse of about two years, 
 however, his peculiar aptitude for subjects involving scien 
 tific and mechanical principles gained him a large and lucra 
 tive practice in the trial of patent cases in the United States 
 courts. He was thus brought into contact with the most 
 distinguished jurists of the country, whom his breadth of 
 intellect and sound legal learning enabled him to meet on 
 equal terms. In one of his arguments he discusses the sub 
 ject of invention in the following eloquent language : 
 
 " There are two gre.it principles of activity, in regard to the 
 world. One is creation, the other is invention. Creation is the 
 peculiar attribute of Him who made all worlds, all that is on the 
 earth, in the earth, and in the waters under the earth, for the 
 greatness, and the welfare, and the happiness of our race. He 
 created nothing that is not adapted, fit, and useful in some way, 
 to promote our health, welfare, prosperity, and happiness. He 
 made it all, in the counsels of his own will. He spoke it into 
 existence by a word, but he concealed it from his creatures, and 
 made it their greatest glory to find out the purposes, principles, 
 and adaptations, of the things by which he surrounded them. 
 Our duty consists in finding them out, and invention is nothing 
 more than finding out what will promote the progress of society, 
 through all time. He has hidden and concealed nothing so deeply 
 that we can not find out, as fast as is best for our welfare and con 
 sistent with his providence, the uses and purposes of everything. 
 Invention, then, is worthy of the fostering care of every gorern- 
 ment. What would society be now, but for the exercise of in 
 vention in times past? Where lies our hope of progress in soci 
 ety, but in the exercise of invention for the future ] Hope is, 
 in this respect, the spring of youth to mankind and to nations. 
 And, in the exercise of invention, the world is renewing itself, 
 and becoming wiser and better, as it approaches those latter days 
 when our species will have attained a comparative degree of per 
 fection and exaltation. 
 
 " Wherein consisted the advantage of the Spaniard over the 
 
INVENTION. 93 
 
 Penivian and tlie Mexican, when lie subverted the empires of 
 America 1 It was in this, that the invader had invented the 
 power which resides in the combination of sulphur, saltpetre, and 
 charcoal. Wherein our superiority over the enemy, whom we 
 have recently defeated in the centre of this continent, but that 
 we have rewarded invention ] Look, too, at the dignity of this 
 principle of invention. It stands in contrast with the power of 
 the Almighty. He creates instantly ; man finds out slowly, pro 
 gressively, laboriously. When you reflect, you will see that 
 there is danger of misapprehension. You have been imagining 
 that somebody made, or created, a railroad-wheel. But no hu 
 man being creates. God alone creates. It is our province, wor 
 thy of the patronage of government, and the highest exercise of 
 human power, to follow the clews which lead us to his designs, 
 with regard to matter, for our happiness and welfare. And what 
 is there wrong in this system ? Society says to all alike, that, 
 if they will devote talent to the discovery of anything which will 
 contribute to the welfare of society, they shall have the first en 
 joyment of it for fourteen years, on condition that they will then 
 publish it for the benefit of the world at large, for this and future 
 generations. If, then, there is an honest thought in your hearts, 
 do not your cheeks blush with shame, not because your country 
 has conferred this benefit, here and there, on a struggling invent 
 or, but because you are filled with virtuous indignation that Ful 
 ton sleeps in his grave, while his family are mendicants, and 
 while the production he gave to the world has become the engine 
 of your commerce, the great uniting power that binds your con 
 federacy together, and is revolutionizing the East, bringing Africa 
 and Asia into the great fold of the family of civilized man ? It 
 is a burning reproach, that he who made the lightning your mes 
 senger, and bids it carry for you messages of love, and grief, and 
 joy, and triumph, and trouble, is standing here this day, in this 
 court, a suppliant to the laws of the land, to protect him for four 
 teen years in the enjoyment of that instrument, the effects of 
 which, to benefit mankind, can not be bounded bylines, and will 
 
 be felt when time shall have ceased to exist 
 
 " The human race is yet enthralled in ignorance, and to a 
 great degree in poverty and suffering. Society is to be disen- 
 
94 INVENTION. 
 
 thralled by finding out the properties which God has conferred 
 on matter. 
 
 " If the merit of invention is so great, it must be a pleasing 
 gratification to Him who organized the system on which human 
 society is established, when he sees one of his creatures so em 
 ployed. And there must have been a beneficent smile from on 
 high, lighting up a halo round the head of Fulton, when he in 
 vented a steamboat. No less beneficent must have been the 
 fcmile when these poor and humble citizens produced an inven 
 tion which would save the loss of human life on railroads. You 
 are the interpreters of the Omniscient Eye in regard to the apti 
 tude of iron for the purpose which we have been discussing. 
 You must perform your duty under the belief that he sees your 
 hearts, and tries your reins, and that whatever judgment is meted 
 by you, shall be meted to you again. For there is an all-seeing 
 Eye, that renders to us, even in this life, the reward we merit 
 for doing justly 
 
 " I ask you, gentlemen, to believe me when I say that you 
 arc capable of learning something new in regard to the exercise 
 of this faculty of invention. It is not, like creation, an instanta 
 neous and a perfect thing ; but it is a progressive and an imper 
 fect thing. Invention is finding out in the dark. It is groping 
 in a cavern, stored with all things adapted for our purposes. 
 The steam-engine was conceived one hundred years before it 
 floated on the water, or traversed the land. It was described 
 in 1783, an engine as complete as it could be. But the Hudson 
 received, long after that, the first burden of a boat floated by 
 steam. I have seen, in a distant land, a monument to the man 
 who perfected the steam-engine so that it produced motion. And 
 what was the achievement of Fulton ? It was, that when the 
 steam-engine had been perfected, he stumbled upon the manner 
 of applying it to move a boat. When was the magnetic tele 
 graph discovered? The germ of it was brought to light by 
 Franklin, when he brought down electricity from the clouds by 
 means of a kite. Yet that was seventy years ago. And it was 
 only within a few years that the manner of applying that prin 
 ciple has been discovered. A cause precedes an effect. One 
 thing always precedes or produces another. The carriage-wheel 
 produced the first railroad- wheel of course, it was a spoke- 
 
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 95 
 
 wheel. The inventor gropes in a cavern, holding on to a chain 
 that is suspended to the throne of God, who permits him to grasp 
 but a single link at a time. There must be the boll of rotting 
 flax, before there can be the bridal veil. There must be the 
 egg -before the eagle, the thought before the thing. 
 
 We learn upon a hint, we find upon a clew, 
 From the basket and acanthus is modeled the graceful capital ; 
 The shadowed profile on the wall helpeth the limner to his likeness; 
 The foot-marks stamped on the clay, lead on the thoughts to printing; 
 The strange skin-garments cast upon the shore, suggest another hemisphere ; 
 A falling apple taught the sage prevailing gravitation ; 
 The Huron is certain of his prey from tracks upon the grass, 
 And shrewdness, guessing on the hint, followeth the trail; 
 But the hint must be given, the trail must be there, or the keenest sight is 
 as blindness. " 
 
 At the same time, Mr. Seward s genial and generous dis 
 position, and the natural frankness of his manners, gave him 
 great influence with a jury, and made his services indispen 
 sable as counsel in criminal cases. His zeal in the defence 
 of persons unjustly accused was so great, that he has been 
 known not only to give his best efforts gratuitously, but to 
 furnish a large amount of funds from his own means in their 
 behalf. 
 
 In 1845, Governor Seward was engaged in a libel-suit in 
 the supreme court of New York, in the case of J. Fenimore 
 Cooper vs. Greeley and M Elratb, publishers of the " New 
 York Tribune." He was counsel for the defendants. It 
 was deemed a case of much importance, involving as it did 
 the rights of newspaper publishers to utter their opinions 
 as to the character and acts of men holding positions of in 
 fluence before the public. Governor Seward s argument* 
 in this case was a sound and searching production ; it sifted 
 thoroughly, and to the bottom, the whole subject of libel, 
 the modifications which that law appears to have undergone 
 by judicial construction in this state, and the rights of the 
 press and the people : the right of free thought and free 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 391. 
 
96 FUGITIVE-SLAVE CASE. 
 
 speech, on the one hand, and the right of exemption from 
 vituperation and libel on the other all were brought un 
 der review, and discussed with clearness and effect. The 
 public and the press will acknowledge their obligations to 
 Governor Seward for the ability and force with which the 
 freedom of speech and of opinion was illustrated and de 
 fended on that trial. 
 
 At the solicitation of citizens of Cooperstown, New York, 
 Governor Seward left the state fair at Auburn, in 1844, to 
 defend a person of politics adverse to his own, charged with 
 the crime of murder. When he had the pleasure of secu 
 ring a verdict which reduced the crime to manslaughter, in 
 opposition to the opinion of the court, he declined to receive 
 any compensation for his successful effort in behalf of the 
 prisoner, although it was tendered by the jury, who felt 
 themselves indebted to him for showing how they could 
 rightfully vindicate the laws, and by it save a human life. 
 
 In 1847, Governor Seward was solicited by certain hu 
 mane persons in Cincinnati, with a tender of compensation, 
 to be raised by subscription, to appear before the supreme 
 court at Washington, in behalf of John Van Zandt, who was 
 charged with aiding certain fugitives in an attempt to escape 
 from slavery. He consented to undertake the case. The 
 argument* which he delivered on this occasion presented a 
 masterly and unequalled analysis of the fugitive-slave law 
 of 1793, and the provisions of the federal constitution in 
 regard to the subject. It closed with the following earnest 
 appeal to the court : 
 
 " The act of 1793 is unconstitutional, because, by implication 
 and certain effect, it recognises slavery as a lawful institution, 
 lawfully creating an obligation to labor. All slavery is an open 
 violation of the personal rights guarantied to the people by the 
 constitution. However true it may be that, when Congress finds 
 the institution existing in any state, they have no power to dis- 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 476. 
 
FUGITIVE-SLAVE CASE. 97 
 
 turb it there it is clear that they have no right to extend it 
 into other states, or compel such states to recognise its peculiar 
 code. Such a power is not expressly conferred by the section 
 which has been considered, nor is it implied by any necessary 
 or reasonable construction. It is manifestly excluded from that 
 portion of the instrument, absolutely interdicted by others which 
 have been recited, and is at war with the spirit of the whole con 
 stitution. We need not refer again, minutely, to its provisions 
 to support this argument. Our senses tell us, our happiness as 
 sures us, our pride proclaims, the graves and glory of our ances 
 tors, every day and every hour remind us, that we are a FREE 
 people ; and that the constitution is a legacy of liberty ; and, so 
 far as liberty and slavery depend on that great charter, all men 
 are free and equal. If all this be not evidence enough, we can 
 read the same truth in the severe derision we justly excite 
 throughout the world, and the humiliation we can not conceal, 
 when we attempt to justify the toleration of slavery. 
 
 " For myself, an humble advocate in a great cause, I can not 
 hope, I dare not hope, I do not expect, that principles which 
 seem to me so reasonable, so just and truthful, can all at once 
 gain immediate establishment in this tribunal, against the force 
 of many precedents and the weight of many honored names. 
 But I do humbly hope that past adjudications, by which the 
 constitution was unnecessarily declared to recognise, sanction, 
 and guaranty slavery, may be reconsidered. I appeal to the 
 court to restore to that revered instrument its simplicity, its 
 truthfulness, its harmony with the Declaration of Independence 
 its studied denial of a right of property in man, and its jealous 
 regard for the security of the people. I humbly supplicate, that 
 slavery, with its odious form and revolting features, and its dread 
 ful pretensions for the present and for the future, may not receive 
 in this great tribunal, now, sanction and countenance, denied to it 
 by a convention of the American states more than half a century 
 ago. Let the spirit which prevailed in that august assembly, 
 only find utterance here, and the time will come somewhat more 
 speedily, when throughout this great empire, erected on the 
 foundation of the rights of man, no court of justice will be re- 
 
 5 
 
98 
 
 quired to enforce INVOLUNTARY obligations of LABOR, and up 
 hold the indefensible law of PHYSICAL FORCE." 
 
 The argument also stated most of the important objec 
 tions now urged against the present fugitive-slave law. In 
 this case, also, Governor Seward declined all compensation. 
 
 In September of the same year, Governor Seward was 
 invited by the Irish citizens of the city of New York, to 
 deliver a eulogy on the life and character of Daniel O Con- 
 nell.* An immense assemblage of adopted and native-born 
 citizens, listened to him with the highest admiration. Like 
 all similar efforts from the pen of Governor Seward, it was 
 a production at once chaste and eloquent, full of historical 
 and classical allusions, with many passages of the most 
 thrilling pathos, and did ample justice to the principles and 
 deeds of the great Irish orator. We give only his beau 
 tiful exordium : 
 
 " There is sad news from Genoa. An aged and weary pilgrim 
 who can travel no farther, passes beneath the gate of one of her 
 ancient palaces, saying with pious resignation as he enters its 
 silent chambers : Well it is God s will that I shall never see 
 Rome. I am disappointed, but I am ready to die. 
 
 " The superb though fading queen of the Mediterranean 
 holds anxious watch through ten long days over that majestic 
 stranger s wasting frame. And now death is there the Libe 
 rator of Ireland has sunk to rest in the cradle of Columbus. 
 
 " Coincidence beautiful and most sublime ! It was the very day 
 set apart by the elder daughter of the church for prayer and sacri 
 fice throughout the world for the children of the sacred island, per 
 ishing by famine and pestilence in their houses and in their native 
 fields, and on their crowded paths of exile, on the sea and in the 
 havens, and on the lakes and along the rivers of this far distant 
 land. The chimes rung out by pity for his countrymen were 
 O CoNNELL s fitting knell ; his soul went forth on clouds of in 
 cense that rose from altars of Christian charity : and the mourn 
 ful anthems which recited the faith and the virtue and the 
 endurance of Ireland were his becoming requiem." 
 * See Vol. III., p. 44. 
 
THE WYATT AND FREEMAN CASES. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WYATT AND FREEMAN CASES MASSACRE OF THE VAN 
 NEST FAMILY WILLIAM FREEMAN WYATT S TRIAL 
 TRIAL OF FREEMAN EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 IN 1845, a convict of the stateprison at Auburn, Henry 
 Wyatt, was indicted for the murder of a fellow-convict. His 
 attempts to procure able counsel, had failed for want of 
 ability to make the usual recompense." On the day but one 
 preceding his trial, he invoked Governor Seward s interpo 
 sition for his defence. His appeal was promptly accepted. 
 During the trial, many striking incidents were disclosed, 
 which showed that the crime was committed in a morbid 
 sta,te of mind. The case clearly fell within a class which 
 medical writers designate under the general name of moral 
 insanity. Governor Seward procured, at his own expense, 
 the scientific witnesses necessary to present the case fairly 
 to the jury. He followed in his defence with an argument 
 of great power and pathos. The jury divided and could 
 not agree upon a verdict. His second trial at the next 
 circuit court, was eagerly anticipated, with full confidence 
 that he would be acquitted. This event, however, was 
 destined to become the occasion of difficulties such as few 
 advocates have been called to encounter. After the close 
 of the first trial, Governor Seward left Auburn on a pro 
 fessional tour to Washington and the southern states. 
 
 While the case of Wyatt was yet the topic of discussion 
 in Auburn and its vicinity, a singularly revolting occurrence 
 took place, which served to increase the agitation of the 
 public mind. This was the massacre of nearly a whole 
 family by William Freeman, a negro of twenty-three years 
 
100 MASSACRE OP THE VAN NEST FAMILY. 
 
 of age, who had been six months before discharged from 
 the Auburn stateprison, after an imprisonment of five years. 
 The bloody scene occurred at the residence of John G. Van 
 Nest, a wealthy and highly respectable farmer, and a friend 
 and former client of Governor Seward s, whose house stood 
 in a secluded grove, near the suburbs of Auburn, on the 
 shores of the Owasco lake. Having armed himself with 
 carefully-prepared weapons, Freeman entered the dwelling 
 at ten o clock at night, and slew Mr. Yan Nest, his wife, 
 then pregnant, a child sleeping in its bed, and the mother- 
 in-law of Van Nest, Mrs. Wyckoff, an aged woman of sev 
 enty. The hired man, who came to the defence of the fam 
 ily, was severely injured and left for dead. The murderer, 
 being disabled by a wound from old Mrs. Wyckoff, desisted 
 from further violence, and made his escape. Taking a 
 horse from the stable, he rode him a few miles, when he 
 stabbed the animal, which had become incapable of travel 
 ling. He then stole another horse, which proved to be 
 more fleet, and pursuing his flight, rode to the house of a 
 relative about thirty miles from Auburn. There he offered 
 the horse for sale, and proposed to take up his residence, 
 until he should recover from his wound. He was traced 
 and arrested, in a few hours, and brought back to the scene 
 of butchery, and into the presence of the surviving witnesses. 
 On being questioned, he at once confessed the crime, not 
 only without apparent remorse or horror, but with frequent 
 and irrepressible fits of laughter. The public indignation 
 was so excited at this awful tragedy, that it required all 
 the dexterity of the police to keep Freeman from being torn 
 to pieces on the spot. He was at length committed to the 
 jail, by a successful stratagem, but the crowd could with 
 difficulty be prevented from forcing the doors. They were 
 appeased only by the assurance of one of the judges of the 
 county, that Freeman should be tried and executed, and 
 that there should be no plea of insanity and " no Governor 
 Seward to defend him." 
 
WYATT AND FREEMAN ^. BSCITEXENT. 101- 
 
 None of the usual motives appearing on the part of Free 
 man for the commission of such a desperate act, it was ru 
 mored that he had been present during Wyatt s trial, and 
 had learned from the argument of Governor Seward that 
 responsibilities for crime might be avoided on the ground of 
 insanity. This became the popular explanation of the hor 
 rible catastrophe. The public feeling ran high against 
 Governor Seward. Even threats of personal violence 
 were openly made. The excitement became so intense, 
 that when he returned from the south, his family and friends 
 were surprised that on reaching the depot at Auburn, he 
 was permitted to pass to his residence without outrage. 
 
 In this state of affairs, the governor, Silas Wright, was 
 induced to issue an order for a special term of the court of 
 over and terminer, to be held at an early day, by Judge 
 Whiting, to dispose of the cases both of Wyatt and Free 
 man. During the interval, public tranquillity was restored 
 by the assurance of Governor Seward s law-partners, while 
 he was absent, that he would not engage in the defence, it 
 being well understood that no other advocate would con 
 sent to give his services to so odious a cause. 
 
 Governor Seward was unmoved by the tempest of excite 
 ment around him. With characteristic courage and calm 
 ness, he proceeded to examine the subject, as a philanthro 
 pist and lawyer. He felt as keenly as any one, the enor 
 mity of the deed. But impelled by a strong sense of duty, 
 he was determined to look thoroughly into the case of the 
 wretched negro. At his solicitation, accordingly, three in 
 telligent and humane citizens of Auburn made several visits 
 to Freeman in jail. They reduced their conversations with 
 him to writing, and submitted them to Governor Seward s 
 inspection. The result of the investigation, together with 
 other facts which had become known to him, convinced him 
 that whatever was the condition of Freeman s mind prior 
 to the homicide, he was then sunk into a state of dementia, 
 approaching idiocy. 
 
102- ; | -TRIAL OF WYATT. 
 
 The court began with the trial t)f Wyatt. Governor 
 Seward, aware of the intense and aggravated excitement 
 which prevailed, applied for a postponement of the case, 
 but without effect. A week was consumed without finding 
 a single impartial juror. The attorney-general, John Van 
 Burcn, was sent for, with haste. On his arrival, the court 
 reversed the principles by which the trial of jurors had 
 ever been conducted, as laid down by Chief-Justice Mar 
 shall, and adopted a standard that permitted jurors to be 
 sworn although they confessed to a bias, or an opinion 
 formed of the prisoner s guilt. The obtaining of a juror, 
 even under this unprecedented decision, was regarded as a 
 triumph, in a controversy in which not only the people of 
 Auburn and its vicinity, but of the whole state took sides 
 for or against Governor Seward. 
 
 A trial conducted under such circumstances, could have 
 but one result. At the expiration of a month, Wyatt w T as 
 convicted and sentenced to be executed. Moral insanity 
 was thus, so far as the verdict of a jury could go, judicially 
 abolished. Governor Seward devoted four weeks of unin 
 terrupted labor to this case, without the slightest pecuniary 
 compensation, and at an outlay of no small sum from his 
 own pocket.* 
 
 The Freeman case still remained to be disposed of. It 
 came on immediately after the conclusion of Wyatt s trial. 
 An immense assemblage had convened in the courthouse 
 at Auburn, to witness the opening of the case. Until that 
 moment, it was not known whether Freeman would have 
 any counsel. It was supposed the court would assign him 
 
 * Wyatt, after receiving his sentence, anxious to afford Governor Seward 
 some compensation, offered to narrate his "life" for publication, the profits 
 of which should go to Governor S., and it was taken down for that purpose. 
 But on examination it was found to be of doubtful moral bearing and influ 
 ence, and on that account, Governor Seward refused to permit its publica 
 tion, or participate in any profits arising therefrom. A spurious copy, how 
 ever, was afterward surreptitiously obtained, and brought out in a pamphlet* 
 which yielded a net profit of six hundred dollars to the publisher. 
 
TRIAL OF FREEMAN. 103 
 
 some junior member of the bar; but it was considered 
 doubtful if one could be found of sufficient nerve to accept 
 the appointment, and attempt even a formal and weak de 
 fence. The excited multitude were not backward in loudly 
 propounding the inquiry, " Who will now dare come for 
 ward to the defence of this negro ?" " Let us see the man 
 who will attempt to raise his voice in his behalf !" Nor 
 did they hesitate in uttering threats of vengeance against 
 any member of the bar who would plead the case of so vile 
 a wretch. But there was one seated within the bar in that 
 crowded court-room, who heeded not these menaces. A 
 being in human form was in distress and peril before him. 
 He asked himself, " What does humanity and duty require at 
 my hands, in this case ?" And having received from con 
 science a prompt and decisive reply, he unhesitatingly pro 
 ceeded to the labor thus enjoined upon him, without delay 
 ing to consult interest, or popular favor, or any of the 
 consequences that might ensue. In vain family, personal 
 and political friends, influential citizens, and members of 
 the bar, besought him not to interfere, and call down upon 
 himself the indignation of the populace. In vain was he 
 reminded of the long, weary, and expensive trial to which 
 he had just devoted himself, to the neglect of professional 
 engagements, and the peril of health in vain was he fore 
 warned of the still more tedious, costly, and exhausting 
 nature of the present case, should he engage in it. A high 
 er law and a louder voice cal^d him to the defence of the 
 demented, forsaken wretch, who stood insensible of the 
 vengeful gaze of a thousand eyes, and lie felt that he had 
 no alternative. 
 
 Freeman was arraigned on four indictments for murder. 
 When asked whether he pleaded guilty to the first indict 
 ment, he replied, " Yes !" " No !" " I don t know !" 
 " Have you counsel ?" was the next inquiry. " I don t 
 know," responded the prisoner, with a stupidity which as 
 tonished even those who were most eager for his death. 
 
104 COUNSEL FOR FREEMAN. 
 
 " Will any one defend this man ?" inquired the court. A 
 death-like stillness pervaded the crowded room. Pale with 
 emotion, yet firm and unflinching as steel, Governor So ward, 
 to the amazement of every person present, arose and said, 
 " May it please the court, I appear as counsel for the pris 
 oner !" It would be impossible to describe the excitement 
 which followed this announcement, or the threatening dem 
 onstrations which it called forth. David Wright, Esq., of 
 Auburn, a well-known lawyer and philanthropist, volun 
 teered as associate counsel in defence of Freeman. Tho 
 attorney-general, John Van Buren, conducted the prosecu 
 tion. 
 
 Governor Seward presented to the court in bar of a trial, 
 that the prisoner was then insane. Issue was taken on this 
 plea, and a trial was directed by the court, on the question 
 of Freeman s insanity at that time. After protracted ef 
 forts similar to those which took place in Wyatt s case, a 
 jury was empanneled to try this preliminary question, but 
 they were already evidently fixed in their convictions of 
 the sanity and guilt of the prisoner. 
 
 Governor Seward s political party, throughout the state, 
 shrinking from the unpopularity in which he had involved 
 himself, in a proceeding universally denounced by the press, 
 abandoned him. While these proceedings were pending, 
 the delegates to the convention called to revise the consti 
 tution of the state of New York, assembled at Albany. 
 The whig party was suppose/1 to be compromised by Gov 
 ernor Seward s known bias in favor of extending the right 
 of suffrage to the colored population. The result of the 
 election of delegates had been an overwhelming defeat of 
 the whigs. The exclamation was universal, that whatever 
 might be the fate of the whig party hereafter, Governor 
 Seward was effectually lost. 
 
 Still he did not falter, but sternly persevered in what he 
 conscientiously believed to be the line of his duty, and was 
 the only person engaged in these transactions, except his 
 
THE FREEMAN CASE. 105 
 
 client, who was calm and unmoved. The trial on the ques 
 tion of the prisoner s sanity, continued two weeks, and was 
 contested by Governor Seward with an energy, persever 
 ance, and skill, that drew plaudits from his most violent 
 opposers, and that could not have been exceeded had mil 
 lions of dollars depended on the issue. His argument at 
 the summing up, for eloquence, pathos, sound legal views, 
 and thorough knowledge of human character, has rarely 
 been excelled at the American bar. At length, when the 
 jury retired, it was at once found that eleven were agreed 
 that the prisoner was sane. The twelfth declared his un 
 changeable opinion that Freeman, although sane enough to 
 know right from wrong, was yet so unsound in mind as not 
 to be responsible for his actions. The disagreement and 
 discussion in the jury-room being privately communicated 
 to the court, information was returned to the jurors that 
 the verdict would be accepted, although it gave no direct 
 response to the question at issue, and was couched in equiv 
 ocal language. They accordingly brought in the following 
 verdict " We find the prisoner at the bar sufficiently sane 
 to distinguish between right and wrong." In an earnest 
 and elaborate argument, Governor Seward protested against 
 the reception of this verdict, as it was illegal, pointless, 
 and irrelevant. But it was pronounced by the court to be 
 sound and satisfactory, and Freeman was forthwith put upon 
 his trial for the murders charged against him. 
 
 He was directed to stand up and plead to the indictment. 
 But it was evident to every spectator that the wretched 
 imbecile had not the faintest conception of the nature of an 
 indictment, or of the object of the scenes around him, in 
 which he unconsciously bore so conspicuous a part. 
 
 We shall be pardoned for introducing here the following 
 extract from a vivid description of the scene which tran 
 spired at the reading of the indictment, by a clergyman of 
 Auburn, who attended the trial, and was an eye-witness of 
 the proceedings : - 
 
 f* 
 
106 TRIAL OF FREEMAN. 
 
 "The district-attorney (Luman Sherwood, Esq.), with the bill of indictment 
 in his hand, called out William Freeman, stand up. He then ap 
 proached quite near the negro, for he was very deaf, and read the indict 
 ment. At the conclusion, the following dialogue ensued: 
 
 "Dist. Aft. Do you plead guilty, or not guilty, to these indictments? 
 
 "Freeman. Ha? 
 
 "D. A. (Repeating the question.) 
 
 "F. I don t know. 
 
 "D. A. Are you able to employ counsel? 
 
 "F. No. 
 
 " D. A. Are you ready for trial? 
 
 "F. I don t know. 
 
 " D. A. Have you any counsel? 
 
 " F. I don t know. 
 
 "Z>. A. Who are your counsel? 
 
 "F. I don t know. 
 
 "At this stage of the proceedings, Governor Seward could no longer re 
 strain himself. Pie buried his face in his hands, and burst into tears and 
 seizing his hat, he rushed from the court-room, perfectly overwhelmed with 
 his feelings. And who that had but a common share of sympathy, could 
 fail to be most sensibly moved at witnessing such a procedure on a subject 
 so awful, allowed before one of the highest tribunals of the land. An in 
 strument read to this idiotic creature, pregnant with his death, requiring 
 him to respond to the same, when the wretched being had not the first 
 glimpse of what it all meant> or what effect it would have upon him. D. 
 Wright, Esq., who had assisted Governor Seward on the preliminary trial, 
 arose after the reading of the indictment, and declared he could not consent 
 longer to take part in a cause which had so much the appearance of a ter 
 rible farce. But Governor Seward (who had returned to the room), imme 
 diately sprang to his feet and exclaimed May it please the court 1 
 shall remain counsel for the prisoner until his death! At the solicitation 
 of the court, Mr. Wright finally consented again to take part in the cause, 
 and assist Governor Seward." 
 
 As the commission of the acts charged was not denied 
 by the prisoner s counsel, the only question at issue was his 
 sanity at the time of the homicide. Governor Seward la 
 bored with unwearied assiduity to establish the insanity or 
 dementia of Freeman, of which he was himself satisfied be 
 yond a possible doubt. At great expense, defrayed by 
 himself, he summoned into court the most eminent medical 
 professors and practitioners from various and extreme 
 parts of the state, whose intelligent and unbiased testimony 
 fully sustained the ground on which he urged the defence. 
 
THE ARGUMENT EXTRACT. 107 
 
 We can make room here for only a few passages of Gov 
 ernor Seward s thrilling argument in this case : 
 
 "MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT Gentlemen of the jury : 
 
 THOU SHALT NOT KILL, and * WHOSO SHEDDETH MAN S BLOOD, 
 
 BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED, are laws found in the code 
 of that people who, although distracted and dispersed through 
 all lands, trace their history to the creation ; a history that 
 records that murder was the first of human crimes. 
 
 " The first of these precepts constitutes a tenth part of the 
 jurisprudence which God saw fit to establish, at an early period, 
 for the government of all mankind, throughout all generations. 
 The latter, of less universal obligation, is still retained in our 
 system, although other states, as intelligent and refined, as secure 
 and peaceful, have substituted for it the more benign principle 
 that good shall be returned for evil. I yield implicit submission 
 to this law, and acknowledge the justness of its penalty, and the 
 duty of courts and juries to give it effect. 
 
 " In this case, if the prisoner be guilty of murder, I do not ask 
 remission of punishment. If he be guilty, never was murderer 
 more guilty. He has murdered not only John G. Van Nest, 
 but his hands are reeking with the blood of other, and numerous, 
 and even more pitiable victims. The slaying of Van Nest, if a 
 crime at all, was the cowardly crime of assassination. John G. 
 Van Nest was a just, upright, virtuous man, of middle age, of 
 grave and modest demeanor, distinguished by especial marks of 
 the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens. On his arm leaned 
 a confiding wife, and they supported, on the one side, children 
 to whom they had given being, and, on the other, aged and ven 
 erable parents, from whom they had derived existence. The 
 assassination of such a man was an atrocious crime, but the mur 
 derer, with more than savage refinement, immolated on the same 
 altar, in the same hour, a venerable and virtuous matron of more 
 than threescore years, and her daughter, the wife of Van Nest, 
 mother of an unborn infant. Nor was this all. Providence, 
 which, for its own mysterious purposes, permitted these dreadful 
 crimes, in mercy suffered the same arm to be raised against the 
 sleeping orphan child of the butchered parents, and received it 
 into heaven. A whole family, just, gentle, and pure, were thus, 
 
108 THE ARGUMENT EXTRACT. 
 
 in their own house, in the night-time without any provocation, 
 without one moment s warning- sent by the murderer to join 
 the assembly of the just ; and even the laboring man, sojourning 
 within their gates, received the fatal blade into his breast, and 
 survives through the mercy, not of the murderer, but of God. 
 
 " For William Freeman, as a murderer, I have no commission 
 to speak. If he had silver and gold accumulated with the fru 
 gality of Crcesus, and should pour it all at my feet, I would not 
 stand an hour between him and the avenger. But, for the inno 
 cent, it is my right, my duty to speak. If this sea of blood was 
 innocently shed, then it is my duty to stand beside him until his 
 steps lose their hold upon the scaffold. 
 
 " Thou slialt not kill is a commandment addressed, not to 
 him alone, but to me, to you, to the court, and to the whole 
 community. There are no exceptions from that commandment, 
 at least in civil life, save those of self-defence, and capital pun 
 ishment for crimes in the due and just administration of the law. 
 There is not only a question, then, whether the prisoner has 
 shed the blood of his fellow-man, but the question whether we 
 shall unlawfully shed his blood. I should be guilty of murder 
 if, in my present relation, I saw the executioner waiting for an 
 insane man, and failed to say, or failed to do in his behalf, all 
 that my ability allowed. I think it has been proved of the 
 prisoner at the bar, that, during all this long and tedious trial, 
 he has had no sleepless nights, and that even in the daytime, 
 when he retires from these halls to his lonely cell, he sinks to 
 rest like a wearied child, on the stone floor, and quietly slum 
 bers till roused by the constable with his staff to appear again 
 before the jury. His counsel enjoy no such repose. Their 
 thoughts by day and their dreams by night are filled with op 
 pressive apprehension that, through their inability or neglect, he 
 may be condemned. 
 
 " I am arraigned before you for undue manifestations of zeal 
 and excitement. My answer to all such charges shall be brief. 
 When this cause shall have been committed to you, I shall be 
 happy indeed if it shall appear that my only error has been, 
 that I have felt too much, thought too intensely, or acted too 
 faithfully. 
 
 " If error on my part would thus be criminal, how great would 
 
THE ARGUMENT EXTRACT. 109 
 
 yonrs be if you should render an unjust verdict ! Only four 
 months have elapsed since an outraged people, distrustful of 
 judicial redress, doomed the prisoner to immediate death. Some 
 of you have confessed, before you came here, that you approved 
 that lawless sentence. All men now rejoice that the prisoner 
 was saved for this solemn trial. But if this trial, through any 
 wilful fault or prejudice of yours, should prove only a mockery 
 of justice, it would be as criminal as that precipitate sentence. 
 If any prejudice of witnesses, or the imagination of counsel, or 
 any ill-timed jest, shall at any time have diverted your attention, 
 or if any prejudgment which you may have brought into the 
 jury-box, or any cowardly fear of popular opinion shall have 
 operated to cause you to deny to the prisoner that dispassionate 
 consideration of his case which the laws of God and man exact 
 of you, and if, owing to such an error, this wretched man shall 
 fall from among the living, what will be your crime ? You will 
 have violated the commandment, Thou shalt not kill. It is 
 not the form or letter of the trial by jury that authorizes you to 
 send your fellow-man to his dread account, but it is the spirit 
 that sanctifies that great institution : and if, through pride, pas 
 sion, timidity, weakness, or any cause, you deny the prisoner 
 one iota of all the defence to which he is entitled by the law 
 of the land, you yourselves, whatever his guilt may be, will 
 have broken the commandment, Thou shalt do no murder. 
 
 " There is not a corrupt or prejudiced witness, there is not a 
 thoughtless or heedless witness, who has testified what was 
 not true in spirit, or what was not wholly true, or who has 
 suppressed any truth, who has not offended against the same 
 injunction. 
 
 " Nor is the court itself above that commandment. If these, 
 judges have been influenced by the excitement which has 
 brought this vast assemblage here, and under such influence, or 
 under any other influence, have committed voluntary error, and 
 have denied to the prisoner, or shall hereafter deny to him, the 
 benefit of any fact or any principle of law, then this court will 
 have to answer for the deep transgression at that bar at which 
 we all shall meet again. When we shall appear there, none of 
 us can plead that we were insane and knew not what we did ; 
 and by just so much as our ability and knowledge exceed those 
 
110 THE ARGUMENT EXTRACT. 
 
 of this wretch, whom the world regards as a fiend in human 
 shape, will our guilt exceed his, if we be guilty. 
 
 " I plead not for a murderer. I have no inducement, no 
 motive to do so. I have addressed my fellow-citizens in many 
 various relations, when rewards of wealth and fame awaited me. 
 I have been cheered on other occasions by manifestations of 
 popular approbation and sympathy ; and where there was no 
 such encouragement, I have had at least the gratitude of him 
 whose cause I defended. But 1 speak now in the hearing of a 
 people who have prejudged the prisoner, and condemned me for 
 pleading in his behalf. He is a convict a pauper a negro, 
 without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child, with an affec 
 tionate smile, disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever 
 I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to 
 give, because he says, God bless you, as I pass. My dog 
 caresses me with fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse 
 recognises me when I fill his manger. But what reward, what 
 gratitude, what sympathy and affection can I expect here? 
 There the prisoner sits. Look at him. Look at the assemblage 
 around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed censures and their 
 excited fears, and tell me where, among my neighbors or my 
 fellow-men where, even in his heart I can expect to find 
 the sentiment, the thought, not to say of reward or of acknowl 
 edgment, but even of recognition 
 
 " I speak with all sincerity and earnestness ; not because I 
 expect my opinion to have weight, but I would disarm the inju 
 rious impression that I am speaking, merely as a lawyer speaks 
 for his client. I am not the prisoner s lawyer. I am indeed a 
 volunteer in his behalf; but society and mankind have the deep- 
 , est interests at stake. 1 am the lawyer for society, for mankind, 
 shocked, beyond the power of expression, at the scene I have 
 witnessed here of trying a maniac as a malefactor. In this, 
 almost the first of such causes I have ever seen, the last I hope 
 that I shall ever see, I wish that I could perform my duty with 
 more effect. If I suffered myself to look at the volumes of 
 testimony through which I have to pass, to remember my en 
 tire want of preparation, the pressure of time, and my wasted 
 strength and energies, I should despair of acquitting myself as 
 you and all good men will hereafter desire that I should have 
 
THE SENTENCE OF FREEMAN. Ill 
 
 performed so sacred a duty. But, in the cause of humanity, we 
 are encouraged to hope for Divine assistance where human pow 
 ers are weak. As you all know, I provided for my way through 
 these trials, neither gold nor silver in my purse, nor scrip ; and 
 when I could not think beforehand what I should say, I remem 
 bered that it was said to those who had a beneficent commis 
 sion, that they should take no thought what they should say 
 when brought before the magistrate, for in that same hour it 
 should be given them what they should say, and it should not 
 be they who should speak, but the spirit of their Father speak 
 ing in them." 
 
 After a laborious and exhausting trial of two weeks 
 duration, aided by the abhorrent nature of the crime, 
 the overwhelming popular clamor, and various decisions of 
 the court, subversive in many instances, of established rules 
 in capital trials, the attorney-general succeeded in procur 
 ing from the jury a verdict of guilty. 
 
 Governor Seward s efforts in behalf of the prisoner were 
 thus defeated. But he had faithfully discharged his duty, 
 and the responsibility of holding an insane or idiotic person 
 responsible for his deeds, rested not with him. Freeman 
 was adjudged and condemned as a sane man. Governor 
 Seward had no more to offer in that place, and the court 
 was suffered to proceed in passing sentence upon the 
 prisoner. 
 
 As in reading the indictment, so in the passing of the 
 sentence, a scene occurred unparalleled, we venture to 
 affirm, in any court of justice. Instead of standing in the 
 dock as is customary, the judge directed the prisoner to be 
 brought to his side upon the bench. The judge then said 
 to him : 
 
 The jury say you are guilty. Do you hear me ? 
 " Yes, replied Freeman. 
 
 " The jury, repeated the judge, say you are guilty. Do you under 
 stand? 
 
 " No, said the ne^ro. 
 
 " Do you know which the jury are ? inquired the court 
 
112 THE DEATH OP FREEMAN. 
 
 " No! answered the prisoner. 
 
 " Well! they are those gentlemen down there, continued Judge Whiting, 
 pointing to the jurors in their seats and they say you are guilty. Do 
 you understand? 
 
 " No! 
 
 " They say you killed Van Nest Do you understand that? 
 
 " Yes! 
 
 "Did you kill Van Nest? 
 
 " Yes! 
 
 " I am going to pronounce sentence upon you. Do you understand that? 
 
 " No. 
 
 " I am going to sentence you to be hanged. Do you understand that? 
 
 " No. " 
 
 The prisoner was then led back to the dock, and the 
 judge proceeded to pronounce sentence of death upon him. 
 Tli is he did in the form of an address read to the audience ; 
 thus tacitly admitting, what was evident to every person in 
 the immense multitude present, that Freeman knew not a 
 word he uttered, or the strange scene thus transpiring. 
 He was conveyed to his cell as unconscious of the sentence 
 that had been pronounced upon him, as an unborn child. 
 
 A bill of exceptions was prepared by Governor Seward, 
 but the judge refused a stay of proceedings. It was, how 
 ever, subsequently granted by a judge of an appellate court, 
 and in October following, on a full review of the whole case, 
 a new trial was granted. But Freeman, who had proved 
 himself a monomaniac in the committal of the homicide, 
 now sunk so low in dementia, that Judge Whiting, before 
 whom he was tried and convicted, pronounced him incom 
 petent for another trial, and refused to proceed with the 
 case. A few weeks later, the wretched and imbrutcd Wil 
 liam Freeman passed from earth to the presence of a more 
 wise and merciful Judge. 
 
 A post-mortem examination was made, by the most emi 
 nent physicians in the state, which showed that Freeman s 
 brain was diseased and destroyed. The publication of 
 Governor Seward s second argument* in this remarkable 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 409 to 475. 
 
REVIEW OF THE CASE. 113 
 
 case, an effort of the highest and most attractive character, 
 unsurpassed in eloquence, logic, and legal ability, had 
 already wrought a reaction in public opinion, which was 
 rendered complete and universal by this post-mortem exam 
 ination. Now, there is no one act of Governor Seward s 
 life, for which society is more grateful to him than that of 
 having saved the community from the crime of the judicial 
 murder of Freeman an ignorant colored boy wh(3 had 
 been confined in the stateprison for an offence of which he 
 was innocent, and driven to lunacy by a sense of the injus 
 tice of his punishment, and by inhumanity in the exercise 
 of penitentiary discipline. 
 
 Before leaving this case, it is due to Governor Seward 
 to insert another extract from an article by the clergyman 
 in Auburn, to whom- allusion has already been made, writ 
 ten immediately after the conclusion of the trial, and pub 
 lished in the journals of the day. It describes the impres 
 sion made at the time by the high-minded and humane course 
 of Governor Seward on a class of individuals who did not 
 allow retaliatory emotions to cloud their judgment, or harden 
 their feelings, against the forsaken creature who committed 
 the dreadful homicide. The sentiments it utters in regard 
 to the part taken by Governor Seward in this remarkable 
 case, we are confident will find a response in every unpre 
 judiced and humane heart : 
 
 "The conduct of Governor Seward in this painful affair reflects the high 
 est honor upon him. Shocked, horrified, though he was at the awful tra 
 gedy which had been enacted, and which had destroyed a family with whom 
 he was on terms of intimate friendship, yet seeing the blood-stamed, wretched 
 negro deserted by all, even those of his own caste and color, and becoming 
 abundantly satisfied that he was an insane, irresponsible being, he nobly 
 volunteered in his defence. Moved alone by the sympathies of his generous 
 soul, and a high sense of duty to the weak and defenceless in opposition 
 alike to the entreaties of friends ever watchful of his reputation and inter 
 ests, and the imprecations of an incensed multitude, eager that the blood of 
 a demented creature should be shed he boldly threw himself between the 
 victim and those who would hurry him in hot haste to an ignominious 
 death! Without fee or compensation of any description, for four weeks he 
 toiled through the sultry hours of the summer day, far into the shades of 
 
114 REVIEW OF THE CASE. 
 
 night sparing no time, no strength, no ability contesting every inch of 
 ground, with an industry, a perseverance, an unyielding faithfulness, that 
 wrung commendation even from those most exasperated against his idiotic 
 client. And all this for whom? For a NEGRO! the poorest and lowest of 
 his degraded caste and who, though seated directly by his side, did not 
 know that he was his counsel was not even aware that one of the migh 
 tiest intellects of the age, one of the noblest spirits of the world, was taxing 
 his utmost energies in defence of his lifel 
 
 "In his eloquent appeal on the preliminary trial respecting Freeman s 
 insanity, Governor Seward alluded to the excitement which had been kin 
 dled against him for the faithfulness with which he defended both Wyatt 
 and Freeman, in the following thrilling passage: 
 
 " In due time, gentlemen of the jury, when I shall have paid the debt 
 of nature, my remains will rest here in your midst, with those of my kin 
 dred and neighbors. It is very possible they may be unhonored neglect 
 ed spurned I But perhaps, years hence, when the passion and excitement 
 which now agitate this community shall have passed away some wander 
 ing stranger some lone exile some Indian some negro may erect 
 over them an humble stone, and thereon this epitaph : " HE WAS FAITHFUL T 
 
 " What spectacle more interesting can be witnessed on earth than was 
 presented on this trial? A statesman of the most commanding talents 
 one who had received the highest honors the people of his native state 
 could bestow upon him one whose well-known abilities call around him 
 crowds of wealthy clients, able to reward his valuable services with streams 
 of gold turning from all these, at the call of humanity, and going down 
 unrewarded, yea at great pecuniary expense to himself, to the defence of 
 this forsaken, pitiable son of Africa! Unrewarded, did I say? A richer 
 reward than silver or gold is his! Wherever the tidings of this strange 
 trial shall be wafted throughout this civilized world, they will carry the 
 name of SEWARD to be embalmed as a sacred treasure in the hearts of all 
 lovers of humanity of all who sympathize with the degraded and enslaved 
 Ethiopian of all who pity those whom God has deprived of reason!" 
 
 Aii extract from Mr. Scward s argument in this case, con 
 taining an enlightened exposition of insanity, will be found 
 among the Selections in this volume. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY CASE AT DETROIT. 115 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 THE TRIAL OF ABEL F. FITCH AND OTHERS FOR CONSPIRACY, 
 AT DETROIT, IN 1851 MR. SEWARD S DEFENCE. 
 
 IN May, 1851, an announcement was made by the press 
 of Detroit, that an atrocious conspiracy (embracing fifty 
 citizens of Jackson county, in the state of Michigan) , for 
 the destruction of the property of the Michigan Central 
 Railroad Company, and an indiscriminate war against the 
 lives of passengers travelling on the road, had been discov 
 ered, through the activity of agents of that company, and 
 of the police, and that the guilty parties had been suddenly 
 surprised, arrested, and conveyed to jail in Detroit. 
 
 The accusation took the form of an indictment for arson, 
 in burning the depot of that company in Detroit, and the 
 proof that of a conspiracy for the commission of that and 
 other great crimes. The prisoners alleged their entire in 
 nocence, and declared that the prosecution was itself a con 
 spiracy, to convict them, by fabricated testimony, of a crime 
 that had not even been committed. 
 
 The accused parties denied combination with each other, 
 and even all knowledge of the principal, who was alleged 
 to have committed the crime, and who, as they supposed, 
 had been fraudulently induced to confess it and charge them 
 as accomplices. In applying to be admitted to bail, the 
 sums were fixed so high as to practically deny them that 
 privilege. 
 
 Public opinion was vehemently and intensely excited 
 against them, by reason of aggressions that had been com 
 mitted in their neighborhood for a long time, seriously en 
 dangering the lives of passengers. Among the accused 
 
116 
 
 were persons in every walk of life ; and, while the guilt of 
 some seemed too probable, that of all appeared to be quite 
 impossible. The ten most distinguished lawyers of Michi 
 gan were retained, before the arrest, by the railroad com 
 pany, to conduct the prosecution ; and it was said that ev 
 ery other counsellor in the city and state qualified to defend 
 them, except one, had been induced to decline to appear in 
 their behalf. 
 
 They applied to Mr. Seward, at Auburn, by telegraph, 
 after the trial had begun, stating these facts. He did not 
 hesitate to appear for men whom the public had prejudged 
 and condemned, and whom the legal profession, except for 
 his going to their aid, would have been deemed to have 
 abandoned. 
 
 The issues were perplexed. The evidence was of a most 
 extraordinary character. Even now, it is impossible, on 
 reading it, to decide which was most improbable, the exist 
 ence of the crime, or the truth of the defence. The trial 
 lasted four months, and so was the longest, in a jury-case, 
 that was ever held. The alleged principal died before the 
 trial began. One of the chief defendants, and another more 
 obscure, died during its progress. Twelve of the fifty de 
 fendants were convicted, and all the others acquitted. All 
 these circumstances, together with the ability and learning 
 displayed, mark the case as one of the great state trials of 
 this country. Mr. Seward s argument was published at the 
 time. It reviewed, collated, and condensed the testimony 
 of four hundred witnesses, presenting a very complicated 
 series of transactions, private and public. 
 
 This speech fills more than one hundred pages in the re 
 port of the trial. To that report we refer the reader, 
 regretting that our limits allow us to present only the intro 
 duction and the close of so elaborate and interesting a 
 speech : 
 
 "MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY : 
 
 This is Detroit, the commercial metropolis of Michigan. It is a 
 
MR. SEWARD S DEFENCE EXTRACT. 117 
 
 prosperous and beautiful city, and is worthy of your pride. I 
 have enjoyed its hospitalities liberal and long. May it stand, 
 and grow, and flourish, for ever ! Seventy miles westward, tow 
 ard the centre of the peninsula, in the county of Jackson, is 
 Leoni, a rural district, containing two new and obscure villages, 
 Leoni and Michigan Centre. Here, in this dock, are the chief 
 members of that community. Either they have committed a 
 great crime against this capital, or there is here a conspiracy of 
 infamous persons seeking to effect their ruin, by the machinery 
 of the law. A state that allows great criminals to go unpun 
 ished, or great conspiracies to prevail, can enjoy neither peace, 
 security, nor respect. This trial occurs in the spring-time of the 
 state. It involves so many private and public interests, devel 
 ops transactions so singular, and is attended by incidents so touch 
 ing, that it will probably be regarded, not only as an important 
 judicial event in the history of Michigan, but also as entitled to 
 a place among the extraordinary state trials of our country and 
 of our times. 
 
 " Forty and more citizens of this state were accused of a felo 
 ny, and demanded, what its constitution assured them, a trial by 
 jury. An advocate was indispensable in such a trial. They 
 required me to assume that office, on the ground of necessity. I 
 was an advocate by profession. For me the law had postponed 
 the question of their guilt or innocence. Can any one furnish 
 me with what would have been a sufficient excuse for refusing 
 their demand ? Hoc maxime officii est, ut quisquam maxime 
 opus indigeatj ita ci potissimum opitulari ?* was the instruction 
 given by Cicero. Can the American lawyer find a better rule 
 of conduct, or one derived from higher authority 1 
 
 " Gentlemen, in the middle of the fourth month we draw near 
 to the end of what has seemed to be an endless labor. While 
 we have been here, events have transpired which have roused 
 national ambition kindled national resentment drawn forth 
 national sympathies and threatened to disturb the tranquillity 
 of empires. He who, although He worketh unseen, yet worketh 
 irresistibly and unceasingly, hath suspended neither his guardiau 
 care nor his paternal discipline over ourselves. Some of you 
 
 * "The clear point of duty is, to assist most readily those who most need 
 assistance." 
 
118 MR. 
 
 have sickened and convalesced. Others have parted with cher 
 ished ones, who, removed before they had time to contract the 
 stain of earth, were already prepared for the kingdom of heaven. 
 There have been changes, too, among the unfortunate men whom 
 I have defended. The sound of the hammer has died away in 
 the workshops of some ; the harvests have ripened and wasted 
 in the fields of others. Want, and fear, and sorrow, have en 
 tered into all their dwellings. Their own rugged forms have 
 drooped ; their sunburnt brows have blanched ; and their hands 
 have become as soft to the pressure of friendship as yours or 
 mine. One of them a vagrant boy whom I found impris 
 oned here for a few extravagant words, that perhaps he never 
 uttered, has pined away and died. Another he who was feared, 
 hated, and loved, most of all has fallen in the vigor of life 
 
 hacked down, 
 
 His thick summer-leaves all faded. 
 
 When such a one falls amid the din and smoke of the battle 
 field, our emotions are overpowered suppressed lost, in the 
 excitement of public passion. But when he perishes a victim of 
 domestic or social life when we see the iron enter his soul, and 
 see it, day by day, sink deeper and deeper, until nature gives 
 way, and he lies lifeless at our feet then there is nothing to 
 check the flow of forgiveness, compassion, and sympathy. If, in 
 the moment when he is closing his eyes on earth, he declares 
 1 1 have committed no crime against my country ; I die a martyr 
 for the liberty of speech, and perish of a broken heart then, 
 indeed, do we feel that the tongues of dying men enforce atten 
 tion, like deep harmony. Who would willingly consent to de 
 cide on the guilt or innocence of one who has thus been with 
 drawn from our erring judgment to the tribunal of eternal justice 1 
 Yet it can not be avoided. If Abel F. Fitch was guilty of the 
 crime charged in this indictment, every man here may neverthe 
 less be innocent ; but if he was innocent, then there is not one of 
 these, his associates in life, who can be guilty. Try him, then, since 
 you must condemn him, if you must and with him condemn 
 them. But remember that you are mortal, and he is now im 
 mortal ; and that, before the tribunal where he stands, you must 
 stand and confront him, and vindicate your judgment. Remem- 
 
FORENSIC ARGUMENTS. 119 
 
 ber, too, that lie is now free. He has not only left behind him 
 the dungeon, the cell, and the chain, but he exults in a freedom 
 compared with which the liberty we enjoy is slavery and bond 
 age. You stand, then, between the dead and the living. There 
 is no need to bespeak the exercise of your caution of your 
 candor and of your impartiality. You will, I am sure, be just 
 to the living, and true to your country ; because, under circum 
 stances so solemn so full of awe you can not be unjust tc 
 the dead, nor false to your country, nor your God." 
 
 Of the character of Governor Seward s professional labors 
 and conduct in the department of arguments at the bar, fur 
 ther illustrations will be found in his pleas for the liberty 
 of the press, and against the fugitive-slave law, and for the 
 rights of inventors, contained in the collection of his works. 
 
 A single passage from the first-named plea is given here 
 as embodying Mr. Seward s views of resorts to courts of 
 justice in vindication of personal character when as 
 sailed: :J4 < 
 
 "Actions of libel are now at least comparatively unnecessary. 
 A virtuous and humble life carries with it its own vindication. 
 And if this be not enough, the press has the antidote to its own 
 poisons. If it sometimes wounds, it can effectually heal. An 
 eminent citizen who once presided in this court commenced pub 
 lic life with actions in defence of his character. Assailed as he 
 thought in the evening of his life, he appealed to the press, and 
 his vindication was complete and successful. The licentiousness 
 of the press has impaired its power to defame and the Avorst 
 libel ever published would be effectually counteracted by a 
 publication in the simple Avords, I am riot guilty, if it bore the 
 signature of James Milnor, or of one who like him walked among 
 his countrymen in the ways of a pure and blameless life." 
 
120 RECALL TO PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RECALL TO PUBLIC LIFE RETROSPECT POLITICAL AFFAIRS 
 GENERAL TAYLOR S ELECTION CLEVELAND SPEECH. 
 
 THE retirement of Governor Seward from office, permit 
 ting party heats to abate, and freeing his views on public 
 questions from the influence of prejudice, was followed by 
 a growing reaction of popular sentiment in his favor. He 
 had been opposed by the abolitionists, because he withheld 
 his countenance from their extreme measures, and by the 
 enemies of abolition, because of -his sympathy with the 
 cause. Adopted citizens had been led to distrust the sin 
 cerity of his efforts in their behalf, and protestants saw 
 danger to religion in his zeal for equal justice to the for 
 eigner and native. The friends of internal improvement 
 accused him of lukewarmness, while the opponents of that 
 system predicted the impoverishment of the state from the 
 extravagance of his zeal. But now all these prejudices 
 were softened. His character and his opinions were pre 
 sented in a truer light. His sincerity was placed above the 
 reach of suspicion. No one questioned his rare abilities. 
 While new friends were constantly won, his old friends 
 adhered to him with affectionate fidelity. Though abstain 
 ing from the exercise of political influence, he was regarded 
 as the leader of his party in the state, and his labors were 
 claimed for every movement in behalf of its interests. 
 
 Upon the organization of the Native American party, 
 which commenced with the burning of Roman Catholic 
 churches, and aimed at a complete change in the natural 
 ization laws, the adopted citizens, with one accord, appealed 
 to Governor Seward for sympathy and protection. His 
 
THE TEXAS AND OREGON QUESTIONS. 121 
 
 speeches and letters, during the agitation of this subject, 
 show his vigorous resistance to principles which he had 
 always regarded as political heresies.* In this respect, his 
 course has been uniform and consistent, from the beginning. 
 
 Notwithstanding Governor Seward was overruled in his 
 opposition to the nomination of Mr. Clay for the presi 
 dency, in 1844, at the instance of the whig party, he took 
 an active part in the canvass of the state, until the day of 
 the election. He spared no pains to remove the objections 
 of the anti-slavery voters, and of the adopted citizens, to 
 the whig candidate. If strenuous energy and powerful 
 eloquence could have insured success, Henry Clay would 
 have received the vote of New York. But the only result 
 of these efforts was to prevent an increase of the desertion 
 from the whig ranks, which was experienced in 1842. 
 
 With his uncompromising hostility to the extension of 
 slavery in the United States, Governor Seward opposed the 
 annexation of Texas to the last, and condemned the Mexi 
 can war, which he had predicted as its consequence. Still, 
 during the continuance of the war, he urgently maintained 
 the duty of supporting the government by liberal appro 
 priations of men and money. 
 
 While the Oregon question was pending between the 
 United States and Great Britain, he agreed with John 
 Quincy Adams that our government should give notice to 
 Great Britain of the termination of the joint occupancy 
 of that territory. Notwithstanding all the threats and 
 alarms of war, he exerted his influence witli the members 
 of Congress to sustain the administration in the adoption 
 of that measure. 
 
 The subject of internal improvements in the state, to 
 gether with the conflicts of interest about the patronage of 
 the federal government, produced a division as early as 
 1843 in the ranks of the so-called New- York democracy. 
 The rival factions came soon to designate each other as 
 
 * See Vol. III. 
 
 6 
 
122 NEW CONSTITUTION PROPOSED. 
 
 hunkers and barnburners. While each admitted the neces 
 sity of some amendments to the constitution, they could 
 not agree on the details. No proposal to that effect, ac 
 cordingly, could obtain the assent of twt> successive legis 
 latures, or a two-third vote, which was necessary in the 
 last instance, for submitting a proposition to the people. 
 The barnburners, who sought for more radical reforms than 
 their opponents, were thus led to agitate the call of a con 
 vention for the entire revision of the constitution. This 
 measure was discountenanced by leading whigs, who re 
 garded it as revolutionary, and of dangerous tendencies. 
 Governor Seward took the opposite ground. He argued 
 that such a convention would present an opportunity to the 
 whigs to take the sense of the people upon the measures 
 proposed by the barnburners against internal improvements. 
 It might also secure the advantage of decentralizing the 
 political power of the state, by dividing it into single sena 
 torial and assembly districts, and transferring the appoint 
 ment of all judicial and administrative offices from the gov 
 ernor and legislature to the people, as well as intrusting 
 all matters of local legislation to county boards of super 
 visors, instead of tho legislature at Albany. It would, 
 moreover, permit an attempt to extend the right of suffrage, 
 without a freehold qualification, to the African race. The 
 views of Governor Seward were generally adopted. The 
 convention was called with great unanimity by all parties. 
 Although the whigs had but a small minority in that body, 
 all the proposed reforms were carried, except the latter. 
 The sceptre which had so long been wielded by the Albany 
 regency was broken, and the concentration of political, 
 judicial, and moneyed power, on which their empire was 
 built, was henceforth impossible. 
 
 The recurrence of the presidential election in 1848 found 
 Governor Seward consenting to the nomination of General 
 Taylor, whom he regarded, at that time, as the only avail 
 able candidate. He had greater confidence in the success 
 
THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 123 
 
 of General Taylor, as his name had been brought before 
 the people, in connection with the presidency, on account 
 of his brilliant achievements in the Mexican war, to which 
 he was understood to have been opposed. His election, there 
 fore, would serve to rebuke those politicians who had plunged 
 the country in war for selfish purposes, and would thus in 
 culcate lessons of moderation and peace to rulers. Governor 
 Seward favored his nomination, moreover, because the pre 
 vious course of the candidate warranted the belief that he 
 would veto no act of Congress establishing governments 
 which excluded slavery in our newly-acquired Mexican ter 
 ritory. With these views, Governor Seward devoted him 
 self with great energy to the canvass in the states of New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts, in behalf of 
 General Taylor, and of such members of Congress as might 
 be relied upon to support his administration and to extend 
 the ordinance of 1787, on the principle of the Wilinot pro 
 viso, over the Mexican territories. 
 
 His speech at Cleveland, Ohio, so clearly presents his 
 views of the relative position of parties on the slavery 
 question that we make room for several extracts in this 
 place : 
 
 " The occasion invites to a consideration of many grave sub 
 jects. But the time is short. I shall waste little on the preju 
 dices which constitute the chief capital of our political adversa 
 ries. The two ancient and obsolete parties originated in the 
 debate upon questions of organic law, and waxed strong in the 
 discussion of the principles of administration proper for a neu 
 tral nation during the conflict between European belligerents. 
 Each performed its duties and fulfilled its destiny ; each con 
 tributed enough to be remembered in lasting gratitude ; and 
 each was hurried at times into errors to he forgiven and avoided. 
 
 " The knights are dust, 
 Their swords in rust, 
 Their souls in heaven we trust. 
 
 " Our duties are to the generation which is living, and to the 
 generations which are to come into life. It is a living faith, and 
 
124 THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 
 
 not a dead one, that yields beneficent fruits. He who acts from 
 prejudice or from passion is a slave. He who persuades another 
 to act so makes him a slave. The ballot-box is an altar of in 
 dependence, not of slavery : 
 
 " Thou of an independent mind, 
 
 With soul resolved, with soul resigned, 
 
 Prepared Oppression s proudest frowns to brave, 
 
 Who will not be nor make a slave, 
 
 Virtue alone who dost revere. 
 
 Thy own reproach alone dost fear 
 
 Approach this shrine and worship here. 
 
 " I am to converse with whigs only, and not with all whigs, 
 but with some who propose to secede temporarily if not perma 
 nently from the association whose labors, privations, defeats, and 
 triumphs, they have hitherto shared with perseverance and fidel 
 ity. I shall speak not for a man, not for men, not even for a 
 party, but for the common cause which thus far has held us to 
 gether, and which the seceders promise to advance more effect 
 ually by separation. To such I may say, perhaps, without 
 presumption 
 
 " Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear; believe me 
 for mine honor, and have respect unto mine honor that you may the better 
 judge. 
 
 " I shall ask you to consider, first, the principles and policy 
 which the interest of our country and of humanity demand ; 
 secondly, how we can most effectually render those principles 
 and that policy triumphant. 
 
 " We never were, we are not now, and for a long time to 
 come we can not be, a unique and homogeneous people. The 
 colonies which preceded our states were off-shoots from an 
 imperfect European civilization. England, Ireland, Scotland, 
 Wales, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Holland, 
 and Sweden, contributed the original elements of population ; 
 with these were mingled the natives of the continent, and com 
 pulsory immigration from the wilds of Africa. The disasters 
 and privations of the Old World cause this flood of immigration 
 to continue with daily-increasing volume, and our settlement on 
 the Pacific will soon become the gate for a similar flow from the 
 worn-out civilization of Asia. Our twenty millions are expand- 
 
THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 125 
 
 ing to two hundred millions our originally narrow domain into 
 a great empire. Its destiny is to renovate the condition of man 
 kind. 
 
 " The first principle of our duty as American citizens is to pre 
 serve the integrity of the Union. Without the Union, there 
 would be not only a want of haimony of action, hut collisions 
 and conflicts ending in anarchy or probably in despotism. This 
 Union must be a voluntary one, and not compulsory. A Union 
 upheld by force would be despotism. 
 
 " The second principle of American citizenship is, that our 
 democratic system must he preserved and perfected. That sys 
 tem is founded in the natural equality of all men not alone all 
 American men, nor alone all white men, but all MEN of every 
 country, clime, and complexion, are equal not made equal by 
 human laws, but born equal. It results from this that every 
 man permanently residing in a community is a member of the 
 state, obliged to submit to its rule, and therefore entitled equally 
 with every other man to participate in its government. If it be 
 a monarchy, he has a right to keep a musket to defend himself 
 when the government becomes intolerable. If it be a democ 
 racy, where consent is substituted for force, he has a right to 
 a ballot for the same purpose ; and each should be placed in his 
 hands (he being a resident) when he is able to speed the bullet 
 or cast the ballot with discretion. Whatever institutions or laws 
 we have existing among us which deny this principle, are wrong, 
 and ought to be corrected. 
 
 "A third principle of American citizenship is, that knowledge 
 ought to be diffused, as well for the safety of the state, as to 
 promote the happiness of society. 
 
 "A fourth principle is, that our national resources, physical, 
 moral, and intellectual, ought to be developed and applied to 
 increase the public wealth, and enhance the convenience and 
 comfort of the people. 
 
 "A fifth principle is, that peace and moderation are indispen 
 sable to the preservation of republican institutions. 
 
 " A sixth principle is, that slavery must be abolished. 
 
 " I think these are the principles of the whigs of the Western 
 Reserve of Ohio. I am not now to say for the first time that 
 
126 THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 
 
 they are mine. I imbibed them from the philosophy of the 
 American Revolution- 
 
 "Soon as the charity of ray native land 
 Wrought in my bosom. 
 
 " There are two antagonistical elements of society in America, 
 freedom and slaveiy. Freedom is in harmony with our system 
 of government and with the spirit of the age, and is therefore 
 passive and quiescent. Slavery is in conflict with that system, 
 with justice, and with humanity, and is therefore organized, de 
 fensive, active, and perpetually aggressive. 
 
 " Freedom insists on the emancipation and elevation of labor ; 
 slavery demands a soil moistened with tears and blood free 
 dom a soil that exults under the elastic tread of man in his na 
 tive majesty. 
 
 " These elements divide and classify the American people 
 into two parties. Each of these parties has its court and its 
 sceptre. The throne of the one is amid the rocks of the Alle- 
 gany mountains ; the throne of the other is reared on the sands 
 of South Carolina. One of these parties, the party of slavery, 
 regards disunion as among the means of defence, and not, always 
 the last to be employed. The other maintains the Union of the 
 states, one and inseparable, now and for ever, as the highest 
 duty of the American people to themselves, to posterity, to 
 mankind. 
 
 " The party of slavery upholds an aristocracy founded on the 
 humiliation of labor, as necessary to the perfection of a chival 
 rous republic. The party of freedom maintains universal suf 
 frage, which makes men equal before human laws, as they are 
 in the sight of their common Creator. 
 
 " The party of slavery cherishes ignorance, because it is the 
 only security for oppression. The party of liberty demands the 
 diffusion of knowledge, because it is the only safeguard of re 
 publican institutions. 
 
 " The party of slavery patronizes labor which produces only 
 exports to commercial nations abroad tobacco, cotton, and 
 sugar and abhors the protection that draws grain from our na 
 tive fields, lumber from our native forests, iron and coal from our 
 
THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 127 
 
 native mines, and ingenuity, skill, and labor, from the free minds 
 and willing hands of our own people. 
 
 " The party of freedom favors only the productions of such 
 minds and such hands, and seeks to build up our empire out of 
 the redundant native materials with which our country is 
 blest. 
 
 " The party of slavery leaves the mountain ravine and shoal 
 to present all their natural obstacles to internal trade and free 
 locomotion, because railroads, rivers, and canals, are highways 
 for the escape of bondsmen. 
 
 " The party of liberty would cover the country with railroads 
 and canals, to promote the happiness of the people, and bind 
 them together with the indissoluble bonds of interest and affec 
 tion. 
 
 " The party of slavery maintains its military defences, and 
 cultivates the martial spirit, for it knows not the day nor the 
 hour when a standing army will not be necessary to suppress 
 and extirpate the insurrectionary bondsmen. 
 
 " The party of freedom cherishes peace, because its sway is 
 sustained by the consent of a happy and grateful people. 
 
 " The party of slavery fortifies itself by adding new slave- 
 bound domain on fraudulent pretexts and with force. 
 
 " The party of freedom is content and moderate, seeking only 
 a just enlargement of free territory. 
 
 "The party of slavery declares that institution necessary, 
 beneficent, and approved of God, and therefore inviolable. 
 
 " The party of freedom seeks complete and universal emanci 
 pation. 
 
 " You, whigs of the Reserve, and you especially, seceding 
 whigs, none know so well as you that these two elements exist 
 and are developed in the two great national parties of the land, 
 as I have described them. That existence and development 
 constitute the only reason you can assign for having been en 
 rolled in the whig party, and mustered under its banner so 
 zealously and so long. And now I am not to contend that the 
 evil spirit I have described has possessed the one party without 
 mitigation or exception, and that the beneficent one has on all 
 occasions, and fully, directed the action of the other. But I ap 
 peal to you, to your candor and justice, whether the beneficent 
 
128 THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 
 
 spirit lias not worked chiefly in the whig party, and its antago 
 nist in the adverse party. 
 
 ******** 
 
 " You infer that the whig party have fallen away from their 
 ancient faith. I admit its comparative nnsoundness. I confess 
 it, but it is still the truest and most faithful of the two parties, and 
 one or the other of them must prevail. The nnsoundness of 
 both arises from the fault of the country and of the age. Nei 
 ther was ever more sound and faithful than it is now : it is your 
 duty and mine to make them both more faithful. 
 
 " Slavery was once the sin, not of some of the states only, but 
 of them all not of our nation only, but of all nations. It per 
 verted and corrupted the moral sense of mankind, deeply, uni 
 versally; and this corruption became a universal habit. Habits 
 of thought became fixed principles. No American state has yet 
 delivered itself entirely from those habits. We in New York 
 are guilty of slavery still, by withholding the right of suffrage 
 from the race we have emancipated. You in Ohio are guilty in 
 the same way, by a system of black-laws, still more aristocratic 
 and odious. It is written in the constitution of the United States 
 that five slaves shall count equal to three free men, as a basis 
 of representation ; and it is written also, in violation of the 
 Divine law, that we shall surrender the fugitive slave who takes 
 refuge at our fireside from his relentless pursuers. You blush 
 not at these things, because they have become familiar as house 
 hold words, and your pretended free-soil allies claim particular 
 merit for maintaining these miscalled guaranties of slavery 
 which they find in the national compact. 
 
 " Does not all this prove that the whig party has kept up 
 with the spirit of the age that it is as true and faithful to 
 human freedom as the inert conscience of the American people 
 will permit it to be ] 
 
 " What, then ! you say, can nothing be done for freedom 
 because the public conscience is inert V Yes, much can be done 
 everything can be done. Slavery can be limited to its pres 
 ent bounds, it can be ameliorated, it can be and must be abol 
 ished, and you and I can and must do it. The task is as simple 
 and easy as its consummation will be beneficent and its rewards 
 glorious. It requires only to follow this simple rule of action, 
 
THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 129 
 
 viz. : to do everywhere and on every occasion what we can, and 
 not to neglect or refuse to do what we can at any time, because 
 at that precise time and on that particular occasion we can not 
 do more. Circtim stances determine possibilities. When we 
 have done our best to shape them and make them propitious, 
 we may rest satisfied that superior Wisdom has determined their 
 form as they exist, and will be satisfied with us if we then do 
 all the good that circumstances leave in our power. But we 
 must begin deeper and lower than in the composition and com 
 bination of factions and parties. Wherein do the strength and 
 security of slavery lie ? You answer that they lie in the consti 
 tution of the United States, and the constitution and laws of 
 all slaveholding states. Not at all. They lie in the erroneous 
 sentiment of the American people. Constitutions and laws can 
 no more rise above the virtue of the people than the limpid 
 stream can climb above its native spring. Inculcate, then, the 
 love of freedom and the equal lights of man, under the paternal 
 roof; see to it that they are taught in the schools and in the 
 churches ; reform your own code extend a cordial welcome to 
 the fugitive who lays his weary limbs at your door, and defend 
 him as you would your paternal gods ; correct your own error, 
 that slavery has any constitutional guaranty which may not be 
 released, and ought not to be relinquished. Say to Slavery, 
 when it shows its bond and demands the pound of flesh, that if 
 it draws one drop of blood, its life shall pay the forfeit. In 
 culcate that free states can maintain the rights of hospitality 
 and of humanity ; that executive authority can forbear to favor 
 slavery; that Congress can debate ; that Congress at least can 
 mediate with the slaveholding states, that at least future genera 
 tions might be bought and given up to freedom, and that the 
 treasures wasted in the war with Mexico would have been suffi 
 cient to have redeemed millions unborn from bondage. Do all 
 this and inculcate all this in the spirit of moderation and benev 
 olence, and not of retaliation and fanaticism, and you will soon 
 bring the parties of the country into an effective aggression upon 
 slavery. Whenever the public mind shall will the abolition of 
 slavery, the way will open for it. 
 
 " I know that you will tell me that this is all too slow. Well, 
 then, go faster, if you can, and I will go with vou ; but remem- 
 
 6* 
 
130 THE CLEVELAND SPEECH. 
 
 ber the instructive lesson that was taught in the words, " These 
 things ought ye to have done, and not to have left the others 
 undone." Remember that the liberty party tried the unattain 
 able, overlooking the attainable, and now has compromised and 
 surrendered the principle of immediate emancipation for a coa 
 lition to effect a practicable measure which can only be defeated 
 by that coalition. Remember that no human work is done with 
 out preparation. God works out his sublimest purposes among 
 men with preparation. There was a voice of one crying in 
 the wilderness, * Prepare ye the way, before the Son of man 
 could come. There was a John before a Jesus ; there was a 
 baptism of water before the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of 
 fire." 
 
 All Mr. Seward s speeches during this campaign were 
 full of tbe same sentiments. In the cities of Boston, Phila 
 delphia, and New York as well as among the yeomanry of 
 Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, he spoke the same lan 
 guage, and the demonstrations of concurrence were equally 
 hearty and unanimous in city and country. 
 
 In one of these speeches he alludes to the nomination of 
 General Taylor in preference to Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster 
 in the following words : 
 
 " What is the presidency of the United States compared with 
 the fame of a patriot statesman who triumphs over popular in 
 justice and establishes his country on the sure foundations of 
 freedom and empire ?"* 
 
 * See Vol. IIT., p. 805. 
 
ELECTED SENATOR. 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PRESIDENT TAYLOR MR. SEWARD ELECTED SENATOR GEN 
 ERAL TAYLOR S POLICY MR. SEWARD S COURSE AND 
 
 SPEECHES THE HIGHER LAW THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 
 
 SPEECHES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS VISIT TO VERMONT 
 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS CANADA . 
 
 THE election of General Taylor to the presidency seemed 
 to be a favorable indication for the policy of freedom, that 
 had been so earnestly defended by Governor Seward. 
 Connected with the return of a whig majority both in the 
 national house of representatives and the legislature of New 
 York, that event was supposed to guaranty the restriction 
 of slavery within its existing boundaries and the establish 
 ment of a free domain along the gulf of Mexico, and across 
 the continent to the Pacific ocean. Under these circum 
 stances, Governor Seward was elected to the senate of the 
 United States, in place of Hon. John A. Dix, whose term 
 was about to expire. The vote of the legislature, which 
 was given in February, 1849, stood for Governor Seward 
 121, and for all others 30. This was an unusually large 
 majority, there being no serious opposition to his election. 
 He entered the thirty-first Congress, together with thirty- 
 three other whig members, and one democratic member, 
 from the state of New York, who, in accordance with the 
 prevailing sentiment of the state, were all understood to 
 agree with him in the policy of circumscribing the region 
 of slavery. 
 
 On arriving at Washington, in February before the com 
 mencement of his senatorial term, Mr. Seward found 
 Congress engaged on an amendment to the civil and diplo 
 matic appropriation bill . proposed by Mr. Walker, of which 
 
132 GEX. TAYLOR AND MR. SEWARD. 
 
 the effect would be to abrogate the laws of Mexico for the 
 prohibition of slavery. This amendment had already 
 .passed the- senate, but Mr. Seward, with characteristic 
 energy, exerted himself to secure its defeat in the house. 
 His efforts were successful ; the amendment was lost in the 
 house, after a long and excited debate ; the senate receded 
 from it, on the last night of the session.* 
 
 The sagacity of President Taylor, on his accession to of 
 fice was signally displayed in his choice of Mr. Seward 
 as one of his most intimate friends and counsellors. Fa 
 miliar with all the elements of northern society, with every 
 aspect of public opinion, and the feelings and interests of 
 the people conversant with civil affairs as a jurist and 
 statesman cherishing a lofty sense of honor and a gener 
 ous sympathy with popular rights courteous and tolerant 
 toward his opponents, though rigidly faithful to his convic 
 tions inspired with a glowing sentiment both of patriotism 
 and humanity and ardently devoted to the support of the 
 federal Union he was eminently qualified to promote the 
 welfare of his country in the responsible function of adviser 
 to the president. With a delicate sense of propriety, while 
 thus enjoying the confidence of President Taylor, he declined 
 being placed on any important committee of the senate, 
 lest it might be supposed, on some occasions, that he acted 
 authoritatively in his behalf. He was unwilling to embar 
 rass the administration by any sectional prejudices against 
 himself, but wished quietly to bring the aid of his wisdom 
 find experience to the support of its head. 
 
 He concurred with President Taylor in his invitation to 
 California and New Mexico to organize state governments 
 and apply for admission into the Union at the next session 
 of Congress. The suggestion of the president was adopt 
 ed. As Mr. Seward had anticipated, California appeared 
 by her senators and representatives at the commencement 
 of the congressional session in December, 1849, with a 
 
 * Sec Vol. III., p. 443. 
 
THE HIGHER LAW. 133 
 
 constitution excluding slavery. It was understood that 
 New Mexico was preparing to come with a similar consti 
 tution. 
 
 To Mr. Seward belongs the authorship of the phrase 
 the Higher Law which has acquired a fame that will 
 never die. It was used by him in his speech in the senate, 
 March 11, 1850, on the admission of California into the 
 Union.* 
 
 This speech was unanimously acknowledged to be a bold, 
 manly, and profound production. Lucid and consecutive 
 in argument, learned in historical and philosophical illus 
 trations, with a chaste elegance of diction, it was not sur 
 passed for sound statesmanship and an acute exposition of 
 the principles of natural and constitutional law, by any 
 speech delivered in the senate on the absorbing subject of 
 freedom in the territories. 
 
 The enemies of Mr. Seward at once accused him of 
 maintaining the existence of a Higher Law, in opposition 
 to the constitution, by which the new domain of California 
 was devoted to justice, liberty, and union. But this was a 
 flagrant misrepresentation of his language, which embodied 
 a truth, that none but the grossest materialists and skeptics 
 can call in question. No enlightened ethical philosopher, 
 no man of ordinary religious feeling and conscientiousness, 
 will deny that there is a law higher than political constitu 
 tions and human legislation, " the law which governs all 
 law the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, 
 equity, the law of nature and of nations." Nor will it be 
 doubted, that in case of a conflict between divine and human 
 law, " we ought to obey God, rather than man." But it 
 was not the purpose of Mr. Seward on that occasion, 
 to repeat a principle so plain as this. The phrase as used 
 by him on the floor of the senate would hardly seem capa 
 ble of such misconstruction as has been given to it. We 
 quote his words, precisely as they were spoken : 
 
 * Soft Vol. T., p. 51. 
 
134 THE HIGHER LAW. 
 
 " It is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is 
 true it was acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the 
 whole nation. But we .hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power 
 over it. We hold no arbitrary authority over anything, whether 
 acquired lawfully or seized by usurpation. The constitution 
 regulates our stewardship ; the constitution devotes the domain 
 to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But 
 there is a Higher Law than the Constitution, which regulates 
 our authority over the domain, and devotes it to llie same nolle 
 purposes. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the 
 common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Cre 
 ator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so dis 
 charge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree 
 their happiness." 
 
 Every intelligent reader will perceive that while Mr. 
 Seward devoutly recognises the law of God, and its 
 paramount claims both on individuals and nations, he was 
 far from asserting a contradiction between that law and the 
 American constitution on the subject in question. On the 
 contrary, he declares that they agree in demanding freedom 
 and justice for the new domain. Can any wise statesman, 
 can any far-seeing patriot, can any friend of human improve 
 ment, deny the soundness of this position ? 
 
 But let us not be misunderstood. In vindicating Mr. 
 Seward from the aspersions which were brought upon 
 him by the expression alluded to, it is far from our inten 
 tion to disclaim for him a belief that the obligation of hu 
 man laws is founded on their harmony with the principles 
 of eternal justice. He is no adherent of the superficial and 
 wretched philosophy which derives the distinctions of moral 
 ity from the caprices of opinion. In common with the 
 greatest thinkers of all ages, he traces the obligation of 
 right to the uncreated wisdom of the Deity. With Plato 
 and Cicero, in ancient times, with Bacon, Hooker, and 
 Cudworth, at a later date, he recognises the bosom of the 
 Deity as the seat and fountain of law "whose voice is 
 the harmony of the world." This ennobling idea pervades 
 
THE COMPROMISE BILL. 135 
 
 the writings of Mr. Seward it is the pivot of his per 
 sonal character, as well as of his public and legislative 
 career. Among other instances of its operation, we find it 
 in an argument, in 1847, relating to the fugitive slave law 
 of 1793, wher) he uses the following striking expression : 
 " Congress has no power to inhibit any duty commanded by 
 God on Mount Sinai, or by his son on the Mount of Olives."* 
 In a subsequent speech in the senate he alludes to the 
 personal abuse which these sentiments had excited, in the 
 following firm but dignified language : 
 
 " I do not propose to reply to what is personal in the remarks 
 of the honorable senator. I have nothing of a personal charac 
 ter to say. There is no man in this land who is of sufficient 
 importance to this country and to mankind, to justify his con 
 sumption of five minutes of the time of the senate of the United 
 States, with personal explanations relating to himself. The 
 speeches which I have made here, under a rule of the senate, 
 are recorded, and what is recorded has gone before the people 
 and will go, worthy or not, into history. I leave them to man 
 kind. I stand by what I have said. That is all I have to say 
 upon that subject. 
 
 The senator proposes to expel me. I am ready to meet that 
 trial too ; and if I shall be expelled, I shall not be the first man 
 subjected to punishment for maintaining that there is a power 
 higher than human law, and that that power delights in justice ; 
 that rulers, whether despots or elected rulers of a free people, 
 are bound to administer justice for the benefit of society. Sen 
 ators, when they please to bring me for trial, or otherwise, be 
 fore the senate of the United States, will find a clear and open 
 field. I ask no other defence than the speeches upon which 
 they propose to condemn me. The speeches will read for them 
 selves, and they will need no comment from me." 
 
 During the discussion of the " Compromise Bill," Mr. 
 Seward addressed the senate, July 2, 1850, in a speechf 
 remarkable for the vigor of its dialectics, its comprehensive 
 
 * See Forensic Arguments, Parks vs. Van Zandt, Vol. I., p. 476. 
 f See Vol. I., p. 94. 
 
136 SPEECHES IN THE SENATE. 
 
 and sagacious statesmanship, and its noble zeal for freedom, 
 as well as for the appositeness of its classical illustrations, 
 and the polished beauty of its style. His exposition of the 
 dangers and evils of the compromise is in a strain of mas 
 terly eloquence. After appealing to the wisdom of his 
 auditors to adopt the true principle of conciliation by grad 
 ual reform, he closed his remarks with one of those genuine 
 touches of poetry which often flash over the severity of his 
 argumentative discourse. " We shall then realize once 
 more the concord which results from mutual league, united 
 councils, and equal hopes and hazards in the most sublime 
 and beneficent enterprise the earth has witnessed. The 
 fingers of the powers above would tune the harmony of 
 such a peace." 
 
 This speech was succeeded by speeches on " New Mex 
 ico," and " Freedom in the District of Columbia,"* in which 
 Mr. Seward displayed his usual elevation of thought in 
 applying the principles of universal justice to the main 
 tenance of human rights. In January, 1851, Mr. Sew 
 ard delivered a speech on the question of " Indemnities 
 for French Spoliations, "f giving a luminous analysis of the 
 whole subject, accompanied with ample historical proofs, 
 and eloquently enforcing the necessity of justice and good 
 faith to national honor. The state that would be prosper 
 ous must be free from the burden of violated engagements. 
 The people that would dwell in safety, without fear for fire 
 side, fane, or capitol, must practise an austere and pure 
 morality must embody in their daily lives the spirit of 
 the eternal law through which " the most ancient heavens 
 arc fresh and strong." 
 
 The next important topic on which Mr. Seward ad 
 dressed the senate was the " Public Domain. "J In his 
 speech on this subject, February 27, 1851, without main 
 taining the absurdity that the land of any country ought 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 111. f See Vol. I., p. 132. 
 
 \ See Vol. I., p. 156. 
 
SPEECHES FREEDOM IX EUROPE. 137 
 
 to be, or can be, equally divided and enjoyed, lie shows the 
 evils arising to the highest interests of society from great 
 inequalities in landed estates. His views of the gratuitous 
 distribution of portions of the public domain to actual set 
 tlers, although they may fail to win the sympathy of poli 
 ticians, are marked by equal humanity and good sense, and 
 will challenge the attention of all intelligent friends of 
 social progress. 
 
 In December, 1851, Mr. Seward submitted a reso 
 lution to the senate, in favor of a cordial welcome by 
 Congress to Kossuth, to be communicated by the president 
 as the executive organ of the United States. His senti 
 ments in regard to the illustrious champion of Hungary are 
 expressed in two speeches on the subject, which handle the 
 objections of the opponents to the resolution with a good- 
 humored severity of argument, and a remarkable terseness 
 of language, while they present the claims of Kossuth to the 
 admiration of American freemen, in a style of fervid elo 
 quence that is equally touching in its pathos and convincing 
 in its appeals.* 
 
 During the following February, the discussion of Mr. 
 Foote s resolution, declaring the sympathy of Congress 
 with the exiled Irish patriots, Smith O Brien and Thomas 
 F. Meagher, came up in the senate, when Mr. Seward 
 took occasion to express his deep interest in the welfare of 
 Ireland, enforcing his views with his usual vigor of argu 
 ment and liveliness of illustration.! This was succeeded 
 in March by a speech on " Freedom in Europe," in which 
 he presents an admirable sketch of the Hungarian revolu 
 tion, discusses the neutral policy of Washington in regard 
 to foreign nations, explains the true character of interven 
 tion, and argues at length in its defence. The tone of this 
 speech is lofty and severe, and in some passages rises to 
 an almost Miltonic grandeur. J 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 172. f See Vol. I., p. 186. 
 
 \ See Vol. I., p. 196. 
 
138 SPEECHES THEIR CHARACTER. 
 
 The next speeches of Mr. Seward in the senate were 
 on " American Steam Navigation,"* " Survey of the Arc 
 tic and Pacific Oceans,"f and " Tlio American Fisher 
 ies. "$ A peculiar value attaches to these speeches from 
 their eminently practical character, the variety and accu 
 racy of the statistics which they embody, their clear and 
 cogent reasonings on the facts they present, the intimate 
 knowledge which they exhibit of the commercial and in 
 dustrial relations of the country, and the enlightened and 
 glowing patriotism with which they are inspired. To 
 the admirers of Mr. Seward they are of no less interest, 
 on account of their fine illustrations both of his mental 
 habits and his personal character. In the action of his 
 intellect, patience, and depth of research, a constant aim 
 at the integral unity of the subject, a logical grouping 
 of particulars in reference to a future pregnant inference, 
 and a singular self-possession in the exercise of judgment, 
 ever serve as the basis which underlies the expression of a 
 masculine and generous enthusiasm and an earnest-hearted 
 sympathy with all that is beautiful in the progress, or 
 sacred in the hopes of collective humanity. 
 
 Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, Mr. 
 Seward delivered the first anniversary address before the 
 Agricultural Society of the state of Vermont, at Rutland, 
 on the 2d of September, 1852. 
 
 As nothing could be more grateful or more just, so we 
 are sure nothing could be more sincere than the following 
 tribute, paid by him to that state, in the opening of this 
 interesting address: 
 
 "CITIZENS OF VERMONT: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: A 
 schoolmaster from Middlebury taught me to read the glowing 
 praises and simple maxims of Roman agriculture recorded in 
 the pages of Virgil. Natives of Rutland and Bennington were 
 among my youthful companions and early patrons, still affec 
 tionately and gratefully remembered. Long ago I seemed to 
 myself to have imbibed I know not when nor how many 
 
 * See Vol. I., p. 222. f Soe Vol. I., \\ 23 fi. J See Vol. I., p. 254. 
 
VISIT TO VERMONT ADDRESS. 139 
 
 principles, sentiments, and sympathies, from fountains of philos 
 ophy and feeling which had been opened early, and which are 
 yet flowing freely here in Vermont. Longer than I can recollect, 
 my hopes for my country and mankind have had their anchor 
 age in the ever-widening prevalence of those maxims of politi 
 cal justice and equal liberty which have been always maintained 
 with unyielding constancy in this state, the Tyrol of America. 
 I have wondered often, when such memories as these have come 
 over me, that although I had not been quite unused to travel, 
 and had lived always near, yet I was nevertheless a stranger in 
 Vermont. Long-delayed wishes of mine are now gratified. I 
 am at last in Vermont. I pay to her mountains the homage 
 which the sublime in nature exacts ; and to her mountaineers I 
 confess that my motive in coming was not so much to instruct 
 them as to seek their personal acquaintance, and to thank them 
 for precious and cherished instructions which they have long 
 since imparted to me. 
 
 " These, then, are the grants sold by New Hampshire with 
 out title, and won by force from New York when she perverted 
 "title to purposes of oppression. In lime and marble they are 
 rich, and in forest-growth and in pasturage, at least, they are 
 fertile ; and the vigorous play of the elastic air upon lungs which 
 had become languid under southern skies, assures me that they 
 are as healthful as they are romantic and beautiful. Neverthe 
 less, it must have been no easy task that the settler performed 
 here when he removed the sturdy trees and massive rocks, and 
 opened the dank and festering soil to the light and heat of the 
 morning sun. It was no common bravery that kept the savage 
 Indian at bay while exterminating the wolf and the panther; 
 and no common heroism that, while engaged in the foremost 
 ranks of the Revolution for the deliverance of New York and 
 the other colonies from British power, effected a revolution also 
 against New York, and established the independence of Vermont 
 herself. I think, indeed, that, at this day, men as hardy, brave, 
 and heroic, as ETHAN ALLEN and his followers if there be 
 such would pass by regions as rugged and wild as of old these 
 must have been, to find, with less fatigue and danger, easier 
 and more attractive homes on the Mississippi prairies, or on the 
 golden terraces of California and Oregon. 
 
140 VISIT TO CANADA. 
 
 " Certainly the descendants have carried on with perseverance 
 and success the enterprise their ancestors so bravely began. 
 Their fields are clean, and a stiff stubble shows that they have 
 been covered well with grain ; their pasturages carefully drained, 
 and trodden by sheep, horses, and cattle than which I am 
 sure there are none better ; their villages embellished with gar 
 dens, and crowned with schools and colleges ; and their states 
 men discharging Useful and honorable functions in ttye national 
 councils and in foreign courts. I can not, indeed, suppress 
 repining regret that so fair a portion of my native state was lost 
 for ever by the obstinate persistence of her authorities in claims 
 which, although based on royal constitutions, were without neces 
 sary foundation in equity. Nevertheless, looking upon the 
 scenes that stretch out before me, as we may suppose an Eng 
 lishman, who loves his native land well, but loves freedom and 
 humanity still better, may look upon the growing greatness and 
 spreading dominion of our common country, I say again, with 
 cheerfulness and enthusiasm, hail to Vermont ! Her indepen 
 dence was justly and bravely won. She has chosen a peaceful 
 and beneficent mission, and she fulfills it faithfully and gen-" 
 erously. May her prosperity continue, and her glory increase 
 for ever !"* 
 
 After a pleasant sojourn of several days in Vermont, 
 receiving many manifestations of courtesy and respect in 
 various parts of the state, Mr. Seward extended his journey 
 to Montreal and Quebec. The provincial parliament was 
 then in session at Quebec ; and he was entertained by its 
 members, as well as by the governor-general (Lord Elgin) 
 and other authorities, in a manner which evinced a high 
 consideration for him as a statesman, and the most frater 
 nal feelings toward the country of which he was regarded 
 as a representative. 
 
 * See Vol. Ill, p. 176. 
 
THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1852 THE SLAVERY CON 
 TEST OF 1850 DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR HIS SUC 
 CESSOR OVERTHROW OF THE WHIG PARTY CAUSES 
 
 RESULTS, ETC. 
 
 THE presidential election of 1852 is yet so recent, that 
 its incidents can be recalled without difficulty. The suc 
 cess of the whig party in the free states, during the contest 
 of 1848, was promoted by the assurance that it would pre 
 vent the introduction of slavery into the new territories, 
 where it was already prohibited by the Mexican laws. The 
 representatives of the free states in Congress were under 
 stood to be pledged to that wise and beneficent policy. It 
 was assumed that the new president would not interpose 
 the executive veto, should that policy be adopted. Mr. 
 Seward was committed in its favor, both by the circum 
 stances of his election, and the well-known tenor of his 
 political life. On the meeting of Congress in December, 
 1849, several whig members from the South apprehended 
 the adoption of that policy, and refused to unite with their 
 northern brethren in the choice of a speaker. After delay 
 ing the organization of the house for a number of weeks, 
 they finally joined with their political opponents, and 
 elected a democratic speaker from one of the slaveholding 
 states. As soon as the house was organized, the southern 
 party demanded the establishment of the new territories, 
 without any condition as to the introduction of slavery. 
 The representatives of the free states earnestly protested 
 against this course. Mr. Seward took an active part in 
 the opposition. Faithful to their convictions, they insisted 
 on the insertion of the Wilmot proviso (which was identical 
 
142 CLAY, WEBSTER, AND CASS. 
 
 in its spirit with Mr. Jefferson s proviso in the ordinance 
 of 1787) in any act ordaining the government of the terri 
 tories. The president took a middle ground in his message 
 to Congress. He recommended that the territories should 
 be left, without any preliminary organization, under the 
 existing Mexican laws, until they should have obtained the 
 requisite population to form voluntary constitutions, and 
 apply for admission as states of the Union. California and 
 New Mexico were already taking measures for this purpose. 
 The recommendation of the president was condemned by 
 the slave states, while it met the approval of the friends 
 of freedom. At an early period it was opposed by Mr. 
 Clay. After great reserve and deliberation, Mr. Webster 
 subsequently declared his hostility to the proposed meas 
 ure. Mr. Seward, who upheld the recommendation, thus 
 became the leader of the administration party in both 
 houses of Congress. The antagonists of slavery with whom 
 he co-operated, though a minority in the senate, had a 
 decided majority in the house of representatives. Each 
 branch of Congress became the scene of vehement debate. 
 The slaveholding party indulged in such violent and inflam 
 matory language as to threaten the derangement of public 
 business, and even the disorganization of Congress. This 
 party was sustained by the Nashville convention a body 
 of southern delegates assembled for the purpose of adopt 
 ing measures for the secession of the slave states from the 
 Union. But neither President Taylor nor Mr. Seward was 
 intimidated by these proceedings. They both persisted in 
 the course, which was sanctioned alike by judgment and 
 conscience. Mr. Clay, on the other hand, believed that 
 the existence of the Union was at stake. Sustained by 
 Mr. Webster, he consented to adopt the non-intervention 
 policy, the avowal of which by General Cass had made him 
 the candidate of the democratic party in the late presiden 
 tial election. He now brought forward his famous com 
 promise scheme, and urged its adoption with all the force 
 
COMPROMISE OF 1850. 143 
 
 of his glowing and persuasive eloquence. Appealing to 
 the sentiment of patriotism, to the prevailing attachment to 
 the Union, and to the love of peace, he represented the 
 acceptance of his measures as essential to the final settle 
 ment of the issues which had grown out of the existence of 
 slavery in the United States. Mr. Clay s views were sus 
 tained by the leading advocates of slavery in Congress. 
 For the most part, these belonged to the democratic party. 
 They were pledged to insist on a Congressional declaration 
 of the right of slaveholders to carry their slaves into any 
 of the territories of the United States. But the compro 
 mise was opposed by most of the representatives of the 
 free states, who were determined to make no further con 
 cessions besides those involved in the position taken by 
 President Taylor. The whigs of the slave states, on the 
 other hand, gave it their hearty support. It was defended 
 also by the more especial friends of Mr. Clay and Mr. Web 
 ster, among the whigs of the North, as well as by a large 
 portion of the democratic party in the free states. The 
 more conservative classes in the great northern cities were 
 induced to give it their support, through fear of the loss 
 of southern trade and patronage, and a growing discontent 
 with the policy of the new administration. The friends of 
 the compromise endeavored to arouse the fears of the peo 
 ple, by showing the danger of a dissolution of the Union, 
 which was threatened, as they alleged, by the policy of 
 President Taylor. Mr. Seward, of course, was denounced 
 as a desperate and dangerous agitator. His resistance to 
 the compromise was represented as a contumacy. He was 
 accused of wishing to obtain personal aggrandizement, even 
 upon the ruins of the constitution and the wreck of the 
 Union. These reproaches were not without effect. They 
 produced a partial division of the whig party in the free 
 states, and awakened a prejudice in many quarters against 
 the name of Mr. Seward. But he was not shaken from 
 his steadfastness. With admirable firmness and self-pos- 
 
144 THE FUGITIVE-SLAVE BILL. 
 
 session, ho nobly resisted the current of popular agitation 
 and Congressional excitement. The dignity of his bearing 
 and the wisdom of his counsels, during this stormy period, 
 receive ample illustration from his published " Works," as 
 well as from many pages of the present volume. 
 
 The first applicant for admission into the Union was 
 California, which had adopted a free constitution in a gen 
 eral convention. The friends of the compromise refused 
 to grant her demand, except on certain stringent conditions. 
 They insisted that Congress should waive a similar prohi 
 bition of slavery in organizing the territories of Utah and 
 New Mexico, and at the same time enact a new and offen 
 sive law for the capture of fugitive slaves in the free states. 
 Mr. Seward demanded the admission of California, without 
 condition and without qualification, leaving other subjects 
 to distinct and independent legislation. No fair-minded 
 man, it would seem, could doubt the wisdom or justice of 
 such a course. The partisans of the compromise contended 
 that Utah and New Mexico should be organized, without a 
 prohibition of slavery, at the very moment when the latter 
 was known to have adopted a free constitution, and to have 
 chosen representatives to demand admission into the Union. 
 On this question, Mr. Seward maintained that New Mexico 
 should either be admitted into the Union as a free state, or 
 left to enjoy the protection from slavery afforded by the 
 existing Mexican laws. 
 
 The fugitive-slave law, which was proposed as a con 
 dition of the admission of California, met with a determined 
 opponent in Mr. Seward, from the first. He clearly fore 
 saw the impolicy, as well as the cruelty of the contemplated 
 measure. He argued with no less humanity than good 
 faith, that no public exigency required a new law on the 
 subject that the bill in question was as unconstitutional as 
 it was repugnant to every just sentiment and that the 
 principles and habits of the northern people would place 
 every obstacle in the way of its execution. Admitting the 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 145 
 
 justice of these views, the compromisers demanded that 
 they should be set aside, lest the determination of the slave 
 holders should lead to a dissolution of the Union. Mr. 
 Seward was incapable of yielding to such unworthy terrors. 
 He constantly passed them by, as too trivial for serious 
 notice. At the same time, he urgently pointed out the 
 danger of quailing before the threats of the South. Know 
 ing the dispositions engendered by slavery, he insisted that 
 any craven truckling on the part of the free states, would 
 lead to unbounded aggressions by the slave power in the 
 future. With prophetic sagacity, he was enabled to cast 
 the horoscope of coming ills, which have since been realized 
 in the legislation concerning Kansas and Nebraska. 
 
 The compromisers regarded their measures as essential 
 to the suppression of the slavery agitation in the national 
 councils, and to the permanent tranquillity of the Union. 
 Mr. Seward maintained precisely the opposite views. He 
 insisted that the extension of slavery was too great a price 
 to pay even for the attainment of peace that a peace pur 
 chased on such terms, would be only a hollow truce that 
 it would soon be disturbed by new and deeper- agitations 
 that freedom and slavery were essentially antagonistic in 
 their nature and that no reconciliation could be effectual, 
 until the latter should abandon its pretensions to new terri 
 tories, and new conquests. The soundness of Mr. Seward s 
 opinions have been confirmed by subsequent events. The 
 exciting congressional discussion of the subject continued 
 for several months. Its effect was favorable to the policy 
 of President Taylor and Mr. Seward. It promised to guar 
 anty the establishment of free institutions, unvitiated by 
 the presence of slavery, to the vast possessions between the 
 organized states and the Pacific ocean. 
 
 An unforeseen casualty changed the fortunes of the con 
 flict. President Taylor died in the month of July, 1850, and 
 by the terms of the constitution, Millard Fillmore, the vice- 
 president, was advanced to the executive chair of the 
 
 7 
 
146 PRESIDENT FILLMORE S COURSE. 
 
 United States. A citizen of the state of New York, he had 
 already exhibited symptoms of jealousy, in regard to the 
 influence of Mr. Seward a feeling which was shared by 
 many of his friends. At the same time, he was understood 
 to concur with Mr. Seward in the general principles of 
 policy, which had guided the course of the latter on the 
 slavery question. Mr. Seward advised the new president 
 to retain the cabinet of General Taylor, and endeavor to 
 carry out his views. But this course was in direct opposi 
 tion to the plan of the compromisers. They urged the im 
 portance of abandoning the policy hitherto pursued, and of 
 appointing a cabinet committed to their own. Mr. Fill- 
 more accepted their advice. His administration was, in 
 reality, founded on the principles of the party, which his 
 election had defeated. Of course, it relied for support on 
 a coalition between the members of that party, and so many 
 of his own, as could be gained to his views. Soon after 
 this change in the executive, many of the opponents of the 
 compromise fell off from the side of Mr. Seward, while 
 others attempted to steer a middle course, expressing 
 themselves in language of moderation, or preserving a total 
 silence. Although the compromise bill itself was defeated, 
 the measures which it embodied were submitted to a sepa 
 rate discussion and successively passed. The whigs of the 
 free states were thrown into perplexity by this sudden 
 change. The coalition demanded the acceptance of the 
 compromise as the final adjustment of the slavery contro 
 versy. No favors were to be expected from the adminis 
 tration by those who failed to comply with the terms. A 
 refusal was deemed sufficient evidence of disloyalty to the 
 government, and of hostility to the Union. But Mr. Sew 
 ard was not influenced by the motives thus held out. His 
 opposition to the compromise measures was unabated. He 
 gave no heed to the denunciations of power. For the pres 
 ent, the vital question had been settled in Congress. It 
 had now passed over to the tribunal of the country. In 
 
THE BALTIMORE CONVENTIONS. 147 
 
 fact, it waited the judgment of the civilized world. Mr. 
 Seward was unwilling to expose himself for a moment to 
 the danger of misapprehension. He neglected no proper 
 occasion to declare his adherence to the convictions and 
 principles which he had expressed throughout the congres 
 sional debates ; although he declined to engage in any de 
 fence or explanation of his course amid the excitement of 
 popular assemblies. 
 
 The question of slavery, in its comprehensive bearings, 
 formed the turning point in the presidential canvass of 
 1852, which resulted as will be seen in the election of Mr. 
 Pierce, and at a subsequent period, in the abrogation of 
 the Missouri Compromise, and the enactment of the Kansas 
 and Nebraska bill. 
 
 The national democratic convention, held in Baltimore, 
 June 1, 1852, unanimously adopted a platform, approving 
 the compromise of 1850, as the final decision of the slavery 
 question. After a vehement and protracted struggle be 
 tween the friends of prominent candidates, Franklin Pierce, 
 of New Hampshire, who had hitherto not been placed in 
 the ranks of competitors, was nominated for president. 
 
 The whig party were widely divided on the question of 
 acquiescence in the compromise measures. They were still 
 more at variance in regard to the claims of rival candidates 
 for the presidency. Mr. Seward s friends in the free states, 
 united in the support of General Scott, who had, to a consider 
 able extent, stood aloof from the agitations of the last few 
 years. Although, as it was understood, General Scott ap 
 proved of the compromise measures, as acts of political 
 necessity, he was supposed to have no wish to use them as 
 a political test. On the other hand, the exclusive support 
 ers of the compromise as a condition of party allegiance, 
 were divided between Millard Fillmore, at that time the 
 acting president, and Daniel Webster, secretary of state, 
 as candidates for the executive office. The Whig conven 
 tion met in Baltimore on the 17th of June. A large ma- 
 
148 THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 
 
 jority of the delegates from New York, and a considerable 
 number from other states, maintained their opposition to 
 the test resolutions proposed by the other branch of the 
 party. Those resolutions, however, were adopted by a 
 decisive majority. They were voted for by many who may 
 be presumed to have been convinced of their importance, 
 while others doubtless were influenced by fears of a disrup 
 tion of the party. A platform was thus established, resem 
 bling, in its main features, that of the democrats. Sup 
 ported by several advocates of the new platform, on the 
 ground of his personal popularity, General Scott received 
 the nomination. He was, however, regarded with suspicion 
 by a great number of whigs in the slave-holding states. It 
 was feared, that if lie was elected to the presidency, Mr. 
 Seward would be called to the office of secretary of state, 
 and thus exert a leading influence on the administration. 
 General Scott lost no time in attempting to remove these 
 prejudices. In announcing his acceptance of the nomina 
 tion, he promptly declared his adhesion to the principles 
 of the platform, adopted by the party. At the instance of 
 the friends of the candidate, Mr. Seward disclaimed all 
 personal interest in the election of General Scott. With 
 his characteristic frankness and fidelity to political associ 
 ates, he publicly announced his determination to accept no 
 office at the hands of the president, in case of General 
 Scott s success. This had hitherto been his course, and it 
 would not be changed under a future administration.* 
 
 The democratic party, forgetting its past divisions, at 
 least, for the moment, supported Mr. Pierce with unanim 
 ity and zeal. On the contrary, Mr. Webster was nomina 
 ted by a portion of the whig party, and died not only refu 
 sing to decline the nomination but openly avowing his dis 
 gust with the action of the party. Many ardent friends of 
 the compromise refused to rally around General Scott, dis 
 trusting his fidelity to the platform ; while a large number 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 416. 
 
DEFEAT OP GENERAL SCOTT. 149 
 
 of whigs in the free states, through aversion to the plat 
 form, assumed a neutral position, or gave their support to 
 a third candidate. Mr. Scward and his friends could not 
 so far belie their convictions, as to approve the principles 
 of the platform, but yielded their aid to General Scott, in 
 the manner, which, in their opinion, was best adapted to 
 secure his election. The result, however, was what might 
 have been foreseen. The democratic nominees received 
 the electoral votes of twenty-six out of the thirty-one 
 states. The loud exultations of the prevailing party, ay 
 well as of those whigs, who had sympathized with them in 
 the canvass, showed their belief, that in the defeat of Gen 
 eral Scott, Mr. Seward was not only overthrown, but polit 
 ically annihilated. The whig party, in their opinion, was 
 also for ever destroyed. Under these discouraging auspices, 
 Mr. Seward resumed his seat in the senate, at the second 
 session of the Thirty-Second Congress, in December, 1852. 
 But neither his speeches nor his public conduct, wore col 
 ored by the remembrance of the recent struggle. No traces 
 of disappointment were visible in his bearing, and he at 
 once devoted himself to the business of the session with the 
 same calmness and assiduity which had always marked M? 
 congressional career. 
 
150 SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, CONTINUED. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 XXXIld CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1852- 53 SPEECHES 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS CUBA PACIFIC RAILROAD TAR- 
 
 I FF TEXAS ORATIONS JAMES TALLM ADGE. 
 
 THE speeches of Mr. Seward in the senate during the sec 
 ond session of the thirty-second Congress were on questions 
 of great practical interest. In his remarks in the debate on 
 "Continental Rights and Relations," Jan. 26, 1852, he pays 
 a graceful and feeling tribute to the character of John Quincy 
 Adams, whom he claims as the author of the policy on recol- 
 onization generally ascribed to President Monroe. Passing 
 to the discussion of the policy itself, he gives his reasons for 
 holding to its substantial truth, while he protests against 
 the manner in which it was brought in issue on that occa 
 sion. The speech is gravely and forcibly argued, though 
 not without incidental touches of effective satire.* 
 
 We quote a few passages relating to John Quincy Adams 
 and to Cuba : 
 
 " MR. PRESIDENT : On the 23d day of February, 1848, John 
 Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, who had completed a circle 
 of public service filling fifty years, beginning with an inferior 
 diplomatic function, passing through the chief magistracy, and 
 closing with the trust of a representative in Congress, departed 
 from the earth, certainly respected by mankind, and, if all post 
 humous honors are not insincere and false, deplored by his 
 countrymen. 
 
 " On a fair and cloudless day in the month of June, 1850, when 
 
 the loud and deep voice of wailing had just died away in the 
 
 land, the senator from Michigan, of New England born, and by 
 
 New England reared the leader of a great party, not only 
 
 * Sec Vol. TIT., ix 005. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 151 
 
 here, but in the whole country rose in the senate-chamber, and 
 after complaining* that a member of the family of that great states 
 man of the east, instead of going backward with a garment to cover 
 his infirmities, had revealed them by publishing portions of his 
 private diary, himself proceeded to read the obnoxious extracts. 
 They showed the author s strong opinions, that by the federal 
 compact the slaveUolding class had obtained, and they had exer 
 cised, a controlling influence in the government of the country. 
 
 " Placing these extracts by the side of passages taken from 
 the Farewell Address of Washington, the senator from Michigan 
 said : * He is unworthy the name of an American who does not 
 feel at his heart s core the difference between the lofty patriot 
 ism and noble sentiments of one of these documents, and 
 
 but I will not say what the occasion would justify. I will only 
 say, and that is enough, the oilier, for it is another! It can 
 not, nor will it, nor should it, escape the censure of an age like 
 this. Better that it had been entombed, like the ancient 
 Egyptian records, till its language was lost, than thus to have 
 been exposed to the light of day. 
 
 " The senator then proceeded to set forth, by contrast, his 
 own greater justice and generosity to the southern states, and 
 his own higher fidelity to the Union. This was in the senate 
 of the United States. And yet no one rose to vindicate the 
 memory of John Quincy Adams, or to express an emotion even 
 bf surprise, or of regret, that it had been thought necessary thus 
 to invade the sanctity of the honored grave where the illustrious 
 statesman, who had so recently passed the gates of death, was 
 sleeping. I was not of New England, by residence, education, 
 or descent, and there were reasons enough why I should then 
 endure in silence a pain that I shared with so many of my coun 
 trymen. But I determined that, when the tempest of popular 
 passion that was then raging in the country should have passed 
 by, I would claim a hearing here not to defend or vindicate 
 the sentiments which the senator from Michigan had thus se 
 verely censured, for Mr. Adams himself had referred them, 
 together with all his actions and opinions concerning slavery 
 not to this tribunal, or even to the present time, but to that after- 
 age which gathers and records the impartial and ultimate judg 
 ment of mankind but to show how just and generous he had 
 
152 THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 
 
 been in his public career toward all the members of this confed 
 eracy, and how devoted to the union of the states, and to the 
 aggrandizement of this republic. I am thankful that the neces 
 sity for performing that duty has passed by, and that the 
 statesman of Quincy has, earlier than I hoped, received his vin 
 dication, and has received it, too, at the hands of him from whom 
 It was justly due the accuser himself. I regret only this that 
 the vindication was not as generously as it was effectually made. 
 
 " There are two propositions arising out of our interests in and 
 around the gulf of Mexico, which are admitted by all our states 
 men. One of them is, that the safety of the southern states 
 requires a watchful jealousy of the presence of European pow 
 ers in the southern portions of the North- American continent ; 
 and the other is, that the tendency of commercial and political 
 events invites the United States to assume and exercise a para 
 mount influence in the affairs of the nations situated in this 
 hemisphere ; that is, to become and remain a great western con 
 tinental power, balancing itself against the possible combina 
 tions of Europe. The advance of the country toward that 
 position constitutes what, in the language of many, is called 
 progress ; and the position itself is what, by the same class, is 
 called manifest destiny. It is held by all who approve that 
 progress, and expect that destiny, to be necessary to prevent 
 the recolonization of this continent by the European states, and 
 to save the island of Cuba from passing out of the possession of 
 decayed Spain, into that of any of the more vigorous maritime 
 powers of the old world. 
 
 "In December, 1823, James Monroe, president of the United 
 States, in his annual message to Congress, proclaimed the first 
 of these two policies substantially as follows: The American 
 continents, by the free and independent condition which they 
 have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered 
 as subjects for future colonization by any European power ; and 
 while existing rights should be respected, the safety and interest 
 of the United States require them to announce that no future 
 colony or dominion shall, with their consent, be planted or estab 
 lished in any part of the North American continent. This is 
 what is called, here and elsewhere, the Monroe doctrine, so far 
 as it involves recolonization. 
 
JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 153 
 
 " John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun were then mombers, 
 chief members, of Monroe s administration. John Quincy Adams 
 afterward acknowledged that he was the author of that doctrine 
 or policy; and John C. Calhoun, on the 15th of May, 1848, in 
 the senate, testified on that point fully. A senator had related 
 an alleged conversation, in which Mr. Adams was represented 
 as having said that three memorable propositions contained in 
 that message, of which what I have quoted was one, had origi 
 nated with himself. Mr. Calhoun replied, that Mr. Adams, if 
 he had so stated, must have referred to only the one proposition 
 concerning re-colonization [the one now in question] and then 
 added as follows : As respects that, his [Mr. Adams s] memory 
 
 does not differ from mine It originated entirely with 
 
 Mr. Adams. * 
 
 " Thus much for the origin of the Monroe doctrine on recoloni- 
 zation. Now, let us turn to the position of John Quincy Adams, 
 concerning national jealousy of the designs of European powers 
 upon the island of Cuba. The recent revelations of our diplo 
 macy on that subject begin with the period when that statesman 
 presided in the department of state. On the 17th of December, 
 1822, Mr. Adams informed Mr. Forsyth, then American minister 
 in Spain, that the island of Cuba had excited much attention, 
 and had become of deep interest to the American Union ; and, 
 referring to reported rival designs of France and Great Britain 
 upon that island, instructed him to make known to Spain the 
 sentiments of the United States, which were favorable to the 
 continuance of Cuba in its connection with Spain. On the 28th 
 of April, 1823, Mr. Adams thus instructed Mr. Nelson, the suc 
 cessor of Mr. Forsyth : 
 
 " The islands of Cuba and Porto-Rico slill remain, nominally, and so far 
 really dependent upon Spain, that she yet possesses the power of transfer 
 ring her own dominion over them to others. These islands, from their local 
 position, are natural appendages to the North American continent; and one 
 of them, Cuba, almost in sight of our shores, from a multitude of considers 
 lions, lias become an object of transcendant importance to the commercial 
 and political interests of our Union. Its commanding position, with refer 
 ence to the gulf of Mexico and the West India seas; the character of its pop 
 ulation ; its situation midway between our southern coast and the island 
 of St. Domingo ; its safe and capacious harbor of the Havana, fronting r. 
 
 * App. Cong. Globe, 1847-48, p. 631. 
 7* 
 
154 CUBA SPAIN ENGLAND. 
 
 long line of our shores destitute of the same advantage; the nature of its 
 productions and of its wants, furnishing the supplies and needing the re 
 turns of a commerce immensely profitable and mutually beneficial give it 
 an importance in the sum of our national interests with which that of no 
 other foreign territory can be compared, and little inferior to that which 
 binds the different members of this Union together. Such, indeed, are, be 
 tween the interests of that island and of this country, the geographical, com 
 mercial, moral, and political relations, formed by nature, gathering in the 
 process of time, and even now verging to maturity, that, in looking forward 
 to the probable course of events, for the short period of half a century, it is 
 scarcely possible to resist the conviction that the annexation of Cuba to our 
 federal republic will be indispensable to the continuance and integrity of 
 the Union itself. It is obvious, however, that for this event we are not yet 
 prepared. Numerous and formidable objections to the extension of our ter 
 ritorial dominions beyond sea, present themselves to the first contemplation 
 of the subject; obstacles to the system of policy by which alone that result 
 can be compassed and maintained, are to be foreseen and surmounted, both 
 from at home and abroad ; but there are laws of political as well as of phys 
 ical gravitation ; and if an apple, severed by the tempest from its native 
 tree, can not choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its 
 own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can 
 gravitate only toward the North American union, which, by the same law 
 of nature, can not cast her off from its bosom. 
 
 " It will be among the primary objects requiring your most earnest and 
 unremitting attention, to ascertain and report to us every movement of ne 
 gotiation between Spain and Great Britain upon this subject So 
 
 long as the constitutional government may continue to be administered in 
 the name of the king, your official intercourse will be with his ministers, 
 and to them you will repeat, what Mr. Forsylh has been instructed to say, 
 that the wishes of your government are that Cuba and Porto-Rico may con 
 tinue in connection with independent and constitutional Spain. 
 
 " Thirty years afterward, viz. : on the 4tli day of January, 
 1853, the senator from Michigan (Mr. Cass) without one word 
 of acknowledgment of Mr. Adams s agency in instituting those 
 measures of progress toward the manifest destiny of the coun 
 try, submitted the resolutions which are under consideration, and 
 which are in these words : 
 
 " Resolved by the Senate and Jlouse of Representatives of the United 
 States of America in Congress amtemlled, That the United States do hereby 
 declare, that "the American continents, by the free and independent condi 
 tion which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be 
 considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power;" and 
 while "existing rights should be respected," and will be by the United 
 State?, they owe it to their own "safety and Interests" to announce, as they 
 now do, "that no future European colony or dominion shall, with their con- 
 
ACQUISITION OF CUBA. 155 
 
 sent, be planted or established on any part of the North American conti 
 nent;" and should the attempt be made, they thus deliberately declare that 
 it will be viewed as an act originating in motives regardless of their "inter 
 ests and their safety," and which will leave them free to adopt such meas 
 ures as an independent nation may justly adopt in defence of its rights and 
 its honor. 
 
 " And be it further resolved, That while the United States disclaim any 
 designs upon the island of Cuba, inconsistent with the laws of nations, and 
 with their duties to Spain, they consider it due to the vast importance of 
 the subject to make known, in this solemn manner, that they should view 
 all efforts on the part of any other power to procure possession, whether 
 peaceably or forcibly, of that island, which, as i\ naval or military position, 
 might, under circumstances easy to be foreseen, become dangerous to their 
 southern coast, to the gulf of Mexico, and to the mouth of the Mississippi, 
 as unfriendly acts directed against them, to be resisted by all the means in 
 their power. 
 
 " In bringing together these actions of John Quincy Adams 
 in 1822, and of the senator from Michigan in 1853, and placing 
 them in juxtaposition in the history of the senate, I have done 
 all that the senator from Michigan seems to have left undone, 
 to vindicate the departed statesman from the censures heaped 
 upon him hy the living one in 1850." 
 
 After this vindication of the sage of Quincy, Mr. Seward 
 availed himself of the opportunity to express his own opin 
 ions on the g reat subjects under review. In regard to the 
 acquisition of Cuba, he says : 
 
 "While I do not desire the immediate or early annexation of 
 Cuba, fior see how I could vote for it at all until slavery shall 
 have ceased to counteract the workings of nature in that beauti 
 ful island, nor even then, unless it could come into the Union 
 without injustice to Spain, without aggressive war, and without pro 
 ducing internal dissensions among ourselves, I nevertheless yield 
 my full assent to the convictions expressed by John Quincy 
 Adams, that this nation can never safely allow the island of 
 Cuba to pass under the dominion of any power that is already, 
 or can become, a formidable rival or enemy ; and can not safely 
 consent to the restoration of colonial relations between any por 
 tions of this continent and the monarchies of Europe." 
 
 In February the important question of our " Relations 
 with Mexico, nnd the Continental railroad," was debated 
 
156 RAILROAD IRON SPEECH. 
 
 in the senate. The speech of Mr. Seward on that sub 
 ject abounds in lucid views of national policy.* 
 
 On the proposal to abolish or suspend the duty on for 
 eign railroad iron, Mr. Seward addressed the senate in 
 one of his most characteristic speeches.! In this speech 
 we find the following warning to the country of the danger 
 of an approaching revulsion in railroad affairs no less just 
 than, as it now appears, prophetic : 
 
 " I ask, now, what is the apology for this extraordinary meas 
 ure 1 It is that it will encourage the making of railroads. Sir, 
 I have spent my life, what there lias been of it spent in public 
 action, in encouraging the making of canals and railroads. I 
 am a friend to canals and railroads ; but I show my fidelity to 
 them in adhering to them when they are unpopular and need 
 help, and support, and patronage, and not when they have pa 
 tronage so great as to be alarming for its effect, not only upon 
 enterprises of that class, but upon the country itself. Do you 
 know how many railroads you are making ? Yon are making 
 twelve thousand miles of railroads in the United States already. 
 You are making them so fast, that you do not rely upon your 
 own resources for making them at all, but you are selling the 
 credit of individuals, towns, counties, and states, throughout the 
 Union, in untold amounts, and constituting an aggregate debt 
 greater than any amount which any man ever presumed it would 
 be safe for this country to owe to foreign countries. Ydhr rail 
 roads are not now made chiefly by subscriptions to their stock. 
 There are small substratum subscriptions, then mortgages on 
 the road, then second mortgages, then third mortgages, until 
 the credit of whole communities is pledged, and pledged to 
 English capitalists. 
 
 " We are pledged in London for the cost of nearly all our rail 
 roads. Our capital is being diverted, so that there is no place 
 in the United States where there is not a railroad being made. 
 
 " There are already half a dozen railroads from the point of 
 Lake Erie to the city of New York, all converging there, be 
 cause railroads have become popular and profitable. So it is 
 
 * See Vol. TIT., p. f>56. f See Vol. TIT., p. 623. 
 
RAILROADS SPEECH. 157 
 
 throughout New England and throughout the west. Now it is 
 not possible that the railroad enterprise in this country can ab 
 sorb capital in an exclusive degree without producing an injury, 
 not only to that enterprise and those subservient to it, but also 
 injurious to other enterprises which increase the vigor and pro 
 mote the progress of the country. Does any man doubt it] 
 What did we do ten years ago, when we embarked in building 
 canals and railroads so deeply, and pledged our credit so far, 
 that the construction of every canal and railroad had to be sus 
 pended ? What happened in England on a like occasion, but 
 that a great railroad-king projected railroads all over the island ; 
 and so much capital was invested in them, that all at once the 
 bubble \vas pricked, and the Avhole enterprise collapsed, bring 
 ing on general stagnation and bankruptcy 1 This is the ten 
 dency of things here now. I am not by habit a croaker ; but 
 I can see that, unless the national government shall act so as to 
 restrain rather than encourage and stimulate this excessive spirit 
 of speculation in railroad investments, just such a collapse will 
 happen here. Railroads do not need protection ; iron manufac 
 turers do need it. Through the town in which I live, and the 
 towns adjacent, the people, carried away by railroad enthusiasm, 
 have applied to the legislature for permission to mortgage their 
 whole property for the making of railroads ; and yet there is 
 not one railroad which they are thus making, in which foreign 
 capitalists Avill invest a dollar, except they have collateral, per 
 sonal, or public security. But you will tell me that Congress 
 has not encouraged railroads. Congress has already encouraged 
 railroads by donations of duties on foreign railroad iron exceed 
 ing the sum of three millions of dollars. Congress has already, 
 with almost a unanimous vote in this chamber, given to every 
 western state land enough from the public domain as much as 
 they said was necessary to construct a web of railroads now 
 in progress and advancing to its completion, covering over the 
 whole of the territories of the United States from the shores of 
 the Atlantic to the Mississippi river, and even crossing that 
 broad line, and advancing precisely upon the same system and 
 same policy toward the base of the Rocky mountains. We 
 have done enough, unless we have some other resources some 
 other revenues which we can apply to this great and beneficent 
 
158 ORATION AT COLUMBUS. 
 
 enterprise of the age ; and we have no other, if the only other 
 one is the sacrifice of the mining interest of iron in the old Atlan 
 tic states. Sir, I have voted land by the square league across 
 the continent, and twenty millions of dollars out of the public 
 treasury for railroads. I will not vote one dollar out of the iron- 
 mines of my country, at the cost of the owner, and of the miner 
 who is engaged in drawing its wealth to the surface." 
 
 This was followed by a speech on " Texas and her Cred 
 itors,"* which closes the list of Mr. Seward s senatorial 
 efforts during that Congress. Both of these speeches are 
 marked by the admirable union of statistics, general reason 
 ing, and lofty sentiments of which the texture of his delib 
 erative eloquence is composed. 
 
 After an extra session of several weeks called by the 
 new administration to consider executive appointments, 
 the senate adjourned in April, 1853. Mr. Seward was 
 occupied during the summer in the courts of the United 
 States, but he found time to accept an urgent call to deliv 
 er an address at the dedication of Capital University at 
 Columbus the seat of government in the state of Ohio. 
 This address rises to the dignity of an oration and pleads 
 the cause of human nature as especially committed to the 
 care of the people of the United States. It closes with an 
 eloquent showing of the responsibilities, in this respect, of 
 the college or the university as an American institution.! 
 
 Mr. Seward s studies during the recess of Congress closed 
 with the delivery of an address before the American Insti 
 tute at New York on the 20th of October, 1853. This 
 address was a stirring appeal to the American people to 
 rise to a higher tone of individual and national indepen 
 dence, in thought, sentiment, and action. While every 
 part of it was received with distinguished favor, no part 
 was more just or more highly appreciated than the follow 
 ing touching tribute to the memory of James Tallmadge : 
 
 * See Vol. III., p. 667. 
 
 f This address will be found among the selections in this volume. 
 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE ADDRESS. 159 
 
 " I have been for many reasons habitually averse from min 
 gling in the sometimes excited debates which crowd upon each 
 other in a great city. There was, however, an authority which 
 I could not disobey, in the venerable name and almost paternal 
 kindness of the eminent citizen, who so recently presided here 
 with dignity and serenity all his own ; and who transmitted the 
 invitation of the Institute, and persuaded its acceptance ! 
 
 " How sudden his death ! Only three weeks ago, the morn 
 ing mail brought to me his announcement of his arrival to ar 
 range this exhibition, and his summons to me to join him here ; 
 and the evening despatch, on the self-same day, bore the pain 
 ful intelligence that the lofty genius which had communed with 
 kindred spirits so long, on the interests of his country, had de 
 parted from the earth, and that the majestic form which had 
 been animated by it, had disappeared for ever from among living 
 men. 
 
 " I had disciplined myself when coming here, so as to purpose 
 to speak no word for the cause of human freedom, lest what 
 might seem too persistent an advocacy might offend. But must 
 I, therefore, abridge of its just proportions the eulogium which 
 the occasion and the character of the honored dead alike 
 demand ? 
 
 " The first ballot which I cast for the chief magistracy of my 
 native and most beloved state, bore the name of James Tall- 
 madge, as the alternate of De Witt Clinton. If I have never 
 faltered in pursuing the policy of that immortal statesman, 
 through loud reproach and vindictive opposition during his life, 
 and amid clamors and contentions, often amounting almost to 
 faction, since his death, I have found as little occasion to hesi 
 tate or waver in adhering to the counsels and example of the 
 illustrious compeer, who, after surviving him so many years, has 
 now been removed, in ripened age, to the companionship of the 
 just. How does not time vindicate fidelity to truth and to our 
 country ! A vote for Clinton and Tallmadge in 1824, what 
 censures did it not bring then ? "Who will impeach that ballot 
 now ? 
 
 " A statesman s claim to the gratitude of his country rests on 
 what were, or what would have been, the results of the policy 
 he has recommended. If the counsels of James Tallmadge had 
 
160 EULOGIUM ON JAMES TALLMADGE. 
 
 completely prevailed, then not only would American forests, 
 mines, soil, invention, and industry, have rendered our country, 
 now and for ever, independent of all other nations, except for 
 what climate forbids ; but then, also, no menial hand would ever 
 have guided a plough, and no footstep of a slave would ever 
 have been tracked on the soil of all that vast part of our national 
 domain that stretches away from the banks of the Mississippi to 
 the far western ocean. 
 
 " This was the policy of James Tallmadge. It was worthy 
 of New York, in whose name it was promulgated. It would 
 have been noble, even to have altogether failed in establishing 
 it. He was successful, however, in part, though only through 
 unwise delays and unnecessary compromises, which he strenu 
 ously opposed, and which, therefore, have not impaired his just 
 fame. And so in the end, he more nearly than any other citi 
 zen of our time, realized the description of the happiest man in 
 the world, given to the frivolous Croasus by the great Athenian : 
 He saw his offspring, and they all survived him. At the close 
 of an honorable and prosperous life, on the field of civic victory, 
 he was rewarded with the honors of a public funeral by the state 
 that he had enriched, adorned, and enlarged. " 
 
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 161 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE XXXIIld CONGRESS NEBRASKA. 
 
 UPON the accession of Mr. Pierce to the presidency, high 
 expectations were formed of great and beneficent legisla 
 tive action by the first Congress under his administration, 
 which met on the first Monday in December, 1853. Among 
 the measures which, it was anticipated, would come up for 
 consideration were the modification of the tariff, so as to 
 enlarge the field of national industry the construction of 
 a railroad between the Atlantic states and the Pacific 
 ocean the substitution of a system of gratuitous allot 
 ments of land, in limited quantities, to actual settlers, in 
 stead of the policy of sales of the public domain the im 
 provement and reform of the army and navy the regula 
 tion of the commercial marine in regard to immigrant 
 passengers the endowment of the states with portions of 
 the public land, as a provision for the care of the insane 
 within their limits the establishment of steam-mails 
 upon the Pacific ocean and the opening of political and 
 commercial relations with Japan. 
 
 Mr. Seward addressed himself to the accomplishment of 
 these important objects with his accustomed diligence and 
 zeal. Early in the session he introduced a bill for the con 
 struction of a railroad to the Pacific, and another for the 
 establishment of steam-mails between San Francisco, the 
 Sandwich Islands, Japan, and China. The times seemed 
 favorable for such legislation. The public treasury was 
 overflowing. The slavery agitation had died away both in 
 Congress and throughout the country. This calm, how- 
 
162 NEBRASKA IN THE SENATE. 
 
 ever, was doomed to a sudden interruption. The prospect 
 of such extended beneficent legislation was destroyed by 
 the introduction of a measure, which at once supplanted all 
 other subjects in Congress, and in the political interest of 
 the people. This was the novel and astounding proposal 
 of Mr. Douglas of Illinois, in relation to the Kansas and 
 Nebraska territories. The country saw witli regret and 
 mortification, the homestead bill transformed into one of 
 mere graduation of the prices of the public lands. The 
 bills for the improvement of the army and navy, and the 
 bill for regulating the transportation of immigrants were 
 dropped, before coming to maturity. The bill for a grant 
 of lands to the states in aid of the insane, was defeated in 
 the senate for want of a constitutional majority, after hav 
 ing been vetoed by the president. The bill for establishing 
 the Pacific railroad was lost for want of time to debate it ; 
 and the bill for opening steam communication with the 
 East, after passing the senate failed for want of considera 
 tion in the house. The administration had a majority of 
 nearly two to one in both branches of Congress. The op 
 ponents of introducing slavery into the free territories, 
 were in a decided minority in the house, while they consti 
 tuted less than one fifth of the senate. 
 
 The measure, already alluded to, which produced this 
 sudden derangement in Congress, was a provision in the 
 bill for the organization of a territory in Nebraska, declar 
 ing that the states which might, at any future time, be 
 formed in the new territory, should leave the question of 
 slavery to be decided by the inhabitants, on the adoption 
 of their constitution. This provision, as explained by the 
 bill itself, was the application to Nebraska of the policy es 
 tablished in regard to Utah and New Mexico by the com 
 promise of 1850. It was evident that the Missouri com 
 promise of 1820 was thus virtually repealed. By that 
 arrangement, it was provided that slavery should be ex 
 cluded from the whole unorganized portion of the public 
 
ABROGATION OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 163 
 
 domain, acquired from France, and lying north of the par 
 allel of 36 30 north latitude. The territory of Nebraska 
 was comprised within these limits. 
 
 Mr. Dixon, a senator from Kentucky, however, desirous 
 to bring the supporters of prohibition, to a still more de 
 cided test, moved an amendment to the bill, expressly an 
 nulling the portion of the Missouri compromise, which 
 related to the subject. After some deliberation, Mr. 
 Douglas accepted the amendment, and modified his plan, 
 so far as to introduce a new bill for the organization of 
 Nebraska and Kansas, within the same limits, instead of 
 the territory of Nebraska alone, according to the original 
 programme. The administration lost no time in adopting 
 this policy as their own. It was at first proposed to hasten 
 the passage of the bill through both houses so rapidly, as 
 to prevent any remonstrance on the part of the people. 
 But the opponents of the measure, including Mr. Seward, 
 Mr. Everett, Mr. Chase, Mr. Sumner, Mr. Truman Smith, 
 Mr. Wade, Mr. Bell, Mr. Houston, and Mr. Fessenden, pre 
 sented such an earnest and effective resistance, that the 
 attention of the country was aroused, and an indignant prot 
 est called forth from the people of the free states. The 
 bill, however, passed the senate by a majority of more than 
 two to one, and after a protracted struggle was carried 
 through the house, in an amended form by a vote of 113 
 to 100. 
 
 On its return to the senate, it was met by Messrs. Sew- 
 ard, Sumner, and Chase, with a continued and powerful 
 opposition. But it was all to no effect. The bill finally 
 passed that body, and amid the firing of cannon and the 
 shouts of its friends, it was sent to the president for his 
 signature, at three o clock in the morning of May 26, 1854. 
 The approval of the president was promptly given, and the 
 odious measure became the law of the land. Thus was 
 abrogated the celebrated Missouri compromise a law en 
 acted thirty years before with all the solemnity of a com- 
 
164 THE COMPROMISE OF 1350 AND NEBRASKA. 
 
 pact between the free and slave states and a territory 
 opened to slavery as large as the original thirteen states, 
 and nearly equal in extent to all the existing free states. 
 The act was consummated by the co-operation of the North. 
 Originating with a senator from a free state it was passed 
 by a Congress containing in each branch a majority of 
 members from the free states, and was sanctioned by the 
 approval of a free state president. 
 
 The friends of this legislation attempted to defend it on 
 the pretence that it was not an original act, but only de 
 claratory of the true intent and significance of the compro 
 mise measures of 1850. For his resistance to those meas 
 ures, Mr. Seward had been vehemently denounced. But 
 at the very commencement of the Nebraska struggle, the 
 friends of freedom at the North turned their eyes toward 
 him, as its devoted champion. He was beset with appeals 
 from all sides to awaken the country to the atrocity of the 
 proposed transaction. In no quarter were these appeals 
 more urgent than in the city of New York, where his oppo 
 sition to the compromise of 1850 had been most severely 
 condemned. With his usual sagacity and confidence in the 
 popular impulse, and faithful to his innate sense of personal 
 dignity, he kept aloof from these overtures, and was con 
 tent with the zealous discharge of his senatorial duties on 
 the floor of Congress. The following characteristic letter 
 illustrates the coolness and decision of his bearing at this 
 time : 
 
 WASHINGTON, Saturday, January 28, 1854. 
 
 "GENTLEMEN : The invitation to a meeting to be held in the 
 city of New York, to protest against any repeal or violation of 
 the Missouri Compromise, Avith which you have honored me, has 
 been received. My constant attendance here is required by the 
 interest which the city of New York and the state of New York 
 have in the great projects of a railroad to San Francisco, and 
 the extension of our commerce to the islands and continents 
 divided from us l>y the Pacific ocenn, which are now being 
 
LETTER TO THE NEW YORK MEETING. 165 
 
 matured in committees to which I belong. Moreover the day 
 designated for the meeting is one upon which the senate may 
 be brought to a vote upon the bold and dangerous measure 
 which has so justly excited the patriotic apprehensions of the 
 citizens of the metropolis. I could not be safely absent from 
 the capital under these circumstances, even if my attendance in 
 New York would otherwise be proper. 
 
 " You have kindly asked me, in view of this inability, to give 
 you such an expression of my sentiments as may help to arouse 
 the North to the defence of its rights, and the South to the 
 maintenance of its plighted honor. Permit me to say, in re 
 sponse to the appeal, that when the slavery laws of 1850 were 
 under discussion in the senate, I regarded the ground then de 
 manded to be conceded by the North as a vantage ground, which, 
 when once yielded, would be retrieved with infinite difficulty 
 afterward, if, indeed, it should not be absolutely irretrievable ; 
 and that I, therefore, in my place as a representative here, said 
 and did all that it was in my power to do and say, and all that 
 I could now do and say, to help to rouse the North to the de 
 fence of its rights, and the South to the maintenance of its hon 
 or. When, afterward, eminent members of Congress, who had 
 been engaged in passing those laws, carried an appeal against 
 those who had opposed them before the people in their primary 
 assemblies, I declined to follow them then, and I have ever 
 since refrained from all unnecessary discussions of the slave laws 
 of 1850, and of matters pertaining to slavery, even here, as well 
 as elsewhere, because I was unwilling to injure so just a cause 
 by discussions which might seem to betray undue solicitude, if 
 not a spirit of faction. We have only now arrived at a new 
 stage in the trial of that appeal. For it is quite clear that if 
 the slavery laws had not been passed in 1850, for the territories 
 acquired from Mexico, there would have been no pretence for 
 extending such slavery laws now, over the territories before ac 
 quired from Louisiana, and that if we had maintained our ground 
 on the laws of freedom, which then protected New Mexico and 
 Utah, we should not now have been attacked in our stronghold 
 in Nebraska. It is equally evident, also, that Nebraska is not 
 all that is to be saved or lost. If we are driven from this field, 
 there will *yet remain Oregon and Minnesota, and we who 
 
166 SPEECHES ON THE NEBRASKA BILL 
 
 thought only so lately as 1849 of securing some portion at least 
 of the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and all of the Pacific coast 
 to the institutions of freedom, will be, before 1859, brought to a 
 doubtful struggle to prevent the extension of slavery to the 
 shores of the great lakes, and thence westward to Puget s sound. 
 T hope, gentlemen, that for one, I may be allowed to continue 
 to the end that abstinence from popular agitation which I have 
 heretofore practised, less from considerations of self-respect than 
 from my confidence in the sagacity and virtue of the people I 
 represent. Nevertheless, I beg you to be assured that, while 
 declining to go into popular assemblies, as an agitator, I shall 
 endeavor to do my duty here with as many true men as shall 
 be found in a delegation, which, if all were firm and united in 
 the maintenance of public right and justice, would be able to 
 control the decision of this great question. But the measure of 
 success and effect which shall crown our exertions must depend 
 now, as heretofore, on the fidelity with which the people whom 
 we represent shall adhere to the policy and principles which are 
 the foundation of their own unrivalled prosperity and greatness. 
 " I am, gentlemen, with great respect and esteem, your obedi 
 ent servant, " WILLIAM H. SEWARD." 
 
 The pledges given in this letter were nobly fulfilled. 
 The first of his speeches* on the Nebraska bill was a pro 
 found and dispassionate statement of the whole argument 
 against the measure in question. Though it failed of pre 
 venting the accomplishment of the measure in Congress, it 
 acted, with magnetic power, on the people of the free states, 
 arousing them to a spirit of unconquerable resistance to the 
 aggressions of slavery. It was a gloomy night for the 
 lovers of freedom in those states, when the telegraphic 
 despatches flashed throughout the country, announcing that 
 the ill-omened bill was on its final reading in the senate, 
 and that its inevitable enactment was near at hand. Mr. 
 Seward chose that hour of intense excitement to close the 
 debate on his part. He commenced his speech with these 
 solemn and impressive words : 
 
 * See page 351 of this volume. 
 
CLOSE OF THE DEBATE. 167 
 
 " The sun has set for the last time upon the guarantied and cer 
 tain liberties of all the unsettled and unorganized portions of the 
 American continent that lie within the jurisdiction of the United 
 States. To-morrow s sun will rise in dim eclipse over them.* 
 How long that obscuration shall last, is known only to the 
 Power that directs and controls all human events. For myself, 
 I know only this that now no human power will prevent its 
 coming on, and that its passing off will be hastened and secured 
 by others than those now here, and perhaps by only those 
 belonging to future generations 
 
 " We are on the eve of the consummation of a great national 
 transaction a transaction which will close a cycle in the his 
 tory of our country and it is impossible not to desire to pause 
 a moment and survey the scene around us and the prospect be 
 fore us. However obscure we may individually be, our connec 
 tion with this great transaction will perpetuate our names for 
 the praise or for the censure of future ages, and perhaps in 
 regions far remote. If, then, we had no other motive for our 
 actions but that of an honest desire for a just fame, we could 
 not be indifferent to that scene and that prospect. But indi 
 vidual interests and ambition sink into insignificance in view of 
 the interests of our country and of mankind. These interests 
 awaken, at least in me, an intense solicitude." 
 
 He then proceeded to review the sophistries which had 
 been offered in defence of the bill, and pointed out its 
 calamitous tendencies, with a clearness and power that 
 might almost have arrested its progress even on the verge 
 of enactment. Presenting to the free states the evidences 
 of their ability to procure a repeal of the law, he urged, by 
 conclusive arguments, the importance of such a step, and 
 at the same time luminously expounded the methods of 
 excluding slavery from Nebraska, and the vast, unsettled 
 regions of the West, by promoting a wide and rapid emi 
 gration into the territories in question. The effect of this 
 speechf was cheering in the extreme. It threw a rainbow 
 
 * It will be remembered that an almost total eclipse of the sun actually 
 occurred on that day the 26th of May, 1854. ED 
 f See p. 384 of this volume. 
 
168 THE CLERGY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 over the dark cloud that hung over the country. The aus 
 picious omen was accepted. And the faith of the people 
 has been rewarded by the most gratifying results in the 
 recent elections. 
 
 Beside these two important speeches, Mr. Scward made 
 several other elaborate efforts in the senate, addressing that 
 body on the bills which have been already enumerated. 
 
 During the discussion of the Kansas and Nebraska bill 
 in the house of representatives, a memorial remonstrating 
 against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, signed by 
 three thousand and fifty clergymen of New England, was 
 presented to the senate by Edward Everett. Mr. Douglas 
 and other senators attacked this memorial with great vio 
 lence, severely criticising its language, calling in question 
 its propriety, and denying the claim of its authors to a 
 hearing in the senate. Mr. Seward defended the course 
 of the memorialists, and maintained the right of petition 
 on its broadest grounds. A reference to his remarks on 
 this subject will show the character of his positions, and 
 the vigor and acumen with which they were sustained.* 
 
 Two unusually important treaties were ratified by the 
 senate in executive or secret session, during this meet 
 ing of Congress. One is known as the " Gadsden Treaty," 
 for the settlement of our relations with Mexico and the 
 other, as the " Reciprocity Treaty" for the regulation of 
 trade between Canada and the United States. Mr. Seward 
 is understood to have opposed the former, while he gave 
 his support to the latter. 
 
 It will be seen that Mr. Seward has not been an 
 idle spectator of the proceedings of the senate. His voice 
 has been raised on the most momentous questions in those 
 halls " where debate either wins a great influence or utterly 
 wastes the speaker s power." No one can doubt the effect 
 of his active participation in the senatorial strife on his 
 own fame. His speeches have not only been heard with 
 
 * See p. 223 of this volume. 
 
ADDRESS AT YALE COLLEGE. 169 
 
 profound respect in the august forum, where they were de 
 livered, but they will be read with instruction and delight 
 by the most intelligent portion of our republican population. 
 
 Rich in significant lessons of statesmanship, abounding 
 in the treasured wisdom of years of study and practice in 
 affairs, breathing a spirit of the most expansive humanity, 
 and adorned with the classic embellishments of a suscepti 
 ble and refined taste, they form an interesting memorial 
 of the progress of American letters. Mr. Seward, we 
 are persuaded, will henceforth occupy as enviable a place 
 among the writers of his country, as he has long held among 
 her practical statesmen. 
 
 In addition to his elaborate speeches in the senate, Mr. 
 Seward has often taken an incidental part in important de 
 bates, a record of which is preserved in the collection of 
 his works. After the decease of Henry Clay and Daniel 
 Webster, he delivered a tribute to the memory of each of 
 those illustrious statesmen, in chaste and discriminating 
 sketches of their characters. For justness and vigor of 
 conception, elevation of feeling, and felicity of diction, these 
 are scarcely inferior to the best specimens of mortuary elo 
 quence in our language.* 
 
 Just before the adjournment of Congress (o*n the 26th of 
 July), Mr. Seward delivered the annual oration before the 
 Phi Beta Kappa society of Yale college, on which occasion 
 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. The 
 subject of his discourse was " The Physical, Moral, and 
 Intellectual Development of the American People," which 
 he treated with a masterly discrimination and vigorous elo 
 quence that commanded the admiration of a highly intellec 
 tual audience, and strengthened his well-earned title to 
 oratorical fame.f 
 
 8 
 
170 THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SECOND SESSION OF XXXIIld CONGRESS RE-ELECTION OF MR. 
 
 SEWARD TO THE SENATE. 
 
 j THE second session of the Thirty-third Congress com- 
 j menced on the first Monday in December, 1854. Mr. 
 / Seward immediately applied himself to the task of rescuing 
 /I from the ruins the important measures that were sacrificed 
 i.j at the last session. His speeches in favor of appropriations 
 / for the improvement of the harbors on the great lakes ; 
 I against the amendments of the tariff impairing the inter 
 ests of American producers and manufacturers ; in favor 
 of effectual measures to secure the building of the Pacific 
 Railroad ; against giving credit on duties on railroad iron ; 
 and in favor of sustaining the mail service of the United 
 A States on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans exhibit the 
 \ zeal with which he entered upon the work. Liberal and 
 V statesmanlike views characterized all his efforts. 
 
 He opposed the bill raising the salaries of the judges of 
 " the supreme court and increasing the compensation of the 
 senators and representatives in Congress, while he favored 
 an extension of the benefits of the bounty land laws to 
 the militia and volunteers who had served in the wars of 
 the United States. On presenting a petition from the 
 unemployed workmen of New York, for the passage of a 
 homestead act, he feelingly alluded to the distress then 
 prevailing among the industrial classes, and urged as an 
 
FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL. 171 
 
 inexpensive and salutary means of relief, the enactment 
 of the law asked for in the workingmen e memorial. 
 
 A bill introduced by Senator Toucey, to strengthen the 
 rigid and inhuman provisions of the fugitive slave bill of 
 1850, met with Mr. Seward s determined opposition. He 
 denounced it in an eloquent and stirring speech, as a 
 daring encroachment on the rights and liberties of the 
 people. Mr. Sumner during the debate offered a substitute 
 for the bill, proposing to repeal the act of 1850. This 
 received nine affirmative votes, including Mr. Seward s. 
 Mr. Toucey s bill passed the senate, but failed in the 
 house. It has never been revived. 
 
 Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, 1855. At the 
 same time, Mr. Seward s first senatorial term expired. He 
 had intended to decline a reelection ; but higher consider 
 ations than private interests prevailed with him, and he 
 consented to serve another term. To those who expressed 
 an undue anxiety for his continuance in office, he wrote: 
 
 "As for the future, I await its developments without concern, 
 conscious that if my services are needed, they will be demanded ; 
 and if not needed, that it would be neither patriotic nor conducive 
 to my happiness to be in public life." 
 
 The legislature of New York, for 1855, had been chosen 
 with reference to Mr. Seward s reelection ; and although 
 the opposition was active, a majority in his favor was 
 returned. Previous to the day appointed for the election, 
 a discussion of the subject occupied the Assembly for 
 several days, in which Mr. Seward s public life was 
 subjected to a searching review.* His friends felt their 
 confidence in his success strengthened as the debate pro 
 ceeded. On the 6th of February, 1855, the election took 
 place, and resulted in Mr. Seward s triumphant return. 
 
 * Among those who ably supported Mr. Seward s re-election during this 
 debate, were Messrs. C. C. Leigh, R. M. Blatchford, Hezekiah Baker, and 
 others, of the Assembly. 
 
172 MR. SEWARD S RE-ELECTION. 
 
 The votes stood in the Senate : 
 
 For WILLIAM H. SEWARD 18 
 
 Daniel S. Dickinson 5 
 
 William F. Allen 2 
 
 Al illard Fillmore 1 
 
 Ogden Hoffman 1 
 
 Preston King 1 
 
 Daniel Ullmann 1 
 
 George R. Babcock 1 
 
 Sanford E. Church 1 
 
 In the Assembly, the votes were as follows : 
 
 For WILLIAM H. SEWARD 69 
 
 Daniel S. Dickinson 14 
 
 Horatio Seymour 12 
 
 Washington Hunt 9 
 
 John A. Dix 7 
 
 Jdillard Fillmore 4 
 
 Scattering 11 
 
 When the result was announced by telegraph throughout 
 the country, the public rejoicings were as universal as 
 they were, in such a case, unprecedented. Mr. Seward 
 himself received the intelligence, while engaged in the 
 senate, with his accustomed equanimity. His house, 
 however, in Washington, was soon thronged with citizens, 
 members of Congress, and others, eager to offer their 
 congratulations. On his return to Auburn, after the 
 adjournment, public receptions were tendered to him at 
 the various places on the route. He respectfully declined 
 them. His reelection seemed every where to be regarded 
 as a national triumph. The contest had been anxiously 
 watched, as one between Freedom and Slavery. 
 
 The annual elections in the ensuing autumn were re 
 garded with uncommon interest. Mr. Seward was, as 
 usual, pressed into the canvass. He delivered speeches at 
 Albany, Buffalo, and Auburn. His speech in the capitol, 
 entitled " The Dangers of extending Slavery," attracted 
 
ALBANY AND BUFFALO SPEECHES. 173 
 
 much attention. Even the President, in his annual mes 
 sage, alluded to some of its sentiments, and attempted to 
 combat them. Mr. Seward closed this speech in the 
 following words : 
 
 " So long as the republican party shall be firm and faithful to 
 the Constitution, the Union, and the Rights of Man, I shall serve 
 it, with the reservation of that personal independence which is my 
 birthright, but at the same time with the zeal and devotion that 
 patriotism allows and enjoins. I do not know, and personally I 
 do not greatly care, that it shall work out its great ends this year, 
 or the next, or in my lifetime; because I know that those ends are 
 ultimately sura, and that time and trial are the elements which 
 make all great reformations sure and lasting. I have not thus 
 far lived for personal ends or temporary fame, and I shall not 
 begin so late to live or labor for them. I have hoped that I 
 might leave my country somewhat worthier of a lofty destiny, and 
 the rights of human nature somewhat safer. A reasonable 
 ambition must always be satisfied with sincere and practical 
 endeavors. If, among those who shall come after us, there shall 
 be any curious inquirer who shall fall upon a name so obscure as 
 mine, he shall be obliged to confess that, however unsuccessfully 
 I labored for generous ends, yet that I nevertheless was ever 
 faithful, ever hopeful." 
 
 His speech at Buffalo "The Contest and the Crisis" 
 was no less eloquent, and, like the former, had a large 
 circulation, in pamphlets, after the election had passed. 
 
 Both of these speeches discuss the great question of the 
 day with masterly power, and are of permanent interest. 
 
 On the 22d of December (Forefathers Day), Mr. Seward 
 delivered an oration at Plymouth, Mass. It is justly 
 regarded as one of his best efforts. A large and cultivated 
 audience greeted its delivery with repeated demonstrations 
 of sympathy and delight. 
 
174 KANSAS AFFAIRS 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE XXXIvth CONGRESS, 1855- 6 KANSAS AFFAIRS THE 
 
 SUMNER ASSAULT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION THE DRED 
 
 SCOTT DECISION, ETC. 
 
 CONGRESS assembled on its usual day in December, 1855, 
 and Mr. Seward, with his accustomed punctuality and 
 diligence, applied himself to the business of the session. 
 Among the important subjects first introduced, was the 
 " Clayton and Bulwer Treaty." In several able speeches, 
 Mr. Seward faithfully defended the rights and interests 
 of the United States, showing an intelligent acquaintance 
 with the whole subject. A matter of still greater interest 
 was soon afterward brought before the senate. The Presi 
 dent, in a special message to Congress, called its attention 
 to the extraordinary condition of affairs in the territory 
 of Kansas. Mr. Seward s speeches in the debate which 
 followed were of commanding interest. They were more 
 numerous and elaborate than usual. Our limits will not 
 allow any extracts from them, in this connection, even if 
 it were possible to make a selection w T ith a just regard to 
 the whole. They obtained a wide circulation through the 
 country, in newspapers and pamphlets.* 
 
 On the 22d of May, 1856, an assault was committed on 
 Charles Simmer, in the senate chamber, by Mr. Preston S. 
 
 * These speeches, with others referred to in these chapters, will be found 
 in Vol. IV of Mr. Se ward s Works. 
 
THE SUMXKR ASSAULT. 175 
 
 Brooks, of South Carolina. The severe and lasting injuries 
 were inflicted, in the presence of several other members 
 of Congress, avowedly in revenge for words spoken in 
 debate. Mr. Simmer s colleague (Senator Wilson) the 
 next day briefly stated the facts of the occurrence to the 
 senate. After waiting a reasonable time for some senator 
 in the majority to make such a motion, Mr. Seward offered 
 a resolution appointing a committee of inquiry into the 
 whole matter. His resolution was adopted, without oppo 
 sition. According to parliamentary usage, Mr. Seward 
 should have been one of this committee, and its chairman. 
 But the usual mode of appointing committees was in this 
 case changed, and an election by ballot substituted. The 
 committee as elected contained no friend of Mr. Simmer s, 
 nor any senator belonging to his party. All were demo 
 crats. Notwithstanding these circumstances, and not 
 withstanding the personal relations existing between Mr. 
 Simmer and Mr. Seward, the latter engaged in the debate, 
 which followed the report of the committee, with his 
 characteristic coolness and moderation. His speeches, 
 however, were not wanting in manly indignation and 
 dignified denunciation of the outrage. He was evidently 
 deeply moved by the whole transaction. In his opening 
 remarks, he shows how profoundly he was affected, and 
 how severely he had disciplined his feelings : 
 
 " Every one knew," he said, " that the sufferer in that scene was 
 my cherished personal friend, and political associate. Every one 
 knew that he had fallen senseless and, for all that was at first 
 known, lifeless, on the floor of the senate of the United States, for 
 utterances which, whether discreet or indiscreet, were utterances 
 made in the cause of truth, humanity, and justice a cause in 
 which he was a distinguished fellow-laborer with myself." 
 
 Besides his speeches on this subject and the Kansas 
 affairs. Mr. Seward also addressed the senate at length, and 
 
1TC THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 
 
 with his usual ability, on the following topics : the Naval 
 Retiring Board, Origination of Appropriation Bills. Sena 
 tor Trumbull s Seat, the Danish Sound Dues, Nicaragua, 
 the Compensation Bill, and Military and Civic Officers. At 
 the extra session, he delivered an eloquent speech on the 
 Army Bill, incidentally discussing the outrages perpetrated 
 in Kansas by the pro-slavery party and government offi 
 cers. He did not hesitate, however, to predict that Kansas 
 was destined to be free. Neither did he entertain any 
 fears for the safety of the Union in any event. The extra 
 session closed on the 30th of August, 1850. Mr. Seward s 
 labors had been uncommonly arduous during a constant 
 service of nine months in the senate. He immediately 
 retired to his home in Auburn ; but his respite from labor 
 was brief. The presidential election was near at hand, 
 and the canvass was at its height. Mr. Seward s aid was 
 invoked from all quarters. His speeches at Auburn, 
 Detroit, and Oswego, have seldom been equalled in their 
 effective eloquence and clear expositions of the great 
 questions dividing the people. If Mr. Seward s friends 
 had been disappointed in the nomination made by the 
 republican party, no traces of such a feeling appeared in 
 any act or expression of his. 
 
 Congress re-assembled in December, the election having 
 resulted in the success of Mr. Buchanan and his party. 
 During the recess, John M. Clayton had deceased. One 
 of Mr. Seward s first duties was to pronounce a eulogium 
 upon that eminent statesman. It was an eloquent and 
 feeling tribute to "his ancient political associate and 
 friend." 
 
 In a speech remarkable for its historical research, he 
 advocated the claims of the Revolutionary officers for 
 further aid from our government. He showed that such 
 aid would be the carrying out of Gen. Washington s early 
 and most cherished policy ; and that it would be simply 
 
THE DEED SCOTT DECISION. 177 
 
 an act of justice long delayed. The Atlantic Telegraph 
 was a project which received Mr. Seward s effective 
 support. His counsel and his speeches were the means 
 of carrying a bill through the senate to aid its construction. 
 In the same spirit he advocated a line of telegraphs from 
 the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The overland mail 
 to California and Oregon, was also a favorite measure with 
 him, and with similar enterprises, was sustained by his 
 zealous cooperation. Near the close of the session, a 
 proposition to revise the tariff was brought forward. Mr. 
 Seward, consistently with his w T hole public life, favored 
 those amendments which would improve the present 
 system, while he opposed such as would add to the existing 
 embarrassments of the iron and wool-growing interests. 
 The amendments as proposed by Senator Hunter, passed 
 the senate, Mj\ Seward voting in the negative, with Messrs. 
 Bell, Bigler, Brodhead, Collamer, Durkee, Foot, Geyer, 
 Nonrse, Trumbull, and Wade. 
 
 With the inauguration of President Buchanan, came the 
 Dred Scott decision. Mr. Seward took an early occasion 
 to review this decision, and to speak of the President s 
 connection with it. He proposed also a reorganization of 
 the supreme court and the courts of the United States, so 
 that the states should be represented by judges more 
 nearly on the basis of their federal population. While he 
 avowed his intention to act strictly within the Constitution 
 in this matter, he insisted on the justice and necessity of 
 his proposition. 
 
 8* 
 
ITS MR. SEWARD S SPEECHES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 XXXVtll CONGRESS KANSAS-LECOMPTON AFFAIRS THE IRRE 
 PRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 
 
 CONGRESS met on the first Monday in December, 1857. 
 Mr. Seward s speeches were more numerous than at any 
 previous session. His topics also embraced a greater 
 variety, and were of more importance than usual. Among 
 them may be named : The President s Message, Eulogy on 
 James Bell, Treasury Notes, William Walker, Paying for 
 Slaves, Eulogy on Thomas J. Rusk, Increase of the Army, 
 Admission of Minnesota, Kansas and Lecompton, Slavery 
 in ]S"ew York, The Pacific Railroad, Admission of Oregon, 
 The Fisheries, British Aggressions, Improvement of Rivers 
 and Harbors, The Coast Survey, Eulogy on J. Pinckney 
 Henderson, Mail Steamers, and The Public Schools of 
 Washington. His eulogiuin on Senator Rusk was an 
 appropriate and solemn memorial of his death, with affec 
 tionate allusions to the relations that had existed between 
 himself and the deceased. 
 
 On the 2d of February, 1858, the President sent a 
 special message to Congress, recommending the admission 
 of Kansas into the Union, with the constitution framed at 
 Lecompton. The fraudulent and deceptive character of 
 this constitution, is too well known to need in this place 
 and at this time any remarks. The most distinguished 
 democrats in the Union revolted at its unfair and unjust 
 
KANSAS-LKCOMPTOX AFFAIRS. 179 
 
 provisions. Messrs. Broderick, Douglas, Pugh, and Stuart 
 in the senate, immediately took ground against it, and 
 united with Mr. Seward and the republicans to oppose 
 the president s policy. Senators Bell and Oittenden also 
 arrayed themselves with the opposition. The measure, 
 nevertheless, passed the senate by a vote of 33 to 25. 
 Before its final passage, Mr. Crittenden moved an amend 
 ment, allowing the constitution to be submitted to the 
 people if approved, the President should admit Kansas 
 into the Union by a proclamation; if rejected, a new 
 convention might be called to frame another constitution. 
 This the senate rejected. In the house, Mr. Critteiiden s 
 amendment was in substance adopted, by 120 to 112 
 twenty-two democrats voting for it. A disagreement 
 between the senate and the house having thus arisen, a 
 conference committee was appointed, of which Mr. Seward 
 was a member on the part of the senate. A bill, prevari 
 cating and doubtful in its meaning, w r as framed by this 
 committee, Mr. Seward and Mr. Howard dissenting, which 
 eventually passed both houses and became a law. The 
 people of Kansas, however, promptly rejected it by nearly 
 10,000 majority. 
 
 Mr. Seward, in the senate and in the conference commit 
 tee, opposed any surrender of the principle that the people 
 of Kansas should be left perfectly free to decide upon their 
 own organic law. His speeches, made at different stages 
 of the debate, which lasted over twelve weeks, are mas 
 terly expositions of the whole subject, in all its relations. 
 They contain a concise but perfect history of the struggle 
 for the rights of Kansas, in Congress and in the territory. 
 
 In one of the earliest (March 3, 1858) of these speeches, 
 after discarding the idea of any more compromises with 
 slavery, he said : 
 
 " I know the hazards I incur in taking this position. I know 
 ho\v men and parties, now earnest and zealous and bold, may 
 
180 ME. SEWAKD S POSITION. 
 
 yet fall away from me, as the controversy shall wax warm, and 
 alarms and dangers now unlocked for, shall stare them in the 
 face as men and parties, equally earnest, bold, and zealous, have 
 done, in like circumstances, before. But it is the same position I 
 took in the case of California, eight years ago. It is the same I 
 maintained on the great occasion of the organization of Kansas 
 and Nebraska, four years ago. Time and added experience have 
 vindicated it since, and I assume it again, to be maintained to the 
 last, with confidence, that it will be justified, ultimately, by the 
 country and by the civilized world." 
 
 " A free republican government, like this, notwithstanding all 
 its .constitutional checks, can not long resist and counteract the 
 progress of society. Slavery, wherever and whenever, and in 
 whatsoever form it exists, is exceptional, local, and short-lived. 
 Freedom is the common right, interest, and ultimate destiny, of 
 all mankind. All other nations have already abolished, or are 
 about abolishing, slavery. Does this fact mean nothing? All 
 parties in this country that have tolerated the extension of slavery, 
 except one, have perished for that error already. That last one 
 the Democratic party is hurrying on, irretrievably, toward the 
 same fate. There is a meaning in all these facts, which it becomes 
 us to study well. The nation has advanced another stage ; it has 
 reached the point where intervention, by the government, for 
 slavery and slave states, will no longer be tolerated. Free labor 
 has at last apprehended its rights, its interests, its power, and its 
 destiny, and is organizing itself to assume the government of the 
 Republic." 
 
 As the leader of the opposition, Mr. Seward s counsel 
 and advice were in constant requisition during this mem 
 orable contest. 
 
 On the bill to increase and strengthen the army sent to 
 quell the rebellion in Utah, he took high and patriotic 
 grounds, separating himself for the time from some of his 
 political friends in the senate. In this case, as in others, 
 we believe that he adopted the course which his duty and 
 wisdom dictated, leaving its vindication to time and his- 
 
OREGON AND MINNESOTA. 181 
 
 tory. In a similar spirit, lie boldly denounced the aggres 
 sions committed by British cruisers on our commerce in 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and insisted upon reparation being 
 demanded at all hazards. In both cases, Mr. Seward 
 desired to sustain the honor and interests of his country, 
 although at the same time he might be found supporting 
 the views of the administration. A perusal of his speeches 
 on these subjects, now that the excitement of the occasion 
 has subsided, shows that his motives were as disinterested 
 as they were statesmanlike. 
 
 He voted to admit both Oregon and Minnesota into the 
 Union, although opposed to some of the prescriptive fea 
 tures in the constitution of Oregon. He protested against 
 any endorsement of the prejudice mpon which they were 
 founded. 
 
 After the adjournment of Congress, Mr. Seward was 
 engaged for several weeks in the circuit court of the 
 United States at New York. His argument before that 
 court, in favor of a bridge over the Hudson river at 
 Albany, is remarkable for its originality and for its exten 
 sive knowledge of the subject of navigation. 
 
 The elections in the autumn of 1858 resulted in a 
 decided rebuke of the president and his Kansas-Lecompton 
 policy. In the state of Xew York, only four members of 
 Congress favoring that policy were elected ; and the 
 republican candidate for governor (Hon. E. D. Morgan) 
 was chosen by nearly 20,000 majority. The struggle in 
 the state was nevertheless severe, and the result seemed 
 to many to be doubtful. In this emergency, Mr. Seward 
 appeared before the people, and by his speeches at 
 Rochester, Rome, and Auburn, rallied the strength. of the 
 republicans, and at the same time destroyed the hopes of 
 the opposition. His speech at Rochester, especially, gave 
 a new aspect to the contest, and turned the tide in favor 
 
182 THE IRKEPRESSIBLK CONFLICT. 
 
 of the republican party. The following passage has 
 acquired an enduring fame : 
 
 " Hitherto, the two systems (slave and free labor) have existed 
 in different states, but side by side, within the American Union. 
 This has happened because the Union is a confederation of states. 
 But in another aspect the United States constitute only one nation. 
 Increase of population, which is filling the states out to their very 
 borders, together with a new and extended net-work of railroads 
 and other avenues, and an internal commerce which daily becomes 
 more intimate, are rapidly bringing the states into a higher and 
 more perfect social unity or consolidation. Thus these antagonistic 
 systems are continually coming into closer contact; and collision 
 results. 
 
 " Shall I tell you what this collision means ? They who think 
 that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanati 
 cal agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. 
 It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, 
 and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, 
 become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free- 
 labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina 
 and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by 
 free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for 
 legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat 
 fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrendered 
 by their farmers to slave culture and to the production of slaves, 
 and Boston and New York become once more markets for trade 
 in the bodies and souls of men. It is the failure to apprehend 
 this great truth, that induces so many unsuccessful attempts at 
 final compromise between the slave and free states, and it is the 
 existence of this great fact that renders all such pretended com 
 promises, when made, vain and ephemeral. Startling as this 
 saying may appear to you, fellow-citizens, it is by no means an 
 original or even a modern one. Our forefathers knew it to be 
 true, and unanimously acted upon it when they framed the Con 
 stitution of the United States. They regarded the existence of 
 the servile system in so many of the states with sorrow and shame, 
 which they openly confessed, and they looked upon the collision 
 
THK IRRKP11KSSIBLK CONFLICT. 
 
 183 
 
 between them, which was then just revealing itself, and which we 
 are now accustomed to deplore, with favor and hope. They knew 
 that either the one or the other system must exclusively prevail. 
 
 " It remains to say on this point only one word, to guard against 
 misapprehension. If these states are to again become universally 
 slave-holding, I do not pretend to say with what violations of the 
 Constitution that end shall be accomplished. On the other hand, 
 while I do confidently believe and hope that my country will yet 
 become a land of universal freedom, I do not expect that it will 
 be made so otherwise than through the action of the several states 
 cooperating with the federal government, and all acting in strict 
 conformity with their respective constitutions. 
 
 " The strife and contentions concerning slavery, which gently- 
 disposed persons so habitually deprecate, are nothing more than 
 the ripening of the conflict which the fathers themselves not only 
 thus regarded with favor, but which they may be said to have 
 instituted." 
 
 Mr. Seward s speech at Rome, on the 29th of October, 
 was devoted, mainly, to the allaying of certain local differ 
 ences which seemed likely to endanger the success of the 
 republican ticket in that district. In concluding his wise 
 and effective counsels, he said : 
 
 "It will remain only in 1860 to secure the executive department^ 
 and with that achievement the supreme court will recede from its 
 untenable position. Free states will henceforth be organized 
 without resistance. All that has been gained by the slave power, 
 in violation of the Constitution, will be relinquished. Peace and 
 harmony will once more return, and this great problem of the 
 removal of slavery from our land will abide its solution in a 
 constitutional way, and under the meliorating influence of the spirit 
 of the age, without convulsion in any state, without danger to the 
 Union, and without injustice to any one of the 30,000,000 of 
 inhabitants living under the protection of the best of constitutions 
 that humar wisdom has ever devised." 
 
184: THE HOMESTEAD BILL. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXY. 
 
 SECOND SESSION XXXVtll CONGRESS THE HOMESTEAD BILL 
 
 THE INDIANA SENATORS THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 THE second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress met in 
 December, 1858. Among the most important subjects 
 claiming its attention was the Homestead Bill. It having 
 passed the house by a vote of 120 to 76, Mr. Seward with 
 Mr. Wade, and other republican senators, exerted all their 
 power to secure its passage in the senate. The session 
 being near its close, it was the policy of the enemies of 
 the measure to postpone and prevent its consideration. 
 On the 17th of February, the bill was taken up by a vote 
 of 26 to 23, and after desultory debate, laid aside by the 
 casting vote of the vice-president. A second attempt to 
 take it up was defeated, and a motion to consider the bill 
 for the acquisition of Cuba, instead, prevailed. Several 
 similar efforts met the same fate, and Congress expired 
 without a vote being taken in the senate on this important 
 and beneficent measure. With two or three exceptions, 
 the friends of the administration steadily voted against its 
 consideration. Mr. Seward, in a few brief speeches, urged 
 the friends of the bill to stand firm and compel the 
 majority to meet the issue between the two questions. 
 " One, the Homestead Bill, is a question of homes of lands 
 for the landless freemen of the United States.* The Cuba 
 
 * Mr. Wade subsequently, in homelier, but not less truthful, language, 
 characterized the issue as one between "Homes for the Homeless, and Nig- 
 gera for the Niggerless." 
 
THE INDIANA SENATORS. 185 
 
 Bill is the question of slaves for the slaveholders of the 
 United States." 
 
 His speeches and efforts were, as we have seen, unavail 
 ing against a disciplined and determined majority. 
 
 The legislature of Indiana in 1857 attempted to elect 
 two United States senators, but failed to choose them in a 
 constitutional manner. A minority, however, usurping 
 the power, sent Messrs. Bright and Fitch to the senate, 
 and they were permitted to take their seats. In 1859, 
 Messrs. Lane and McCarty were constitutionally and regu 
 larly elected by the legislature of Indiana to take the 
 places unjustly and illegally held by Bright and Fitch. 
 They appeared to claim their seats. Mr. Seward moved 
 to grant them the privileges of the senate until their 
 claims should be decided. This was denied, and the 
 senate refused to consider or to examine the case. Mr. 
 Se ward s speeches on this question were cogent and com 
 prehensive arguments in favor of the claims of Messrs. 
 Lane and McCarty, and against the arbitrary and unjust 
 proceedings of the senate. Besides these speeches, and 
 those on the Pacific Railroad, the Thirty Million Bill, and 
 Expenses and Revenues, Mr. Seward spoke more briefly on 
 the Amistad case, the Protection of American citizens 
 abroad, and Post-office Appropriations. In the debate on 
 the Pacific Railroad Bill, he supported a provision that the 
 rails should be of American manufacture, although indis 
 posed to embarrass the bill with any unnecessary amend 
 ments. He at all times made the question of a road 
 paramount to any consideration of its route or details. 
 One of the first to give form to the project,. he constantly 
 urged its importance upon the senate, always treating the 
 subject in a liberal and unsectional manner. 
 
 Mr. Seward opposed the extravagant appropriations in 
 the Civil and Diplomatic Bill, urging a more economical 
 and systematic arrangement of both departments. 
 
186 DEPARTURE FOK EUROPE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 SIT TO EUROPE HIS DEPART 
 
 THE XXXVlth CONGRESS, 1859-60 MR. SEWARD s RETURN 
 
 TO THE SENATE HIS SPEECH ON THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 AFTER the adjournment of the senate,* Mr. Seward de 
 termined to gratify his long-cherished desire of an extensive 
 foreign tour. He had made a brief and hurried visit to 
 Europe in 1833, in company with his father. He designed 
 now to make a more protracted stay in the countries he 
 then visited, and to examine more thoroughly into the 
 condition of their inhabitants and the working of their 
 governments ; and also to extend his journey into Asia 
 and Africa. 
 
 He accordingly sailed from New York on the 7th of 
 May, in the steamship Ariel. His departure was, unex 
 pectedly to him, made a public event. The proceedings 
 as detailed in the newspapers on the following day were, 
 briefly, as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Seward was waited upon at the Astor House, at 10 o clock in the 
 forenoon by committees from the two republican central committees. After 
 a brief interchange of compliments, the committee, with their guest pro 
 ceeded in carriages to Castle Garden, where they were received by about 
 three hundred republicans, mostly members of the central committees and 
 escorted on board the steamer Josephine, which was waiting to convey the 
 party down the bay. A brass cannon on board the steamer fired a salute, 
 Shelton s Cornet Band played Hail to the Chief, and the boat left the wharf 
 amid vociferous cheers from men on board and on shore." 
 
 * March 10, 1859. 
 
EUROPEAN TOUR. 187 
 
 On parting with his company at the Narrows, Mr. 
 Seward addressed them briefly. His closing sentences 
 were uttered with much emotion. 
 
 Mr. Seward remained abroad about eight months. Dur 
 ing this time he traversed no small portions of Europe, 
 Africa, and Asia, visiting Egypt and the Holy Land. 
 Probably no other American was ever received, wherever 
 he went, so cordially and with such distinguished respect. 
 The ruling classes of Europe, especially, offered him all 
 the opportunities he could desire for improving the great 
 object of his journey. He enjoyed, no less, the company 
 and respect of Kossuth, Lamartine, Mrs, Martineau, Mac- 
 kay, and other friends of liberty, in England and on the 
 Continent. 
 
 His return to his native land, on the 29th of December, 
 1859, was signalized by public demonstrations and rejoic 
 ing. At New York, the Common Council tendered him 
 the civilities of the city, and made arrangements for his 
 public reception. On his arrival in the city, the mayor 
 waited upon him and accompanied him to the City Hall, 
 where a dense crowd of people were waiting to receive 
 him. In response to Mayor Tieman s address, Mr. Seward 
 spoke with much eloquence of the happy condition of his 
 own land, contrasted with the countries he had visited. 
 Addressing Judge Peabody, the committees, and the 
 citizens generally, he said : 
 
 " My memory gives back the recollections of May last, when 
 you accompanied me to the steamer on the occasion of my depart 
 ure abroad. I know not how much I am indebted to that mani 
 festation of cordiality for the friendly reception which met me in 
 all the countries which I visited, which was so grateful to my 
 feelings. But no day was so pleasant to me as the one which 
 brought me to my native country. 
 
 " In the Old World I saw much to admire, much to appreciate ; 
 but not so much as there is to admire in the prosperity of my 
 
188 RETURN AND RECEPTION. 
 
 native land. I had visited England a quarter of a century ago. 
 I was asked on this visit whether I had seen signs of change and 
 improvement. To this I replied that I had ; and was asked 
 whether there had not been changes and improvements in my 
 own country. I replied, with pride, * Yes. Twenty-six years ago, 
 I lefc London built of stone, and New York was built of brick. 
 Now, London and Paris are indeed both of stone New York of 
 marble." 
 
 His route home was a triumphal procession. At every 
 place on the way, from New York to Auburn, bonfires, 
 cannon, and speeches awaited his arrival. His reception 
 in Auburn was such as could have been prepared and 
 given only by sincere and devoted friends to a loved 
 fellow-citizen and cherished benefactor. The railroad 
 depot and the streets of the city through which he passed, 
 were thronged with people. The military, the city officials, 
 and the children of the public schools, bearing banners 
 " Welcome to Senator Seward" accompanied him to his 
 house. 
 
 At the gates of his residence, he met the clergymen of 
 every denomination in the town, waiting to take him by 
 the hand and welcome him home. Mr. Seward w r as more 
 deeply affected by this scene than any through which he 
 had passed. He returned their hearty greeting in silence, 
 and passed through the line they had formed, into his 
 house. 
 
 His reply to an address made to him by Michael S. 
 Myers, Esq., on behalf of the people, was a spontaneous 
 and familiar talk with his friends. We make room for a 
 brief extract : 
 
 " It is true, as you have reminded me, that I have reached 
 another stage in a journey that has occupied eight months of time 
 and covered ten thousand miles of space the last stage a stage 
 beyond which I can go no further. Although in this journey I 
 
RECEFflON AT HOME. 189 
 
 have traversed no small portions of four continents Europe, 
 Africa, Asia, and America it is not until now, that I have found 
 the place which, above all others, I admire the most and love the 
 best. This place, this very spot on which you stand, and I stand 
 among you, is indeed the one point on the globe, which, wherever 
 else I may be, draws me back by an irresistible spell ; the place 
 where, when I rest, I must dwell the only place where I can be 
 content to live, and content, when life s fitful fever shall be over, 
 to die. 
 
 " It is the spot cherished in my affections above and beyond all 
 others above and beyond the spot where I was born above 
 and beyond the scenes in which I was educated adorned and 
 marked as those localities of my early life are, by mountain and 
 river, by blue skies and genial climes it is a spot cherished by 
 me above and beyond the scenes of any severe labor of any 
 arduous achievement and if I may use the expression without 
 offence, of any personal successes. I love it more than the capital 
 of my native state, although in that capital I have borne the baton 
 of civil authority, confided to me by three millions of a free, brave, 
 and enlightened people. I love it more than even the senate 
 chamber of the great confederate Republic of which we are all 
 citizens although in that senate chamber I am authorized with 
 one other representative to pronounce the will of the leading 
 member of that confederacy. I should not despair of vindicating 
 this preference by comparing the natural advantages, and the 
 social development of the valley of the Owa?co, with those of any 
 other place you or I have ever known. Lakes, meadows, water 
 falls, fields, forests are here, which are nowhere surpassed ; and 
 comfort, ease, intelligence, enterprise, and morals, that may justly 
 challenge comparison in any part of the globe." 
 
 After spending the holidays with his family, Mr. Seward 
 hastened to Washington, and resumed his labors in the 
 senate. 
 
 The house of representatives was not yet organized. 
 The senate was in the midst of an inflammatory debate on 
 the recent tragedy at Harper s Ferry. The whole country, 
 
190 GREAT SPEECH IN THE SENATE. 
 
 indeed, was in an excitement unprecedented and threaten 
 ing. After listening calmly to the discussions going on 
 around him, Mr. Seward, on the 29th of February, deliv 
 ered a speech on the admission of Kansas into the Union, 
 giving his views of the condition of the country, and the 
 state of parties. As this speech appears entire in this 
 volume,* we forbear any remarks or comments upon it. 
 The following extract from a graphic description of the 
 circumstances attending its delivery, must suffice: f 
 
 "The audience assembled to hear Governor Seward s speech to-day, filled 
 every available spot in the senate galleries, and overflowed into all the adja 
 cent lobbies and passages, crowding them with throngs eager to follow the 
 argument of the senator, or even to catch an occasional sentence or word ; 
 while, throughout its delivery, a constant stream of life flowed up and down 
 the gorgeous staircases of the chamber, vainly beating against the compact 
 masses who had been so fortunate as to get early possession of the ground ; 
 and, thence recoiling and deflecting t the disappointed current would glide into 
 eddies around the hall, and linger in groups beyond ear-shot of the speaker, 
 unwilling to abandon all hope of ultimately catching a glimpse of the scene 
 transpiring below. 
 
 "This attention was due in a large degree to the train of profound reflection, 
 the vein of original thought, the graphic historical sketches, the tasteful rhe 
 torical ornaments, the occasional apt quotations and allusions, in fine, to the 
 mental magnetism which permeated his speech from the beginning to the end 
 But it was owing more, doubtless to the intrinsic character of the subject and 
 the man, than to any mere display of the arts of the logician or the ihetoi iciau. 
 It was upon the theme of American politics; upon the problem awaiting solution 
 by the whole body of our people. It was the utterance of a man whose 
 sharply-defined opinions upon that theme, pronounced twenty years ago, then 
 found feeble echoes, but which have been reiterated until they have become 
 the creed and rallying cry of a party on the eve of assuming the control of the 
 National Government." 
 
 Mr. Seward has now been eleven years in the senate of 
 t lie United States. Of his conduct in that exalted position, 
 his published speeches and debates afford the most authen 
 tic illustration. Amid the heated excitements of the day, 
 he has been found calm, watchful, and earnest, on the post 
 
 * See p. 401 f Correspondence of the " N. Y. Tribune." 
 
CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 of duty. Trustfully biding his time, he has cherished no 
 anxiety to vindicate his reputation from the aspersions of 
 his opponents, save by a uniform course of well-doing. 
 In the most ardent zeal of senatorial debate, he has never 
 lost sight of the decorum belonging to the place. Often 
 the subject of violent personalities, he has preserved the 
 courtesy of the gentleman and the dignity of the legislator. 
 ]S~b provocation has induced him to violate the amenities 
 of refined social life, nor to reply to ill-mannered abuse 
 by a retort in kind. 
 
 His fidelity to his political associates, has often been 
 the subject of remark. During the administration which 
 followed that of President Taylor, to be a friend of Mr. 
 Seward was to be proscribed. The price of such partiality, 
 to an office-holder, was invariably removal. But that 
 administration came into power through the action of the 
 whig party, from which he derived his trust. Hence, it 
 never failed to receive the support of Mr. Seward. He 
 has neglected no suitable occasion to defend it : he has 
 never been one of its assailants. It is said, and we believe 
 truly, that he promptly sustained all its nominations. 
 
 But the most remarkable feature in his public career, is 
 his consistent adherence to principle. Guided, not by a 
 low worldly policy, or motives of secular expediency, but 
 by the radiant light of ideal truth, his course has been 
 like the path of a noble ship on the ocean, faithfully 
 steering by celestial luminaries. His past history presents 
 the best assurance of his future activity. Whatever the 
 sphere in which he may be placed, it is certain that he 
 will bring exalted talents to the performance of the 
 humblest as well as the noblest duties, postponing all 
 private interests to his love of humanity, and seeking as 
 the highest boon of a manly life, the realization of truth, 
 justice, and love, in the institutions of society. 
 
SELECTIONS. 
 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 2H;e Suspension of tlje public (JWodts of Heto York ontrcmncti 
 anO tljcfr 3&csumj)tfon o^crommcnticu. 
 
 THE fourth day of July last completed a quarter of a century 
 since the system of internal improvements was undertaken by 
 this state. Within that period artificial navigation has been 
 opened throughout distances equal to eight hundred and three 
 miles : and animal power in transportation has given place to the 
 steam engine on routes seven hundred and fifty-seven miles in 
 
 length Our revenues have been increased from four hundred 
 
 and nineteen thousand and nine hundred dollars in 1817 to one 
 million, nine hundred and fifty-two thousand in 1841; our school 
 and literature funds have been doubled ; the remote districts of 
 the state have become the homes of an intelligent and industrious 
 population ; four flourishing cities and upward of a hundred incor 
 porated villages have been called into existence ; our commer 
 cial emporium has trebled in population and added one hundred 
 and seventy millions to its wealth ; the revenues, commerce, and 
 physical strength, of the whole commonwealth have been aug 
 mented in almost an equal proportion ; and the states are bound 
 together with bands stronger than those of merely political com 
 pact, and the danger of dismemberment is happily averted. 
 New York was the projector of the system which, though yet 
 incomplete, has produced these wonderful results ; and she may 
 point to it as a column designed and shaped by herself, to 
 strengthen and perpetuate the national structure. 
 
 But the high career of prosperous and well-directed enter 
 prise has been brought to a sudden and humiliating close. For 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the first time in the quarter of a century which has elapsed since 
 the ground was broken for the Erie canal, a governor of the 
 state of New York, in meeting the legislature, finds himself una 
 ble to announce the continued progress of improvement. The 
 officers charged with the care of the public works, have arrested 
 all proceedings in the enlargement of the Erie canal and the 
 construction of the auxiliary works. The New York and Erie 
 railroad, with the exception of forty-six miles from the eastern 
 termination, lies in unfinished fragments throughout the long 
 line of southern counties stretching four hundred miles from the 
 Walkill to Lake Erie. The Genesee valley canal, excepting the 
 portion between Dansville and Rochester, also lies in hopeless 
 abandonment. The Black river canal, which was more than 
 two thirds completed during the last year, has been left wholly 
 unavailable. As if this were not enough, two railroads toward 
 the construction of which the state had contributed half a million 
 of dollars, and public-spirited citizens large sums in addition, 
 have been brought to a forced sale, and sacrificed with an almost 
 total loss to the treasury, without yielding any indemnity to the 
 stockholders, and without even securing a guaranty that the 
 people would be permitted to enjoy the use of the improve 
 ments. 
 
 The painful emotions excited by the condition to which the 
 public works are thus reduced, might be somewhat relieved if 
 there were any well-grounded hope that their prosecution would 
 be resumed within any reasonable period. But the provisions 
 of the law suspending those works, as well as the contemporane 
 ous expositions of the grounds on which it was enacted, with 
 every rational view which can be taken of its tendency forbid 
 any such expectation. The policy of the act plainly is, that the 
 debt of the state shall in no event be increased for the prosecu 
 tion of improvements ; nay, further, that the whole of the exist 
 ing debts shall be extinguished before any additional sum shall 
 be borrowed, and that the accruing revenues, instead of being 
 appropriated, as heretofore, to the prosecution of the works, shall 
 be henceforth applied exclusively to the establishment of a fund 
 for the extinguishment of the existing debts, although, with small 
 exceptions, those debts are redeemable only at distant periods. 
 It is but too apparent that these provisions render any further 
 
 9 
 
19-1 SELECTIONS. 
 
 progress in our public works wholly impracticable. The present 
 generation, if this law continues, must abandon all hopes of see 
 ing the system resumed, and it will only remain for them to pay 
 the whole cost of the works, in a great degree useless because 
 left unfinished, and hastening rapidly to dilapidation and ruin. 
 
 The objects which the legislature had in view, in directing 
 the suspension of the public works were declared to be to 
 pay the debts of the state, and preserve its credit. The means 
 of paying the debts are derived from revenues and taxes. 
 But the state, so far from diminishing, has increased its indebt 
 edness, by becoming liable to contractors for heavy damages 
 which might have been avoided by prosecuting the works ; while, 
 by discontinuing the necessary enlargement of the Erie canal, the 
 increase of revenues hitherto so constant and so confidently relied 
 upon for the reimbursement of the debts, is checked, and must 
 
 ultimately cease Nor has the expectation of restoring 
 
 the stocks of the state to their former high valuation been ade 
 quately realized, and certainly not to any extent commensurate 
 with the sacrifices which have been made. The fiscal officers 
 of the state are not now able to negotiate loans, even at seven 
 per cent., except occasionally for small amounts. Under these 
 circumstances, the inquiry arises whether the policy thus at 
 tempted ought to be conlinued. An imperative sense of duty 
 compels me again to declare my conviction that it is radically 
 wrong, and that erroneous views have been taken of the causes 
 of our embarrassment. 
 
 ######** 
 
 The people, however, look not for temporary or partial relief, 
 but for the re-establishment of the system of internal improve 
 ment upon broad and impregnable foundations. Our fellow-citi 
 zens urge us to resume the public works, by pleading the dis 
 tress which their suspension has already produced. They point 
 us to labor unemployed and to masses impoverished ; to agricul 
 ture unrewarded and burdened ; to trade diminished and dis 
 couraged ; to credit paralyzed ; to land and property depreciated, 
 and passing from hands hardened with the labor of production 
 into others that wait to gather the ripened fruits of industry : to 
 disappointed expectations built on the public faith, which no 
 damages can reach or compensate; to dilapidated structures; 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 195 
 
 with increasing expenditures ; to diminished revenues and pro 
 tracted taxation ; to increasing and hopeless embarrassment 
 and decaying enterprise ; and to a long and cheerless decline, 
 from a career in which so much has been won for the interests 
 and honor of the state. 
 
 But we need no such painful incentives. Progressive physi 
 cal improvement comprehending the North as well as the South, 
 the East and the "West opening every necessary channel and 
 disclosing every resource which nature has bestowed, is emphat 
 ically the policy of the state. And we are required to return to 
 the course we have left, by every consideration of duty to our 
 selves, to posterity, to our country, and to mankind. Mes 
 sage, Extra Session, 1842. 
 
 Xcto Yortt anD iHnssacjnisetts/ 
 
 May it please your Excellency, Gentlemen of the Senate and of 
 the House of Representatives of the General Court of Massa 
 chusetts : 
 
 IN the name of the senate and of the assembly of New York, 
 in my own behalf, and as well for the absent as for those pres 
 ent, with whom I have the honor to be associated in the affairs 
 of that state, I tender to you acknowledgments for this cordial 
 and fraternal welcome. Representatives are here from our com 
 mercial metropolis and our agricultural districts ; from the sea- 
 coast and the shores of our lakes ; and from the valleys of the 
 Susquehanna, the Delaware, the Hudson, and the St. Lawrence ; 
 and their unanimity warrants me in tendeiing these salutations 
 in the name of the people of New York. 
 
 Not to know the wisdom, moderation, and virtue, of your 
 counsels, would argue us unobservant of the prosperity and 
 tranquillity of your commonwealth. I congratulate you, sir, 
 the chief magistrate of that commonwealth [his excellency JOHN 
 DAVIS], upon this conjunction of two stars in our constellation as 
 an event that will for ever signalize your career of public service. 
 
 * The completion of the railroad between Boston and Albany was cele 
 brated by a meeting of the legislatures of Massachusetts and New York at 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, in March, 1842, on which occasion Governor 
 Seward delivered this speech. 
 
196 SELECTIONS. 
 
 Shall I not confess that the invitation which brought us here 
 excited our surprise 1 We had supposed that we were on the 
 very eastern verge, and that all the broad and boundless West 
 lay between us and the setting sun. But this improvement, 
 which you have so strangely called the Western railroad, has 
 changed our position, and we must now acknowledge ourselves 
 your western brethren. 
 
 We of New York are not a unique, or a primitive, or even 
 a homogeneous people. We trace no common lineage to an 
 unmingled ancestry. The colony of New Netherlands, which 
 was the nucleus of our state, has received accumulations from 
 England, from Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, Poland, 
 and from every other land, in modern Europe, where man 
 has suffered oppression, or arbitrary power has attempted to 
 subject his conscience. The nervous languages of the upper 
 and the lower Rhine, and the softer dialects of the Mediter 
 ranean, mingle in our streets and in our distant settlements. 
 Among us, he alone is of peculiar birth whose blood allies him 
 to only one fatherland. It is one of our cares, by the agency 
 of benign and equal institutions, to assimilate all these various 
 masses, and reduce them to one great, harmonious, united, and 
 happy people. Judge, then, with what interest we regard a com 
 munity to whom such efforts are unnecessary and unknown a 
 community who, descended from a common stock, have for two 
 centuries remained separate from other portions of their race, 
 and retained throughout all that time the primitive virtues, ener 
 gies, customs, forms, and habits, of their ancestors. 
 
 The impress of the New-England schoolmaster is seen every - 
 .wherc in our state, and you might obtain an acknowledgment 
 from each one of her representatives here that he has profited 
 by that teacher s instructions. Having thus known the school 
 master, it was among our motives to this visit that we should 
 see the land whence he went abroad, and become acquainted 
 with the people whose ancestors erected a church simultaneously 
 with their dwellings, and a university within twelve years after 
 their landing at Plymouth. 
 
 Nor can we forget that it was Massachusetts that encountered 
 first and suffered most from the tyranny which resulted in our 
 national independence ; that the first blood shed in that sacred 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 197 
 
 cause flowed at Lexington ; and that Liberty s earliest rampart 
 was established upon Bunker s hill. Nevertheless the struggles 
 and sacrifices of Massachusetts have until now been known to 
 us through traditions not her own, and they still seem to have 
 been those of a distant though an allied people of a country 
 separated from us by mountain-barriers such as divide every 
 continent into states and empires. But what a change is here ! 
 This morning s sun was just greeting the site of old Fort Orange 
 as we took our leave ; and now, when he has scarcely reached 
 the meridian, we have crossed our hitherto impassable barrier, 
 and have met you here on the shore of the Connecticut, the 
 battle-ground of King Philip s cruel wars : and before that sun 
 shall set, we might ascend the heights of Charlestown, or rest 
 upon the rock that was wet with the blood that flowed from the 
 weary feet of the pilgrim-fathers. 
 
 Sir, you have well set forth the benefits which will result to 
 you, to us, to our country, and to mankind, from the triumph of 
 modern science over the physical obstructions to intercourse 
 between the American communities. I can advert to but one 
 of these results the increasing strength of the states, and the 
 perpetuity of their union. New York, Massachusetts, and her 
 sister-states of New England, will no longer be merely confed 
 erated states. Their interests, their affections, and their sym 
 pathies, will now be intermingled and a common and invisible 
 destiny, whether of good or evil, awaits them all. Had such 
 connections existed when the British throne attempted to abridge 
 the rights of the colonies, what power could have wounded 
 Massachusetts when New York could have rushed to her de 
 fence ? Could Great Britain and her savage allies have scourged 
 so severely our infant settlements upon the Mohawk and the 
 Susquehinna, if New England could have gone to their relief? 
 How vain will be any attempt hereafter to array us n gainst 
 each other ! Since Providence has been pleased to permit these 
 states to be thus joined together, who shall put them asunder ? 
 
 You have rightly assumed that on this occasion we indulge 
 no jealousies of your prosperitv, and no apprehensions of losing 
 our power or influence. The Hudson is beautiful in our eyes, 
 for it flows through the land of our birth, and our institutions 
 and marts overhang its waters. But if its shores be not the 
 
198 SELECTIONS. 
 
 true and proper seat of commerce and of empire, or if we 
 have not the virtues and the energies necessary to retain our 
 vantage-ground, we shall not try to check the prosperity or the 
 political ascendency of our sister-states. Far from indulging 
 such unworthy thoughts, AVC regard this and every other im 
 provement as calculated to promote our own prosperity, and, 
 what is far more important than the advancement of our state 
 or of yours, the union and harmony of the whole American fam 
 ily. The bond that brings us into so close connection is capa 
 ble of being extended from your coast to the Mississippi, and of 
 being fastened around not only New York and the first thirteen, 
 but all the twenty-six states. This is the policy of New York, 
 and her ambition. We rejoice in your co-operation, and invite 
 its continuance, until alarms of disunion shall be among the 
 obsolete dangers of the republic. 
 
 New York has been addressed here in language of magna 
 nimity. It would not become me to speak of her position, her 
 resources, or her influence. And yet I may, without offending 
 the delicacy of her representatives here, and of her people at 
 home, claim that she is not altogether unworthy of admiration. 
 Our mountains, cataracts, and lakes, can not be surveyed with 
 out lifting the soul on high. Our metropolis and our inland 
 cities, our canals and railroads, our colleges and schools, and our 
 twelve thousand libraries, evince emulation and a desire to pro 
 mote the welfare of our country, the progress of civilization, and 
 the happiness of mankind. While we acknowledge that it was 
 your WARREN that offered up his life at Charlestown, your 
 ADAMS and your HANCOCK who were the proscribed leaders in 
 the Revolution, and your FRANKLIN whose wisdom swayed its 
 councils, we can not forget that Ticonderoga and Saratoga are 
 within our borders that it was a son of New York that fell 
 in scaling the heights of Abraham that another shaped every 
 pillar of the Constitution and twined the evergreen around its 
 capital that our FULTON sent forth the mighty mechanical 
 agent that is revolutionizing the world and that but for our 
 CLINTON, his lofty genius and undaunted perseverance, the 
 events of this day and all its joyous anticipations had slept 
 together in the womb of futurity. 
 
 The grandeur of this occasion oppresses me. It is not, as 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 199 
 
 some have supposed, the first time that states have met. On 
 many occasions, in all ages, states, nations, and empires, have 
 come together. But the trumpet heralded their approach ; they 
 met in the shock of war : one or the other sunk to rise no more, 
 and desolation marked, for the warning of mankind, the scene 
 of the fearful encounter. And if sometimes Chivalry asked an 
 armistice, it was but to light up with evanescent smiles the stern 
 visage of war. How different is this scene ! Here are no con 
 tending hosts, no destructive engines, nor the terrors nor even 
 the pomp of war. Not a helmet, sword, or plume, is seen in all 
 this vast assemblage. Nor is this a hollow truce between con 
 tending states. We are not met upon a cloth of gold, and under 
 a silken canopy, to practise deceitful courtesies ; nor in an am 
 phitheatre, with jousts and tournaments, to make trial of our 
 skill in arms preparatory to a fatal conflict. We have come 
 here enlightened and fraternal states, without pageantry, or 
 even insignia of power, to renew pledges of fidelity, and to culti 
 vate affection and all the arts of peace. Well may our sister- 
 states look upon the scene with favor, and the nations of the 
 earth draw from it good auguries of universal and perpetual 
 peace. 
 
200 SELECTIONS. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 2Tfje $roj>ev Unnjje of -popular Htrucatum. 
 
 LET us remember for ourselves, and inculcate upon the peo 
 ple, that our progress thus far has but led us to the vestibule of 
 knowledge. When we see the people content in the belief that 
 they know all that is known or is desirable to be known, let us 
 instruct them that there is a science that will reveal to them the 
 hidden and perpetual fires in which are continually carried on 
 the formation and modification of the rocks which compose this 
 apparently solid globe, and from whose elaborate changes is de 
 rived the sustenance of all that variety of vegetable life with 
 which it is clothed : that another will disclose to them the ele 
 ments and properties of those metals which men combine or 
 shape with varied art into the thousand implements and machines 
 by the use of which the forest-world has been converted into a, 
 family of kindred nations ; that another solicits their attention, 
 while it will bring in review before them, so that they can ex 
 amine, with greater care and instruction than did their great pro 
 genitor in the primitive garden, all the races of animated beings, 
 and learn their organization, uses, and history; that another 
 will classify and submit to their delighted examination the en 
 tire vegetable kingdom, making them familiar with their virtues 
 as well as the forms of every species, from the cedar of Lebanon 
 to the humble flower that is crushed under their feet; that 
 another will decompose and submit to their examination the wa 
 ter which fertilizes the earth, and the invisible air they breathe ; 
 will develop the sources and laws of that heat which seems to 
 kindle all life into existence, and that terrific lightning which 
 
EDUCATION. J01 
 
 seems the especial messenger of Divine wrath to extinguish it. 
 Let us teach that the world of matter in which we live, in all 
 its vast variety of form, is influential in the production, support, 
 and happiness, of our own life, and that it is passing strange, that 
 with minds endowed with a cnpacity to study that influence and 
 measurably direct it, we yield uninquiringly to its action, as if 
 it were controlled hy capricious accident or blind destiny. Shall 
 we not excite some interest, when we appeal to the people to 
 learn that science which teaches the mechanism of our own 
 wonderfully and fearfully fashioned frames, and that other 
 science which teaches the vastly more complicated and delicate 
 structure of our immortal minds ? Who would not follow with 
 delight that science which elevates our thoughts to the heavens 
 and teaches us the magnitude, forms, distances, revolutions, and 
 laws of the globes that fill the concave space above us ? And 
 who, with thoughts thus gradually conducted through the range 
 of the material universe, would not receive with humility, yet 
 with delight, the teachings of that spirit of divine truth which 
 exalts us to the study of the character and attributes of that glo 
 rious and beneficent Being, whose single volition called it all 
 into existence ? Let us teach the people all this, and let us 
 show them that, while we sit contentedly in comparative igno 
 rance, the arts are Avaiting to instruct us how to reduce the 
 weary labors of life ; philosophy, how to avoid its errors and 
 misfortunes ; and eloquence, poetry, and music, how to cheer its 
 way and refine our affections ; and that Religion is most efficient 
 when she combines and profits by all these instructions, to con 
 duct us to happiness in a future state. Above all, let us incul 
 cate that the great and beneficent Being who created us and 
 this material universe, has established between each of us, and 
 every part of it cognisable by our minds, relations more or less 
 intimate ; that he has impressed not more on the globes that roll 
 through the infinitude of space than on the pebble that lies be 
 neath our feet not more on the immovable continent than on 
 the rolling sea not more on the wind and lightning than on the 
 ethereal mind of man ; and not more on the human soul than on 
 the dimly-lighted instinct of the gloAv-worm, or of the insect vis 
 ible only by microscopic aid "laws that determine their or 
 ganization, their duration, time, place, circumstance, and action ; 
 
 9* 
 
202 SELECTIONS. 
 
 that for our security, improvement, and happiness, he has sub 
 jected these laws to our keen investigation and perpetual dis 
 covery ; and that, vast as is the range of that discovery, so vast 
 and more extended than we can describe, or can yet be conceiv 
 ed, is knowledge ; and that to attain all this knowledge is 
 Education!" Address at Westficld, N. Y"., 1837. 
 
 Popular HOticntioit a 2Lebrllcr, 
 
 THE aristocracy with which the world has been scourged was 
 never one that was produced by science and learning. That 
 education increases the power of those who enjoy its advantages 
 is true ; and in this best sense is education aristocratic. In this 
 sense, science and learning always will create an aristocracy in 
 every country where they are cherished. Not an aristocracy 
 of birth, for it is education that has exploded among us the prej 
 udice in favor of birth. To it we owe our exemption from the 
 error prevalent all over the rest of the world, that no man is so 
 fit, or so well entitled, to be a king as he who is the son of a 
 king ; none so brave as he whose father was a warrior ; none so 
 well entitled to the enjoyment of wealth as he whose ancestors 
 were rich. Nor is the aristocracy produced by education that of 
 wealth ; for knowledge pays no respect to mere wealth : it hum 
 bles all pretensions except those of virtue and intellect. But 
 the aristocracy produced by education is the increased power 
 and influence of the most enlightened, and therefore the most 
 useful, members of society. However repugnant we may be to 
 admit the truth, and however glaring may be the exceptions to 
 it, it is nevertheless a sound general principle that knowledge is 
 power. Whatever there is in our lot that distinguishes us from 
 the disfranchised peasantry of continental Europe, or the tur- 
 baned followers of the prophet, or the mutually-warring Africans 
 in their native deserts, or their abject offspring here, or the ab 
 origines of our forests, all is knowledge obtained by education ; 
 and, compared with all those classes of our common race, we are 
 aristocratic. We exercise greater power, because we are wiser, 
 and therefore better, than they. In every stage of society this 
 tendency of education has been observed. He who first learned 
 the malleable property of iron, and first shaped the axe and the 
 
EDUCATION. 203 
 
 ploughshare, became an aristocrat. He who first attenuated and 
 wove the fleece, he who first smoothed and rendered pliable the 
 skins of beasts, he who first erected the rude huts for his tribe 
 all these, all classes of mechanics, have in their day been, and 
 all who exercise their callings will be, aristocrats. They all ex 
 ercise an influence, great in proportion to their knowledge. It 
 is inevitable, because it is the wisdom of Providence that the 
 world shall be governed by ascendant minds. Our own obser 
 vation shows us daily that knowledge gives the capacity for use 
 fulness ; and he who is, or is esteemed, useful, is by consent in 
 vested with power. In agriculture, lie who adds science to labor 
 is an aristocrat, compared with the drudge who performs an 
 allotted task. He who in the mechanic arts adds skill to patient 
 industry, rises instantly above the iminstructecl artisan ; and he 
 who to industry and skill adds taste, is far above the competi 
 tion of the dull and plodding workman. If, at this day, wealth 
 sometimes usurps the place of intellect and appropriates its hon 
 ors, it is only because public sentiment is perverted, and requires 
 to be corrected by a higher standard of education. But, although 
 education increases the power and influence of its votaries, it 
 has no tendency like other means of power to confine its advan 
 tages to a small number : on the contrary, it is expansive and 
 thus tends to produce equality, not by levelling all to the condi 
 tion of the base, but by elevating all to the association of the 
 wise and good. If, then, we would advance popular education, 
 if we would secure the success of our common schools, and ex 
 tend their advantages to the whole people, we must remember 
 that education is a catholic cause, and must banish all prejudices 
 that retard improvement in any direction. Address at West- 
 field, N. Y., 1837. 
 
 STIje Snmr. 
 
 OUR institutions, excellent as they are, have hitherto produced 
 but a small portion of the beneficent results they are calculated 
 to confer upon the people. The chief of those benefits is equal 
 ity. We do indeed enjoy equality of civil rights ; but we have 
 not yet attained, we have only approximated toward, what is 
 even more important equality of social condition. 
 
204 SELECTIONS. 
 
 From the beginning of time, aristocracy has existed, and so 
 ciety has been divided into classes the rich and the poor 
 the strong and the dependent the learned and the unlearned ; 
 and from this inequality of social condition have resulted the 
 ignorance, the crime, and the sufferings of the people. Let it 
 excite no wonder when I say that this inequality exists among 
 us, and that aristocracy has a home even in the land of freedom. 
 It does not, indeed, deprive us of our civil rights, but it prevents 
 the diffusion of prosperity and happiness. We should be degen 
 erate descendants of our heroic forefathers did we not assail this 
 aristocracy, remove the barriers between the rich and the poor, 
 break the control of the few over the many, extend the largest 
 liberty to the greatest number, and strengthen in every Avay the 
 democratic principles of our constitution. 
 
 This is the work in which you are engaged. Sunday schools 
 and common schools are the great levelling institutions of the 
 age. What is the secret of aristocracy ? It is, that knowledge 
 is power. Knowledge, the world over, has been possessed by 
 the few, and ignorance has been the lot of the many. The mer 
 chant what is it that gives him wealth? The lawyer what 
 is it that gives him political power? The clergy what is it 
 that gives them influence so benign for good purposes, so effec 
 tive for mischievous ends ? Knowledge. What makes this 
 man a common laborer, and the other a usurer this man a 
 slave, and the other a tyrant ? Knowledge. Knowledge can 
 never be taken from those by whom it has once been attained ; 
 and hence the power which it confers upon the few can not be 
 broken Avhile the many are uneducated. Strip its possessors of 
 all their wealth, and power, and honors, and knowledge still re 
 mains the same mighty agent to restore again the inequality you 
 have removed. But there is a more effectual way to banish 
 aristocracy from among us. It is by extending the advantages 
 of knowledge to the many to all the citizens of the state. 
 Just so far and so fast as education is extended, democracy is 
 ascendant. 
 
 I wish you, my fellow-citizens, God speed in your benevolent 
 and patriotic labors. Seldom does it happen to any citizen to 
 render to his country any service more lasting or more effectual 
 than that which is accomplished by the teachers of such schools 
 
EDUCATION. 205 
 
 as these. While they are at work throughout the country, we 
 need indulge no fears of extending too widely the privilege of 
 suffrage and the right of citizenship. Address at Sunday-School 
 Celebration, July 4, 1839. 
 
 THERE remains to be noticed an error scarcely "less extensive, 
 or less pernicious, than any I have mentioned. It is that which 
 limits to a comparatively lower standard the education of the 
 female sex. We may justly boast in this country a higher and 
 more deferential regard, a more chivalrous devotion, to the sex 
 than is exhibited by any other nation. I myself have compared 
 our sentiments and customs, in this respect, with those of western 
 Europe. I have seen, indeed, in some other countries, the more 
 ardent and impassioned devotion that marks the clime where 
 licentiousness assumes the name of love, but is not imbued with 
 any of its sentiment, nor elevated by any of its purity. I have 
 seen, under colder skies, more humble homage paid to individ 
 uals, because they were distinguished by learning, accomplish 
 ments, birth, wealth, or beauty. But it is in this land only that 
 respect and tenderness are yielded to women because they are 
 women. If the vehement imagination of other countries is here 
 subdued, and passion is modified, the romance and poetry of 
 other lands are here converted into a real and living sentiment. 
 There is no other country where the humblest female receives, 
 from the highest in rank of the other sex, the surrender of the 
 chief place in public assemblies, not more than in the social circle 
 in accidental meetings by the way, not less than in the cere 
 monials of fashionable life. In Italy, often described as the 
 land where beauty wields a despotic sway, I have seen women 
 rolling huge stones from the mountain-roads. In France, the 
 land of gallantry and v politeness, I have seen them performing 
 the labor of porters : in refined England, the task of scavengers 
 of the streets. And in all those countries, I have seen them 
 employed in field labor, with countenances hardened by exposure 
 to all vicissitudes of weather, and hands familiar with the spade 
 and the plough. It reflects great honor upon our national char 
 acter that such degradation of the sex is never exhibited here. 
 
206 SELECTIONS. 
 
 But there yet remains a duty toward women to be learned by us 
 all ; and that is, to make their education equal always to that 
 of the other sex. He, it seems to me, is a dull observer, who 
 is not Convinced that they are equally qualified with the other 
 sex, for the study of the magnificent creation around us, and 
 equally entitled to the happiness to be derived from its pursuits : 
 and still more blind is he, who has not learned that it was the 
 intention of the Creator to commit to them a higher and greater 
 portion of responsibility in the education of the youth of both 
 sexes. They are the natural guardians of the young. Their 
 abstraction from the engrossing cares of life, affords them leisure 
 both to acquire and communicate knowledge. From them the 
 young more willingly receive it, because the severity of disci 
 pline is relieved with greater tenderness and affection while their 
 quicker apprehension, enduring patience, expansive benevolence, 
 higher purity, more delicate taste and elevated moral feeling, 
 qualify them for excellence in all departments of learning, except 
 perhaps the exact sciences. If this be true, how many a repul 
 sive, bigoted, and indolent professor will, in the general improve 
 ment of education, be compelled to resign his claim to modest, 
 assiduous, and affectionate woman ? And how many conceited 
 pretenders who now wield the rod in our common schools, with 
 out the knowledge of human nature requisite for its discreet ex 
 ercise too indolent to improve, and too proud to discharge 
 their responsible duties, will be driven to seek subsistence else 
 where ? It is not, as is generally supposed, the female sex 
 alone who suffer by this exclusion from their proper sphere. 
 Whatever is lost to the other sex, of the advantages of their 
 nurture and cultivation, is an additional loss to our common race. 
 Address at Wcxffieltl, N. Y., 1837. 
 
 Empvobcmtnt of -popular Htruratfon must fceflin not toil!) tljc 
 mrnt but toitf) lf;e 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS, it is less the object of this discourse to give 
 practical suggestions for the reform of education, than it is to 
 excite an interest in its behalf; yet I will add, in order that it 
 may not appear altogether without practical tendency, that if 
 we would communicate an effective impulse to the cause, we are 
 
EDUCATION. 207 
 
 not to wait the action of the government. Our government acts 
 only in obedience to popular influence, and in pursuance of pop 
 ular direction. It is not in its principles to anticipate the one, or 
 resist the other. Like all other reforms, this must be effected 
 by a combination of individual efforts, to stimulate and enlighten 
 the public mind. In the present case public feeling is not to be 
 reached from a distant point. A more practicable course is 
 offered. We must begin at home, with the schools around us, 
 and among that portion of the community in which we reside. 
 Let us revive the system of visitation and examination of our 
 academies and schools. This all-important feature in every plan 
 of public instruction has, during a long period, fallen into desue 
 tude. The officers invested with the responsibility of discharg 
 ing the duty, unfortunately, are selected as the favorites of some 
 political party, and do not even make a nominal visitation of the 
 institutions subject to their examination. The right of visitation, 
 however, is not divested from parents and patrons of these 
 schools. If, in addition to the examinations heretofore practised, 
 there could be adopted some plan in pursuance of which, institu 
 tions of equal rank situated in the same vicinity could be brought 
 into comparative examination, competition would at once be pro 
 duced between instructors, and emulation among pupils ; increased 
 interest would be excited on the part of parents, and a lively 
 concern in the whole community. 
 
 I appeal to all patriots and Christians to consider the subject 
 upon which I have presented these hasty remarks, and adopt 
 such measures as shall be found expedient to discharge the 
 responsibility they owe to their children, to tfie church of our 
 Savior, to our common country, and to the great family of man 
 kind. Address at Westficld* N. Y., 1837. 
 
 HOucatfon pvrfcvablc to Conquest. 
 
 THE distinguished senator from Kentucky [Mr. CLAY], sev 
 eral years since, by his great influence in the councils of tlie 
 nation, secured the distribution among the several states of this 
 Union of a portion of the surplus revenues of this government. 
 I was at a distance, an humble follower and approver of that 
 policy. The result of it in other states I do not know. But 
 
208 SELECTIONS. 
 
 you, Mr. President [Mr. FILLMORE], can testify with me the 
 result, the beneficent result, in the state of New York, from 
 which we come. The share which was allotted to us was six 
 millions of dollars ; the amount we received was four millions, 
 five hundred thousand dollars. Every dollar of that four and a 
 half millions, sir, more than ten years ago, went to the founda 
 tion of public schools, academies, seminaries, and other higher 
 institutions of learning, and of libraries for the common people. 
 And, sir, I will now state to the senate and I am proud that, 
 in behalf of the state of New York, I am here this day to state 
 it to the praise and honor of the distinguished senator from Ken 
 tucky the condition of the state of New York, of the people, 
 bond and free I might say, if we had any of the former class 
 native and foreigner, to which they have been brought by this 
 act of justice I will not call it benevolence. Sir, the state of 
 New York, having a population of three millions of people, has 
 not in it one child of citizen or foreigner that is not educated, 
 from the age of five years to the age of twenty years, at the 
 public cost and expense. Again, sir : at the distance of every 
 mile and a half on every main road, railroad, canal, and cross 
 road separated by only a mile and a half is the schoolhouse 
 of New England. The schoolmaster is at home everywhere in 
 New Yorjt, and all the time ; and New York has made a trial 
 of the blessed example of Massachusetts and Connecticut. This 
 is what has been done in my day, since my and your experience 
 began ; and more than that : in every one of these schoolhouses 
 is a public library of two hundred and fifty volumes, containing 
 all that is interesting in ancient or modern history or science, 
 literature, geography, and every other branch of human knowl 
 edge, open and accessible to every citizen man, woman, and 
 child in the state of New York. Yes, sir, these four millions 
 and a half have supplied us with libraries which, taken collec 
 tively, contain more than one million of volumes. 
 
 More than that, sir : there has not been left in the state of 
 New York the blind person who has not been taught to read 
 his bible there has not been left in the state the deaf and 
 dumb, the mute, who has not been brought to be able to give 
 expression of his gratitude and praise to God, and to the state 
 which has brought him from ignorance and degradation below 
 
EDUCATION. 209 
 
 his race. More than that, sir ; we have not neglected that other 
 unfortunate class. I have been asked, why not consider the 
 free negroes ? Sir, the free negroes have been considered. 
 This fund has been appropriated to their advancement, also ; to 
 raise their condition ; to cultivate them to exercise the rights of 
 self-government, and to carry on the great work of the emanci 
 pation of their race wherever they are found in bondage. Yes, 
 sir, five thousand children of the African race are educated out 
 of this great fund of national benevolence. What becomes of 
 the reproach, then, that this is a charity ? What would have 
 been the disposition of this fund if it had been left here, sir 1 
 It would have been expended as the revenues of this country, 
 always too large, too liberal, have been expended, in improvi 
 dence. It is therefore that I have always claimed that it should 
 be distributed among the states, that they might apply it to 
 works of advancement progress humanity. 
 
 No\v, sir, there has been no diminution of the fund all this 
 time. While we have been enjoying this four and a half mil 
 lions, there is not one dollar of it gone. Every dollar is there 
 yet. It is still in the treasury of the state of New York ; 
 and all that has been done has been only by the use of the 
 money. Tell me, sir, is it not wiser to make such a distribution 
 of this fund than it would be to employ it in encouraging prodi 
 gality in the government ; than to encourage that lust of con 
 quest in which the Mexican war had its origin, by which were 
 brought into this Union seven hundred and sixty-three millions 
 of acres of public domain, to be added to the one thousand mil 
 lions we had before 1 What has it wrought 1 It has proved, 
 in the words of an honorable senator here, but a Pandora s box 
 of evils ; and we are entertained here, day after day, with the 
 intelligence that the Union must be dissolved that it is really 
 now dissolved even to-day. We employed the revenues of 
 the public domains in extending our dominions, that were too 
 large unnecessarily large already. Sir, I want no more 
 Mexican wars, no more lust of conquest, no more of seizing the 
 unripened fruit, which, if left alone, would of itself fall into our 
 hands. Speech in U. S. Senate, Jan. 30, 1850. 
 
210 SELECTIONS. 
 
 fjc 33il)Ie t})e Uasis of Republican Institutions. 
 
 WHAT is that which has enabled the Scriptures of the Jews 
 to supplant all other writings of antiquity, and to maintain an 
 authority and veneration unapproachable by even modern learn 
 ing 1 It is the fact that they describe the Creator and man 
 more accurately according to the standard of enlightened reason, 
 and define the relations between them more justly according to 
 the suggestions of the human heart. I am asked, what is my 
 opinion of the influence of the Holy Scriptures on human soci 
 ety ? I answer, that I do not believe human society, including 
 not merely a few persons in any state, but whole masses of men, 
 ever has attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelli 
 gence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness, without them ; and 
 that the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the 
 ever-growing influence of the Bible 
 
 The constitution of the United States established a republican 
 form of government for the free people of this Union j and it 
 has ordained that once in every ten years the number of souls 
 under the protection of that constitution, and in the enjoyment 
 of the freedom which it secures, shall be ascertained, in order 
 that their political rights shall be secured, and that each portion 
 of the country shall enjoy its just and proper proportion of 
 power. I know not how long a republican form of government 
 can flourish among a people who have not the Bible : the experi 
 ment has never been tried ; but this I do know, that the exist 
 ing government of this country never could have had an exist 
 ence but for the Bible. And further : I do in my conscience 
 believe, that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible 
 shall be found in every family of the land, its republican institu 
 tions will be perpetual. Address before Am. Bib. Society, 1839. 
 
 I)c J&ustem of -public .Schools jDefectibe. Simentnncnt 3pi-opose&. 
 
 THE colleges, academies, and common schools, constitute our 
 system of public instruction. The pervading intelligence, the 
 diminution of crime, the augmented comforts and enjoyments of 
 society and its progressive refinement, public order, and the su- 
 
EDUCATION. 211 
 
 premacy of the laws, testify that the system has been by no 
 means unsuccessful. 
 
 It must nevertheless be admitted, that its usefulness is much 
 less than the state rightfully demands, botli as a return for her 
 munificence and a guaranty of her institutions. Some of our col 
 leges and academies languish in the midst of a community 
 abounding in genius and talents impatient of the ignorance 
 which debases and the prejudices which enslave. The common 
 school system, but partially successful in agricultural districts, is 
 represented as altogether without adaptation to cities and popu 
 lous villages. The standard of education ought to be elevated, 
 not merely to an equality with that attained in other states, but 
 to that height which may be reached by cultivating the intel 
 lectual powers with the aid of modern improvements during the 
 entire period when the faculties are quick and active, the curi 
 osity insatiable, the temper practicable, and the love of truth 
 supreme. The ability to read and write, with the rudiments of 
 arithmetic, generally constitute the learning acquired in com 
 mon schools. To these our academies and colleges add super 
 ficial instruction in the dead languages without the philosophy 
 of our own ; scientific facts without their causes ; definitions 
 without practical application ; the rules of rhetoric without its 
 spirit; and history divested of its moral instructions. It is 
 enough to show the defectiveness of our entire system that its 
 pursuits are irksome to all except the few endowed with peculiar 
 genius and fervor to become the guides of the human mind, and 
 that it fails to inspire either a love of science or a passion for 
 literature. Science is nothing else than a disclosure of the 
 bounties the Creator has bestowed to promote the happiness of 
 man, and a discovery of the laws by which mind and matter are 
 controlled for that benignant end. Literature has no other ob 
 ject than to relieve our cares and increase our virtues. That 
 the pursuits of either should require monastic seclusion, or be en 
 forced by pains and penalties upon reluctant minds, is inconsist 
 ent with the generous purposes of both. Society can not be 
 justly censured for indifference to education, when those who 
 enjoy its precious advantages manifest so little of the enthusi 
 asm it ought to inspire. All the associations of the youthful 
 mind in the acquisition of knowledge must be cheerful ; its 
 
212 SELECTIONS. 
 
 truths should be presented in their native beauty and in their 
 natural order ; the laws it reveals should be illustrated always 
 by their benevolent adaptation to the happiness of mankind ; 
 and the utility and beauty of what is already known should in 
 cite to the endless investigation of what remains concealed. If 
 education could be conducted upon principles like these, the at 
 tainments of our collegiate instruction might become an ordi 
 nary measure of acquirement in our common schools ; and our 
 academies and colleges would be continually enjoying new rev 
 elations of philosophy and attaining higher perfection in the arts 
 which alleviate the cares of human life. 
 
 If these reflections seem extravagant, and the results they 
 contemplate unattainable, it need only be answered that the 
 improvability of our race is without limit, and all that is pro 
 posed is less wonderful than what has already been accom 
 plished. I do not hesitate to invite efforts to establish the stand 
 ard I have described. Postponed, omitted, and forgotten, as it 
 too often is amid the excitement of other subjects and the pres 
 sure of other duties, education is, nevertheless, the chief of our 
 responsibilities. The consequences of the most partial improve 
 ment in our system of education will be wider and more endu 
 ring than the effects of any change of public policy, the benefit 
 of any new principle of jurisprudence, or the results of any en 
 terprise of physical improvement we can accomplish. These 
 consequences will extend through the entire development of the 
 human mind, and be consummated only with its destiny. An 
 nual Message, 1839. 
 
 jEtmcnttott of tfjc <f)tl&rcn of Hyihs. 
 
 THE children of foreigners, found in great numbers in our pop 
 ulous cities and towns, and in the vicinity of our public works, 
 are too often deprived of the advantages of our system of public 
 education, in consequence of prejudices arising from difference 
 of language or religion. It ought never to be forgotten that the 
 public welfare is as deeply concerned in their education as in 
 th.it of our own children. I do not hesitate therefore to recom 
 mend the establishment of schools in which they may be in 
 structed by teachers speaking the same language with them- 
 
EDUCATION. 213 
 
 selves, and professing the same faith. There would be no 
 inequality in such a measure, since it happens from the force of 
 circumstances, if not from choice, that the responsibilities of edu 
 cation are in most instances confided by us to native citizens, and 
 occasions seldom offer for a trial of our magnanimity by commit 
 ting that trust to persons differing from ourselves in language 
 or religion. Since we have opened our country and all its full 
 ness to the oppressed of every nation, we should evince wisdom 
 equal to such generosity by qualifying their children for the 
 high responsibilities of citizenship. Annual Message, 1840. 
 
 WHEN the census of IS^O shall be taken, I trust it will show 
 that within the borders of the state of New York there is no 
 child of sufficient years who is unable to read and write. 1 am 
 sure it will then be acknowledged that when, ten years before, 
 there were thirty thousand children growing up in ignorance 
 and vice, a suggestion to seek them wherever found, and win 
 them to the ways of knowledge and virtue by persuasion, 
 sympathy, and kindness, was prompted by a sincere desire for 
 the common good. I have no pride of opinion concerning the 
 manner in which the education of those whom I have brought to 
 your notice shall be secured, although I might derive satisfaction 
 from the reflection, that, amid abundant misrepresentations of 
 the method suggested, no one has contended that it would be in 
 effectual, nor has any other plan been proposed. I observe, on 
 the contrary, with deep regret, that the evil remains as before ; 
 and the question recurs, not merely how or by whom shall in 
 struction be given, but whether it shall be given at all or shall 
 be altogether withheld. Others may be content with a system 
 that erects free schools and offers gratuitous instruction ; but I 
 trust I shall be allowed to entertain the opinions that no sys 
 tem is perfect that does not accomplish what it proposes ; that 
 our system is therefore deficient in comprehensiveness in the 
 exact proportion of the children that it leaves uneducated ; that 
 knowledge, however acquired, is better than ignorance ; and 
 that neither error, accident, nor prejudice, ought to be permitted 
 to deprive the state of the education of her citizens. Cherishing 
 
SELECTION S. 
 
 such opinions, I could not enjoy the consciousness of having per 
 formed my duty, if any effort had been omitted which was cal 
 culated to bring within the schools all who are destined to exer 
 cise the rights of citizenship ; nor shall I feel that the system is 
 perfect or liberty safe until that object be accomplished. Not 
 personally concerned about such misapprehensions as have arisen, 
 but desirous to remove every obstacle to the accomplishment 
 of so important an object, I very freely declare that I seek the 
 education of those whom I have brought before you, not to per 
 petuate any prejudices or distinctions which deprive them of 
 instruction, but in disregard of all such distinctions and prejudi 
 ces. I solicit their education less from sympathy, than because 
 the welfare of the state demands it, and can not dispense with 
 it. As native citizens, they are born to the right of suffrage. I 
 ask that they may at least be taught to read and write ; and in 
 asking this, I require no more for them than I have diligently 
 endeavored to secure to the inmates of *our penitentiaries, who 
 have forfeited that inestimable franchise by crime, and also to 
 an unfortunate race, which, having been plunged by us into deg 
 radation and ignorance, has been excluded from the franchise by 
 an arbitrary property qualification incongruous with all our in 
 stitutions. I have not recommended nor do I seek the educa 
 tion of any class in foreign languages or in particular creeds or 
 faiths ; but fully believing with the author of the Declaration of 
 Independence, that even error may be safely tolerated where 
 reason is left free to combat it, and therefore indulging no appre 
 hensions from the influence of any language or creed among an 
 enlightened people, I desire the education of the entire rising 
 generation in all the elements of knowledge we possess, and in 
 that tongue which is the universal language of our countrymen. 
 To me the most interesting of all our republican institutions is 
 the common school. I seek not to disturb in any manner its 
 peaceful and assiduous exercises, and least of all with conten 
 tions about faith or forms. I desire the education of all the 
 children in the commonwealth in morality and virtue, leaving 
 matters of conscience where, according to the principles of civil 
 and religious liberty established by our constitution and Jaws, 
 they rightfully belong. Annual Message, 1841. 
 
EDUCATION. 215 
 
 2Tt)c Same. 
 
 IT was among my earliest duties to bring to the notice of the 
 legislature the neglected condition of many thousand children, in 
 cluding a very large proportion of those of immigrant parentage, 
 in our great commercial city ; a misfortune then supposed to re 
 sult from groundless prejudices and omissions of parental duty. 
 Especially desirous at the same time not to disturb in any man 
 ner the public schools, which seemed to be efficiently conducted, 
 although so many for whom they were established, were unwil 
 ling to receive their instructions, I suggested, as I thought in a 
 spirit not inharmonious with our civil and religious institutions, that 
 if necessary it might be expedient to bring those so excluded from 
 such privileges into schools rendered especially attractive by the 
 sympathies of those to whom the task of instruction should be 
 confided. It has since been discovered that the magnitude of 
 the evil was not fully known, and that its causes were very 
 imperfectly understood. It will be shown you in the proper re 
 port, that twenty thousand children in the city of New York, of 
 suitable age, are not at all instructed in any of the public 
 schools, while the whole number in all the residue of the state 
 not taught in common schools, does not exceed nine thousand. 
 What had been regarded as individual, occasional, and accidental 
 prejudices have proved to be opinions pervading a large mass, 
 including at least one religious communion equally with all oth 
 ers entitled to civil tolerance opinions cherished through a 
 period of sixteen years, and ripened into a permanent, conscien 
 tious distrust of the impartiality of the education given in the 
 public schools. This distrust has been rendered still deeper and 
 more alienating by a subversion of precious civil rights of those 
 whose consciences are thus offended. 
 
 Happily in this as in other instances, the evil is discovered to 
 have had its origin no deeper than in a departure from the 
 equality of general laws. In our general system of common 
 schools, trustees, chosen by tax-paying citizens, levy taxes, build 
 schoolhouses, employ and pay teachers, and govern schools 
 which are subject to visitation by similarly-elected inspectors, 
 who certify the qualifications of teachers ; and all schools thus 
 constituted participate in just proportion in the public moneys, 
 
216 SELECTIOXS. 
 
 which are conveyed to them by commissioners also elected by 
 the people. Such schools are found distributed in average 
 spaces of two and a half square miles throughout the inhabited 
 portions of the state, and yet neither popular discontent, nor polit 
 ical strife, nor sectarian discord, has ever disturbed their peaceful 
 instructions or impaired their eminent usefulness. In the public 
 school system of the city of New York, one hundred persons are 
 trustees and inspectors, and, by continued consent of the common 
 council, are the dispensers of an annual average sum of thirty- 
 five thousand dollars received from the common-school fund of 
 the state, and also of a sum equal to ninety-five thousand dollars 
 derived from an indiscriminating tax upon the real and per 
 sonal estates of the city. They build schoolhouses chiefly with 
 public funds, and appoint and remove teachers, fix their com 
 pensation, and prescribe the moral, intellectual, and religious 
 instruction which one eighth of the rising generation of the state 
 shall be required to receive. Their powers, more effective and 
 far-reaching than are exercised by the municipality of the city, 
 are not derived from the community whose children are educa 
 ted and whose property is taxed, nor even from the state, which 
 is so great an almoner, and whose welfare is so deeply concerned, 
 but from an incorporated and perpetual association, which grants, 
 upon pecuniary subscription, the privileges even of life member 
 ship, and yet holds in fee simple the public school edifices, valued 
 at eight hundred thousand dollars. Lest there might be too much 
 responsibility even to the association, that body can elect only one 
 half the trustees, and thos.e thus selected appoint their fifty associ 
 ates. The philanthropy and patriotism of the present managers 
 of the public schools, and their efficiency in imparting instruc 
 tion, are cheerfully and gratefully admitted. Nor is it necessary 
 to maintain that agents thus selected will become unfaithful, or 
 that a system that so jealously excludes popular interference 
 must necessarily be unequal in its operation. It is only in 
 sisted that the institution, after a fair and sufficient trial, has 
 failed to gain that broad confidence reposed in the general sys 
 tem of the state, and indispensable to every scheme of universal 
 education. No plan for that purpose can be defended except on 
 the ground that public instruction is one of the responsibilities 
 of the government. It is therefore a manifest legislative duty 
 
EDUCATION. 217 
 
 to correct errors and defects in whatever system is established. 
 In the present case the failure amounts virtually to an exclusion 
 of all the children thus withheld. I can not overcome my re 
 gret that every suggestion of amendment encounters so much 
 opposition from those who defend the public school system of 
 the metropolis, as to show, that in their judgment it can admit 
 of no modification, neither from tenderness to the consciences, 
 nor from regard to the civil rights of those aggrieved, nor even 
 for the reclamation of those for whose culture the state has so 
 munificently provided ; as if society most conform itself to the 
 public schools instead of the public schools adapting themselves 
 to the exigencies of society. The late eminent superintendent, 
 after exposing the greatness of this public misfortune, and tracing 
 it to the discrepancy between the local and general systems, 
 suggested a remedy which, although it is not urged to the 
 exclusion of any other, seems to deserve dispassionate consid 
 eration. 
 
 I submit, therefore, with entire willingness to approve what 
 ever adequate remedy you may propose, the expediency of re 
 storing to the people of the city of New York what I am sure 
 the people of no other part of the state would upon any consid 
 eration relinquish the education of their children. 
 
 For this purpose, it is only necessary to vest the control of 
 the common schools in a board to be composed of commissioners 
 elected by the people ; which board shall apportion the school 
 moneys among all the schools, including those now existing, 
 which shall be organized and conducted in conformity to its gen 
 eral regulations and the laws of the state, in the proportion of 
 the number of pupils instructed. It is not left doubtful that the 
 restoration to the common schools of the city of this simple and 
 equal feature of the common schools of the state, would remove 
 every complaint, and bring into the seminaries the offspring of 
 want and misfortune presented by a grand jury on a recent oc 
 casiou as neglected children of both sexes who are found in 
 hordes upon wharves and on corners of the streets, surrounded 
 by evil associations, disturbing the public peace, committing 
 petty depredations, and going from bad to worse, until their 
 course terminates in high crimes and infamy. 
 
 This proposition to gather the young from the streets and 
 
 10 
 
218 SELECTIONS. 
 
 wharves into the nurseries which the state, solicitous for her se 
 curity against ignorance, has prepared for them, has sometimes 
 been treated as a device to appropriate the school fund to the 
 endowment of seminaries for teaching languages and faiths, thus 
 to perpetuate the prejudices it seeks to remove ; sometimes as a 
 scheme for dividing that precious fund among a hundred jarring 
 sects, and thus increasing the religious animosities it strives to 
 heal ; and sometimes as a plan to subvert the prevailing reli 
 gion and introduce one repugnant to the consciences of our fel 
 low-citizens ; while, in truth, it simply proposes by enlightening 
 equally the minds of all, to enable them to detect error wherever 
 it may exist, and to reduce uncongenial masses into one in 
 telligent, virtuous, harmonious, and happy people. Being now 
 relieved from all such misconceptions, it presents the questions 
 whether it is wiser and more humane to educate the ofTspring of 
 the poor than to leave them to groAV up in ignorance and vice ; 
 whether juvenile vice is more easily eradicated by the court of ses 
 sions than by common schools ; whether parents have a right to be 
 heard concerning the instruction and instructors of their children, 
 and tax-payers in relation to the expenditure of public funds ; 
 whether, in a republican government, it is necessary to interpose 
 an independent corporation between the people and the school 
 master ; and whether it is wise and just to disfranchise an entire 
 community of all control over public education, rather than 
 suffer a part to be represented in proportion to its numbers and 
 contributions. 
 
 Since such considerations are now involved, what has hitherto 
 been discussed as a question of benevolence and universal edu 
 cation, has become one of equal civil rights, religious tolerance, 
 and liberty of conscience. We could bear with us in our re 
 tirement from public service no recollection more worthy of 
 being cherished through life than that of having met such a 
 question in the generous and confiding spirit of our institutions, 
 and of having decided it upon the immutable principles on which 
 they are based. Annual Message, 1842. 
 
FREEDOM. 
 
 THE capitol is deserted ! The legislature Lave suspended 
 their labors ; the city is in mourning ; a sudden blow has fallen 
 on the master-chord in the heart of this nation, and grief is dif 
 fusing itself throughout the Union. The voice of JOHN QUINCY 
 ADAMS has died away on earth, and he has resumed converse 
 with John Adams and Jefferson, with La Fayette and with 
 Washington, in heaven. 
 
 Death found the statesman where he wished to meet it in 
 the capitol ; in his place ; in the performance of his duty ; in 
 defending the cause of peace and of freedom. He submitted 
 to the inevitable blow as those who loved and honored him fore 
 told and desired that he would saying only, " This is the last 
 of earth I am content." 
 
 I will not suffer myself to speak all I feel on this sad occa 
 sion. While the American people have lost a father and a 
 guide while Humanity has lost her most eloquent, persevering, 
 and indomitable advocate I have lost a patron, a guide, a coun 
 sellor, and a friend one whom I loved scarcely less than 
 the dearest relations, and venerated above all that was mortal 
 among men. 
 
 I speak in behalf of my associates. Great as he was, illus 
 trious as his achievements were, he was one of us. He was a 
 civilian, a lawyer, a jurist. His great mind was imbued with 
 the science of our noble profession, and enriched with all conge 
 nial learning ; and to these he added the ornaments of rhetoric 
 * Remarks before the Court of Chancery, Albany, Feb. 25, 1848. 
 
220 SELECTIONS. 
 
 and eloquence. Trained in constitutional law, in the school of 
 its founders, Washington called him in precocious youth to the 
 kindred field of diplomacy. That mission discharged, he re 
 turned to his profession, and devoted himself to it with assiduity 
 until the people called him from the duty of expounding laws 
 to the higher department of making laws. 
 
 Rising through various and very responsible departments of 
 public service, he became chief magistrate of the republic. 
 There he impressed on its history an enduring illustration of a 
 wise, peaceful, and enlightened administration, devoted to the 
 cultivation of peace, to its arts and its interests, and to extend 
 ing the sway of republican institutions over the continent, and 
 yet in all things subordinate to the law and regulated by the 
 law. 
 
 When he had thus filled the measure of the world s expecta 
 tion and of his own generous ambition, he resumed his place in 
 the national legislature, and devoted what remained of life to a 
 long, arduous, and finally-successful vindication of the constitu 
 tional liberty of speech, and of the universal inalienable right 
 of petition. Nor can we forget that, while thus engaged, he set 
 a noble example for us, by returning again to the field of his 
 early labors, the unpaid, unrivalled advocate of the Amistad 
 captives. Those unhappy fugitives, rescued by him from the 
 oppression of two great nations, were restored to Africa, the first 
 of the many millions of her people of whom she had been de 
 spoiled by the avarice of our superior race. Whatever difference 
 of opinion there may be concerning the principles and policy of 
 the deceased, all men will now agree that he won among Ameri 
 can statesmen, and eminently more than any other, the fame 
 accorded to the most illustrious chevalier of France the fame 
 of a statesman sans peur et sans rcproclte. 
 
 It is fit that the death of such a citizen should be marked 
 with all the testimonials of public grief, in order that his life 
 may have its just influence on mankind. It is fit that it should 
 be honored in this tribunal, the fame of which is not unknown 
 throughout the world, and the records of which will remain for 
 ever. Remarks before Court of Chancery, Albany, Feb. 25, 1848. 
 
 NOTE. Another and more elaborate eulogy on Mr. Adams will be found 
 n the third volume of Mr. Seward s complete "Worka 
 
FREEDOM. 221 
 
 SUflfjts antr Sutfes of Nations. 
 
 WRITERS on law teach us that states are free, independent, 
 equal, moral persons, existing for the objects of happiness and 
 usefulness, and possessing rights and subject to duties defined 
 by the law of nature, which is a system of politics and morals 
 founded in right reason ; that the only difference between poli 
 tics and morals is, that one regulates the operations of govern 
 ment, while the other directs the conduct of individuals, and that 
 the maxims of both are the same ; that two sovereign states 
 may be subject to one prince, and yet be mutually independent ; 
 that a nation becomes free by the act of its ruler when he 
 exceeds the fundamental laws ; that when any power, whether 
 domestic or foreign, attempts to deprive a state of independence 
 or of liberty, it may lawfully take counsel of its courage, and 
 prefer before the certainty of servitude the chances of destruc 
 tion; that each nation is bound to do to every other in time of 
 peace the most good, and in time of war the least harm possi 
 ble, consistently with its own real interests ; that while this is 
 an imperfect obligation, of which no state can exact a perform- 
 ance, any one has nevertheless a right to use peaceful means, 
 and even force, if necessary, to repress a power that openly vio 
 lates the law of nations, and directly attacks their common wel 
 fare ; and that, although the interests of universal society require 
 mutual intercourse between states, yet that intercourse can be 
 conducted by those only who in their respective nations possess 
 and exercise in fact adequate political powers. . . . ; ; 
 
 It is time to protest. The new outworks of our system of 
 politics in Europe have all been carried away. Republicanism 
 has now no abiding place there, except on the rock of San 
 Marino and in the mountain-home of William Tell. France 
 and Austria are said to be conspiring to expel it even there. 
 In my inmost heart, I could almost bid them dare to try an 
 experiment which would arouse the nations of Europe to resist 
 the commission of a crime so flagrant and so bold. 
 
 I have heard frequently, here and elsewhere, that we can 
 promote the cause of freedom and humanity only by our exam 
 ple, and it is most true. But what should that example be but 
 
222 SELECTIONS. 
 
 that of performing not one national duty only, but all national 
 duties ; not those beginning and ending with ourselves only, but 
 those also which we owe to other nations and to all mankind ? 
 No dim eclipse will suffice to illuminate a benighted world. 
 
 I have the common pride of every American in the aggran 
 dizement of my country. No effort of mine to promote it, by 
 just and lawful means, ever was or ever will be withheld. Our 
 flag, when it rises to the topmast or the turret of an enemy s 
 ship or "fortress, excites in me a pleasure as sincere as in any 
 other man. And yet I have seen that flag on two occasions 
 when it awakened even more intense gratification. One was 
 when it entered the city of Cork, covering supplies for a chival 
 rous and generous but famishing people. The other was when 
 it recently protected in his emigration an exile of whom conti 
 nental Europe was unworthy, and to whom she had denied a 
 refuge. Sir, it raised no surprise and excited no regret in me, 
 as it did in some, to see that exile and that flag alike saluted 
 and honored by the people, and alike feared and hated by the 
 kings of Europe. 
 
 Let others employ themselves in devising new ligaments to 
 bind these states together. They shall have my respect for 
 their patriotism and their zeal. For myself, I am content with 
 the old ones just as I find them. I believe that the Union is 
 founded in physical, moral, and political necessities, which de 
 mand one government, and would endure no divided states; 
 that it is impregnable, therefore, equally to force or to faction ; 
 that secession is a feverish dream, and disunion an unreal and 
 passing chimera ; and that, for weal or wo, for liberty or servi 
 tude, this great country is one and inseparable. I believe, also, 
 that it is righteousness, not greatness, that exalteth a nation, 
 and that it is liberty, not repose, that renders national existence 
 worth possessing. Let me, then, perform my humble part in 
 the service of the republic, by cultivating the sense of justice 
 and the love of liberty which are the elements of its being, and 
 by developing their saving influences, not only in our domestic 
 conduct, but in our foreign conduct also, and in our social inter 
 course with all other states and nations. 
 
 It has already come to this that whenever in any country 
 an advocate of freedom, by the changes of fortune, is driven 
 
FREEDOM. 223 
 
 into exile, he hastens to seek an asylum here ; that whenever a 
 hero falls in the cause of Freedom on any of her battle-fields, 
 his eyes involuntarily turn toward us, and he commits that 
 cause with a confiding trust to our sympathy and our care. 
 Never, sir, as we value the security of our own freedom, or the 
 welfare and happiness of mankind, or the favor of Heaven, that 
 has enabled us to protect both, let that exile be inhospitably 
 repulsed. Never let the prayer of that dying hero fall on ears 
 unused to hear, or spend itself upon hearts that refuse to be 
 moved. Speech in U. S. Senate, March 9, 1852. 
 
 Eije 3&tflbt of petition. 
 
 EVERY man who is a citizen of the United. States, and, ac 
 cording to my theory, every man who, although he may not be 
 a citizen, yet is a subject of the government of the United States, 
 has a right to petition the Congress of the United States upon 
 any subject of national interest, or which can be legitimately the 
 subject of legislation. Then, is there any well-grounded objec 
 tion to the fact that these memorialists* describe themselves as 
 clergymen 1 Certainly not ; because it is the right and the 
 privilege of a citizen, if he can petition at all, to present his peti 
 tion in his own way. If he thinks there is anything in his 
 character or position which entitles his opinions to higher con 
 sideration, or which leads to the belief that he understands the 
 subject more thoroughly than others, it is his right to describe 
 himself by the appellation which designates his profession, his 
 character, or his office. It is only on this principle that the 
 legislatures of the states make their voices known to Con 
 gress, by describing themselves as the legislatures of the states. 
 They come here with their resolutions in the character of peti 
 tioners or remonstrants, under that provision of the constitution 
 which guaranties the right of petition, and upon no other ground 
 of constitutional right whatever. 
 
 Is there any well-grounded objection to the language or 
 
 tone of this memorial ] I think not. While, on the other hand, 
 
 it is such a memorial as a secular person like myself would not 
 
 be apt to dictate or sign, because there is a solemnity of tone, a 
 
 *The New England Clergy. 
 
224 SELECTIONS. 
 
 seriousness, and religious consideration which secular men do not 
 indulge or affect ; yet, on the other hand, it is professional, and 
 natural on the part of the memorialists ; it is in the character of 
 those who make it. It is said, indeed, that they assume to 
 speak the will and judgment of the Creator and Judge of men 
 and nations. I do not understand them as assuming to speak 
 any such thing. I understand them as saying simply, in sub 
 stance, " We, citizens of the United States, subscribing ourselves 
 as clergymen in the presence of Almighty God, and in his name, 
 address the Congress of the United States." Sir, what is unu 
 sual or wrong in this 1 You do not commence your proceedings 
 here on any day of your whole session without acknowledging 
 and declaring that they are begun in the presence, and in 
 the name, and with an invocation of the blessing of Almighty 
 
 I have said, sir, that they come here declaring that they 
 come in the presence of Almighty God. It is that universal 
 and eternal presence in which we all are every day and hour 
 of our lives, and from which we can never for even a moment 
 escape. 
 
 Again, sir, it is objected that they say they address us in 
 the name of Almighty God. What is that but a mode of ar 
 resting or calling attention to their solemn prayer and earnest 
 remonstrance 1 Sir, while there are occasions on which we 
 never forget, never suffer ourselves to forget that we are respon 
 sible to Almighty God, it is equally true that all our action is, 
 or ought to be, in the name of the Supreme Being. Sir, we 
 may put off, we may lay aside the thoughts of that awful presence 
 during our secular labors, and even during our life of confusion 
 and toil, and turmoil and care ; but when v/e come to close our 
 eyes upon this world, we can not shut them without the reflec 
 tion that we are ever here in. the sight of the Judge of all 
 men. Every man of us, when he comes to write his will, 
 or his instructions, for those who are to come after him, recites 
 that it is done in the name of God. Sir, as I have said, I 
 should not adopt this mode of addressing the senate or Congress. 
 It is not my habit to do so ; but I know that it is the habit, that 
 it is in the character, in the way of those who have signed this 
 memorial. I see no ground of objection to it. Is it disrespect- 
 
FREEDOM. 225 
 
 ful to the senate of the United States, or to Congress, that men 
 should say they speak to them in the name of God, and in his 
 presence ? If it be so, it must be because we claim to be here 
 exempt from the superintending government and providence of 
 that Being, in whom and by whom we walk, and act, and through 
 whom we exist upon the earth. 
 
 But, sir, it is said that at the close of this remonstrance, 
 there is another remark which is offensive, and that is, that the 
 memorialists think the measure against which they protest is im 
 moral in its nature. Sir, the great measure proposed is either 
 moral or immoral. There is no neutrality between morality and 
 immorality. It may be that we may conscientiously differ in as 
 certaining which is the moral side, but nevertheless it is of one 
 character or the other either moral or immoral. These per 
 sons tell us they think it is of one character, others think it is 
 of another character. It is our right to act. Let them think 
 what they will, it is their right to tell us that, in their opinion, it 
 is either one thing or the other, just as they understand and 
 believe. 
 
 Then, again, it is complained that the memorialists allege 
 that the act will draw after it the judgments of Almighty God. 
 Sir, by the judgments of Almighty God, I understand simply 
 this : that every human act of any importance or magnitude is 
 connected with preceding causes, and with subsequent effects ; 
 that there is connected with a right act the consequence of use 
 fulness, of beneficence, of happiness, and all the blessings of a 
 just Ruler ; and that, on the other hand, to those acts which, 
 whether we deem them moral or immoral, whether intentionally 
 wrong or not, are unwise, there are connected consequences of 
 error, danger, peril, unhappiness, wretchedness, ruin. This, in 
 my judgment, is all that that expression means. 
 
 And now, sir, I come to the close of what I have to say on 
 this whole matter ; and that is, that I regard this as a question 
 of no idle importance. The right of petition is a constitutional 
 right, and a useful and invaluable one, and I shall never be 
 found criticising the language of petitioners or remonstrants, to 
 see whether I can not find cause for cavil or for rejection, and 
 petitioners and remonstrants may say precisely what they please, 
 and precisely what they think, in whatever tone or Innjrnage 
 
 10* 
 
226 SELECTIONS. 
 
 they think proper. They may utter against me any epithet 
 which they please. They may invoke on my head any judg 
 ment they please. Still, sir, with a conscience void of offence 
 against God and man, I can go on here performing my duties, 
 leaving them in the enjoyment of their rights, and listening to 
 all that they say, precisely as if it had been rendered into the 
 language of courtesy, or compliment, or of praise, which would 
 be acceptable under other circumstances. It is because I wish 
 that this right of petition may take no injury from the debate 
 of this morning, that I have risen to vindicate the memorial, and 
 to do justice to those from whom it has come. Speech in Sen 
 ate on Reception of Remonstrance from 3050 Clergymen of New 
 England against Repeal of Missouri Comprojnise, March 14, 1854. 
 
 political Hqualt tj?. 
 
 I AM in favor of the equality of men of ALL men, whether 
 they be born in one land or born in another. I am in favor of 
 receiving the whole. I acknowledge them all to constitute one 
 great family, for whom it is the business of statesmen and the 
 business of man to labor and to live. And, sir, when I do have 
 occasion to ask the votes of those distinguished senators and 
 friends in behalf of the alien and the foreigner, it will not be the 
 exile, merely, who is commended to our sympathies for the suf 
 ferings he has sustained in the cause of liberty in Europe ; but 
 it will be for the melioration of the laws of naturalization, which 
 put a period of five years and an oath in the way of*any man 
 of any country in becoming a citizen, which raise a barrier be 
 tween ourselves and those who cast their lot among us. There 
 is where they will find me ; and they will find that to the extent 
 that humanity bears the semblance which is impressed upon us 
 by the hand of our Maker, it is my design and my purpose to 
 labor to bring about that equality in the land in which I live, 
 and as far as may be, in all other lands. 
 
 And, going upon this broad principle, I have no hesitation in 
 saying that there is no distinction in my respect or affection be 
 tween men of one land and of another ; between men of one clime 
 and another ; between men of one race and another ; or between 
 men of one color and another; no distinction but what is based, 
 
FREEDOM. 227 
 
 not upon institutions of government, not upon the consent of so 
 ciety, but upon their individual and personal merit. If the sen 
 ator from Georgia [Mr. DAWSON] will test this, if he has this 
 sympathy for free negroes which I am rejoiced to hear him pro 
 claim, let him bring in his bill, and the first ay that shall re 
 spond to it will be mine if none should so respond to it before 
 my name should be alphabetically reached. More than that ; 
 if his sympathies embrace a class that deserve them still 
 more the slave let him bring in his bill for the slave, and my 
 voice for emancipating the slave in any district or territory 
 shall go fDr it. Nay, more ; let him show me a way in which I 
 can give a vote, an effectual vote, for the emancipation of the 
 slave in his own state, or any state, and I shall feel honored to 
 participate in the movement ; and my vote shall be given to 
 sustain it, with more gladness, more gratitude, and more joy, 
 than it was ever given upon any occasion in my life. 
 
 Sir, neither here nor elsewhere will I admit, as a rule for the 
 government of my own conduct, that there is a distinction be 
 tween men. But on the contrary, I will walk up to the mark, as 
 signed in the Declaration of Independence, that " ALL MEN ARE 
 CREATED EQUAL." Sir, the first vote given by me to keep any 
 man, or any class of men, in a condition below my own, is yet 
 to be given. It never will be given in this place. Speech, U. S. 
 Senate, Jan. 30, 1850. 
 
 lUHjjious ntolcvcinc*. 
 
 WITHIN a few months a portion of the American community, 
 men, women, and children, were compelled by American citizens 
 to flee from burning dwellings in the night-time, and found their 
 way to the woods and fields by the light of the flames which 
 consumed not only their dwellings, but also their libraries, their 
 hospitals, their churches, and their altars. The offence was 
 that they or their ancestors were born in Ireland, and that they 
 worshipped God according to the creed and ritual of the Roman 
 Catholic church. And this has happened in the city that was 
 founded by William Penn, and endowed by Benjamin Franklin 
 in the city where the Declaration of American Independence 
 was promulgated, and where the American constitution was es 
 tablished. 
 
228 SELECTIONS, 
 
 These great wrongs, the outbreak of long-cherished religious 
 and political intolerance, were not its most fearful and alarming 
 incident. Emboldened by popular forbearance, the spirit of pro 
 scription has approached Congress, with a demand for the full 
 disfranchisement in America of all men not born on the Ameri 
 can soil. I say disfranchisement for twenty-one years resi 
 dence, which is now insisted on, as a condition of naturalization, 
 would be virtual disfranchisement 
 
 I have not heard the loud and deep-toned censures upon the 
 Philadelphia wrongs, and upon the recent acts of British oppres 
 sion, which I expected from the American press and from the 
 leaders of mind in America. Therefore in this hour of trial I 
 come here freely to declare before my countrymen and if my 
 voice could reach the region of thrones, to declare before princi 
 palities and powers that the injuries inflicted upon the Irish 
 men in America are a flagrant violation of law, of constitution, 
 of liberty, and of humanity. I know, indeed, what this declar 
 ation costs. It may, indeed, give comfort to the poor and de 
 sponding exile, and awaken feelings of kindness toward me in 
 his bosom, but it will offend very many of my own countrymen. 
 Be it so. I desire the respect and^ regard of my own country 
 men ; but I would rather have the gratitude of one despond 
 ing and depressed fellow-man, than the suffrage of the whole 
 American people given to me in consideration of denying any 
 true principle of free government, or repressing any impulse of 
 humanity 
 
 Believe not, fellow-citizens, that this is a question which in 
 terests or concerns only the voluntary citizen. The work of 
 disfranchisement once effectually begun, would not cease with 
 the debasement of one class or condition of men ; other classes 
 would follow, and oligarchy be succeeded by despotism. Nor 
 is this all. Let the wise men who favor this disfranchisement 
 tell us how they expect to secure the subordination of the dis 
 franchised classes. They can not be expelled ; they must 
 increase they increase by virtue of the irresistible and un 
 changeable laws of God. They can not be degraded to domes 
 tic slavery, and unless so degraded, they can not be held in sub 
 jection to authority, except in one of two ways, by their own 
 voluntary consent, or by military force. Standing armies no 
 
FREEDOM. 229 
 
 man dare defend : disfranchised men will not yield voluntary 
 obedience. Address at lltica, July, 1844. 
 
 Intolerance. 
 
 I GREATLY fear that the American people do not know how 
 highly they are respected and venerated by the down-trodden 
 masses of Europe. Some among us are ambitious of the favor 
 able judgment of the privileged classes in the old world. Their 
 respect and sympathies are not to be expected. We are dis 
 turbers, innovators ; and the affection we gain in Europe must 
 proceed from those to whom the progress of democratic princi 
 ples brings hope not terror. To the oppressed masses in France, 
 in Greece, in Poland, in Italy, in England, and Ireland, the 
 United States of America is the Palestine from which comes a 
 revelation effectual to political salvation. Thence, therefore, 
 come pilgrims of hope, ardent and enthusiastic in the faith they 
 have received from us, and they expect naturally and justly to 
 be received and welcomed as brethren. Strange that any native 
 American citizen should repel those pilgrims, and justly sad is 
 their disappointment when repulsed. Not even the Christian 
 knights who penetrated to the Holy City by crusade were more 
 grieved when they discovered that the Christians of Jerusalem 
 had relapsed into the superstition of the Moslem faith, and for 
 gotten the place of the tomb in which the Savior had reposed. 
 
 So, too, when a revolution occurs in Europe, whether tempes 
 tuous and convulsive like those in France, Greece, and Poland, 
 or moral and pacific like that in your own native land, the up 
 rising masses turn at once to the United States of America for 
 succor and for support ; and such is the mysterious fellowship 
 produced by the love of liberty, that the sympathies of the Amer 
 ican people have always been found irrepressible. Ought it to 
 be otherwise ? Who would not blush for his country if it were 
 not so ? The spirit of freedom, like that of Christianity, is ex 
 pansive and comprehensive. The church that sends forth no 
 missionaries, need take heed, for its light is about to be darkened. 
 The republic that desires no proselytes, must take warning, for 
 its downfall is at hand. 
 
 These sentiments, derived, I trust, from the teachings of tho 
 
230 SELECTIONS. 
 
 American Revolution, seem to me as wise as they are generous. 
 If there be any petition which mankind might wish added to 
 the formula given by the Savior, it would be that the scourge of 
 war might cease, and that peace and good will might prevail 
 among men. But peace and good will can never prevail until 
 mankind learn and feel the simple truth, that however birth or 
 language or climate may have made them differ however 
 mountains, deserts, rivers, and seas, may divide states the na 
 tions of the earth are nevertheless one family, and all mankind are 
 brethren, practically equal in endowments, equal in national and 
 political rights, and equal in the favor of the common Creator. 
 
 Exclusion of foreigners and hostility to foreign states always 
 were elements of barbarism. The intermingling of races always 
 was, and always will be, the chief element of civilization. Japan 
 and China are exclusive states. Great Britain and the United 
 States are social nations. So inconsistent is exclusiveness with 
 progress, that, sooner or later, Providence wills the subjugation 
 of unsocial states, thus securing the advancement of civilization 
 compulsively, when nations obstinately resist it. The conquest 
 of Mexico in the west, of India in the east, and the present hu 
 miliation of China, are illustrations of this great truth. 
 
 If at St. Petersburg you seek the exchange, where the Rus 
 sian " merchants most do congregate," the native understands 
 not your inquiry, until you ask for the " Dutch" exchange. Thus 
 do the subjects of the czar unwittingly perpetuate the memory 
 of the fact that they owe their rising commerce to immigration 
 from the Netherlands. I remember that in Clinton s time the 
 Erie canal then in progress was stigmatized as the " Irish ditch." 
 Had we been as generous as the natives of St. Petersburg, we 
 should have persevered in that designation, and we should now 
 confess for the instruction of mankind, that not only the Erie 
 canal, but its numerous and far-reaching veins and arteries, and 
 our railroads, harbors, and fortifications, were chiefly constructed 
 by hardy, joyous, light-hearted, liberty-loving immigrants from 
 Ireland. 
 
 We emulate the sway of ancient Rome ; but Rome was wiser 
 than those who affect an exclusive monopoly of American citizen 
 ship. Provinces and nations as soon as subjugated, became parts 
 of the Roman empire, and although its eagles threatened conquest 
 
FREEDOM. 231 
 
 wlierevci- they advanced, they nevertheless bore on their wings 
 charters of Roman citizenship. 
 
 Love for their native land is common to all men, but it ex 
 ceeds its just bounds when it leads men to despise or hate their 
 fellow-men. This excess is the prejudice of ignorance. The 
 native American can not half so heartily despise the Irishman, 
 as the Chinese despises the American. He who has left his 
 native land to seek an asylum here, has made a sacrifice to lib 
 erty which ought to commend him to our respect and affection. 
 His children born here will be native Americans as we are ; the 
 parent is a foreigner only as our own parents or ancestors, near 
 or remote, also were. 
 
 Do we excel, because the foreigner can not speak our lan 
 guage. We can not speak his. It were well if each knew the 
 language of the other, for it is stored with treasures which would 
 add immeasurably to his knowledge and the elements of his 
 happiness. 
 
 The battle-cry of liberty is as animating when sounded in 
 French, in German, or in Spanish, as in English, and the accents 
 of love and affection are tender in whatever dialect they may 
 have utterance. Should differences of religious belief divide us ] 
 Washington invoked the Divine blessing on our army in a prot- 
 estant ritual Lafayette employed the Roman formulary. Would 
 the prayers of either have been answered, if they had carried 
 into council quarrels from the altar ? We ought never to forget 
 that, various as are the expositions of our holy faith, they all 
 agree in this, that without charity there is no Christianity. 
 Letter, March 15, 1844. 
 
 3iouis 
 
 I AM a lover of peace. I shall never freely give my consent 
 to any measure which I shall think will tend to involve this na 
 tion in the calamities of foreign war. I believe that our mission 
 is a mission of republicanism. But I believe that we shall best 
 execute it by maintaining peace at home and with all mankind ; 
 and if I saw in this measure a step in advance toward the bloody 
 field of contention in the affairs of Europe, I, too, would hesitate 
 long before adopting it. But I see no advance toward any such 
 
232 SELECTIONS. 
 
 danger in doing a simple act of national justice and magnanim 
 ity. I believe that no man will deny the principle, that a na 
 tion may do for the cause of liberty in other nations whatever 
 the laws of nations do not forbid. I plant myself upon that 
 principle. What the laws of nations do not forbid, any nation 
 may do for the cause of civil liberty in any other nation, in any 
 other country. Now, the laws of nations do not forbid hospital 
 ity. The laws of nations do not forbid us to sympathize Avith 
 the exile to sympathize with the overthrown champion of 
 freedom. The laws of nature demand that hospitality, and 
 from the very inmost sources of our nature springs up that sym 
 pathy. What is that great epic poem which has filled the sec 
 ond place in the admiration, I had almost said in the affections, 
 of mankind for two thousand years, but the history of an exile 
 flying from the walls of his burning city and devoted state 1 
 Sir, the laws of nature require the laws of nations command 
 hospitality to those who fly from oppression and despair. And 
 this is all that we have done, and all that we propose to do. We 
 have invited Kossuth we have procured his release from cap 
 tivity we have brought him here and we propose to say to 
 him, standing upon our shores with his eye directed to us, and 
 while we know that the eyes of the civilized world are fixed 
 upon him and us, " Louis Kossuth, in the name of the American 
 people we bid you a cordial welcome." * * * * 
 
 I will suppose now that the opposition made to this resolution 
 is effective. I will suppose that the measure is defeated. Let 
 us look to the consequences beyond. What are they ? Kossuth, 
 admitted here to be the representative of the down-trodden con 
 stitutional liberties of his own country, and the representative 
 of the up-rising liberties of Europe, shakes from his feet the 
 dust that has gathered upon them on American shores, and re 
 turns to the eastern continent returns upon a point of honor 
 with the United States of America, and therefore, in a practical 
 view, returns, as he will say, and those devoted to his cause will 
 say, repulsed, driven back. Where then, sir, shall he find wel 
 come and repose ? In his own beautiful native land, at the base 
 or on the slopes of the Carpathian hills? No! the Austrian 
 despot reigns absolutely there. Shall he find it in Germany, 
 east or west, north or south ? No sir ; the despot of Austria and 
 
FREEDOM. 233 
 
 the despot of Prussia reign absolutely there. Shall he find it 
 under the sunny skies of Italy ? No, sir ; for the Austrian mon 
 arch has crushed Italy to the earth. Shall he find it in Siberia, 
 or in the frozen regions of the North ? No, sir ; for the Russian 
 czar, who drove him from his native land and forced him into 
 exile in Turkey, will be ready to seize the fugitive. The scaf 
 fold awaits him there. Where shall he go? Shall he seek 
 protection again from the sceptred Turk ? The Turk would 
 say, You have eaten my salt as a voluntary captive, and I shel 
 tered you until you left me under the seductions of the republic 
 of the United States. If you come now, the laws of my country 
 and of my God Avill not oblige or allow me to hazard the peace 
 of my own people again to extend protection over you. Where, 
 then, shall he go ? Where else on the face of broad Europe 
 can he find refuge but in the land of your forefathers, in Britain? 
 There, God be thanked, there would be a welcome and a home 
 for him. Are you prepared to give to the world evidence that 
 you can not receive the representative of liberty and republican 
 ism, whom England can honor, shelter, and protect ? 
 
 But, Mr. President, will this transaction end there 1 I fancy 
 that I see the exile wending his lonely way, with downcast 
 look, along the streets and thoroughfares of the great metropo 
 lis of Britain and the world, forsaken and abandoned, but not 
 forgotten. Will it end in that 1 ? No, sir. Beyond us, above 
 us, there is a tribunal, higher and greater than the Congress of 
 the United States. It is a tribunal whose existence and juris 
 diction and authority we have acknowledged, and to whose judg 
 ment-seat we have already called the Turk, the Austrian, and 
 the Russian, to account for their action in regard to Hungary 
 and to Kossuth. It is the tribunal of the public opinion of the 
 world the public opinion of mankind. Sir, that tribunal is 
 unerring in its judgments. It is constituted of the great, the 
 wise and the good of all nations not only of the great, and 
 wise, and good, who are now living, but of the great, the 
 wise, and the good of all ages. Before that tribunal, states, 
 great and small, are equal. Ay, before that tribunal the proud 
 est empire is equalled by its humblest citizen or subject. Yes, 
 the Indian and the serf are equal there to the American repub 
 lic and to the Russian empire. I know no living man entitled 
 
234 SELECTIONS. 
 
 by the consent of Christendom to preside in that august tribunal. 
 But there is a venerable form that seems to rise up before me, 
 and all the congregated nations and people deferentially make 
 way as he advances and takes the judgment-seat. It is the 
 shade of Franklin. And there I see the parties opposed. On 
 the one side stands Hungary, downcast and sorrowful, but she 
 is surrounded by the people of many lands, who wait her re 
 demption and their own. On the other side I see the United 
 States of America, sustained most singular conjunction! by 
 the youthful and impatient Bonaparte, the sickly successor of 
 the Romans, and the czar of all the Russias. I hear the im 
 peachment read. It is, that the United States have dishonored 
 and insulted the unfortunate representative of unfortunate Hun 
 gary ; that they found him a captive in Asia Minor, under the 
 protection of the Turk, but subjected to the surveillance of the 
 Russian tyrant ; that they addressed to him words of sympathy 
 and hope, and that they brought to the doors of his captivity 
 a national vessel, with their time-honored flag, and bade him to 
 come upon its deck and be conveyed to a land of constitutional 
 freedom a land where the advocates and champions of univer 
 sal liberty were sure to enjoy respect and sympathy, and frater 
 nal welcome ; and that when they had so seduced him from a 
 place of obscurity, but of safety, and had thus brought him 
 to their own shores, and when he stood waiting there for one 
 simple word of welcome, one simple look of recognition, they 
 turned away from him, spurned him from their presence, and 
 cast him back upon the chanties of Christian or Turk, in what 
 ever land they might be found. 
 
 That is the impeachment. And the United States hold up 
 the right hand and answer, "Not guilty." I see the books of 
 testimony opened on behalf of Hungary. Here they are. A 
 resolution of the Congress of the United States of America, 
 passed in the year 1850, tendering the hospitalities of the nation, 
 and the use of a national ship, to Louis Kossuth ; then the mes 
 sage of the president of the United States, in 1851, calling upon 
 Congress to say what shall be the ceremonial of receiving him 
 who has been brought here under their authority ; and then the 
 record of this senate, that upon a division of its members, a res 
 olution of welcome was rejected. That constitutes the case on 
 
FREEDOM. 235 
 
 the part of Hungary. Sir, the United States appear in that 
 august tribunal by learned and eloquent defenders and advo 
 cates. I see there my ardent and enthusiastic young friend from 
 Alabama [Mr. CLEMENS], and the candid and learned senator 
 from Kentucky [Mr. UNDERWOOD], the impulsive and generous 
 senator from Georgia [Mr. DAWSON], the very learned and as 
 tute advocate, the honorable senator from North Carolina [Mr. 
 BADGER], and, lastly, he who holds the first place in our vene 
 ration of living senators, save only one [Mr. CLAY], the honora 
 ble senator from Georgia [Mr. BERRIEN], I listen to the long, 
 elaborate, and earnest defence which they make against this im 
 peachment. Hungary declines to reply ; and Kossuth, the ora 
 tor of modern times, upon whom she leans for support, for the 
 first time overcome by a sense of cruel insult, is silent, dumb. 
 
 The defence is weighed by that august Shade, in whose placid 
 countenance I read at once the sagacity of the lightning hunter 
 and the common sense of Poor Richard : " You say, that your 
 invitation to the Magyar justified on his part and on tho 
 part of Hungary no expectation of a welcome. How, then, 
 came Kossuth, how came Hungary, how came the world, how 
 came your president, to misunderstand the invitation which was 
 addressed to the exile ? "When did you first revise your diplom 
 acy to ascertain to what extent you might abridge the hospital 
 ities to which you had invited him ? Not until you were com 
 mitted before the world. You say that Kossuth was invited to 
 be a resident, to^become a citizen of the United States, and yet 
 that he came, on the contrary, as a transient guest. Grant it ; 
 what then ? Is a welcome less due to him whom you have in 
 vited as a perpetual guest, when he comes to thank you and 
 decline the courtesy, than if he had accepted it and had become 
 a perpetual charge upon your hospitalities ] You say that the 
 honors to Kossuth were moved in your senate by ambitious as 
 pirants for place and distinction. Has, then, my country degen 
 erated so much that there are no true, genuine patriots in the 
 senate of the United States who could lead that illustrious body 
 in the discharge of so great a national obligation 1 You plead 
 that the Hungarian chief was a noble by birth, an aristocrat by 
 education and association, and that he had devoted himself in 
 an effort not to disseminate the spirit of universal liberty, but to 
 
236 SELECTIONS. 
 
 fortify the privileges of the Magyar race. If that be so, did you 
 not know it when you invited him 1 If you did not, how can 
 you justify your ignorance of a character that was blazoned to 
 the world ? But it is not true. Kossuth s first public action in 
 early youth, was an effort, through the Hungarian Diet, to ex 
 tend equal privileges of representation, of suffrage, and of taxa 
 tion, to all the people of Hungary, without distinction of rank, 
 or caste, or race. For his fidelity to the great cause of human 
 equality and freedom, he was imprisoned three long years in a 
 dungeon in the castle of Buda, by the hand of the Austrian des 
 pot. When he came out from that captivity, he commenced 
 that career of agitation for the restoration of the constitution of 
 his country, which ended with success in the year 1848. When 
 he had wrung that charter from the emperor of Austria, his con 
 stitutional king, the first exercise of Hungarian authority by the 
 legislature which he directed, was an act which abolished all the 
 feudal tenures, that brought land within the reach of all, and put 
 the Croat, the Wallachian, the Illyrian, the Jew, and the Mag 
 yar, upon the same platform of equality before the law, equality 
 before the government, equality in representation, equality in 
 suffrage, and equality in enduring the burdens of government. 
 It was for this that he was hunted from his native land and 
 came an exile to your shores. Who pursued him there with re 
 proaches of falsehood to freedom ? Not the Jew, the Croat, or 
 the Sclave, but the tyrant of Austria, who has reduced all the 
 people of Hungary, of whatever rank or race or caste, to the 
 level of slaves. You say that you were willing to give Kossuth 
 a welcome, but that he demanded more. How did you know 
 that he demanded more* ? How did you learn that Kossuth 
 demanded more than a cordial welcome ? Where did he ask of 
 you even so much as a welcome ? Was it in your capital 1 To 
 whom did he address his extravagant and offensive reclamation? 
 Was it to your president? to your ministry? to your Congress? 
 No ; all alike refused to receive him, refused even to hear him 
 speak, and yet you say he demanded too much. You closed his 
 mouth before he had time to tell you what he thought, and what 
 he wanted, or whether he wanted anything. But you reply, he 
 was overheard to say that he expected arms, men, money, ma 
 terial aid, and intervention. Overheard ? What ! did you de- 
 
FREEDOM. 237 
 
 liver Kossuth from Russian surveillance in Turkey to establish 
 an espionage over him of your own ? Shame ! shame to the 
 country that so lightly regards the sanctity of the character of 
 a stranger and an exile ! But you say that he would have de 
 manded intervention. Suppose he should have demanded inter 
 vention] Would you have been less able to have met that 
 unreasonable demand after having accorded to him the exact 
 justice which was his due, than you are now when you have 
 done him injustice, and thus clothed him with the sympathies of 
 your people and of mankind ? But you aver that he spoke 
 irreverently of your authority : he was overheard to say, in the 
 outgushing of his gratitude to the generous people who received 
 him on Staten Island, that the people were the sovereigns of the 
 government of the United States, and you can not pardon that 
 offence. What if he did say that? Are not the people the 
 sovereigns of the government of the United States 1 Which one 
 of your senators or representatives dare deny in his place that 
 the people are his sovereigns ? But you say that you had a" 
 precedent ; that you once took offence at a minister of France 
 who assumed the same position. You refer to Genet. But 
 there is no parallel. Genet was a minister of a government ac 
 tually hostile, almost belligerent. He was in negotiation, and 
 his demands were denied. He took an appeal from the decision 
 of your government to the people. But Kossuth is no minister. 
 He is your guest. He went to you not to negotiate, or to de 
 mand a right. He went by your invitation to enjoy your hos 
 pitalities. You have decided nothing against him. He has sub 
 mitted no appeal. I do not say that you ought to have granted 
 intervention had it been demanded. But I do say this, that the 
 Hungarian would have demanded no more of you than, in a 
 strait less severe than his, I solicited and obtained for the United 
 States of America from the Bourbon of France. Could you not 
 have pardoned him for asking what you had once asked and 
 obtained for yourselves 1 Was it so great a fault in him to sup 
 pose that now, in the day of your greatness, prosperity, and 
 power, you might not be unwilling to do for Hungary what, in 
 the day of your infancy, poverty, and weakness, France had 
 done for yourselves ? You say you stand upon precedent. Pre 
 cedent 1 By whom established ? By yourselves. Was Hun- 
 
238 SELECTIONS. 
 
 gary concluded by such a precedent ? And what precedent ? 
 The precedent of the reception given to Lafayette 1 Was not 
 even that reception grudgingly given by the Congress of the 
 United States 1 If the ashes of Lafayette could be reanimated, 
 and he could present himself again upon your shores, would you 
 not now willingly accord him a greater than the welcome he 
 before received at your hands a welcome such as it was pro 
 posed to give to Kossuth ? Wherein does the parallel between 
 Kossuth and Lafayette fail ? Lafayette began his career as a 
 soldier of liberty in the cause of your country ; but he pursued 
 it through life in an effort to establish a republic in his own be 
 loved land. Kossuth found the duty which first devolved upon 
 him was to wage a struggle for freedom in his own country. 
 When overborne there, he became, like Lafayette, a champion 
 of liberty throughout the world. You say that the Russian 
 might have taken offence. Is America, then, brought so low 
 that she fears to give offence when commanded by the laws of 
 nature and of nations 1 What right had Russia to prescribe 
 whom you should receive and whom reject from your hospitali 
 ties 1 Let no such humiliation be confessed." 
 
 Thus in the tribunal of the public opinion of mankind, all our 
 pleas are disallowed. We have exposed ourselves to the censure 
 I Avill not say the derision of the world. Speeches in U. S. 
 Senate, December, 1851. 
 
 Conjjvcsstonal Compromises. 
 
 IT is insisted that the admission of California shall be at 
 tended by a COMPROMISE of questions which have arisen out of 
 
 SLAVERY ! 
 
 I AM OPPOSED TO ANY SUCH COMPROMISE, IN ANY AND ALL 
 THE FORMS IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED ; because, while 
 
 admitting the purity and the patriotism of all from whom it is 
 my misfortune to differ, I think all legislative compromises, 
 which are not absolutely necessary, radically wrong and essen 
 tially vicious. They involve the surrender of the exercise of 
 judgment and conscience on distinct and separate questions, at 
 distinct and separate times, with the indispensable advantages it 
 affords for ascertaining truth. They involve a relinquishment of 
 
FREEDOM. 239 
 
 the right to reconsider in future the decisions of the present, on 
 questions prematurely anticipated. And they are acts of usurpa 
 tion as to future questions of the province of future legislators. 
 
 Sir, it seems to me as if slavery had laid its paralyzing hand 
 upon myself, and the blood were coursing less freely than its 
 wont through my veins, when I endeavor to suppose that such 
 a compromise has been effected, and that my utterance for ever 
 is arrested upon all the great questions social, moral, and 
 political arising out of a subject so important, and as yet so 
 incomprehensible. 
 
 What am I to receive in this compromise ? Freedom in Cali 
 fornia. It is well ; it is a noble acquisition ; it is worth a sacri 
 fice. But what am I to give as an equivalent ? A recognition 
 of the claim to perpetuate slavery in the District of Columbia ; 
 forbearance toward more stringent laws concerning the arrest of 
 persons suspected of being slaves found in the free states ; for 
 bearance from the proviso of freedom in the charters of new 
 territories. None of the plans of compromise offered demand 
 less than two, and most of them insist on all of these conditions. 
 The equivalent, then, is, some portion of liberty, some portion 
 of human rights in one region for liberty in another region. 
 But California brings gold and commerce as well as freedom. 
 I am, then, to surrender some portion of human freedom in the 
 District of Columbia, and in East California and New Mexico, 
 for the mixed consideration of liberty, gold, and power, on the 
 Pacific coast. 
 
 This view of legislative compromises is not new. It has 
 widely prevailed, and many of the state constitutions interdict 
 the introduction of more than one subject into one bill submitted 
 for legislative action. 
 
 It was of such compromises that Burke said, in one of the 
 loftiest bursts of even his majestic parliamentary eloquence : 
 
 "Far, far from the commons of Great Britain be all manner of real vice; 
 but ten thousand times farther from them, as far as from pole to pole, be 
 the whole tribe of spurious, affected, counterfeit, and hypocritical virtues 1 
 These are the things which are ten thousand times more at war with real 
 virtue, these are the things which are ten thousand times more at war with 
 real duty, than any vice known by its name and distinguished by its proper 
 character. 
 
 "Far, far from us be that false and affected candor that is eternally in 
 
240 SELECTIONS. 
 
 treaty with crime that half virtue, which, like the ambiguous animal that 
 flies about in the twilight of a compromise between day and night, is, to a 
 just man s eye, an odious and disgusting thing. There is no middle point, 
 my lords, in which the commons of Great Britain can meet tyranny and 
 oppression." Speech in V. 8. Senate, March 11, 1850. 
 
 1)0 j&ecaption of jFuflitibc Slabes m t!)c j?rce States. 
 
 I ADVERT to the proposed alteration of the law concerning 
 fugitives from service or labor. I shall speak on this as on all 
 subjects with due respect, but yet frankly and without reserva* 
 tion. The constitution contains only a compact, which rests for 
 its execution on the states. Not content with this, the slave 
 states induced legislation by Congress ; and the supreme court 
 of the United States have virtually decided that the whole sub 
 ject is within the province of Congress, and exclusive of state 
 authority. Nay, they have decided that slaves are to be regarded 
 not merely as persons to be claimed, but as property and chat 
 tels, to be seized without any legal authority or claim whatever. 
 The compact is thus subverted by the procurement of the slave 
 states. With what reason, then, can they expect the states, ex 
 gratia, to reassume the obligations from which they caused those 
 states to be discharged ? I say, then, to the slave states, you 
 are entitled to no more stringent laws ; and that such laws would 
 be useless. The cause of the inefficiency of the present statute 
 is not at all the leniency of its provisions. It is a law that de 
 prives the alleged refugee from a legal obligation not assumed 
 by him, but imposed upon him by laws enacted before he was 
 born, of the writ of habeas corpus, and of any certain judicial 
 process of examination of the claim set up by his pursuer, and 
 finally degrades him into a chattel which may be seized and 
 carried away peaceably wherever found, even although exer 
 cising the rights and reponsibilities of a free citizen of the com 
 monwealth in which he resides, and of the United States a 
 law which denies to the citizen all the safeguards of. personal 
 liberty, to render less frequent the escape of the bondman. 
 And since complaints are so freely made against the one side, I 
 shall not hesitate to declare that there have been even greater 
 faults on the other side. Belying on the perversion of the con 
 stitution, which makes slaves mere chattels, the slave states 
 
FREEDOM. 241 
 
 have applied to them the principles of the criminal law, and 
 have held that he who aided the escape of his fellow -man from 
 bondage was guilty of a larceny in stealing him. I speak of 
 what I know. Two instances came within my own knowledge, 
 in which governors of slave states, under the provision of the 
 constitution relating to fugitives from justice, demanded from the 
 governor of a free state the surrender of persons as thieves 
 whose alleged offences consisted in constructive larceny of the 
 rags that covered the persons of female slaves, whose attempt 
 at escape they had permitted or assisted. 
 
 We deem the principle of the law for the recapture of fugi 
 tives, as thus expounded, therefore, unjust, unconstitutional, and 
 immoral ; and thus, while patriotism withholds its approbation, 
 the consciences of our people condemn it. 
 
 You will say that these convictions of ours are disloyal. 
 Grant it for the sake of argument. They are, nevertheless, 
 honest ; and the law is to he executed among us, not among 
 you ; not by us, but by the federal authority. Has any govern 
 ment ever succeeded in changing the moral convictions of its 
 subjects by force ? But these convictions imply no disloyalty. 
 We reverence the Constitution, although we perceive this de 
 fect, just as we acknowledge the splendor and the power of the 
 sun, although its surface is tarnished with here and there an 
 opaque spot. 
 
 Your constitution and laws convert hospitality to the refugee 
 from the most degrading oppression on earth into a crime, but 
 all mankind except you esteem that hospitality a virtue. The 
 right of extradition of a fugitive from justice is not admitted by 
 the law of nature and of nations, but rests in voluntary compacts. 
 I know of only two compacts found in diplomatic history that 
 admitted EXTRADITION OF SLAVES. Here is one of them. It 
 is found in a treaty of peace made between Alexander, Comne- 
 nus, and Leontine, Greek emperors at Constantinople, and Oleg, 
 king of Russia, in the year 902, and is in these words : 
 
 " If a Russian slave take flight, or even if he is carried away by any one, 
 under pretence of having been bought, his master shall have the right and 
 power to pursue him, and hunt for and capture him wherever lie shall be 
 found; and any person who shall oppose the master in the execution of 
 this right, shall be deemed guilty of violating this treaty, and be punished 
 accordingly-." 
 
 11 
 
242 SELECTIONS. 
 
 This was in the year of grace 902, in the period called the 
 " Dark Ages," and the contracting powers were despotisms. 
 And here is the other : 
 
 "Xo person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, 
 escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation there 
 in, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, oil 
 claim of the party to whom such service or labor is due." 
 
 This is from the constitution of the United States in 1787, and 
 the parties were the republican states of this Union. The law 
 of nations disavows such compacts ; the law of nature, written 
 on the hearts and consciences of freemen, repudiates them 
 Armed power could not enforce them, because there is no pub 
 lic conscience to sustain them. I know that there are laws of 
 various sorts which regulate the conduct of men. There are 
 constitutions and statutes, codes mercantile and codes civil ; but 
 when we are legislating for states, especially when we are found 
 ing states, all these laws must be brought to the standard of the 
 laws of God, and must be tried by that standard, and must 
 stand or fall by it. This principle was happily explained by 
 one of the most distinguished political philosophers of England 
 in these emphatic words: 
 
 "There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law; 
 the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, the law of 
 nature and of nations. So far as anv laws fortify this primeval law, and 
 give it more precision, more energy, more effect by their declarations, such 
 laws enter into the sanctuary and participate in the sacred ness of its char 
 acter; but the man who quotes as precedents the abuses of tyrants and rob 
 bers, pollutes the very fountains of justice, destroys the foundations of nil 
 law, and therefore removes the only safeguard against evil men, whether 
 governors or governed; the guard which prevents governors from becoming 
 tyrants, and the governed from becoming rebels." 
 
 There was deep philosophy in the confession of an eminent 
 English judge. When he had condemned a young woman to 
 death, under the late sanguinary code of his country, for her 
 first petty theft, she fell down dead at his feet. " I seem to 
 myself," said he, " to have been pronouncing sentence, not 
 against the prisoner, but against the law itself." 
 
 To conclude on this point. We are not slaveholders. We 
 can not, in our judgment, be either true Christians or real free 
 men) if we impose on another a chain that we defy all human 
 
FREEDOM. 243 
 
 power to fasten on ourselves. You believe and tliink otherwise, 
 and doubtless with equal sincerity. We judge you not, and He 
 alone who ordained the conscience of man and its laws of action 
 can judge us. Do we then, in this conflict of opinion, demand 
 of you an unreasonable thing in asking that, since you will havo 
 property that can and will exercise human powers to effect its 
 escape, you shall be your own police, and, in acting among us 
 as such, you shall conform to principles indispensable to the 
 security of admitted rights of freemen ? If you will have this 
 law executed, you must alleviate, not increase, its rigors. 
 SpeecJi in U. S. Senate, March 11, 1850. 
 
 ije jfuaitibe Slabc 3Lato of 1793 {Unconstitutional ana ITotU. 
 
 THE law is based upon the second section of Article IV. of 
 the constitution : " No person held to service or labor, in one 
 state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
 consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
 from such service or labor ; but shall be delivered up, on claim 
 of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." 
 
 If we admit, for the purpose of the argument, that this sec 
 tion furnishes ground for the exercise of legislation, by the Con 
 gress of the United States, to cany the section into execution, 
 we may, nevertheless, confidently assert, that such legislation 
 must be confined to the very object and purpose of the section, 
 and can not be extended further. If any state should pass any 
 law, or establish any regulation adapted to work a discharge of 
 persons escaping into its jurisdiction from lawful obligation of 
 labor or service, existing in the state whence they fled, or to 
 prevent their delivery to proper claimants, Congress might ab 
 rogate such law or regulation. But such an act of abrogation 
 would be unnecessary, because the offensive law or regulation 
 would be unconstitutional, and ipso facto void. Here the con 
 stitutional power reposed in Congress to legislate on this subject 
 must end; for the object of the second article is attained when 
 such action or legislation by the several states, is effectually 
 prohibited or defeated. We admit that the section provides that 
 the fugitive " shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to 
 whom such service or labor may be clue." But these are merely 
 
244 SELECTIONS. 
 
 words of explanation, giving precision, force, and effect, to the 
 inhibition of the passage of laws or adoption of regulations by 
 the states for the discharge of fugitives. Any law or regulation 
 of a state, which may work the discharge of the fugitive, shall 
 be so absolutely void, that not only such consequence shall not 
 take effect, but the right of recaption shall not be at all affected 
 by such law or regulation. The section would have full, com 
 plete, and satisfactory effect through judicial action. If a per 
 son in any court of any state claimed that another who had 
 escaped into its jurisdiction was lawfully held in the state whence 
 he fled, to labor for the claimant, and if the defendant being 
 either the person against whom the claim was made, or any 
 other person, or even the state within whose jurisdiction the 
 fugitive was found, should interpose by plea any law or regula 
 tion affecting to discharge him from such obligation imposed by 
 the law of the other state, that plea should be overruled. The 
 second section would necessarily receive this complete effect by 
 the adjudication of the courts of law of the United States, and 
 of every state, without any interposition by Congress whatever. 
 No law of Congress could give to the section any greater force, 
 effect, or power ; because all laws must be tried by the constitu 
 tion before the judiciary. It results from this that the court in 
 which such a claim should be asserted, would be confined to try 
 the questions first, whether the alleged fugitive from labor was 
 held to labor to the claimant in another state by the laws of 
 that state, and secondly, whether he had escaped from that state 
 into the state where he was found. And the court would have 
 a right to decide upon the validity of the laws of the other state, 
 by which the fugitive was alleged to be held to labor, and be 
 obliged to decide upon them as courts now do in all cases of 
 conflict of laws. The court would be restricted in this judicial 
 proceeding, only in two respects ; first, they must not allow a 
 plea of any law or regulation of the state where the fugitive 
 was found, to Avork his discharge from an obligation created by 
 the laws of the state from which he fled ; and secondly, the 
 court might perhaps be obliged, by the last clause of the section, 
 to pronounce judgment, that the fugitive should be delivered to 
 the party who had established the claim to the labor or service 
 of the fugitive.. If it be assumed that the courts of the state, or 
 
FREEDOM. 245 
 
 of the United States, might disregard the constitutional inhibi 
 tion : we reply, first, that Congress can not presume, nor can 
 this court presume that any court would be guilty of a derelic 
 tion ; and secondly, that the remedy could always be applied In 
 a revision of the proceedings of inferior courts by the supreme 
 court of the United States, whose power on questions of consti 
 tutional law is higher than that of the legislature 
 
 Again. It is a duty of the citizen, and a duty of man, in 
 every social state, and even in savage life, to give necessary 
 shelter, comfort, and sustenance, to the wayfaring man, the 
 stranger, and the fugitive. Such exiles have a natural right to 
 demand protection and charity. That right is sustained by di 
 vine laws. The act of 1793, however necessary, or even just its 
 provisions, by forbidding hospitalities to a class excepted from 
 among all other men, is in derogation of the rights of citizenship, 
 and of manhood. Argument, U. S. Supreme Court, Dec., 1847. 
 
 HFtcaHttton of jFitflittbrs. 
 
 "No person held to service or labor, in one state, under the 
 laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
 law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
 Imt shall be delivered up on claim of the party," &c. This is 
 a mere announcement of a principle which shall be paramount, 
 in courts of justice, to any local laws or regulations. 
 
 Nor is the origin of the principle of this latter clause, in any 
 degree the same, with the source to which we have traced the 
 principle of extradition of fugitives from justice. The latter is 
 found in the comity of nations, and in the necessity of maintain 
 ing the cause of justice, of order, of law, and of government. 
 The former has no such foundation. If by the words " persons 
 held to service or labor" are meant, as some suppose, persons 
 held by contract, we shall look in vain throughout the history 
 of every civilized state, for a principle so much at war with hu 
 man liberty, as the surrender of fugitive debtors. Some modern 
 states allow to citizens, or subjects of other states, access to 
 courts of justice, to enforce obligations of debt by the remedies 
 given in similar cases to their own citizens. None ever surren 
 dered and none ever will surrender a fugitive debtor, to be 
 conveyed to the state where the obligation was incurred. 
 
246 SELECTIONS. 
 
 Another opinion exists, which is thus expressed by the late 
 and lamented Justice Story : " The object of this clause was 
 * to secure to the citizens of the slave-holding states the complete 
 right and title of ownership in their slaves as property in every 
 state in the Union, into which they might escape from the state- 
 where they were held in servitude. " If this opinion be adopt 
 ed, the very shadow of analogy between the two constitutional 
 powers will vanish. For, by the general law of nations, none 
 is bound to recognise the state of slavery as to foreign slaves, 
 found within its territorial dominions, when it is in opposition to 
 its own policy and institutions, in favor of the subjects of other 
 nations, where slavery is recognised. There is not now, and 
 never was, any such comity of nations, as dictated compacts for 
 the surrender of fugitive slaves. No Christian nation would 
 ever make such a compact. Every state has denied an obliga 
 tion to surrender persons claimed to be slaves. It was truly 
 said, by the distinguished judge last mentioned, that " if the con 
 stitution had not contained the clause now under consideration, 
 every non-slaveholding state in the Union would have been at 
 liberty to have declared free all runaway slaves coming within 
 its limits, and to have given them entire immunity, and protec 
 tion against the claims of their masters." Therefore the clause 
 is an abridgment of state sovereignty it conflicts with the prin 
 ciples of natural and civil liberty, and contrasts, at least, strongly 
 with the rights and privileges guarantied to the citizens of all 
 the states by the constitution. It is, therefore, to be strictly 
 construed. If strictly construed, the clause spends its whole 
 force in an inhibition of laws and regulations calculated, in one 
 state, to work a discharge of fugitives held to labor in other 
 states, by the laws thereof, and neither needs nor contemplates, 
 legislation by Congress, but relies for its execution, upon the 
 judicial authorities of the states and of the Union. 
 
 The work of usurpation once begun, derives strength from 
 precedent and fearful force from judicial acquiescence. Thus 
 it has happened in regard to the claim under consideration. The 
 very structure of the provision shows that it was designed merely 
 to limit and restrict the legislative power of the states, not to 
 deprive them of all power to legislate concerning fugitives from 
 slavery. No person held to labor by the laws of one state, and 
 
FREEDOM. 247 
 
 escaping into another, shall be discharged in consequence of any 
 law or regulation of that state. This language plainly implies 
 that any state may pass what laws, and establish what regula 
 tions it may deem expedient, and those laws will be valid and 
 effectual, save only in one respect, namely, that no person shall, 
 in consequence thereof, be discharged from labor or service due, 
 in another state, by the laws thereof. It was so understood 
 throughout the Union. Accordingly, at a very early period, 
 every state, or almost every state, enacted laws regulating the 
 proceedings on the claim of fugitives, in harmony, as was be 
 lieved, with the constitutional provisions. But after a lapse of 
 fifty years, and after acquiescence during that peiiod by nearly 
 all the states in this system of legislation, it was decided in the 
 case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, that the restriction of state leg 
 islative power was an absolute inhibition of its exercise. With 
 the most profound deference, we submit that the error of that 
 adjudication need not be exposed by argument, but is apparent 
 and rendered palpable, by bringing the constitution and the 
 adjudication into simple juxtaposition and contrast. Argument 
 in U. S.Supj-eme Court, 1847. 
 
 Emancipation in tfjc Bistrirt of Columbia. 
 
 WE of the free states are, equally with you of the slave 
 states, responsible for the existence of slavery in this district, the 
 field exclusively of our common legislation. I regret that, as 
 yet, I see little reason to hope that a majority in favor of eman 
 cipation exists here. The legislature of New York, from whom, 
 with great deference, I dissent, seems willing to accept now the 
 extinction of the slave-trade, and waive emancipation. But we 
 shall assume the whole responsibility if we stipulate not to ex 
 ercise the power hereafter when a majority shall be obtained. 
 Nor will the plea with which you would furnish us be of any 
 avail. If I could understand so mysterious a paradox myself, I 
 never should be able to explain to the apprehension of the poo- 
 pie whom I represent, how it was that an absolute and express 
 power to legislate in all cases over the District of Columbia was 
 embarrassed and defeated by an implied condition not to legis 
 late for the abolition of slavery in this district. Sir, I shall vote 
 
248 SELECTIONS. 
 
 for that measure, and I am willing to appropriate any means 
 necessary to carry it into execution. And, if I shall be asked 
 what I did to embellish the capital of my country, I ^vill point 
 to her freedmen, and say, " These are the monuments of my mu 
 nificence !" 
 * * * * * * # # 
 
 I think it wrong to hold men in bondage at any time and 
 under any circumstances. I thing it right and just, therefore, 
 to abolish slavery when we have the power, at any time, at all 
 times, under any circumstances. Now, sir, so far as the objection 
 rests upon the time when this measure is proposed, I beg leave 
 to say that if the present time is not the right time, then there 
 must be, or there must have been, some other time, and that 
 must be a time that is already past, or time yet to come. Well, 
 sir, slavery has existed here under the sanction of Congress for 
 fifty years, undisturbed. The right time, then, has not passed. 
 It must, therefore, be a future time. "Will gentlemen oblige me 
 and the country by telling us how far down in the future the right 
 time lies 1 When will it be discreet to bring before Congress 
 and the people the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum 
 bia 1 Sir, let not senators delude themselves. The right time, 
 if it be not now, will never come. Sir, each senator must judge 
 for himself. Judging for myself, I am sure the right time has 
 come. Past the middle age of life, it has happened to me now, 
 for the first time, to be a legislator for slaves. I believe it to be 
 my duty to the people of this district, to the country, and to 
 mankind, to restore them to freedom. For the performance of 
 such a duty, the first time and the first occasion which offers is 
 the right one. The people who sent me here knew my opin 
 ions and my principles 011 that subject. If I should waive this 
 time and this occasion, such is the uncertainty of human life and 
 human events, that no other may offer themselves to me. I could 
 not return to the people who sent me here, nor could I go be 
 fore my Maker, having been here, without having humbly, but 
 firmly, endeavored to discharge that great obligation. 
 
 Sir, I can spare one word of reply, not to the wretched impu 
 tation that I seek by this measure to dissolve the union of these 
 states, but to the argument that the measure itself tends to so 
 disastrous a consummation. This Union is the feeblest and 
 
FREEDOM. 249 
 
 weakest national power that exists on the earth, if with twenty 
 millions of freemen now it can not bear the shock of adding two 
 thousand to their number. The Union stands, as I have de 
 monstrated at large on former occasions, not upon a majority 
 of voices in either or both houses of Congress upon any measure 
 whatever, but iipon enduring physical, social, and political ne 
 cessities, which will survive all the questions and commotions 
 and alarms of this day, and will survive the extinction of slavery, 
 not only in the District of Columbia, but throughout the world. 
 Others may try to save it from imaginary perils, by concessions 
 to slavery. I shall still seek to perpetuate it by rendering the 
 exercise of its power equal, impartial, and beneficent, to all 
 classes and conditions of mankind. Speeches in U. S. Senate, 
 1850. 
 
 2ttmi!s:(m of jtfcto Slabdiottimcj States. 
 
 I SAID I would have voted for the admission of California 
 even as a slave state, under the extraordinary circumstances 
 which I have before distinctly described. I say that now ; but 
 I say also, that before I would agree to admit any more states 
 from Texas, the circumstances which render such an act neces 
 sary must be shown, and must be such as to determine my obli 
 gation to do so ; and that is precisely what I insist, can not be 
 settled now. It must be left for those to whom the responsibility 
 will belong. 
 
 Mr. President, I understand, and I am happy in understand 
 ing, that I agree with the honorable senator from Massachusetts, 
 that there is no obligation upon Congress to admit four new slave 
 states out of Texas, but that Congress has reserved her right to 
 say whether those states shall be formed and admitted or not. 
 I shall rely on that reservation. I shall vote to admit no more 
 slave states, unless under circumstances absolutely compulsory 
 and no such case is now foreseen. 
 
 Mr. WEBSTER. What I said was, that if the states hereafter 
 to be made out of Texas choose to come in as slave states, they 
 have a right so to do. 
 
 Mr. SEWARD. My position is, that they have not a right to 
 come in at all, if Congress rejects their institutions. The eubdi- 
 
 11* 
 
250 SELECTIONS. 
 
 vision of Texas is a matter optional with both parties, Texas and 
 the United States. 
 
 Mr. WEBSTER. Does the honorable senator mean to say that 
 Congress can hereafter decide whether they shall be slave or 
 free states ? 
 
 Mr. SEWARD. I mean to say that Congress can hereafter de 
 cide whether any states, slave or free, can be framed out of 
 Texas. If they should never be framed out of Texas, they 
 never could be admitted. 
 
 Another objection arises out. of the principle on which the de 
 mand for compromise rests. That principle assumes a classifica 
 tion of the states as northern and southern states, as it is ex 
 pressed by the honorable senator from South Carolina [Mr. CAL- 
 HOUN], but into slave states and free states, as more directly ex 
 pressed by the honorable senator from Georgia [Mr. BERRIEN]. 
 The argument is, that the states are severally equal, and that 
 these two classes were equal at the first, and that the constitu 
 tion was founded on that equilibrium ; that the states being 
 equal, and the classes of the states being equal in rights, they 
 are to be regarded as constituting an association in which each 
 state, and each of these classes of states, respectively, contribute 
 in due proportions ; that the new territories are a common ac 
 quisition, and the people of these several states and classes of 
 states, have an equal right to participate in them, respectively ; 
 that the right of the people of the slave states to emigrate to 
 the territories with their slaves as property is necessary to afford 
 such a participation on their part, inasmuch as the people of the 
 free states emigrate into the same territories with their property. 
 And the argument deduces from this right the principle that, if 
 Congress exclude slavery from any part of this new domain, it 
 would be only just to set off a portion of the domain some say 
 south of 36 30 , others south of 34 which should be regarded 
 at least as free to slavery, and to be organized into slave states. 
 
 Argument ingenious and subtle, declamation earnest and bold, 
 and persuasion gentle and winning as the voice of the turtle 
 dove when it is heard in the land, all alike and all together have 
 failed to convince me of the soundness of this principle of the 
 proposed compromise, or of any one of the propositions on which 
 it is attempted to be established. 
 
FREEDOM. 251 
 
 How is the original equality of the states proved ? It rests 
 on a syllogism of Vattel, as follows : All men are equal by the 
 law of nature and of nations. But states are only lawful aggre 
 gations of individual men, who severally are equal. Therefore, 
 states are equal in natural rights. All this is just and sound. 
 But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal 
 by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in 
 slaves falls to the ground ; for one who is equal to another can 
 not be the owner or property of that other. But you answer,* 
 that the constitution recognises property in slaves. It would 
 be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition 
 must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and 
 of nations. But I deny that the constitution recognises property 
 in man. I submit, on the other hand, most respectfully, that 
 the constitution not merely does not affirm that principle, but, 
 on the contrary, altogether excludes it. 
 
 The constitution does not expressly affirm anything on the 
 subject ; all that it contains is two incidental allusions to slaves. 
 These are, first, in the provision establishing a ratio of represen 
 tation and taxation ; and secondly, in the provision relating to 
 fugitives from labor. In both cases, the constitution designedly 
 mentions slaves, not as slaves, much less as chattels, but as per 
 sons. That this recognition of them as persons was designed is 
 historically known, and I think was never denied. I give only 
 two of the manifold proofs. First, JOHN JAY, in the Federalist, 
 says : 
 
 "Lot the case of the slaves be considered, as it is iu truth, a peculiar one. 
 Let the compromising expedient of the constitution be mutually adopted 
 which regards them ns inhabitants, but as debased below the equal level 
 of free inhabitants, which regards the slave as divested of two fifths of tho 
 man." 
 
 Yes, sir, of two fifths, but of only two fifths ; leaving still 
 three fifths ; leaving the slave still an inhabitant, a person, a 
 living, breathing, moving, reasoning, immortal man. 
 
 The other proof is from the debates in the convention. It is 
 brief, and I think instructive : 
 
 AUGUST 28, 1787. 
 
 "Mr. BUTLER and Mr. PINCKSKT moved to require fugitive slaves and ser 
 vants to b delivered up like 
 
252 SELECTIONS. 
 
 "Mr. WILSOX. This would oblige the executive of the state to do it at 
 public expense. 
 
 "Mr. SHERMAN saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surren 
 dering a slave or a servant than a horse. 
 
 "Mr. BUTLER withdrew his proposition, in order that some particular 
 provision might be made, apart from this article." 
 
 AUGUST 29, 1787. 
 
 "Mr. BUTLER moved to insert after article 15: If any person bound to 
 service or labor in any of the United States shall escape into another state, 
 he or she shall not be discharged from such service or labor in consequence 
 of any regulation subsisting in the state to which they escape, but shall be 
 delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or labor. " 
 
 "After the engrossment, September 15, page 550, article 4, section 2, the 
 third paragraph, the term legally was struck out, and the words, under 
 the laws thereof inserted after the word state, in compliance with the 
 wishes of some who thought the term legal equivocal, and favoring the 
 idea that slavery was legal in a moral view. Madison Debates, pp. 487, 492. 
 
 I deem it established, then, that the constitution does not rec 
 ognise property in man, bnt leaves that question, as between 
 the states, to the law of nature and of nations. That law, as 
 expounded by Vattcl, is founded on the reason of things. When 
 God had created the earth, with its wonderful adaptations, he 
 gave dominion over it to man, absolute human dominion. The 
 title of that dominion, thus bestowed, would have been incom 
 plete, if the lord of all terrestrial tilings could himself have been 
 the property of his fellow-man. 
 
 The right to have a slave implies the right in some one to make 
 the slave ; that right must be equal and mutual, and this would 
 resolve society into a state of perpetual war. But if we grant 
 the original equality of the states, and grant also the constitu 
 tional recognition of slaves as property, still the argument we 
 are considering fails. Because the states are not parties to the 
 constitution as states ; it is the constitution of the people of the 
 United States. 
 
 But even if the states continue under the constitution as states, 
 they nevertheless surrendered their equality as states, and sub 
 mitted themselves to the sway of the numerical majority, with 
 qualifications or checks ; first, of the representation of three 
 fifths of slaves in the ratio of representation and taxation ; and, 
 secondly, of the equal representation of states in the senate. 
 
FREEDOM. 253 
 
 The proposition of an established classification of states as 
 slave states and free states, as insisted on by some, and into 
 northern and southern, as maintained by others, seems to me 
 purely imaginary, and of course the supposed equilibrium of 
 those classes a mere conceit. This must be so, because, when 
 the constitution was adopted, twelve of the thirteen states were 
 slave states, and so there was no equilibrium. And so as to the 
 classification of states as northern states and southern states. It 
 is the maintenance of slavery by law in a state, not parallels of 
 latitude, that makes it a southern state ; and the absence of this, 
 that makes it a northern state. And so all the states, save one, 
 were southern states, and there was no equilibrium. But the 
 constitution was made not only for southern and northern states, 
 but for states neither northern nor southern, namely, the west 
 ern states, their coming in being foreseen and provided for. 
 
 It needs little argument to show that the idea of a joint stock 
 association, or a copartnership, as applicable even by its analo 
 gies to the United States, is erroneous, with all the consequen 
 ces fancifully deduced from it. The United States are a polit 
 ical state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the 
 security, welfare, and happiness, of all who live under its pro 
 tection. The theory I am combating reduces the objects of 
 government to the mere spoils of conquest. Contrary to a the 
 ory so debasing, the preamble of the constitution not only 
 asserts the sovereignty to be, not in the states, but in the peo 
 ple, but also promulgates the objects of the constitution : 
 
 "We, the people of the United States, in order to form fi more perfect 
 union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
 defence, promote the GENERAL WELFARE, and secure the blessings of liberty, 
 do ordain and establish this constitution." 
 
 Objects sublime and benevolent ! They exclude the very 
 idea of conquests, to be either divided among states or even en 
 joyed by them, for the purpose of securing, not the blessings of 
 liberty, but the evils of slavery. Speech in U. S. Senate, 1850. 
 
254 SELECTIONS. 
 
 of te National 33omam, 
 
 IT is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is true- 
 it was acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the whole 
 nation. But we hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. 
 We hold no arbitrary power over anything, whether acquired 
 lawfully or seized by usurpation. The constitution regulates 
 our stewardship ; the constitution devotes the domain to union, 
 to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. 
 
 But there is a higher law than the constitution, which regu 
 lates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same 
 noble purposes. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, 
 of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by 
 the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so 
 discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree 
 their happiness. How momentous that trust is, we may learn 
 from the instructions of the founder of modern philosophy: 
 
 "Xo man," says Bacon, "can by care-taking, as the Scripture saith, odd 
 a cubit to his stature in tin s little model of a man s body; but, in the great 
 frame of kingdoms and commonwealths, it is in the power of princes or 
 estates to add amplitude and greatness to their kingdom. For, by intro 
 ducing such ordinances, constitutions, and customs, as are wise, they may 
 BOW greatness to their posterity and successors. But these things are com 
 monly not observed, but left to take their chance." 
 
 This is a state, and we are deliberating for it, just as our 
 fathers deliberated in establishing the institutions wo enjoy. 
 Whatever superiority there is in our condition nnd hopes over 
 those of any other " kingdom" or " estate," is due to the fortu 
 nate circumstance that our ancestors did not leave things to 
 " take their chance," but that they " added amplitude and great 
 ness" to our commonwealth " by introducing such ordinances, 
 constitutions, and customs, as were wise." We in our turn 
 have succeeded to the same responsibilities, and we can not 
 approach the duty before us wisely or justly, except we raise 
 ourselves to the great consideration of how we can most cer 
 tainly " sow greatness to our posterity and successors." 
 
 And now the simple, bold, and even awful question which 
 presents itself to us is this : Shall we, who are founding insti 
 tutions, social nnd political, for countless millions shall we, 
 
FREEDOM. 255 
 
 who know by experience the wise and the just, antl are free to 
 choose them, and to reject the erroneous and unjust shall we 
 establish human bondage, or permit it by our sufferance to be 
 established ? Sir, our forefathers would not have hesitated an 
 hour. They found slavery existing here, and they left it only 
 because they could not remove it. There is not only no free 
 state which would now establish it, but there is no slave state 
 which, if it had had the free alternative as we now have, would 
 have founded slavery. Indeed, our revolutionary predecessors 
 had precisely the same question before them in establishing an 
 organic law under which the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, 
 Illinois, and Wisconsin, have since come into the Union, and 
 they solemnly repudiated and excluded slavery from those states 
 for ever. I confess that the most alarming evidence of our 
 degeneracy which has yet been given is found in the fact that 
 we even debate such a question. Speech in U. S. Senate, 1850. 
 
 ii in t!)c !Xfcto ^Territories. 
 
 SIR, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we 
 are, which would establish slavery. I speak on due consid 
 eration, because Britain, France, and Mexico, have abolished 
 slavery, and all other European states are preparing to abolish 
 it as speedily as they can. We can not establish slavery, be 
 cause there are certain elements of the security, welfare, and 
 greatness of nations, which we all admit, or ought to admit, and 
 recognise as essential ; and these are, the security of natural 
 rights, the diffusion of knowledge, and the freedom of industry. 
 Slavery is incompatible with all of these ; and, just in proportion 
 to the extent that it prevails and controls in any republican 
 state, just to that extent it subverts the principle of democracy. 
 and converts the state into an aristocracy or a despotism. I 
 will not offend sensibilities by drawing my proofs from the slave 
 states existing among ourselves ; but I will draw them from the 
 greatest of the European slave states. The population of Rus 
 sia in Europe, in 1844, was fifty-four millions, two hundred and 
 fifty-one thousand. Of these, fifty-three millions and five hun 
 dred thousand were serfs, and the remaining seven hundred and 
 fifty-one thousand, nobles, clergy, merchants, etc. 
 
256 SELECTIONS. 
 
 The imperial government abandons the control over the fifty- 
 three and a half millions to their owners ; and these owners, 
 included in the seven hundred and fifty-one thousand, are thus 
 a privileged class, or aristocracy. If ever the government inter 
 feres at all with the serfs, who are the only laboring population, 
 it is by edicts designed to abridge their opportunities of educa 
 tion, and thus continue their debasement. What was the origin 
 of this system ? Conquest, in which the captivity of the con 
 quered was made perpetual and hereditary. This, it seems to 
 me, is identical with American slavery, only at one and the 
 same time exnggerated by the greater disproportion between the 
 privileged classes and the slaves in their respective numbers, 
 and yet relieved of the unhappicst feature of American slavery, 
 the distinction of castes. What but this renders Russia at once 
 the most arbitrary despotism and the most barbarous state in 
 Europe ? And what is its effect, but industry comparatively 
 profitless, and sedition, not occasional and partial, but chronic 
 and pervading the empire. I speak of slavery not in the lan 
 guage of fancy, but in the language of philosophy. Montes 
 quieu remarked upon the proposition to introduce slavery into 
 France, that the demand for slavery was the demand of luxury 
 and corruption, and not the demand of patriotism. Of all slavery, 
 African slavery is the worst, for it combines practically the fea 
 tures of what is distinguished as real slavery, or serfdom, with 
 the personal slavery known in the oriental world. Its domestic 
 features lead to vice, while its political features render it inju 
 rious and dangerous to the state. 
 
 I can not stop to debate long with those who maintain that, 
 slavery is itself practically economical and humane. I might 
 be content with saying that there are some axioms in political 
 science that a statesman or a founder of states mny adopt, 
 especially in the Congress of the United States, and that among 
 those axioms are these: That all men are created equal, and 
 have inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the choice of pur 
 suits of happiness ; that knowledge promotes virtue, and right 
 eousness exalteth a nation ; that freedom is preferable to slavery, 
 and that democratic governments, where they can be maintained 
 by acquiescence, without force, are preferable to institutions 
 exercising arbitrary and irresponsible power. 
 
FREEDOM. 257 
 
 It remains only to remark that our own experience lias proved 
 the dangerous influence and tendency of slavery. All our ap 
 prehensions of dangers, present and future, begin and end with 
 slavery. If slavery, limited as it yet is, now threatens to sub 
 vert the constitution, how can we, as wise and prudent states 
 men, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus 
 increase already-impending dangers ] Whether, then, I regard 
 merely the welfare of the future inhabitants of the new territo 
 ries, or the security and welfare of the whole people of the 
 United States, or the welfare of the whole family of mankind, 
 I can not consent to introduce slavery into any part of this con 
 tinent which is now exempt from what seems to me so great an 
 evil. Speech in U. S. Senate, 1850. 
 
 SJjpjjrdjcnstons of Bisunion (Srounfclcss. 
 
 AND this brings me to the great and all-absorbing argument 
 that the Union is in danger of being dissolved, and that it can 
 only be saved by compromise. I do not know what I would 
 not do to save the Union ; and therefore I shall bestow upon 
 this subject a very deliberate consideration. 
 
 I do not overlook the fact that the entire delegation from the 
 slave states, although they differ in regard to the details of the 
 compromise proposed, and perhaps in regard to the exact cir- 
 cumstances of the crisis, seem to concur in this momentous warr 
 ing. Nor do I doubt at all the patriotic devotion to the Union 
 which is expressed by those from whom this warning proceeds. 
 And yet, sir, although such warnings have been uttered with 
 impassioned solemnity in my hearing every day for near three 
 months, my confidence in the Union remains unshaken. I think 
 they are to be received with no inconsiderable distrust, because 
 they are uttered under the influence of a controlling interest to 
 be secured, a paramount object to be gained ; and that is an 
 equilibrium of power in the republic. I think they are to be 
 received with even more distrust, because, with the most pro 
 found respect, they are uttered under an obviously high excite 
 ment. Nor is that excitement an unnatural one. It is a law of 
 our nature that the passions disturb the reason and judgment 
 just in proportion to the importance of the occasion, and the 
 
258 SELECTIONS. 
 
 consequent necessity for calmness and candor. I think they 
 are to be distrusted, because there is a diversity of opinion in 
 regard to the nature and operation of this excitement. The 
 senators from some states say that it has brought all parties in 
 their own region into unanimity. The honorable senator from 
 Kentucky [Mr. CLAY] says that the danger lies in the violence 
 of party spirit, and refers us for proof to the difficulties which 
 attended the organization of the house of representatives. 
 
 Sir, in my humble judgment, it is not the fierce conflict of 
 parties that we are seeing and hearing ; but, on the contrary* it 
 is the agony of distracted parties a convulsion resulting from 
 the too narrow foundations of both the great parties, and of all 
 parties foundations laid in compromises of natural justice and 
 of human liberty. A question, a moral question, transcending 
 the too narrow creeds of parties, has arisen ; the public con 
 science expands with it, and the green withes of party associa 
 tions give way and break, and fall off from it. No, sir ; it is not 
 the state that is dying of the fever of party spirit. It is merely 
 a paralysis of parties, premonitory however of their restoration, 
 with new elements of health and vigor to be imbibed from that 
 spirit of the age which is so justly called Progress. 
 
 Nor is the evil that of unlicensed, irregular, and turbulent fac 
 tion. We are told that twenty legislatures are in session, burn 
 ing like furnaces, heating and inflaming the popular passions. 
 But these twenty legislatures are constitutional furnaces. They 
 are performing their customary functions, imparting healthful 
 heat and vitality while within their constitutional jurisdiction. 
 If they rage beyond its limits, the popular passions of this coun- 
 tiy are not at all, I think, in danger of being inflamed to excess. 
 No, sir ; let none of these fires be extinguished. For ever let 
 them burn and blaze. They are neither ominous meteors nor 
 baleful comets, but planets ; and bright and intense as their heat 
 may be, it is their native temperature, and they must still obey 
 the law which, by attraction toward this solar centre, holds them 
 in their spheres. 
 
 I see nothing of that conflict between the southern and north 
 ern states, or between their representative bodies, which seems 
 to be on all sides of me assumed. Not a word of menace, not a 
 word of anjrer, not an intemperate word, has been uttered in 
 
FREEDOM. 259 
 
 the northern legislatures. They firmly but calmly assert their 
 convictions ; but at the same time they assert their unqualified 
 consent to submit to the common arbiter, and for weal or wo 
 abide the fortunes of the Union. 
 
 What if there be less of moderation in the legislatures of the 
 south ? It only indicates on which side the balance is inclining, 
 and that the decision of the momentous question is near at hand. 
 I agree with those who say that there can be no peaceful disso 
 lution no dissolution of the Union by the secession of states; 
 but that disunion, dissolution, happen when it may, will and 
 must be revolution. I discover no omens of revolution. The 
 predictions of the political astrologers do not agree as to the 
 time or manner in which it is to occur. According to the author 
 ity of the honorable senator from Alabama [Mr. CLEMENS], the 
 event has already happened, and the Union is now in ruins. 
 According to the honorable and distinguished senator from South 
 Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN], it is not to be immediate, but to be de 
 veloped by time. 
 
 What are the omens to which our attention is directed 1 I 
 see nothing but a broad difference of opinion here, and the ex 
 citement consequent upon it. 
 
 I have observed that revolutions which begin in the palace 
 seldom go beyond the palace-walls, and they affect only the 
 dynasty which reigns there. This revolution, if I understand 
 it, began in this senate-chamber a year ago, when the represen 
 tatives from the southern states assembled here and addressed 
 their constituents on what were called the aggressions of the 
 northern states. No revolution was designed at that time, and 
 all that has happened since is the return to Congress of legisla 
 tive resolutions, which seem to me to be only conventional re 
 sponses to the address which emanated from the capitol. 
 
 Sir, in any condition of society there can be no revolution 
 without a cause, an adequate cause. What cause exists here ? 
 We are admitting a new state ; but there is nothing new in that ; 
 we have already admitted seventeen before. But it is said that 
 the slave states are in danger of losing political power by the 
 admission of the new state. Well, sir, is there anything new in 
 that ? The slave states have alwavs been losing political power, 
 and they always will be while they have any to lose. At first, 
 
260 SELECTIONS. 
 
 twelve of the thirteen states were slave states ; now only fifteen 
 out of the thirty are slave states. Moreover, the change is con 
 stitutionally made, and the government was constructed so as to 
 permit changes of the balance of power, in obedience to changes 
 of the forces of the body politic. Danton used to say, " It s all 
 well while the people cry Danton and Robespierre ; but AVO for 
 me if ever the people learn to say, Robespierre and Danton !" 
 That is all of it, sir. The people have been accustomed to say, 
 " the South and the North ;" they are only beginning now to 
 say, " the North and the South." 
 
 Sir, those who would alarm us with the terrors of revolution 
 have not well considered the structure of this government, and 
 the organization of its forces. It is a democracy of property and 
 persons, with a fair approximation toward universal education, 
 and operating by means of universal suffrage. The constituent 
 members of this democracy are the only persons who could sub 
 vert it ; and they are not the citizens of a metropolis like Paris, 
 or of a region subjected to the influences of a metropolis, like 
 France ; but they are husbandmen, dispersed over this broad 
 land, on the mountain and on the plain, and on the prairie, from 
 the ocean to the Rocky mountains, and from the great lakes to 
 the gulf; and this people are now, while we are discussing their 
 imaginary danger, at peace and in their happy, homes, as nn- 
 cdncerned and uninformed of their peril as they are of events 
 occurring in the moon. Nor have the alarmists made due allow 
 ance in their calculations for the influence of conservative reac 
 tion, strong in any government, and irresistible in a rural repub 
 lic, operating by universal suffrage. That principle of reaction 
 is due to the force of the habits of acquiescence and loyalty 
 among the people. No man better understood this principle than 
 MACHIAVELLI, who has told us, in regard to factions, that " no 
 safe reliance can be placed in the force of nature and the bravery 
 of words, except it be corroborated by custom." Do the alarm 
 ists remember that this government has stood sixty years already 
 without exacting one drop of blood? that this government has 
 stood sixty years, and yet treason is an obsolete crime ? That 
 day, I trust, is far off when the fountains of popular contentment 
 shall be broken up ; but, whenever it shall come, it will bring 
 forth a higher illustration than has ever yet been given of the 
 
FREEDOM. 261 
 
 excellence of the democratic system ; for then it will be seen 
 how calmly, how firmly, how nobly, a great people can act in 
 preserving their constitution, whom " love of country moveth, 
 example teacheth, company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, 
 and glory exalteth." 
 
 When the founders of the new republic of the south come to 
 draw over the face of this empire, along or between its parallels 
 of latitude or longitude, their ominous lines of dismemberment, 
 soon to be broadly and deeply shaded with fraternal blood, they 
 may come to the discovery then, if not before, that the natural 
 and even the political connections of the region embraced forbid 
 such a partition ; that its possible divisions are not northern and 
 southern at all, but eastern and western, Atlantic and Pacific ; 
 and that nature and commerce have allied indissolubly for weal 
 and wo the seceders and those from whom they are to be sepa 
 rated ; that while they would rush into a civil war to restore an 
 imaginary equilibrium between the northern states and the south 
 ern states, a new equilibrium has taken its place, in which all 
 those states are on the one side, and the boundless west is on 
 the other. 
 
 Sir, when the founders of the republic of the south come to 
 draw those fearful lines, they will indicate what portions of the 
 continent are to be broken off from their connection with the 
 Atlantic, through the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Delaware, 
 the Potomac, and the Mississippi ; what portion of this people 
 are to be denied the use of the lakes, the railroads, and the 
 canals, now constituting common and customary avenues of travel, 
 trade, and social intercourse ; what families and kindred are to 
 be separated, and converted into enemies ; and what states are 
 to be the scenes of perpetual border warfare, aggravated by in 
 terminable horrors of servile insurrection ] When those porten 
 tous lines shall be drawn, they will disclose what portion of this 
 people is to retain the army and the navy, and the flag of. so 
 many victories ; and, on the other hand, what portion of the 
 people is to be subjected to new and onerous imposts, direct 
 taxes, and forced loans, and conscriptions, to maintain an oppo 
 sing army, an opposing navy, and the new and hateful banner 
 of sedition. Then the projectors of the new republic of the south 
 will meet the question and they may well prepare now to an- 
 
262 SELECTIONS. 
 
 swer it What is all tins for? What intolerable wrong, what 
 unfraternal injustice, have rendered these calamities unavoida 
 ble ? What gain will this unnatural revolution bring to us ? 
 The answer will be : All this is done to secure the institution of 
 African slavery. 
 
 And then, if not before, the question will be discussed, What 
 5s this institution of slavery, that it should cause these unparal 
 leled sacrifices and these disastrous afflictions ? And this will 
 be the answer : When the Spaniards, few in number, discovered 
 the western Indies and adjacent continental America, they need 
 ed labor to draw forth from its virgin stores some speedy return 
 to the cupidity of the court and the bankers of Madrid. They 
 enslaved the indolent, inoffensive, and confiding natives, who 
 perished by thousands, and even by millions, under that new 
 and unnatural bondage. A humane ecclesiastic advised the sub 
 stitution of Africans reduced to captivity in their native wars, 
 and a pious princess adopted the suggestion, with a dispensation 
 from the head of the church, granted on the ground of the pre 
 scriptive right of the Christian to enslave the heathen, to effect 
 his conversion. The colonists of North America, innocent in 
 their unconsciousness of wrong, encouraged the slave traffic, and 
 thus the labor of subduing their territory devolved chiefly upon 
 the African race. A happy conjuncture brought on an awaken 
 ing of the conscience of mankind to the injustice of slavery, 
 simultaneously with the independence of tho colonies. Massa 
 chusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, welcomed and em 
 braced the spirit of universal emancipation. Renouncing lux 
 ury, they secured influence and empire. But the states of the 
 south, misled by a new and profitable culture, elected to main 
 tain and perpetuate slavery ; and thus, choosing luxury, they 
 lost power and empire. 
 
 When this answer shall be given, it will appear that the ques 
 tion of dissolving the Union is a complex question ; that it em 
 braces the fearful issue whether the Union shall stand, and sla 
 very, under the steady, peaceful action of moral, social, and 
 political causes, be removed by gradual, voluntary effort, and 
 with compensation, or whether the Union shall be dissolved, and 
 civil wars ensue, bringing on violent but complete and immediate 
 
FREEDOM. 263 
 
 emancipation. We are now arrived at that stage of our national 
 progress when that crisis can be foreseen, when we must foresee 
 it. It is directly before us. Its shadow is upon us. It darkens 
 the legislative halls, the temples of worship, and the home and 
 the hearth. Every question, political, civil, or ecclesiastical, 
 hoAvever foreign to the subject of slavery, brings up slavery as 
 an incident, and the incident supplants the principal question. 
 We hear of nothing but slavery, and we can talk of nothing but 
 slavery. And now, it seems to me that all our difficulties, em 
 barrassments, and dangers, arise, not out of unlawful perversions 
 of the question of slavery, as some suppose, but from the want 
 of moral courage to meet this question of emancipation as we 
 ought. Consequently, we hear on one side demands absurd, 
 indeed, but yet unceasing for an immediate and unconditional 
 abolition of slavery as if any power, except the people of the 
 slave states, could abolish it, and as if they could be moved to 
 abolish it by merely sounding the trumpet loudly and proclaim 
 ing emancipation, while the institution is interwoven with all 
 their social and political interests, constitutions, and customs. 
 
 On the other hand, our statesmen say that " slavery has 
 always existed, and, for aught they know or can do, it always 
 must exist. God permitted it, and he alone can indicate the 
 way to remove it." As if the Supreme Creator, after giving iis 
 the instructions of his providence and revelation for the illumi 
 nation of our minds and consciences, did not leave us in all hu 
 man transactions, with due invocations of his holy spirit, to seek 
 out his will and execute it for ourselves. 
 
 Here, then, is the point of my separation from both of these 
 parties. I feel assured that slavery must give way, and will 
 give way, to the salutary instructions of economy, and to the 
 ripening influences of humanity ; that emancipation is inevitable, 
 and is near ; that it may be hastened or hindered ; and that 
 whether it shall be peaceful or violent, depends upon the ques 
 tion whether it be hastened or hindered ; that all measures which 
 fortify slavery or extend it, tend to the consummation of vio 
 lence ; all that check its extension and abate its strength, tend 
 to its peaceful extirpation. But I will adopt none but lawful, 
 constitutional, and peaceful means, to secure even that end ; and 
 none such can I or will I forego. Nor do I know any impor- 
 
264 SELECTIONS. 
 
 tant or responsible political body that proposes to do more than 
 this. No free state claims to extend its legislation into a slave 
 state. None claims that Congress shall usurp power to abolish 
 slavery in the slave states. None claims that any violent, un 
 constitutional, or unlawful measure shall be embraced. And, on 
 the other hand, if we offer no scheme or plan for the adoption 
 of the slave states, with the assent and co-operation of Congress, 
 it is only because the slave states are unwilling as yet 1 to receive 
 such suggestions, or even to entertain the question of emancipa 
 tion in any form. 
 
 But, sir, I will take this occasion to say that, while I can -not 
 agree with the honorable senator from Massachusetts in propo 
 sing to devote eighty millions of dollars to remove the free col 
 ored population from the slave states, and thus, as it appears to 
 me, fortify slavery, there is no reasonable limit to which I am 
 not willing to go in applying the national treasures to effect the 
 peaceful, voluntary removal of slavery itself. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to show that there is not now, and 
 there is not likely to occur, any adequate cause for revolution in 
 regard to slavery. But you reply that, nevertheless, you must 
 have guaranties ; and the first one is for the surrender of fugitives 
 from labor. That guaranty you can not have, as I have already 
 shown, because you can not roll back the tide of social progress. 
 You must be content with what you have. If you wage war 
 against us, you can, at most, only conquer us, and then all you 
 
 can get will be a treaty, and that you have already. 
 
 ######## 
 
 I do not say that there may not be disturbance, though I do 
 not apprehend even that. Absolute regularity and order in ad 
 ministration have not yet been established in any government, 
 and unbroken popular tranquillity has not yet been attained in 
 even the most advanced condition of human society. The ma 
 chinery of our system is necessarily complex. A pivot may drop 
 out here, a lever may be displaced there, a wheel may fall out 
 of gearing elsewhere, but the machinery will soon recover its 
 regularity, and move on just as before, with even better adapta 
 tion and adjustment to overcome new obstructions. 
 
 There are many well-disposed persons who are alarmed at the 
 occurrence of any such disturbance. The failure of a legislative 
 
FREEDOM. 265 
 
 body to. organize is to their apprehension a fearful omen, and an 
 extra-constitutional assemblage to consult npon public affairs is 
 with them cause for desperation. Even senators speak of the 
 Union as if it existed only by consent, and, as it seems to be 
 implied, by the assent of the legislatures of the states. On the 
 contrary, the Union was not founded in voluntary choice, nor 
 does it exist by voluntary consent. 
 
 A union was proposed to the colonies by Franklin and others, 
 in 1754 ; but such was their aversion to an abridgment of their 
 own importance, respectively, that it was rejected even under 
 the pressure of a disastrous invasion .by France. 
 
 A union of choice was proposed to the colonies in 1775 ; but 
 so strong was their opposition, that they went through the war 
 of independence without having established more than a mere 
 council of consultation. 
 
 But with independence came enlarged interests of agriculture 
 absolutely new interests of manufactures interests of com 
 merce, of fisheries, of navigation, of a common domain, of com 
 mon debts, of common revenues and taxation, of the admin 
 istration of justice, of public defence, of public honor; in 
 short, interests of common nationality and sovereignty inter 
 ests which at last compelled the adoption of a more perfect 
 union a national government. 
 
 The genius, talents, and learning of Hamilton, of Jay, and of 
 Madison, surpassing perhaps the intellectual power ever exerted 
 before for the establishment of a government, combined with the 
 serene but mighty influence of "Washington, were only sufficient 
 to secure the reluctant adoption of the constitution that is now 
 the object of all our affections and of the hopes of mankind. No 
 wonder that the conflicts in which that constitution was born, and 
 the almost desponding solemnity of Washington, in his farewell 
 address, impressed his countrymen and mankind with a profound 
 distrust of its perpetuity ! No wonder that while the murmurs 
 of that day are yet ringing in our ears, we cherish that distrust, 
 with pious reverence, as a national and patriotic sentiment ! 
 
 But it is time to prevent the abuses of that sentiment. It is 
 time to shake off that fear, for fear is always weakness. It is 
 time to remember that government, even when it arises by 
 chance or accident, and is administered capriciously and oppres- 
 
 12 
 
266 SELECTIONS. 
 
 sively, is ever the strongest of all human institutions, surviving 
 many social and ecclesiastical changes and convulsions : and 
 that this constitution of ours has all the inherent strength com 
 mon to governments in general, and added to them has also the 
 solidity and firmness derived from broader and deeper founda 
 tions in national justice, and a better civil adaptation to promote 
 the welfare and happiness of mankind. 
 
 The Union, the creature of necessities physical, moral, so 
 cial, and political endures by virtue of the same necessities; 
 and these necessities are stronger than when it was produced 
 stronger by the greater amplitude of territory now covered by 
 it stronger by the sixfold increase of the society living under its 
 beneficent protection stronger by the augmentation ten thou 
 sand times of the fields, the workshops, the mines, and the ships, 
 of that society ; of its productions of the sea, of the plow, of the 
 loom, and of the anvil, in their constant circle of internal and 
 international exchange stronger in the long rivers penetrating 
 regions before unknown stronger in all the artificial roads, 
 canals, and other channels and avenues essential not only to 
 trade but to defence stronger in steam navigation, in steam 
 locomotion on the land, and in telegraph communications, un 
 known when the constitution was adopted stronger in the 
 freedom and in the growing empire of the seas stronger in the 
 element of national honor in all lands, and stronger than all in 
 the now settled habits of veneration and affection for institutions 
 so stupendous and so useful. 
 
 The Union, then, is, not because merely that men choose that 
 it shall be, but because some government must exist here, and 
 no other government than this can. If it could be dashed to 
 atoms by the whirlwind, the lightning, or the earthquake, to 
 day, it would rise again in all its just and magnificent propor 
 tions to-morrow. This nation is a globe, still accumulating upon 
 accumulation not a dissolving sphere. 
 
 I have heard somewhat here, and almost for the first time in 
 my life, of divided allegiance of allegiance to the South and 
 to the Union of allegiance to states severally and to the 
 Union. Sir, if sympathies with state emulation and pride of 
 achievement could be allowed to raise up another sovereign to 
 divide the allegiance of a citizen of the United States, I might 
 
FREEDOM. 267 
 
 recognise the claims of the state to which, by birth and gratitude, 
 I belong to the state of Hamilton and Jay, of Schuyler, of 
 the Clintons, and of Fulton the state which, with less than 
 two hundred miles of natural navigation connected with the 
 ocean, has, by her own enterprise, secured to herself the com 
 merce of the continent, and is steadily advancing to the com 
 mand of the commerce of the world. But for all this, I know 
 only one country and one sovereign the United States of 
 America and the American people. And such as my allegiance 
 is, is the loyalty of every other* citizen of the United States. 
 As I speak, he will speak when his time arrives. He knoAvs no 
 other country and no other sovereign. He has life, liberty, 
 property, and precious affections, and hopes for himself and for 
 his posterity, treasured up in the ark of the Union. He knows 
 as well and feels as strongly as I do, that this government is his 
 own government ; that he is a part of it ; that it was established 
 for him, and that it is maintained by him ; that it is the only 
 truly wise, just, free, and equal government, that has ever 
 existed ; that no other government could be so wise, just, free, 
 and equal ; and that it is safer and more beneficent than any 
 which time or change could bring into its place. 
 
 You may tell me, sir, that although all this may be true, still 
 the trial of faction has not yet been made. Sir, if the trial of fac 
 tion has not been made, it has not been because faction has not 
 always existed, and has not always menaced a trial, but because 
 faction could find no fulcrum on which to place the lever to sub 
 vert the Union, as it can find no fulcrum now ; and in this is my 
 confidence. I* would not rashly provoke the trial : but I will 
 not suffer a fear, which I have not, to make me compromise one 
 sentiment, one principle of truth or justice, to avert a danger 
 that all experience teaches me is purely chimerical. Let, then, 
 those who distrust the Union make compromises to save it. I 
 shall not impeach their wisdom, as I certainly can not their 
 patriotism ; but, indulging no such apprehensions myself, I shall 
 vote for the admission of California directly, without conditions, 
 without qualifications, and without compromise. 
 
 For the vindication of that vote, I look not to the verdict of 
 the passing hour, disturbed as the public mind now is by con 
 flicting interests and passions, but to that period, happily not 
 
268 SELECTIONS. 
 
 far distant, when the vast regions over which we are now legis 
 lating shall have received their destined inhabitants. 
 
 While looking forward to that day, its countless generations 
 seem to me to be rising up and passing in dim and shadowy 
 review before us ; and a voice comes forth from their serried 
 ranks, saying : " Waste your treasures and your armies, if you 
 will ; raze your fortifications to the ground ; sink your navies into 
 the sea ; transmit to us even a dishonored name, if you must ; 
 but the soil you hold in trust for us give it to us free. You 
 found it free and conquered it fo extend a better and surer free 
 dom over it. Whatever choice you have made for yourselves, 
 let us have no partial freedom ; let us all be free ; let the rever 
 sion of your broad domain descend to us unencumbered, and free 
 from the calamities and from the sorrows of human bondage." 
 Speech in U. S. Senate, 1850. 
 
 PROPERTY and possession, in common speech, are predicated 
 as incidents belonging to the relation of master and slave ; but 
 the terms are inaccurate, without foundation in law, and essen 
 tially false ..... The institution of slavery accustoms us to 
 confound the broadest distinctions in nature, not less than to 
 subvert the plainest principles of justice. The right of indi 
 vidual property is derived from the consent of the Creator. 
 When he had finished a world, and filled it with bounties, he 
 gave to the last being created to inhabit, and the only one 
 capable of governing it, DOMINION, or the right of property, and 
 that dominion was universal ; and yet man was excepted from 
 it. The right of dominion by man over inert matter and irra 
 tional beings could not be complete, if one man could be made 
 the property of another man, or could be reduced into his pos 
 session. Happily, God has deprived us of the power to abridge 
 this great dominion in such a way, by making the mind, the 
 soul, the heart, the affections of every man, more truly inde 
 pendent of all human power than the subtlest and most elastic 
 substance unendowed with life ................ 
 
 A great diversity of opinion exists in the United States, con 
 cerning the proper construction of the constitution of the United 
 
FREEDOM. 269 
 
 States, in relation to slavery. Some receive it as a gospel of 
 universal emancipation, and others as a covenant of perpetual 
 toleration of slavery. Those who maintain the latter opinion 
 fortify themselves with. arguments derived from the condition of 
 the country and the spirit of the times when the constitution 
 was established. It seems to me that truth is found on both 
 sides of the controversy. The constitution of the United States, 
 in its general scope and spirit, recognises the absolute natural 
 rights of mankind, and it contemplates an ultimate condition of 
 perfect democratic liberty and equality. On the other hand, it 
 contains provisions (adopted doubtlessly by way of compromise) 
 which have served but too well to fortify an institution whose 
 existence nearly all reflecting and candid men deplore. Slavery 
 is only the negation or privation of that liberty which is the birth 
 right of all men. It results from an ascendency of physical force 
 which always obtains in rude communities, and never finally 
 disappears in any state, until intellectual and moral agencies are 
 fully developed. Let slavery receive what name or form it may, 
 it is always the same subjection of the weak to the strong. 
 The progress of our race is so slow, that liberty never all at 
 once achieves an absolute triumph, and every advantage gained 
 is followed by reaction. Thus African slavery, unjust as it is 
 conceded to be, long as it has endured, and long as it may be 
 yet destined to endure, is only the reaction of the principle of 
 physical force by which it has compensated itself for the loss of 
 feudal villeinage, in the sixteenth century in western Europe. 
 So the emancipation of Europe seems to have mysteriously 
 drawn after it the desecration of a new continent, with a darker, 
 more degrading, and severer system of oppression. Labor was 
 needed to reclaim, suddenly, a wide domain from the sover 
 eignty of Nature. Voluntary labor stood upon terms too high 
 for contract, and therefore physical force sought and subjugated 
 involuntary labor. Slavery, wherever found, was not created 
 by law, but obtained its establishment by evasion or subversion 
 of law. It spread at an early period throughout Virginia, 
 although the charter secured to all whom the colonial corpora 
 tion should lead thither " all the liberties, franchises, and immu 
 nities of free denizens, and natural subjects within any of the 
 British dominions, to all intents and purposes, as if they had 
 
270 SELECTIONS. 
 
 been abiding at home, within the realm of England, or in 
 others of his majesty s dominions."* Slavery was thus ex 
 cluded by royal inhibition from the territory now included 
 within the state of Kentucky, and yet it took root and flour 
 ished in defiance of law, until it overshadowed the state. The 
 cause of human liberty, however baffled, never rests, and in 
 the eighteenth century it had borrowed new vigor from phi 
 losophy and the diffusion of Christianity. The movement for the 
 abolition of slavery, which now excites so much apprehension in 
 portions of our country, is by no means as modern as those who 
 think it can be suppressed suppose. It began in a meeting of 
 Friends, in London, in 1727, and proceeded so slowly that it did 
 not expel the institution from the British dominions until after 
 the lapse of one hundred and seven years. Fifty-six years 
 were spent before the abolitionists could obtain a reading in the 
 British parliament of a petition for the suppression of the slave- 
 trade, and that trade was not finally abolished within what were 
 the British colonies on this continent until 1807. The agitation 
 of abolition in England reached and sensibly affected the col 
 onies previously to the Revolution, and the Declaration of 
 American Independence bears memorable testimony of the high 
 tone which the American mind had then assumed. The repre 
 sentatives who assumed to pronounce, in 1776, a separation of 
 this country from the parent state, were so deeply imbued with 
 the sentiment of abolition, that they confided the task of pre 
 paring the immortal declaration to John Adams, an obstinate 
 hater of slavery, and Thomas Jefferson, a young, enthusiastic, 
 and open abolitionist. But emancipation was destined, in its turn, 
 to suffer reaction. Argument, U. S. Supreme Court, Dec., 1847. 
 
 2T])c Slabcrj? (Question can nebcc be settlrti bi (Compromises. 
 
 STILL it is replied that the slavery question must be settled. 
 That question can not be settled by this bill. Slavery and free 
 dom are conflicting systems, brought together by the union of 
 the states, not neutralized, nor even harmonized. Their antag 
 onism is radical, and therefore perpetual. Compromise contin 
 ues conflict, and the conflict involves, unavoidably, all questions 
 * Charter of Virginia, by James IT., 1609, Littell s Laws of Ky., vol. i., p. 11. 
 
, 
 
 FREEDOM. 271 
 
 of national interest questions of revenue, of internal improve 
 ment, of industry, of commerce, of political rivalry, and even all 
 questions of peace and of war. In entering the career of con 
 quest, you have kindled to a fiercer heat the fires you seek to 
 extinguish, because you have thrown into them the fuel of 
 propagandism. We have the propagandism of slavery to en 
 large the slave-market, and to increase slave representation in 
 Congress and in the electoral colleges for the bramble ever 
 seeks power, though the olive, the fig, and the vine, refuse it ; 
 and we have the propagandism of freedom to counteract those 
 purposes. Nor can this propagandism be arrested on either 
 side. The sea is full of exiles, and they swarm over our land. 
 Emigration from Europe and from Asia, from Polynesia even, 
 from the free states and from the slave states, goes on, and will 
 go on, and must go on, in obedience to laws which, I should say, 
 were higher than the constitution, if any such laws were ac 
 knowledged here. And I may be allowed here to refer those 
 who have been scandalized by the allusion to such laws to a 
 single passage by an author whose opinions did not err on the 
 side of superstition or of tyranny : 
 
 " If it be said that every nation ought in tins to follow their own consti 
 tutions, we are at an end of our controversies; for they ought not to be 
 followed, unless they are rfcghtly made; they can not be rightly made if 
 they are contrary to the universal law of God and nature." Discourses on 
 Government, by Algernon Sidney. 
 
 You may slay the Wilmot proviso in the senate- chamber, and 
 bury it beneath the capitol to-day ; the dead corse, in complete 
 steel, will haunt your legislative halls to-morrow. 
 
 When the strife is ended in the territories you now possess, it 
 will be renewed on new fields, north as well as south, to fortify 
 advantages gained, or to retrieve losses incurred, for both of the 
 parties well know that there is " Yet, in that word Hereafter." 
 
 This compromise is rendered doubly dangerous by the circum 
 stance that it is a concession to alarms of disorganization and 
 faction. Such concessions, once begun, follow each other with 
 fearful rapidity and always increasing magnitude. It is time, 
 high time, that panics about the Union should cease ; that it 
 should be known and felt that the constitution and the Union, 
 within the limits of human security, are safe, firm, and perpetual. 
 
272 SELECTIONS. 
 
 Settle wliat you can settle ; confide in that old arbiter, Time, 
 for his favoring aid in settling for the future what belongs to the 
 future, and you will hereafter be relieved of two classes of pa 
 triots whose labors can well be spared those who clamor for 
 disunion, either to abolish slavery or to prevent emancipation, 
 and those who surrender principles or sound policy to clamors 
 so idle. 
 
 Sir, the agitations which alarm us are not signs of evils to 
 come, but mild efforts of the commonwealth for relief from mis 
 chiefs past. 
 
 There is a way, and one way only, to put them at rest. Let 
 us go back to the ground where our forefathers stood. While 
 we leave slavery to the care of the states where it exists, let us 
 inflexibly direct the policy of the federal government to circum 
 scribe its limits and favor its ultimate extinguishment. Let 
 those who have this misfortune entailed upon them, instead of 
 contriving how to maintain an equilibrium that never had exist 
 ence, consider carefully how at some time it may be ten, or 
 twenty, or even fifty years hence by some means, by all 
 means of their own, and with our aid, without sudden change or 
 violent action they may bring about the emancipation of labor 
 and its restoration to its just dignity and power in the state. 
 Let them take hope to themselves, give* hope to the free states, 
 awaken hope throughout the world. They will thus anticipate 
 only what must happen at some time, and what they themselves 
 must desire if it can come safely, and as soon as it can come 
 without danger. Let them do only this, and every cause of 
 disagreement will cease immediately and for ever. We shall 
 then not merely endure each other, but we shall be reconciled 
 together, and shall realize once more the concord which results 
 from mutual league, united councils, and equal hopes and haz 
 ards in the most sublime and beneficent enterprise the earth has 
 witnessed. The fingers of the Powers above would tune the 
 harmony of such a peace. Speech in U. S. Senate, July 2, 1850. 
 
FREEDOM. 273 
 
 Jtto&eratfon. 
 
 THE cause of emancipation has now reached an interesting 
 crisis. The sentiment of justice to the African race has at length 
 become a political element too important to be overlooked or 
 disregarded by either of the great political parties. The expe 
 diency of practical emancipation is directly discussed in one slave 
 state and thousands are prepared for it in other states where the 
 institution has seemed impregnable. Its advocates fail to con 
 vince the people that it is a humane, or a necessary, or even a 
 harmless anomaly in our constitution. Nevertheless popular 
 action is checked by alarms concerning the threatened dangers 
 of emancipation, civil wars, and dissolution of the Union. We 
 live in an age when the specific influences of Christianity are 
 widely diffused, and we shrink from prosecuting even the most 
 benevolent designs if they seem to involve the calamities of war. 
 If we analyze the national passion of patriotism, we shall find it 
 to consist chiefly in veneration for the constitution, and devotion 
 to the union of the states. 
 
 The seeming indifference of the people concerning the guilt 
 and danger of slavery has been so irksome to the impetuous 
 that many who have been esteemed wise and patriotic citizens, 
 have come to treat of disunion, as if it were preferable to further 
 forbearance, or were in some way involved in the success of 
 abolition. I trust that such sentiments will be discarded. What 
 ever hopes may be indulged by those who permit themselves to 
 speculate concerning secession or nullification, we have enjoyed 
 more abounding national prosperity, more perfect political and 
 social equality, and more precious civil and religious liberty, by, 
 through, and with our present constitution, than were ever be 
 fore secured by any people. We can not know what portion 
 of these blessings would be lost by dissolving the present fabric 
 and constructing another or others in its place. Heaven forbid 
 that we should even contemplate the experiment ! 
 
 Prudence in regard to the cause of emancipation forbids the 
 indulgence of a thought of disunion. If it be so confessedly dif 
 ficult to awaken the national conscience, while the patriotism of 
 abolitionists can not be justly questioned, it would be ruinous to 
 
 12* 
 
274 SELECTIONS. 
 
 suffer so noble an enterprise to be at all connected with designs 
 which, however they may be excused or palliated, must never 
 theless be seditious and treasonable. 
 
 I grant that the annexation of Texas, through the failure of 
 concert among the opponents of slavery, vastly increases the 
 difficulty of emancipation. But still I trust that if that great 
 enterprise be conducted with discretion, it will advance fastei 
 than the population and political influence of the new territory. 
 The slaveholders have enlarged the domain of our country. Let 
 this untoward event only excite us the more. Let us rouse our 
 selves to the necessary effort, and enlarge indeed the " area of 
 freedom." 
 
 Men differ much in temperament and susceptibility, and are 
 so variously situated, that they receive from the same causes 
 very unequal impressions. It is not in human nature that all 
 who desire the abolition of slavery should be inflamed with equal 
 zeal ; and different degrees of fervor produce different opinions 
 concerning the measure proper to be adopted. Great caution is 
 necessary, therefore, to preserve mutual confidence and harmony. 
 No cause, however just, can flourish without these. Christian 
 Europe lost the Holy Sepulchre, which had cost so many sacri 
 fices, less by the bravery of the Saracens, than by the mutual 
 controversies of the Crusaders. The protestant reformation was 
 arrested two hundred years ago, by the distraction of the reform 
 ers, and not a furlong s breadth has since been gained from the 
 papal hierarchy. 
 
 I am far from denying that any class of abolitionists has done 
 much good for their common cause, but I think the whole result 
 has been much diminished by the angry conflicts between them, 
 often on mere metaphysical questions. I sincerely hope that 
 these conflicts may now cease. Emancipation is now a political 
 enterprise, to be effected through the consent and action of the 
 American people. They will lend no countenance or favor to 
 any other than lawful and constitutional means. Nor is the 
 range of our efforts narrowly circumscribed by the constitution. 
 
 In many of the free states there is a large mass of citizens 
 disfranchised on the ground of color. They must be invested 
 with the right of suffrage. Give them this right, and their in 
 fluence will be immediately felt in the national councils, and it 
 
FREEDOM. 275 
 
 is needless to say will be cast in favor of those who uphold the 
 cause of human liberty. We must resist unceasingly the admis- 
 sion of slave states, and urge and demand the abolition of sla 
 very in the District of Columbia. We have secured the right 
 of petition, but the federal government continues to be swerved 
 by the influences of slavery as before. This tendency can and 
 must be counteracted; and when one independent Congress 
 shall have been elected, the internal slave-trade will be subject 
 ed to inquiry. Amendments to the constitution may be initiated, 
 and the obstacles in the way of emancipation will no longer ap 
 pear insurmountable. 
 
 But, gentlemen, I fear I may appear to dogmatize when I 
 intended only to invoke concession. If I seem to do so too ear 
 nestly, it is because I feel so deeply interested in the cause to 
 which your efforts are devoted, and because I believe with Burke, 
 that " we ought to act in political affairs with all the moderation 
 which does not absolutely enervate that vigor, and quench that 
 fervency of spirit, without which the best wishes for the public 
 good must evaporate in empty speculation." Letter to Hon. 
 S. P. Chase and Others of Ohio, May, 1845. 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 public 
 
 No reason for rejecting these claims* remains, except that 
 they have not been paid heretofore. But mere lapse of time 
 pays no debts, and discharges no obligations. There has been 
 no release, no waiver, no neglect, no delay, by the creditors. 
 They have been here twenty-five times in fifty years ; that is 
 to say, they have appeared in their successive generations, be 
 fore every Congress since their claims against the United States 
 accrued. Against such claims and such creditors there is no 
 prescription. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that the nation is unable to pay these claims 
 now. I put a single question in reply : When will the nation 
 be more affluent than now ? 
 
 The senator [Mr. HUNTER] says, again, that, if the debts are 
 just, we should pay the whole, and not a moiety ; and that if 
 the claims are unjust, then the bill proposes a gratuity that in 
 the one case the appropriation is too small, and in the other too 
 great. This is the plea of him who, I think it was in Ephesus, 
 despoiled the statue of Jupiter of its golden robe, saying, " Gold 
 was too warm in summer, and too cold in winter, for the shoul 
 ders of the god." 
 
 Sir, commerce is one of the great occupations of this nation. 
 It is the fountain of its revenues, as it is the chief agent of its 
 advancement in civilization and enlargement of empire. It is 
 exclusively the care of the federal authorities. It is for the pro 
 tection of commerce that they pass laws, make treaties, build 
 * For French Spoliations. 
 
COMMERCE. 277 
 
 fc rtifications, and maintain navies upon all the seas. But justice 
 and good faith are surer defences than treaties, fortifications, or 
 naval armaments. Justice and good faith constitute true national 
 honor, which feels a stain more keenly than a wound. The na 
 tion that lives in wealth and in the enjoyment of power, and 
 yet under unpaid obligations, dwells in dishonor and in danger. 
 The nation that would be truly great, or even merely safe, must 
 practise an austere and self-denying morality. 
 
 The faith of canonized ancestors, whose fame now belongs to 
 mankind, is pledged to the payment of these debts. " Let the 
 merchants send hither well-authenticated evidences of their 
 claims, and proper measures shall be taken for their relief." 
 This was the promise of Washington. The evidence is here. Let 
 us redeem the sacred and venerable engagement. Through his 
 sagacity and virtue, we have inherited with it ample and abun 
 dant resources, and to them we ourselves have added the newly- 
 discovered wealth of southern plains, and the hidden treasures of 
 the western coast. With the opening of the half century, we are 
 entering upon new and profitable intercourse with the ancient 
 oriental states and races, while we are grappling more closely 
 to us the new states on our own continent. Let us signalize an 
 epoch so important in commerce and politics, byjustly dischar 
 ging ourselves for ever from the yet remaining obligations of the 
 first and most sacred of all our national engagements. While 
 we are growing over all lands, let us b e rigorously just to other 
 nations, just to the several states, and just to every class and to 
 every citizen ; in short, just in all our administration, and just 
 toward all mankind. So shall prosperity crown all our enter 
 prises nor shall any disturbance within nor danger from abroad 
 come nigh unto us, nor alarm us for the safety of fireside, or fane, 
 or capitol. Speech on French Spoliation Bill in U. S. Senate, 
 January, 21, 1851. 
 
 American Hutcrjmsc. 
 
 COME, then, Senators, and suppose that you stand with me in 
 the galleries of St. Stephen s chapel, on a day so long gone by 
 as the 22d of March, 1775. A mighty debate has been going 
 on here in this august legislature of the British empire. Insur- 
 
278 SELECTIONS, 
 
 rection against commercial restriction has broken out in the dis 
 tant American colonies ; a seditious assembly in Philadelphia 
 has organized it ; and a brave, patient, unimpassioned, and not 
 untried soldier of Virginia, lies, with hastily-gathered and irreg 
 ular levies, on the heights of Dorchester, waiting the coining out 
 of the British army from Boston. The question whether Great 
 Britain shall strike, or concede and conciliate, has just been de 
 bated and decided. Concession has been denied. A silence, 
 brief but intense, is broken by the often fierce and violent, but 
 now measured and solemn utterance of Burke : " My counsel 
 has been rejected. You have determined to trample upon and 
 extinguish a people who have, in the course of a single life, 
 added to England as much as she had acquired by a progressive 
 increase of improvement, brought on, by varieties of civilizing 
 conquests and civilizing settlements,- in a series of seventeen 
 hundred years. A vision has passed before my eyes ; the spirit 
 of prophecy is upon me. Listen, now, to a revelation of the con 
 sequences which shall follow your maddened decision. Hence 
 forth, there shall be division, separation, and eternal conflict in 
 alternating war and peace between you and the child you have 
 oppressed, which has inherited all your indomitable love of lib 
 erty and all your insatiable passion for power. Though still 
 in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood, 
 America will, within the short period of sixteen months, cast off 
 your dominion and defy your utmost persecution. Perfecting the 
 institutions you have not yet suffered to ripen, she will establish 
 a republic, the first confederate representative commonwealth, 
 which shall in time become the admiration and envy of the world. 
 France, the hereditary rival whom, only twenty years ago, with 
 the aid of your own colonies, you despoiled of her North Ameri 
 can possessions, though they had been strengthened by the 
 genius of Richelieu, will take sweet revenge in aiding the eman 
 cipation of those very colonies, and thus dismembering your 
 empire. You will strike her in vain with one hand, while you 
 stretch forth the other to reduce your colonies with equal dis 
 comfiture. And you, even you, most infatuated yet most loyal 
 prince, will within eight years sign a treaty of peace with the 
 royal Bourbon, and of independence with republican America ! 
 With fraud, corruption, fire and sword, you will compensate 
 
COMMERCE. 279 
 
 England with conquests in the East, and within half & century 
 they will surround the world, and the British flag shall wave 
 over provinces covering five millions of square miles, and con 
 taining one sixth of the people of the glohe. Nor shall you lose 
 your retaliation upon your ancient enemy ; for she, in the mean 
 time, imhibing and intoxicated by the spirit of revolution in her 
 American affiliation, shall overthrow all authority, human and 
 divine, and, exhausting herself by twenty-five years of carnage 
 and desolation throughout continental Europe, shall at last suc 
 cumb to your victorious arms, and relapse, after ineffectual 
 struggles, into the embraces of an inglorious military despotism. 
 Yet, notwithstanding all these unsurpassed conquests and tri 
 umphs, shall you enjoy no certain or complete dominion. For, 
 on the other hand, wild beasts and savage men and uncouth 
 manners shall all disappear on the American continent ; and the 
 three millions whom you now despise, gathering to themselves 
 increase from every European nation and island, will, within 
 seventy-five years, spread themselves over field and forest, 
 prairie and mountain, until, in your way to your provinces in the 
 Bahamas, they shall meet you on the shores of the gulf of Mex 
 ico, and on your return from the eastern Indies, they will salute 
 you from the eastern coast of the Pacific ocean. In the mean 
 time, with genius developed by the influence of freedom, and 
 with vigor called forth and disciplined in the subjugation of the 
 forest, and trained and perfected in the mysteries of ship-build 
 ing and navigation, by the hardy exercise of the whale fisheries 
 under either pole, they will, in all European conflicts, with keen 
 sagacity, assume the relation of neutrals, and thus grasp the 
 prize of Atlantic commerce dropped into their hands by fierce 
 lielligerents. In the midst of your studies and experiments in 
 hydraulics, steam, and electricity, they will seize the unpractised 
 and even incomplete inventions, and cover their rivers with 
 steamboats, and connect and bind together their widely-separa 
 ted territories with canals, railroads, and telegraphs. When n 
 long interval of peace shall have come, your merchants, combi 
 ning a vast capital, will regain and hold for a time the carrying 
 trade, by substituting capacious, buoyant, and fleet packet-ships, 
 departing and arriving with exact punctuality ; but the Ameri 
 cans, quickly borrowing the device, and improving on your 
 
280 SELECTIONS. 
 
 skill, will reconquer their commerce. You will then rouse all the 
 enterprise of your merchants, and all the spirit of your govern 
 ment, and wresting the new and mighty power of steam from the 
 hands of your inveterate rival, will apply it to ocean navigation, 
 and laying hold of the commercial and social correspondence 
 between the two continents, increasing as the nations rise to 
 higher civilization and come into more close and intimate rela 
 tions, as the basis of postal revenue, you will thus restore your 
 lost monopoly on the Atlantic, and enjoy it unmolested through 
 a period of ten years. During that season of triumph, you will 
 mature and perfect all the arrangements for extending this 
 mighty device of power and revenue, so as to connect every 
 island of the seas and every part of every continent with your 
 capital. But just at that moment, your emulous rival will ap 
 pear with .steamships still more capacious, buoyant and fleet, 
 than your own, in your harbors, and at once subverting your 
 Atlantic monopoly, will give earnest of her vigorous renewal of 
 the endless contest for supremacy of all the seas. When you 
 think her expelled from the ocean, her flag will be seen in your 
 ports, covering her charities contributed to relieve your popula 
 tion, stricken by famine ; and while you stand hesitating whether 
 to declare between republicanism and absolute power in conti 
 nental Europe, her embassadors will be seen waiting on every 
 battle-field to salute the triumphs of liberty ; and when that 
 cause shall be overthrown, the same constant flag shall be seen 
 even in the straits of the Dardanelles, receiving with ovations 
 due to conquerors the temporarily overthrown champions of free 
 dom. Look toward Africa ! there you see American colonies 
 lifting her up from her long night of barbarism into the broad 
 light of liberty and civilization. Look to the East, you see 
 American missionaries bringing the people of the Sandwich 
 islands into the family of nations, and American armaments 
 peacefully seeking yet firmly demanding the rights of humanity 
 in Japan Look to the equator, there are American engineers 
 opening passages by canals and railroads across the isthmus 
 which divides the two oceans. And last of all, look northward, 
 and you behold American sailors penetrating the continent of ice 
 in search of your own daring and lost navigators." 
 
 Sir, this stupendous vision has become real. All this moment- 
 
COMMERCE. 281 
 
 ons prophecy has come to pass. The man yet lives who has 
 seen both the end and the beginning of its fulfilment. It is his 
 tory. And that history shows that this enterprise of American 
 Atlantic steam navigation was wisely and even necessarily un 
 dertaken, to maintain our present commercial independence, and 
 the contest for the ultimate empire of the ocean. Only a word 
 shall express the importance of these objects. International 
 postal communication and foreign commerce are as important as 
 domestic mails and traffic. Equality with other nations in re 
 spect to those interests is as important as freedom from restric 
 tion upon them among ourselves. Except. Eome which sub 
 stituted conquest and spoliation for commerce no nation was 
 ever highly prosperous, really great, or even truly independent, 
 whose foreign communications and traffic were conducted by 
 other states; while Tyre, and Egypt, and Venice, and the 
 Netherlands, and Great Britain, successively becoming the mer 
 chants, became thereby the masters of the world. 
 * * # * * * * * 
 
 I conjure you to consider, moreover, that England, without 
 waiting for, and, I am sure, without expecting, so inglorious a 
 retreat on our part, is completing a vast web of ocean steam 
 navigation, based on postage and commerce, that will connect all 
 the European ports, all our own ports, all the South American 
 ports, all the ports in the West Indies, all the ports of Asia and 
 Oceanica, with her great commercial capital. Thus the world 
 is to become a great commercial system, ramified by a thousand 
 nerves projecting from the one head at London. Yet, stupen 
 dous as the scheme is, our own merchants, conscious of equal 
 capacity and equal resources, and relying on experience for suc 
 cess, stand here beseeching us to allow them to counteract its 
 fulfilment, and ask of us facilities and aid equal to those yielded 
 by the British government to its citizens. While our commer 
 cial history is full of presages of a successful competition, Great 
 Britain is sunk deep in debt. We are free from debt. Great 
 Britain is oppressed with armies and costly aristocratic institu 
 tions ; industry among us is unfettered and free. But it is a 
 contest depending not on armies, nor even on wealth, but chiefly 
 on invention and industry. And how stands the national ac 
 count in those respects? The cotton-gin, the planing-machirie, 
 
282 SELECTIONS. 
 
 steam navigation, and electrical communication these are old 
 achievements. England only a year ago invited the nations to 
 bring their inventions and compare them together in a palace of 
 iron and glass. In all the devices for the increase of luxury and 
 indulgence, America was surpassed, not only by refined England 
 and by chivalrous France, but even by semi-barbarian Russia. 
 Not until after all the mortification which such a result necessa 
 rily produced, did the comparison of utilitarian inventions begin. 
 Then our countrymen exhibited Dick s anti-friction press a 
 machine that moved a power greater by two hundred and forty 
 tons than could be raised by the Brama hydraulic press, which, 
 having been used by Sir John Stevenson in erecting the tubu 
 lar bridge over the straits of Mcnai, had been brought forward 
 by the British artisans as a contrivance of unrivalled merit for 
 the generation of direct power. Next was submitted, on our 
 behalf, the two inventions of St. John, the variation compass, 
 which indicates the deflection of its own needle at any place, 
 resulting from local causes ; and the velocimeter, which tells, 
 at any time, the actual speed of the vessel bearing it, and 
 its distance from the port of departure inventions adopted 
 at once by the admiralty of Great Britain. Then, to say noth 
 ing of the ingeniously-constructed locks exhibited by Hobbs 
 which defied the skill oi the British artisans, while he opened 
 all of theirs at pleasure, there was Bigelow s power-loom, 
 which has brought down ingrain and Brussels carpets within 
 the reach of the British mechanic and farmer. While the 
 American ploughs took precedence of all others, M Cormick s 
 reaper was acknowledged to be a contribution to the agriculture 
 of England, surpassing in value the cost of the Crystal Palace. 
 Nor were we dishonored in the fine arts, for a well-deserved meed 
 was awarded to Hughes for his successful incorporation in mar 
 ble of the ideal of Oliver Twist ; and the palm was conferred on 
 Powers for his immortal statue of the Greek Slave. When 
 these successes had turned away the tide of derision from our 
 country, the yacht America entered the Thames. Skilful ar 
 chitects saw that she combined, in before unknown proportions, 
 the elements of grace and motion, and her modest challenge was 
 reluctantly accepted, and even then only for a tenth part of the 
 prize she proposed. The trial was graced by the presence of 
 
COMMERCE. 283 
 
 the queen and her court, and watched with an interest created 
 by national pride and ambition, and yet the triumph was com 
 plete. 
 
 In the very hour of this, of itself, conclusive demonstration of 
 American superiority in utilitarian inventions, and in the art 
 " that leads to nautical dominion," a further and irresistible con 
 firmation was given by the arrival of American clippers from 
 India, freighted at advanced rates with shipments, consigned by 
 the agents of the East India company at Calcutta to their own 
 warehouses in London. Such and so recent are the proofs, that 
 in the capital element of invention we are equal to the contest 
 for the supremacy of the seas. When I consider them, and 
 consider our resources, of which those of Pennsylvania, or of the 
 valley of the Mississippi, or of California, alone exceed the entire 
 native wealth of Great Britain ; when I consider, moreover, our 
 yet unelicited manufacturing capacity our great population, 
 already nearly equal to that of the British Islands, and multi 
 plying at a rate unknown in human progress by accessions from 
 both of the old continents ; when I consider the advantages of 
 our geographical position, midway between them ; and when 
 I consider, above all, the expanding and elevating influence of 
 freedom upon the genius of our people, I feel quite assured that 
 their enterprise will be adequate to the glorious conflict, if it 
 shall be only sustained by constancy and perseverance on the 
 part of their government. I do not know that we shall prevail 
 in that conflict ; but for myself, like the modest hero who was 
 instructed to charge on the artillery at Niagara, I can say that 
 we " will try ;" and that when a difficulty occurs no greater than 
 that which meets us now, my motto shall be the words of the 
 dying commander of the Chesapeake "Don t give up the 
 ship." Speech on American Steam Navigation, in Sejiate, April 
 27, 1852. 
 
 (T{)c fc&jjale JFisJjeries. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : Some years ago, when ascending the Ala 
 bama, I saw a stag plunge into the river, and gallantly gain the 
 western bank, while the desponding sportsman whose rifle he 
 had escaped, sat down to mourn his ill luck under the deep mag- 
 
284 SELECTIONS. 
 
 nolia forest that shaded the eastern shore. You,* sir, are a 
 dweller in that region, and are, as all the world knows, a gen 
 tleman of cultivated taste and liberal fortunes. Perhaps then, 
 you may have been that unfortunate hunter. Howsoever that 
 may have been, I wish to converse with you now of the chase, 
 and yet not of deer, or hawk, or hound, but of a chase upon the 
 seas ; and still not of angling or trolling, nor of the busy toil of 
 those worthy fishermen who seem likely to embroil us, certainly 
 without reluctance on our part, in a controversy about their 
 rights in the Bay of Fundy ; but of a nobler sport, and more 
 adventurous sportsmen than Izaak Walton, or Daniel Booue, or 
 even Nimrod, the mightiest as well as most ancient of hunters, 
 ever dreamed of the chase of the whale over his broad range 
 of the universal ocean. 
 
 Do not hastily pronounce the subject out of order or unprofit 
 able, or unworthy of this high presence. The Phoenicians, the 
 earliest mercantile nation known to us, enriched themselves by 
 selling the celebrated Tynan dye, and glass made of sand taken 
 from the sea ; and they acquired not only those sources of wealth 
 but the art of navigation itself, in the practice of their humble 
 calling as fishermen. A thousand years ago, King Alfred was 
 laying the foundations of empire for Young England, as we are 
 now doing for Young America. The monarch whom men have 
 justly surnamed the Wise as well as the Great, did not disdain 
 to listen to Octher, who related the adventures of a voyage along 
 the coast of Norway, " so far north as commonly the whale hunt 
 ers used to travel;" nor was the stranger suffered to depart 
 until he had submitted to the king " a most just survey and de 
 scription" of the northern seas, not only as they extended up 
 ward to the North cape, but also as they declined downward 
 along the southeast coast of Lapland, and so following the icy 
 beach of Russia to where the river Dwina discharged its waters 
 into the White sea, or, as it was then called, the sea of Archan 
 gel. Perhaps my poor speech may end in some similar lesson. 
 The incident I have related is the burden of the earliest histor 
 ical notice of the subjugation of the monster of the seas to the 
 uses of man. The fishery was carried on then, and near six 
 hundred years afterward, by the Basques, Biscayans, and Nor- 
 * Hon. W. II. Kin?. 
 
COMMERCE. 285 
 
 wegians, for the food yielded by the tongue, and the oil obtained 
 from the fat of the animal. Whalebone entered into commerce 
 in the fifteenth century, and at first commanded the enormous 
 price of seven hundred pounds sterling per ton, exceeding a 
 value in this age of ten thousand dollars. Those were merry 
 times, if not for science, at least for royalty, when, although the 
 material for stays and hoops was taken from the mouth, the law 
 appropriated the tail of every whale taken by an English sub 
 ject to the use of the queen, for the supply of the royal ward 
 robe 
 
 Mr. President, I have tried to win the favor of the senate 
 toward the national whale-fishery for a purpose. The whales 
 have found a new retreat in the seas of Ochotsk and Anadir, 
 south of Bhering straits, and in that part of the Arctic ocean 
 lying north of them. In 1848, Captain ROJMS, in the whale- 
 ship Superior, passed through those seas and through the straits, 
 braving the perils of an unknown way and an inhospitable cli 
 mate. He filled his ship in a few weeks, and the news of his 
 success went abroad. In 1849, a fleet of one hundred and 
 fifty-four sail went up to this new fishing-ground ; in 1850, a 
 fleet of one hundred and forty-four ; and in 1851, a fleet of one 
 hundred and forty-five. The vessels are manned with thirty 
 persons each ; and their value, including that of the average 
 annual cargoes procured there, is equal to nine millions and 
 thus exceeds by near two millions the highest annual import 
 from China. But these fleets are beset by not only such dan 
 gers of their calling as customarily occur on well-explored fish 
 ing grounds, but also by the multiplied dangers of shipwreck 
 resulting from the want of accurate topographical knowledge 
 the only charts of those seas being imperfect and unsatisfactory. 
 While many and deplorable losses were sustained by the fleets 
 of 1S49- 50, we have already information of the loss of eleven 
 vessels, one thirteenth part of the whole fleet of 1851, many of 
 which disasters might have been avoided had there been charts 
 accurately indicating the shoals and headlands, and also places 
 of sheltered anchorage near them. These facts are represented 
 to us by the merchants, ship-owners, and underwriters, and are 
 confirmed by Lieutenant Maury, who presides in this depart 
 ment of science in the navy, as well as in the labors and studies 
 
286 SELECTIONS. 
 
 of the national observatory. We want, then, not bounties nor 
 protection, nor even an accurate survey, but simply an explora 
 tion and reconnoissance of those seas, which have so recently 
 become the theatre of profitable adventure and brave achieve 
 ment by our whale-hunters. This service can be performed 
 by officers and crews now belonging to the navy, in two or 
 three vessels which already belong or may be added to it, 
 and would continue, at moSt, only throughout two or three 
 years. Happily, the measure involves nothing new, untried, 
 or uncommon. To say nothing of our recent search foi\the 
 lamented Sir John Franklin, nor of our great exploring expedi 
 tion under Captain Wilkes, we are already engaged in triangu 
 lating a coast survey of the Atlantic shore. Charts, light-houses, 
 and beacons, show the pilot his way, not only over that ocean 
 and among its isMnds, but along all our rivers, and even upon 
 our inland lakes. The absence of similar guides and beacons in 
 the waters now in question, results from the fact that the Pacific 
 coast has but recently fallen under our sway, and Behring s 
 straits and the seas they connect have not until now been fre 
 quently navigated by the seamen of any nation. Certainly 
 somebody must do this service. But who will ] The whalers 
 can not. No foreign nation will, for none is interested. The 
 constitutional power and responsibility rest with the federal 
 government, and its means are adequate. Speech in U. S. 
 Senate, July 29, 1852. 
 
 (Eommertt on tfte IDactftc. 
 
 WHO does not see that every year, hereafter, European com 
 merce, European politics, European thoughts, and European 
 activity, although actually gaining greater force and European 
 connections, although actually becoming more intimate will, 
 nevertheless, relatively sink in importance ; while the Pacific 
 ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions beyond, will 
 become the chief theatre of events in the world s great hereaf 
 ter? Who does not see that this movement must effect our own 
 complete emancipation from what remains of European influence 
 and prejudice, and in turn develop the American opinion and 
 influence which shall remould constitutions, laws, and customs, 
 
COMMERCE. 287 
 
 in the lan.l that is first greeted by the rising sun 1 Sir, although 
 I am no socialist, no dreamer of a suddenly-coming millennium, 
 I nevertheless can not reject the hope that peace is now to have 
 her sway, and that as war has hitherto defaced and saddened 
 the Atlantic world, the better passions of mankind will soon 
 have their development in the new theatre of human activity. 
 
 Commerce is the great agent of this movement. Whatever 
 nation shall put that commerce into full employment, and shall 
 conduct it steadily with adequate expansion, will become neces 
 sarily the greatest of existing states ; greater than any that has 
 ever existed. Sir, you will claim that responsibility and that 
 higli destiny for our own country. Are you so sure that by 
 assuming the one she will gain the other 1 They imply noth 
 ing less than universal comm erce and the supremacy of the 
 seas. We are second to England, indeed ; but, nevertheless, 
 how far are we not behind her in commerce and in extent of 
 empire ! I pray to know where you will go that you will not 
 meet the flag of England fixed, planted, rooted into the very 
 earth ? If you go northward, it waves over half of this con 
 tinent of North America, which we call our own. If you go 
 southward, it greets you on the Bermudas, the Bahamas, and 
 the Caribbee islands. On the Falkland islands it guards the 
 straits of Magellan ; on the South Shetland island it watches 
 the passage round the Horn ; and at Adelaide island it warns 
 you that you have reached the Antarctic circle. When you 
 ascend along the southwestern coast of America, it is seen at 
 Galopagos, overlooking the isthmus of Panama; and, having 
 saluted it there and at Vancouver, you only take leave of it in 
 the far northwest, when you are entering the Arctic ocean. If 
 you visit Africa, you find the same victorious cross guarding the 
 coast of Gambia and Sierra Leone and St. Helena. It watches 
 you at Capetown as you pass into the Indian ocean ; while on 
 the northern passage to that vast sea it demands your recog 
 nition from Gibraltar, as you enter the Mediterranean ; from 
 Malta, when you pass through the Sicilian straits ; on the Ionian 
 islands it waves in protection of Turkey ; and at Aden it guards 
 the passage from the Red sea into the Indian ocean. Wherever 
 western commerce has gained an entrance to the continent of 
 Asia, there that flag is seen waving over subjugated millions 
 
288 SELECTIONS. 
 
 at Bombay, at Ceylon, at Singapore, at Calcutta, at Lahore, 
 and at Hong-Kong ; while Australia and nearly all the islands 
 of Polynesia acknowledge its protection. 
 
 Sir, I need not tell you that wherever that flag waves, it is 
 supported and cheered by the martial airs of England. But I 
 care not for that. The sword is not the most winning messen 
 ger that can be sent abroad ; and commerce, like power, upheld 
 by armies and navies, may in time be found to cost too much. 
 But what is to be regarded with more concern is, that England 
 employs the steam-engine even more vigorously and more uni 
 versally than her military force. Steam-engines, punctually de 
 parting and arriving between every one of her various possessions 
 and her island-seat of power, bring in the raw material for every 
 manufacture and supplies for every want. The steam-engine plies 
 incessantly there day and night, converting these materials into 
 fabrics of every variety, for the use of man. And again the steam- 
 engine for ever and without rest moves over the face of the 
 deep, not only distributing these fabrics to every part of the globe, 
 but disseminating also the thoughts, the principles, the language, 
 and religion of England. Sir, we are bold indeed to dare com 
 petition with such a power. Nevertheless, the resources for it 
 are adequate. We have coal and iron no less than she, while 
 corn, timber, cattle, hemp, wool, cotton, silk, oil, sugar, and the 
 grape, quicksilver, lead, copper, silver, and gold, are all found 
 within our own broad domain in inexhaustible profusion. What 
 energies we have already expended, prove that we have in 
 reserve all that are needful. What inventions we have made, 
 prove our equality to any exigency. Our capital increases,, 
 while labor scarcely knows the burden of taxation. Our Panama 
 route to China has a decided advantage over that of the isthmus 
 of Suez, and, at the same time, vessels leaving that country and 
 coming round the Horn will reach New York, always, at least 
 five days sooner than vessels of equal speed can double the 
 cape of Good Hope, and make the port of Liverpool. 
 
 Mr. President, we now see how conspicuous a part in the 
 great movement of the age California and Oregon are to sus 
 tain, and that, as yet, they are separated from us and isolated. 
 They will adhere to us only so long as our government over 
 them shall be conducted, not for our benefit, but for their own. 
 
COMMERCE. 289 
 
 Their loyalty is great, but it can not exceed that of the thirteen 
 ancient American colonies to Great Britain ; and yet the neglect 
 and oppression of their commerce undermined that loyalty, and 
 resulted in their independence. I hear often of dangers to the 
 Union, and see lines of threatened separation drawn by pas 
 sionate men or alarmists, on parallels of latitude ; but, in my 
 judgment, there is only one danger of severance and that is 
 involved in the possibility of criminal neglect of the new com 
 munities on the Pacific coast, while the summits of the Rocky 
 mountains, and of the Snowy mountains, mark the only possible 
 line of dismemberment. Against that danger I would guard as 
 against the worst calamity that could befall, not only my coun 
 try, at her most auspicious stage of progress, but mankind also, 
 in the hour of their brightest hopes. I would guard against it 
 by practising impartial justice toward the new and remote states 
 and territories, whose political power is small, while their wants 
 are great, and by pursuing at the same time, with liberality and 
 constancy, the lofty course which they indicate, of an aspiring 
 yet generous and humane national ambition. Speech in U.S. 
 Senate, July 29, 1852. 
 
 Continental S^ailr-oaS to tfje pacific cean. ts (Commercial 
 
 You want first and most, a communication which shall bind 
 New Orleans, and Washington, and New York, on the Atlantic, 
 with San Francisco, on the Pacific. The safety of your country, 
 the safety of its Pacific posessions, demands such a communica 
 tion not over oceans exposed to all nations, and through a for 
 eign territory occupied by a discontented, aggrieved, and prob- 
 ablv hostile people, but inland, and altogether through your own 
 country. You want, for your own use, for your own commerce, 
 and for the commerce of Asia, a road which shall have the ad 
 vantage of the best Atlantic and Pacific harbors which can 
 be obtained, with one continuous connection by land, so that 
 there shall be no necessity for reshipment between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific ports not a way between ports yet to be artificially 
 made, on the Caribbean sea, and on the Pacific coast, with chan 
 ges from land to water-carriage requiring breaking of bulk at 
 least twice in the course of transit. 
 
 13 
 
290 SELECTIONS. 
 
 If you aim to erect a higli commercial structure, you must lay 
 your foundations broadly in agriculture, in mining, and manu 
 facture ; and all these within your own domain ; and use the 
 resources which God and nature have given to you, and not those 
 which Providence has bestowed upon your neighbors. And yon 
 want, for the same reason, a passage across the continent, of 
 your own, not shared with any foreign domain. If you will 
 be the carriers of Europe and of Asia, if you will be the carriers 
 in even your own interoceanic commerce, you must receive, you 
 must convey, you must deliver merchandise, within your own 
 temperate zone, not within that torrid zone whose heats are 
 noxious to animal and vegetable productions, and, while "so del 
 eterious to the articles most abundant and most essential to the 
 subsistence of man, pestilential also to human life itself. This 
 is the communication across this continent which you want 
 Speech in U. S. Senate, Feb. 8, 1853. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 STfje American people STfjctr floral an& Intellectual Bebelopment 
 
 A KIND of reverence is paid by all nations to antiquity. There 
 is no one that does not trace its lineage from the gods, or from 
 those who were especially favored by the gods. Every people 
 has had its age of gold, or Augustan age, or heroic age an age, 
 alas ! for ever passed. These prejudices are not altogether un 
 wholesome. Although they produce a conviction of declining 
 virtue, which is unfavorable to generous emulation, yet a people 
 at once ignorant and irreve^ntial would necessarily become 
 licentious. Nevertheless, such prejudices ought to be modified. 
 It is untrue, that in the period of a nation s rise from disorder to 
 refinement, it is not able to continually surpass itself. We see 
 the present plainly, distinctly, with all its coarse outlines, its 
 rough inequalities, its dark blots, and its glaring deformities. 
 We hear all its tumultuous sounds and jarring discords. We 
 see and hear the past, through a distance which reduces all its 
 inequalities to a plane, mellows all its shades into a pleasing hue, 
 and subdues even its hoarsest voices into harmony. In our own 
 case, the prejudice is less erroneous than in most others. The 
 revolutionary age was truly a heroic one. Its exigencies called 
 forth the genius and the talents and the virtues of society, and 
 they ripened amid the hardships of a long and severe trial. But 
 there were selfishness, and vice, and factions, then, as now, al 
 though comparatively subdued and repressed. You have only 
 to consult impartial history, to learn that neither public faith, 
 nor public loyalty, nor private virtue, culminated at that period 
 
292 SELECTIONS. 
 
 in our own country,* while a mere glance at the literature, or 
 at the stage, or at the politics, of any European country, in any 
 previous age, reveals the fact that it was marked, more distinctly 
 than the present, by licentious morals and mean ambition. 
 
 Reasoning a priori again, as we did in another case, it is only 
 just to infer in favor of the United States an improvement 
 of morals from their established progress in knowledge and pow 
 er ; otherwise, the philosophy of society is misunderstood, and 
 we must change all our courses, and henceforth seek safety in 
 imbecility, and virtue in superstition and ignorance. 
 
 What shall be the test of the national morals ? Shall it be 
 the eccentricity of crimes ? Certainly not ; for then we must 
 compare the criminal eccentricity of to-day with that of yester 
 day. The result of the comparison would be only this, that the 
 crimes of society change with changing circumstances. 
 
 Loyalty to the state is a public virtue. Was it ever deeper- 
 toned or more universal than it is now ? I know there are 
 ebullitions of passion and discontent, sometimes breaking out 
 into disorder and violence ; but was faction ever more effectually 
 disarmed and harmless than it is now 1 There is a loyalty that 
 springs from the affection that we bear to our native soil. This 
 we have as strong as any people* But it is not the soil alone, 
 nor yet the soil beneath our feet and the skies over our heads, 
 that constitute our country. It is its freedom, equality, justice, 
 greatness, and glory. Who among us is so low as to be insensi 
 ble of an interest in them ? Four hundred thousand natives of 
 other lands every year voluntarily renounce their own sovereigns, 
 and swear fealty to our own. Who has ever known an Ameri 
 can to transfer his allegiance permanently to a foreign power ? 
 
 The spirit of the laws, in any country, is a true index to the 
 morals of a people, just in proportion to the power they exercise 
 
 "I onght not to object to your reverence for your fathers, as you call 
 them, meaning, I presume, the government, and those concerned in the di 
 rection of public affairs; much less could I be displeased at your numbering 
 me among them. But, to tell you a. very great secret, as far as I am capa 
 ble of comparing the merits of different periods, I have no reason to believe 
 that we were better than you are. We had as many poor creatures and 
 selfish beings in proportion, among us, as you have among you; nor were 
 there then more enlightened men, or in greater number in proportion/ 
 than there are now." John Adainxs Letter to JosiaJi Qitincy, Feb. 9, 1811. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 293 
 
 in making them. "Who complains, here or elsewhere, that crime 
 or immorality blots our statute-books with licentious enactments ? 
 
 The character of a country s magistrates, legislators, and cap 
 tains, chosen by a people, reflect their own. It is true that in 
 the earnest canvassing which so frequently recurring elections 
 require, suspicion often follows the magistrate, and scandal fol 
 lows in the footsteps of the statesman. Yet, when his course 
 has been finished, what magistrate has left a name tarnished by 
 corruption, or what statesman has left an act or an opinion so 
 erroneous that decent charity can not excuse, though it may dis 
 approve ] What chieftain ever tempered military triumph with 
 so much moderation as he who, when he had placed our stand 
 ard on the battlements of the capital of Mexico, not only received 
 an offer of supreme authority from the conquered nation, but 
 declined it ? 
 
 The manners of a nation are the outward form of its inner 
 life. Where is woman held in so chivalrous respect, and where 
 does she deserve that eminence better? Where is property 
 more safe, commercial honor better sustained, or human life 
 more sacred ? 
 
 Moderation is a virtue in private and in public life. Has not 
 the great increase of private wealth manifested itself chiefly in 
 widening the circle of education and elevating the standard of 
 popular intelligence 1 With forces which, if combined and di 
 rected by ambition, would subjugate this continent at once, we 
 have made only two very short wars the one confessedly a 
 war of defence, and the other ended by paying for a peace and 
 for a domain already fully conquered. 
 
 Where lies the secret of the increase of virtue which has thus 
 been established 1 I think it will be found in the entire eman 
 cipation of the consciences of men from either direct or indirect 
 control by established ecclesiastical or political systems. Reli 
 gious classes, like political parties, have been left to compete in 
 the great work of moral education, and to entitle themselves to 
 the confidence and affection of society, by the purity of their 
 faith and of their morals. 
 
 I am well aware that some, who may be willing to adopt the 
 general conclusions of this argument, will object that it is not 
 altogether sustained by the action of the government itself, how- 
 
294 SELECTIONS. 
 
 ever true it may be that it is sustained by the great action of 
 society. I can not enter a field where truth is to be sought 
 among the disputations of passion and prejudice. I may say, 
 however, in reply first, that the governments of the United States, 
 although more perfect than any other, and although they em 
 brace the great ideas of the age more fully than any other, are, 
 nevertheless, like all other governments, founded on compro 
 mises of some abstract truths and of some natural rights. 
 
 As government is impressed by its constitution, so it must 
 necessarily act. This may suffice to explain the phenomenon 
 complained of. But it is true, also, that no government ever 
 did altogether act out, purely and for a long period, all the vir 
 tues. of its original constitution. Hence it is that we are so well 
 told by Bolingbroke, that every nation must perpetually renew 
 its constitution or perish. Hence, moreover, it is a great excel 
 lence of our system, that sovereignty resides, not in Congress 
 and the president, nor yet in the governments of the states, but 
 in the people of the United States. If the sovereign be just 
 and firm and uncorrupted, the governments can always be 
 brought back from any aberrations, and even the constitutions 
 themselves, if in any degree imperfect, can be amended. This 
 great idea of the sovereignty of the people over their govern 
 ment glimmers in the British system, while it fills our own with 
 a broad and glowing light. 
 
 "Let not your king and parliament in one, 
 Much less apart, mistake themselves for that 
 Which is most worthy to be thought upon, 
 Nor think they are essentially the STATE. 
 Let them not fancy that the authority 
 And privileges on them bestowed, 
 Conferred, are to set up a majesty, 
 Or a power or a glory of their own ; 
 But let them know it was for a deeper life 
 Which they but represent ; 
 That there s on earth a yet auguster thing, 
 Veil d though it be, than parliament or king." 
 
 Gentlemen, you are devoted to the pursuit of knowledge in 
 order that you may impart it to the state. What Fenelon was 
 to France, you may be to your country. Before you teach, let 
 me enjoin upon you to study well the capacity and the disposi- 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 295 
 
 tion of the American people. I have tried to prove to you only 
 that while they inherit the imperfections of humanity they are 
 yet youthful, apt, vigorous, and virtuous, and therefore, that 
 they are worthy, and will make nohle uses of your best instruc 
 tions. Address, Yale College, New Haven, July 26, 1854. 
 
 WHAT is the human mind 1 It is immaterial, spiritual, im 
 mortal ; an emanation of the Divine Intelligence, and if the 
 frame in which it dwells had preserved its just and natural pro 
 portions, and perfect adaptation, it would be a pure and heavenly 
 existence. But that frame is marred and disordered in its best 
 estate. The spirit has communication with the world without, 
 and acquires imperfect knowledge only through the half-opened 
 gates of the senses. If, from original defects, or from accidental 
 causes, the structure be such as to cramp or restrain the mind, 
 it becomes or appears to be weak, diseased, vicious, and wicked. 
 I know one who was born without sight, without hearing, and 
 without speech, retaining the faculties of feeling and smell. 
 That child was, and would have continued to be an idiot, incapa 
 ble of receiving or communicating thoughts, feelings or affections ; 
 but tenderness unexampled, and skill and assiduity, unparalleled, 
 have opened avenues to the benighted mind of Laura Bridgman, 
 and developed it into a perfect and complete human spirit, con 
 sciously allied to all its kindred, and aspiring to Heaven. Such 
 is the mind of every idiot, and of every lunatic, if you can only 
 open the gates, and restore the avenues of the senses ; and such 
 is the human soul when deranged and disordered by disease, 
 imprisoned, confounded, benighted. That disease is insanity. 
 
 Doth not the idiot eat 1 Doth not the idiot drink ? Doth not 
 the idiot loiow his father and his mother ? He does all this be 
 cause he is a man. Doth he not smile and weep 1 Do you think 
 he smiles and weeps for nothing ? He smiles and weeps because 
 he is moved by human joys and sorrows, and exercises his reason, 
 however imperfectly. Hath not the idiot anger, rage, revenge ? 
 Take from him his food, and he will stamp his feet and throw his 
 chains in your face. Do you think he doth this for nothing ? 
 He does it all because he is a man, and because, however irnper- 
 
296 SELECTIONS. 
 
 fectly, he exercises his reason. The lunatic does all this, and, 
 if not quite demented, all things else that man, in the highest 
 pride of intellect does or can do. lie only does them in a dif 
 ferent way. You may pass laws for his government. Will he 
 conform 1 Can he conform ? What cares he for your laws 1 
 He will not even plead ; he can not plead his disease in excuse. 
 You must interpose the plea for him, and if you allow it, he, 
 when redeemed from his mental bondage, will plead for you 
 ^ hen he shall return to your Judge and his. If you deny his 
 plea, he goes all the sooner, freed from imperfection, and with 
 energies restored, into the presence of that Judge. You must 
 meet him there, and then, no longer hewildered, stricken and 
 dumb, he will have become as perfect, clear and bright, as those 
 who reviled him in his degradation, and triumphed in his ruin. 
 
 And now what is insanity ? Many learned men have defined 
 it for us, but I prefer to convey my idea of it in the simplest 
 manner. Insanity is a disease of the body, and I doubt not of 
 the brain. The world is astonished to find it so. They thought 
 for almost six thousand years that it was an affection of the mind 
 only. Is it strange that the discovery should have been made 
 so late ? You know that it is easier to move a burden upon two 
 smooth rails on a level surface, than over the rugged ground. 
 It has taken almost six thousand years to learn that. But mor 
 alists argue that insanity shall not be admitted as a physical dis 
 ease, because it would tend to exempt the sufferer from respon 
 sibility, and because it would expose society to danger. But 
 who shall know, better than the Almighty, the wayjs of human 
 safety, and the bounds of human responsibility ? 
 
 And is it strange that the brain should be diseased ? What 
 organ, member, bone, muscle, sinew, vessel, or nerve, is not sub 
 ject to disease 1 What is physical man, but a frail, perishing 
 body, that begins to decay as soon as it begins to exist ? What 
 is there of animal existence here on earth exempt from disease 
 and decay ? Nothing. The world is full of disease and that 
 is the great agent of change, renovation, and health. 
 
 And what wrong or error can there be in supposing that the 
 mind may be so affected by disease of the body as to relieve 
 man from responsibility ? You will answer, it would not be safe. 
 But who has assured you of safety ] Is not the way of life 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 297 
 
 through dangers lurking on every side, and though you escape 
 ten thousand perils, must you not fall at last ? Human life is 
 not safe, nor intended to be safe, against the elements. Neither 
 is it safe, nor intended to he safe, against the moral elements of 
 man s nature. It is not safe against pestilence, nor against war, 
 against the thunderbolts of heaven, nor against the blow of the 
 maniac. But comparative safety can be secured, if you will be 
 wise. You can guard against war, if you will cultivate peace. 
 You can guard against the lightning, if you will learn the laws of 
 electricity, and raise the protecting rod. You will be safe against 
 the maniac, if you will watch the causes of madness, and remove 
 them. Yet after all, there will be danger enough from all these 
 causes to remind you that on earth you are not immortal. 
 
 Although my definition would not perhaps be strictly accurate 
 I should pronounce insanity to be a derangement of the mind, 
 character, and conduct, resulting from bodily disease. I take 
 this word derangement, because it is one in common every-day 
 use. We all understand what is meant when it is said that any 
 thing is ranged or arranged. The houses on a street are ranged, 
 if built upon a straight line. The fences on your farms are 
 ranged. A single object too may be ranged. A tower, if justly 
 built, is ranged ; that is, it is ranged by the plummet. It rises 
 in a perpendicular range from the earth. A file of men march 
 ing in a straight line are in range. " Range yourselves, men," 
 though not exactly artistical, is not an uncommon word of com 
 mand. Now what do we mean when we use the word " derang 
 ed" ? Manifestly that a thing is not ranged, is not arranged, is 
 out of range. If the houses on the street be built irregularly, 
 they are deranged. If the walls be inclined to the right or 
 left, they are deranged. If there be an unequal pressure on 
 either side, the tower will lean, that is, it will be deranged. If 
 the file of men become irregular, the line will be deranged. So 
 if a man is insane. There was a regular line which he was pur 
 suing ; not the same line which you or I follow, for all men pur 
 sue different lines, and every sane man has his own peculiar 
 path. All these paths are straight, and all are ranged, though 
 all divergent. It is easy enough to discover when the street, 
 the wall, the tower, or the martial procession, is deranged. But 
 it is quite another thing to determine when the course of an in- 
 
 13* 
 
298 SELECTIONS. 
 
 dividual life lias become deranged. We deal not then with geo 
 metrical or material lines, but with an imaginary line. We have 
 no physical objects for landmarks. We trace the line backward 
 by the light of imperfect and unsatisfactory evidence, which 
 leaves it a matter almost of speculation whether there has been 
 a departure or not. In some cases, indeed, the task is easy. If 
 the fond mother becomes the murderer of her offspring, it is easy 
 to see that she is deranged. If the pious man, whose steps were 
 firm and whose pathway led straight to heaven, sinks without 
 temptation into criminal debasement, it is easy to see that he is 
 deranged. But in cases where no natural instinct or elevated 
 principle throws its light upon our research, it is often the most 
 difficult and delicate of all human investigations to determine 
 when a person is deranged. 
 
 We have two tests. First, to compare the individual after 
 the supposed derangement with himself as he was before. Sec 
 ond, to compare his course with those ordinary lines of human 
 life which we expect sane persons, of equal intelligence, and 
 similarly situated, to pursue. 
 
 If derangement, which is insanity, mean only what we have 
 assumed, how absurd is it to be looking to detect whether mem 
 ory, hope, joy; fear, hunger, thirst, reason, understanding, wit, 
 and other faculties, remain 1 So long as life lasts they never 
 cease to abide with man, whether he pursue his straight and 
 natural way, or the crooked and unnatural course of the lunatic. 
 If he be diseased, his faculties will not cease to act. They will 
 only act differently. It is contended here that the prisoner is 
 not deranged because he performed his daily task in the state- 
 prison, and his occasional labor afterward ; because he grinds 
 his knives, fits his weapons, and handles the file, the axe, and 
 the saw, as he was instructed, and as he was wont to do. Now, 
 the lunatic asylum at Utica has not an idle person in it, except 
 the victims of absolute and incurable dementia, the last and 
 worst stage of insanity. Lunatics arc almost the busiest people 
 in the world. They have their prototypes only in children. 
 One lunatic will make a garden, another drive the plough, anoth 
 er gather flowers. One writes poetry, another essays, another 
 orations. In short, lunatics eat, drink, sleep, work, fear, love, 
 hate, laugh, weep, mourn, die. They do all things that sane 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 299 
 
 men do, but do them in some peculiar way. It is said, however, 
 that this prisoner has hatred and anger, that he has remembered 
 his wrongs, and nursed and cherished revenge ; wherefore, he 
 can not be insane. Cowper, a moralist who had tasted the bit 
 ter cup of insanity, reasoned otherwise : 
 
 "But violence can never longer sleep 
 Than human passions please. In ev ry heart 
 Are sown the sparks that kindle fi ry war, 
 Occasion needs but fan them and they blaze, 
 The seeds of murder in the breast of man." 
 
 Melancholy springs oftenest from recalling and brooding over 
 wrong and suffering. Melancholy is the first stage of madness, 
 and it is only recently that the less accurate name of monomania 
 has been substituted in the place of melancholy. Melancholy is 
 the foster-mother of anger and revenge. Argument in Defence 
 of William Freeman, July, 1846. 
 
 Kusauttu. -Some of its Causes an& Circumstances. 
 
 ALL writers agree, what it needs not writers should teach, 
 that neglect of education is a fruitful cause of insanity. If 
 neglect of education produces crime, it equally produces insan 
 ity. Here was a bright, cheerful, happy child,* destined to 
 become a member of the social, state, entitled by the principles 
 of our government to equal advantages for perfecting himself in 
 intelligence, and even in political rights, with each of the three 
 millions of our citizens, and blessed by our religion with equal 
 hopes. Without his being taught to read, his mother, who lives 
 by menial service, sends him forth at the age of eight or nine 
 years to like employment. Reproaches are cast on his mother, 
 on Mr. Warden, and on Mr. Lynch, "for not sending him to school, 
 but these reproaches are all unjust. How could she, poor de 
 graded negress and Indian as she was, send her child to school ? 
 And where was the school to which Warden and Lynch should 
 have sent him ? There was no school for him. His few and 
 wretched years date back to the beginning of my acquaintance 
 here, and during all that time, with unimportant exceptions, 
 
 * William Freeman. See p. 99. 
 
300 SELECTIONS. 
 
 there lias been no school here for children of his caste. A school 
 for colored children was never established here, and all the com 
 mon schools were closed against them. Money would always 
 procure instruction for ni}^ children, and relieve me from the 
 responsibility. But the colored children who have from time to 
 time been confided to my charge, have been cast upon my own 
 care for education. When I sent them to school with my own 
 children, they were sent back to me with a message that they 
 must be withdrawn because they were black, or the school would 
 cease. Here are the fruits of this unmanly and criminal preju 
 dice. A whole family is cut off in the midst of usefulness and 
 honors by the hand of an assassin 
 
 Mere imprisonment is often a cause of insanity. Four insane 
 persons have, on this trial, been mentioned as residing among 
 us, all of whom became insane in the stateprison. Authentic 
 statistics show that there are never less than thirty insane per 
 sons in each of our two great penitentiaries. In the stateprison, 
 the prisoner was subjected to severe corporeal punishment by 
 keepers, who mistook a decay of mind and morbid melancholy 
 for idleness, obstinacy, and malice. Beaten, as he was, until 
 the organs of his hearing ceased to perform their functions, 
 who shall say that other and more important organs connected 
 with the action of his mind did not become diseased through 
 sympathy ? Such a life, so filled with neglect, injustice, and 
 severity, with anxiety, pain, disappointment, solicitude, and 
 grief, would have its fitting conclusion in a madhouse. If it 
 be true, as the wisest of inspired writers hath said, " Verily, 
 oppression maketh a wise man mad," what may we not ex 
 pect it to do with a foolish, ignorant, illiterate man ! 
 
 There is proof, gentlemen, stronger than all this. It is silent, 
 yet speaking. It is that idiotic smile which plays continually 
 on the face of the maniac. It took its seat there while he was 
 in the statcprison. In his solitary cell, under the pressure of 
 his severe tasks and trials in the workshop, and during the 
 solemnities of public worship in the chapel, it appealed, although 
 in vain, to his taskmasters and his teachers. It is a smile, never 
 rising into laughter, without motive or cause the smile of 
 vacuity. His mother saw it when he came out of prison, and 
 it broke her heart. John Depuy saw it and knew his brother 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 801 
 
 was elemented. Deborah Depuy observed it and knew him for 
 a fool. David Winner read in it the ruin of his friend, Sally s 
 son. It has never forsaken him in his later trials. He laughed 
 in the face of Parker, while on confession at Baldwinsville. He 
 laughed involuntarily in the faces of Warden and Curtis, and 
 Word en and Austin, and Bigelow and Smith, and Brigham and 
 Spencer. He laughs perpetually here. Even when Van Ars- 
 dale showed the scarred traces of the assassin s knife, and when 
 Helen Holmes related the dreadful story of the murder of her 
 patrons and friends, he laughed. He laughs while I am plead 
 ing his griefs. He laughs when the attorney-general s bolts 
 would seem to rive his heart. He will laugh when you declare 
 him guilty. When the judge shall proceed to the last fatal 
 ceremony, and demand what he has to say why the sentence of 
 the law should not be pronounced upon him, although there 
 should not be an unmoistened eye in this vast assembly, and 
 the stern voice addressing him should tremble with emotion, he 
 will even then look up in the face of the court and laugh, from 
 the irresistible emotions of a shattered mind, delighted and lost 
 in the confused memory of absurd and ridiculous associations. 
 Follow him to the scaffold. The executioner can not disturb 
 the calmness of the idiot. He will laugh in the agony of death. 
 Do you not know the significance of this strange and unnatural 
 risibility ? It is a proof that God does not forsake even the 
 poor wretch whom Ave pity or despise. There are in every hu 
 man memory a well of joys and a fountain of sorrows. Disease 
 opens wide the one, and seals up the other, for ever. . . . 
 
 That chaotic smile is the external derangement which signi 
 fies that the strings of the harp are disordered and broken, the 
 superficial mark which God has set upon the tabernacle, to 
 signify that its immortal tenant is disturbed by a divine and 
 mysterious visitation. If you can not see it, take heed that the 
 obstruction of your vision be not produced by the mote in your 
 own eye, which you are commanded to remove before you con 
 sider the beam in your brother s eye. If you are bent on 
 rejecting the testimony of those who know, by experience and 
 by science, the deep affliction of the prisoner, beware how you 
 misinterpret the handwriting of the Almighty. Argument in 
 Defence of William Freeman, 1846. 
 
302 SELECTIONS. 
 
 of tlje 
 
 I HAVE heard the greatest of American orators ; I have heard 
 Daniel O Connell and Sir Robert Peel ; but I heard John Dcpny 
 make a speech excelling them all in eloquence : " They have 
 made William Freeman what he is, a brute beast ; they don t 
 make anything else of any of our people but brute beasts ; but 
 when we violate their laws, then they want to punish us as if 
 we were men." 
 
 DEBORAH DEPUY is also assailed as unworthy of credit. She 
 calls herself the wife of Hiram Depuy, with whom she has lived 
 ostensibly in that relation for seven years, in, I believe, unques 
 tioned fidelity to him and her children. But it appears that she 
 has not been married with the proper legal solemnities. If she 
 were a white woman, I should regard her testimony with caution, 
 but the securities of marriage are denied to the African race over 
 more than half of this country. It is within our own memory 
 that the master s cupidity could divorce husband and wife within 
 this state, and sell their children into perpetual bondage. Since 
 the act of emancipation here, what has been done by the white 
 man to lift up the race from the debasement into which he had 
 plunged it 1 Let us impart to negroes the knowledge and spirit 
 of Christianity, and share with them the privileges, dignity and 
 hopes of citizens and Christians, before we expect of them purity 
 and self-respect. 
 
 But, gentlemen, even in a slave state, the testimony of this 
 witness would receive credit in such a cause, for negroes may 
 be witnesses there, for and against persons of their own caste. 
 It is only when the life, liberty, or property of the white man 
 is invaded, that the negro is disqualified. Let us not be too se 
 vere. There was once upon the earth a Divine Teacher who 
 shall come again to judge the world in righteousness. They 
 brought to him a woman taken in adultery, and said to him that 
 the law of Moses directed that such should be stoned to death, 
 and he answered : " Let him that is without sin cast the first 
 stone." 
 
 The testimony of SALLY FREEMAN, the mother of the pris 
 oner, is questioned. She utters the voice of NATURE. She is 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 303 
 
 the guardian whom God assigned to study, to watch, to learn, to 
 know what the prisoner was, and is, and to cherish the memory 
 of it for ever. She could not forget it if she would. There is 
 not a blemish on the person of any one of r us, born with us or 
 coming from disease or accident, nor have we committed a right 
 or wrong action, that has not been treasured up in the memory 
 of a mother. Juror ! roll up the sleeve from your manly arm 
 and you will mid a scar there of which you know nothing. Your 
 mother will give you the detail of every day s progress of the 
 preventive disease. Sally Freeman has the mingled blood of 
 the African and Indian races. She is nevertheless a woman, and 
 a mother, and nature bears witness in every climate and in every 
 country, to the singleness and uniformity of those characters. I 
 have known and proved them in the hovel of the slave, and in 
 the wigwam of the Clrippewa, But Sally Freeman has been 
 intemperate. The while man enslaved her ancestors of the one 
 race, exiled and destroyed those of the other, and debased them 
 all by corrupting their natural and healthful appetites. She 
 comes honestly by her only vice. Yet when she comes here to 
 testify for a life that is dearer to her than her own, to say she 
 knows her own son, the white man says she is a drunkard ! May 
 Heaven forgive the white man for adding this last, this cruel 
 injury to the wrongs of such a mother ! Fortunately, gentle 
 men, her character and conduct are before you. No woman 
 ever appeared with more sobriety, decency, modesty, and pro 
 priety, than she has exhibited here. No witness has dared to 
 say or think that Sally Freeman is not a woman of truth. A 
 witness for the prosecution, who knows her well, says, that with 
 all her infirmities of temper and of habit, Sally " was always a 
 truthful woman." The Roman Cornelia could not have claimed 
 more. Let then the stricken mother testify for her son. 
 " I ask not, I care not, if guilt s in that heart, 
 
 I know that I love thee, whatever thou art!" 
 
 The circumstances under which this trial closes are peculiar. 
 I have seen capital cases where the parents, brothers, sisters, 
 friends of the accused surrounded him, eagerly hanging upon 
 the lips of his advocate, and watching, in the countenances of 
 the court and jury, every smile and frown which might seem to 
 indicate his fate. But there is no such scene here. The pris- 
 
304 SELECTIONS. 
 
 oner, though in the greenness of youth, is withered, decayed, 
 senseless, almost lifeless. He has no father here. The descen 
 dant of slaves, that father died a victim to the vices of a supe 
 rior raco. There is no mother here, for her child is stained and 
 polluted with the blood of mothers and of a sleeping infant ; and 
 he " looks and laughs so that she can not bear to look upon him." 
 There is no brother, nor sister, nor friend here. Popular rage 
 against the accused has driven them hence, and scattered his 
 kindred and people. On the other side, I notice the aged and 
 venerable parents of Van Nest and his surviving children, and 
 all around are mourning and sympathizing friends. I know not 
 at whose instance they have come. I dare not say they ought 
 not to be here. But I must say to you that we live in a Chris 
 tian and not in a savage state, and that the affliction which has 
 fallen upon these mourners and us, was sent to teach them and 
 us mercy and not retaliation ; that, although we may send this 
 maniac to the scaffold, it will not recall to life the manly form 
 of Van Nest, nor re-animate the exhausted frame of that aged 
 matron, nor restore to life, and grace, and beauty, the murdered 
 mother, nor call back the infant boy from the arms of his Savior. 
 Such a verdict can do no good to the living, and carry no joy 
 to the dead. Argument in Defence of William Freeman, 1846. 
 
 of an nonDeuja <ijtcf. 
 
 GREAT FATHER : Your children, the Onondagas, have sent 
 me to you, and they ask you to open your ears to me, and hear 
 the talk which they have sent by me to you. . . . 
 
 Father : you are young in years ; we hope you are old in 
 counsel so our white brethren tell us, and we believe it. And 
 your red children would like to know what is your mind, and 
 whether it is like our other white fathers, who have sat in coun 
 cil before you at the great council-fire in Albany, and who are 
 now dead. . . . 
 
 Father : Listen once more. The chiefs, and warriors, and 
 women of the Onondagas have had a long council a talk of 
 three days ; and their request to their father is, that he will shut 
 his ears, shake his head, and turn his face away from all talk to 
 him about the sale of the lands of the Onondagas. We know 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 he can do it, and drive them away preserve the nation in 
 p eace keep them together in friendship and not scatter 
 them like the Oneidas. 
 
 We now make our last request. Will our father think of the 
 talk which his red children have now sent him ] Will he send 
 them his mind ? Will he remember his children of the Ononda 
 gas, as our white fathers have done, and let them continue to 
 lie under his shade, as they have done under the shade of their 
 white fathers before him ? Will he also be a father to them, 
 and send them his mind. 1 This is all that is sent by me, and I 
 have done. 
 
 (Gobevnov SctoavU s Ivqpln. 
 
 I HAVE considered the talk you have made to me in behalf 
 of the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Onondngas. I am 
 sorry to hear that the avarice of white men and the discontent 
 of red men have excited alarms among your people. I rejoice, 
 and all good white men rejoice, to hear that the Onondagas have 
 determined to banish the use of strong water that they assume 
 the habits and customs of civilized life, cultivate their lands, pos 
 sess oxen and horses, and desire to remain in the land of their 
 brave and generous, though unfortunate forefathers. 
 
 Why should the Onondagas exchange their homes among us 
 for the privations of the wilderness in the for west 1 They 
 are a quiet, inoffensive, and improving people. The public wel 
 fare does not require that they should be banished from their 
 native land. Although individuals often improve their fortunes 
 by emigration, the removal of a whole community is always 
 followed by calamity and distress. With temperance, industry, 
 and education, the Onondagas may be comfortable and happy, 
 and in time they may become good citizens of the state. 
 
 White men ought to be just and generous to your race. In 
 dians, but a few years ago, possessed all this broad domain. Now 
 the white men own all, except the small parcels which have been 
 reserved as a home for the remnants of the Indian tribes. There 
 is one common Father of all mankind. Although his ways are 
 inscrutable, we know that his benevolence extends to all his 
 children alike, and his blessings rest upon those who protect the 
 defenceless and succor the unfortunate. 
 
306 
 
 SELECTIONS. 
 
 Say to your people that I heard their message with attention ; 
 that I approve their determination to retain their lands and 
 remain under the protection of the state ; that, so far as depends 
 upon my exertions, the treaties made with them shall be faith 
 fully kept ; that if white men seek to obtain their lands by 
 force or fraud, I will set my face against them; if red men 
 propose to sell the lands, I will expostulate with them, and 
 endeavor to convince them of their error, and that I will in no 
 event^ consent to such sale, except with the free, and unbought, 
 and uncorrupted consent of the chiefs, head men, warriors, and 
 people of the Onondagas, and not even then without an effort 
 to persuade them that their true happiness would be pro 
 moted by retaining their possessions, cultivating their lands, 
 and enjoying the comforts with which our common Father 
 has surrounded them. The Onondagas may confide in me. 
 Albany, March 6, 1840. 
 
 Setter Hqptfl to tljc (EoloretJ Otttfrens of Sllfianv, 
 
 IF prejudice, interest, and passion, did sometimes counsel me 
 that what seemed to be the rights of the African race might be 
 overlooked without compromise of principle, and even with per 
 sonal advantage, yet I never have been able to find a better 
 definition of equality than that which is contained in the Dec 
 laration of Independence, or of justice, than the form which our 
 religion adopts. If, as the former asserts, all men are born free 
 and equal, institutions which deny them equal political rights 
 and advantages are unjust, and if I would do unto others as I 
 would desire them to do unto me, I should not deny them any 
 right on account of the hue they wear, or of the land in which 
 they or their ancestors were born. 
 
 Only time can determine between those who have upheld, and 
 those who have opposed the measures to which you have ad 
 verted. But I feel encouraged to wait that decision, since, in 
 the moment when, if ever, reproaches for injustice should come, 
 the exile does not reproach me, the prisoner does not exult in 
 my departure, and the disfranchised and the slave greet me 
 with their salutations. And if every other hope of my heart 
 shall fail, the remembrance that I have received the thanks of 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 307 
 
 those who have just cause to upbraid the memory of our fore 
 fathers, and to complain of our contemporaries, will satisfy me 
 that I have not lived altogether in vain. 
 
 May that God whose impartial love knows no difference 
 among those to whom he has imparted a portion of his own 
 spirit, and upon whom he has impressed his own image, reward 
 you for your kindness to me now and in times past, and sanc 
 tion and bless your generous and noble efforts to regain all the 
 rights of which you have been deprived. Jan. 10, 1843. 
 
 System 3Ufovms 
 
 I AM aware that the amendments I have submitted are such 
 an innovation upon the existing militia system, as to require, if 
 not an apology for offering them, at least an explanation of the 
 necessity for a change of some kind. Complaints long and loud 
 have been made of the defects of the system, and the oppressive 
 burden it imposes upon the people ; these complaints have, at 
 length, reached the executive ear, and have drawn from the 
 governor a recommendation to the consideration of the legis 
 lature. I do not know that I should have ventured to suggest 
 the amendments, had not the committee of the senate, after ma 
 ture deliberation, reported a bill which can be regarded in no 
 other light but as going immediately to change the whole sys 
 tem, and, in the result, to abolish it. This bill originates in the 
 deep conviction, I doubt not, of the committee, that some law 
 must be proposed to relieve the people from the trouble of mili 
 tary duty under the present organization. I confess that it is 
 not my object to destroy the system ; but, at the same time, 
 that I would relieve the people from the burden it imposes I 
 would, if possible, preserve and improve the militia, and would 
 elevate it so that it might be what it ought to be the ornament 
 of the country, and the safeguard of the rights and liberties of 
 the people. 
 
 * . * * * * # * * * 
 
 I propose as a remedy for the evils I have mentioned 
 
 1st. To reduce the number of the militia who shall be required 
 
 to perform military duty, to some much smaller number say 
 
 fifty thousand, sixty thousand, or seventy thousand ; the last 
 
 * This appears to have been Mr. Seward s first parliamentary effort. ED. 
 
808 SELECTIONS. 
 
 being, I believe, about the number of uniformed troops, in the 
 present organization, and I would, I confess, prefer to sustain 
 those whose public spirit and military ardor have induced them 
 to assume their present organization. 
 
 2d. To make the performance of military duty voluntary, as 
 far as practicable. 
 
 This force, if it consist of but fifty thousand men, may be 
 subdivided into five divisions, ten brigades, fifty regiments, and 
 five hundred companies. After what I fear has been a tedious 
 detail of the evils and defects of the present system, it will be 
 necessary to state, but very briefly, the advantages of the pro 
 posed system. They would be that the force could be well 
 and easily organized. It could be uniformed disciplined to 
 some considerable extent ; not only the officers, but the troops 
 could be improved in military skill. All this could be done, 
 because there are nearly, if not quite, the requisite number of 
 young men, who would be able and willing to encounter the 
 expense of filling up the ranks. And if necessary that legisla 
 tive encouragement should be afforded, it could be done to any 
 requisite extent at much less expense than is now drawn from 
 the yeomanry of the country to sustain the present defective 
 system. Men would then seek and obtain the offices in the 
 militia, who would have the ability and spirit necessary for the 
 discharge of the important duties attached to them. 
 
 Adopt such a system, and I feel assured that the militia, 
 instead of being degraded, ridiculed, and despised, will be re 
 spected, honored, and valued ; men enough will volunteer to take 
 its most subordinate ranks, from the patriotic desire to be among 
 those upon whom the republic will rely for its defenders, and 
 from the honorable ambition for military promotion 
 
 Finally, the time has come to decide whether the militia sys 
 tem shall be preserved or abandoned. It can be no longer 
 maintained without radical alteration and amendment. And 
 though members may wish to preserve it, they will find it as 
 hopeless as the attempt to retain the snow which melts more 
 rapidly with the pressure of the hand. 
 
 I have looked upon the system with veneration, while I have 
 felt and acknowledged the justice of the popular complaint against 
 it ; and, under the influence of mingled solicitude arising from both 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 809 
 
 these causes, I have long endeavored to find a remedy for the 
 evils I have mentioned. Of all which I have imagined and heard 
 suggested, this appears td me most feasible, as well as most likely 
 to be effectual. It is with a degree of diffidence I have ven 
 tured to give my views on the subject, which only can be over 
 come by a sense of my responsibility, before I can give a vote 
 which will go to the eventual abolition of the system ; to offer 
 the best exertion in my power to procure it, and, at the same 
 time, to meet the requirements of the people. I have always 
 felt that the militia system is a relic of the age of the Revolu 
 tion too valuable to be idly thrown away ; that it is a strong 
 and beautiful pillar of the government which ought not to be 
 rudely torn from its base. But if no effectual remedy can be 
 found in legislative wisdom, I shall feel myself bound, though 
 with reluctance, to vote at all hazards for such a bill as will 
 redress the evils the system imposes, and to trust to the exigen 
 cies of invasion, insurrection, or oppression, for a regeneration 
 of the military spirit which brought the nation into existence, 
 and will, if restored in its primitive purity and vigor, be able to 
 carry us through the dark and perilous ways of national calam 
 ity yet unknown to us, but which must, at some time, be trod 
 den by all nations. Speech in N. Y. Senate, Feb. 11, 1831. 
 
 J)c ftuMic Bomain f)c ?i}omestcati principle. 
 
 THE aggregate quantity of the national estate is fifteen 
 hundred and eighty-four millions of acres ; of which, one hun 
 dred and thirty-four millions have been definitely appropri 
 ated, and there remain, including appropriations not yet perfect 
 ed, fourteen hundred and fifty millions of acres. 
 
 Using only round numbers, these lands are distributed among 
 the states and territories as follows : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 In Ohio 745,000 
 
 Indiana 2,751,000 
 
 Illinois 14,060,000 
 
 Missouri 29,21 6,000 
 
 Alabama 17,238,000 
 
 Mississippi 14,308,000 
 
 Louisiana 22,854,000 
 
 Michigan 24,8<U,OGO 
 
310 SELECTIONS. 
 
 Arkansas 27,402,000 
 
 Florida 31,801,000 
 
 Iowa 27,153,000 
 
 Wisconsin 26,321,000 
 
 Minnesota 56,000,000 
 
 Northwest Territory 376,000,000 
 
 Oregon Territory. , 218,536,000 
 
 Nebraska Territory 87,488,000 
 
 Indian Territory 110,789,000 
 
 California and Utah 287,162,000 
 
 New Mexico 49,727,000 
 
 The domain came to the United States encumbered with a 
 right of possession by Indian tribes, which we are gradually ex 
 tinguishing by purchase, as the necessities of advancing popula 
 tion require. 
 
 At the establishment of the federal government, the United 
 States suffered from exhaustion by war, and labored under the 
 pressure of a great national debt, while they were obliged to 
 make large expenditures for new institutions, and to prepare for 
 defence by land and by sea. They therefore adopted a policy 
 which treated the domain merely as a fund or source of revenue. 
 They divided it into townships, sections, and quarter-sections, 
 and offered it at public sale, at a minimum price of two dollars 
 per acre, on credit, and subsequently at private sale, on the same 
 terms. In 1S20, they abolished the credit system, and reduced 
 the price to one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In 
 1833, they recognised a right of pre-emption in favor of actual 
 occupants ; and the system, as thus modified, still remains in 
 form upon our statute-book. The United States, however, have, 
 at different times, made very different dispositions of portions 
 of the domain. Thus there have been appropriated to the new 
 states and territories, for purposes of internal improvement, for 
 saline reservations, for the establishment of seats of government 
 and public buildings, and for institutions of education, as follows : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 To Ohio 1,847,575 
 
 Indiana 2,331,690 
 
 Illinois 1,649,024 
 
 Missouri 1,793,748 
 
 Alabama 1,473,994 
 
 Mississippi 1,384,944 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 311 
 
 Louisiana 1,332,124 
 
 Michigan 1,674,598 
 
 Arkansas 1,489,220 
 
 Wisconsin 217,920 
 
 Iowa 46,720 
 
 Florida 1,553,635 
 
 Besides these appropriations, the senate will at once recall 
 several acts of Congress, which surrendered, in the whole, sev 
 enty-nine millions of acres for bounties in the Mexican war, 
 bounties in the war of 1812, subsequent gratuities to the soldiers 
 in the same war and in Indian wars, cessions of swamp lands to 
 new states, and for the construction of a railroad from Chicago 
 to Mobile, and other internal improvements, none of which last- 
 named cessions have } 7 et been located. 
 
 The aggregate of revenues derived from the public domain is 
 one hundred and thirty-five millions three hundred and thirty- 
 nine thousand ninety-three dollars and ninety-three cents, show 
 ing an annual average revenue of one and a quarter million of 
 dollars since the system of sales was adopted. 
 
 Mr. President, I think the time is near at hand when the 
 United States will find it expedient to review their policy, and 
 to consider the following principles : 
 
 First. That lands shall be granted in limited quantities, gra 
 tuitously, to actual cultivators only. 
 
 Second. That the possessions of such grantees shall be secured 
 against involuntary alienation. 
 
 Third. That the United States shall relinquish to the states 
 the administration of the public lands within their limits. 
 
 If the public lands were movable merchandise, price would be 
 the principal, if not the only subject of inquiry. On the contra 
 ry, it is only the money received by the government on sales 
 that perishes or passes away. The lands remain fixed just where 
 they were before the sale, and they constitute a part of the ter 
 ritory subject to municipal administration as much after sale as 
 before. The possessors of the land sold become soon, if not im 
 mediately, citizens, and they will ultimately be a majority of 
 the whole population of the country, supporting the government 
 by their contributions, maintaining it by their arms, and wield 
 ing it for their own and the general welfare. To look, then, at 
 this subject merely with reference to the revenue that might be 
 
312 SELECTIONS. 
 
 derived from the sale of the lands, would be to commit the fault 
 of that least erected spirit that fell from heaven, whose 
 
 "Looks arid thoughts 
 
 Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of Heaven s pavement, trodden gold, 
 Than aught divine, or holy, else enjoyed." 
 
 All will admit all do admit that the power over the domain 
 should he so exercised as to favor the increase of population, the 
 augmentation of wealth, the cultivation of virtue, and the diffu 
 sion of happiness 
 
 Commercial supremacy demands just such an agricultural basis 
 as the fertile and extensive regions of the United States, when 
 inhabited, will supply. Political supremacy follows commercial 
 ascendency. It was by reason of the want of just such an agri 
 cultural basis that Venice, Portugal, and Holland, successively 
 lost commerce and empire. It was for the purpose of securing 
 just such a basis, that France, England, and Spain, seized so 
 eagerly and held so tenaciously the large portions of this conti 
 nent which they respectively^ occupied. It was for the purpose 
 of supplying the loss of this basis, that England has, within the 
 last seventy years, extended her conquests over a large portion 
 of India. 
 
 We now possess this basis, and all that we need is to develop 
 its capabilities as fully and as rapidly as possible. Nor ought 
 we to overlook another great political interest. Mutual jeal 
 ousies delayed a long time the establishment of the Union of 
 these states, and have ever since threatened its dissolution. It 
 is apparent that the ultimate security for its continuance is found 
 in the power of the states established, and hereafter to be es 
 tablished, on the public domain. Those new and vigorous com 
 munities continually impart new life to the entire commonwealth, 
 while the absolute importance of free access to the ocean will 
 secure their loyalty, even if the fidelity of the Atlantic states 
 shall fail. Such as these, sir, may have been some of the con 
 siderations that induced Andrew Jackson so long ago to declare 
 his opinion, that the time was not distant when the public do 
 main ought to cease to be regarded as a source of revenue. 
 Such considerations may have had some influence with the late 
 distinguish od senator from South Carolina [J. C. CALITOUX], to 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 4 313 
 
 propose a release of the public domain to the states, on their 
 paying a small per centum of revenue to the United States ; 
 and we are at liberty to suppose that a course of reasoning not 
 entirely unlike this, brought that eminent statesman, who is now 
 secretary of state [DANIEL WEBSTER] to propose here, a year 
 ago, a gratuitous appropriation of the public domain to actual 
 settlers. Speech in U. S. Senate, Feb. 27, 1851. 
 
 THE inhabitants of tli^ banks of the Nile have a tradition that 
 the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids was built by the antedi 
 luvians, and they venerate that great obelisk as the only wwk 
 of that mighty race that has withstood the floods that changed 
 and deformed the face of nature. Something like this is the 
 reverence I feel toward the whig party. It was erected not 
 this year, nor a few years ago. Its foundations were laid and 
 its superstructure reared by the mighty men of ages now re 
 mote by the Hampdens, the Sidneys, the Vanes, and the Mil- 
 tons by the presbyterians, the puritans, the republicans, the 
 whigs, of England those who first secured the responsibility 
 of kings by bringing the tyrant Charles to the block, and the 
 inviolability of parliaments by erecting, even in England, Scot 
 land, and Ireland, a commonwealth. Then and there arose the 
 whig party that party which now, under whatever name, in 
 every civilized country, advocates the cause of constitutional, 
 representative government, with watchful jealousy of executive 
 power. Of that race, who feared only God, and loved liberty, 
 were the founders of Virginia and of New England ; and the 
 catholic founders of Maryland and the peaceful settlers of 
 Pennsylvania were worthy associates with them. Here they 
 established governments of which Europe was not worthy, and 
 to perpetuate them they founded institutions for the education 
 of children and for the worship of God. 
 
 Thus early was promulgated the pure whig creed equal 
 popular representative government, jealousy of executive power, 
 the education of children, and the worship of God. "When the 
 prosperity of these colonies excited the cupidity of the parent- 
 state, and the king and parliament invaded the lights of the 
 
 14 
 
314 ^ SELECTIONS. 
 
 American people, there were two parties as there always have 
 been since, and always will be hereafter. One of them adhered 
 to the colonies through perils of confiscation and death the 
 other clung to the throne of England. The one was whig and 
 the other was I will not call a name that the error of ultra 
 loyalty then rendered odious, and thenceforth and for ever infa 
 mous. I desire to be understood. I by no means impute to 
 our opponents that they have succeeded to the loyalists of the 
 Involution. I aver solemnly my belief that, as a general truth, 
 all men of all parties are alike honest and patriotic citizens, and 
 seek their country s good alone. Political life would have been 
 unprofitable indeed if it had not taught me the virtue of candor 
 in fudging others, as well as the great error of always expecting 
 candor in their judgments on myself. * * * * 
 
 Which, then, is the whig party 1 which the republican ? which 
 the true democratic party the party of liberty, of equality, of 
 humanity the party of hope, of progress, and of civilization? 
 Let the history of the past, let the developments of the future, 
 determine. The whig party lias committed errors. Human 
 nature can not but err. Individuals often err, and masses still 
 more frequently. But the errors of the whig party are always 
 on the side of law, of order, and of popular liberty. Let us take 
 care to correct all our errors, and let us take care that no errors 
 of conduct, no partial or temporary interests, no prejudices un 
 worthy of freemen or of men, retard the progress of this great 
 party of our hopes and our affections. Let it continue to occupy 
 all its broad foundations to offer security, protection, improve 
 ment, and elevation, to all conditions of men, as all conditions 
 of men alike enjoy the impartial favor of God, and are entitled 
 to impartial representation in government. Speech, Auburn, 
 Feb. 22, 1844. 
 
 2FJ)c gnbang Hcgcnra? in 1824.* 
 
 HONEST and honorable men are convinced that a combination 
 exists in this state, enjoys its honors, and wields its power, whose 
 
 * This address is among Mr. Seward s earliest political efforts. At the 
 time it was written (1824) he was but twenty-three years old. A more 
 faithful portrait of the " Albany Regency" could scarcely have been drawn 
 by a practised hand or at a later period. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 315 
 
 principles and practices are at war with its best interest, its pros 
 perity, and its fame. 
 
 The history of this combination begins when, taking advan 
 tage of the strong current of popular opinion in favor of a cor 
 rection of the errors of the old constitution of this state, a few 
 men who were clamorous for reform, but whose lives had exhib 
 ited not one sacrifice for the public good, united with a few 
 others until then unknown among us, because they had done 
 nothing worthy of notice, and all becoming loud in their protes 
 tations of devotion to republicanism, they succeeded in obtaining 
 seats in the late constitutional convention. 
 
 Defeated then in their efforts to retain tlie old council of ap 
 pointment which they had hoped to wield at their pleasure, they 
 succeeded in incorporating into the new constitutional system an 
 institution, the evils of which are more severe than those which 
 were produced by the justly obnoxious features of the system 
 which was abolished an institution which combines in one 
 strong phalanx the officeholders, from the governor and the sen 
 ators down to the justices of the peace in the most remote parts 
 of the state which makes the governor a subservient tool of 
 the faction which designates him ; converts the otherwise re 
 spectable judiciaries of the counties into shambles for the bargain 
 and sale of offices ; and selects justices of the peace (in whose 
 courts are decided questions involving a greater amount of prop 
 erty than in all the other tribunals of the state), not from among 
 those whom an intelligent people would choose, but from the 
 supple and needy parasites of power, who may, and it is to be 
 feared do, bring not only the influence but the very authority 
 of their offices to the support of the party whose creatures they 
 are. Thus it has come to pass that each of the several counties 
 contains a little aristocracy of officeholders, existing indepen 
 dently of popular control, while they are banded together by 
 ties of common political brotherhood. 
 
 Another part of their organization which presents serious 
 ground of apprehension, is the caucus system. It was in vain 
 that the framers of the constitution placed a barrier between 
 those who should make the laws and those who should execute 
 them. The doctrine of construction has been extended so far 
 by ingenuity and subtlety, that their union is no longer an 
 
316 SELECTIONS. 
 
 anomaly. Men chosen to make laws, have constituted them 
 selves a power to appoint those by whom they shall be executed. 
 The effect is, that these men have themselves become the sub 
 jects of barter and sale. Public and beneficent laws are seldom 
 seen in their journals, while their pages are swollen with laws 
 to accommodate politicians and speculators. Republican dignity 
 and simplicity are banished from the public councils, and faction 
 has obtruded its unblushing front into the halls of legislation. 
 The caucus system, originally adopted for necessity, and never 
 considered obligatory further than its nominations concurred with 
 popular opinion, has been converted into a political inquisition. 
 Patriotism is made to consist in a servile submission to its decrees. 
 Offices and honors are offered to those only who will renounce 
 their independence, and give their support to the " old and es 
 tablished usages of the party," while denunciations without 
 measure are poured forth upon the heads of those who dare to 
 question the infallibility of the decrees thus obtained. These 
 denunciations have had their effect upon weak and timid minds, 
 while the inducements offered on the other hand have not failed 
 to enlist profligate politicians. These systems constitute the 
 machinery of the Albany regency. Honest men need no such 
 aid to maintain a just influence. The safety of the state is not 
 to be secured, nor its welfare to be promoted, by combinations 
 to deprive the people of their constitutional power. When in 
 republican states men attempt to entrench themselves beyond 
 the popular reach, their designs require investigation. Such 
 men have for three years exercised the authority of this state. 
 And what have they done to promote its prosperity or to add to 
 its renown ? The judiciary, once our pride, is humbled and de 
 graded. The march of internal improvement is retarded, and 
 the character of the state is impaired. Let the proceedings of 
 the present legislature speak a legislature composed of mem 
 bers, most of whom were pledged in their several counties, and 
 all of whom were instructed to restore to the people their con 
 stitutional right of appointing electors of president and vice-pres 
 ident of the United States. Yet its journals exhibit little else 
 than contradictory measures, affecting private corporations, to 
 gether with all the practices of chicanery and open opposition 
 to the very law they were required to pass. Address, 1824. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 317 
 
 Secret political .Societies. 
 
 IF virtue yet abide among us, if there be intelligence in our 
 fellow-citizens to appreciate the dangers which threaten their 
 liberty, and if there be patriotism to resist and prevent them, 
 which we most firmly believe, there can be no doubt of the re 
 sult of such a contest. On the one side is an aristocratic nobility, 
 composed of men bound together by the most terrific oaths, 
 which conflict with the administration of justice, with private 
 rights, and with the public security ; a privileged order, claim- 
 nig and securing to its members unequal advantages over their 
 fellow-citizens, veiling its proceedings from scrutiny by pledges 
 of secrecy, collecting funds to unknown amounts and for un 
 known purposes, and operating through our extended country at 
 any time and on any subject, with all the efficacy of perfect 
 organization, controlled and directed by unseen and unknown 
 hands. On the other side, a portion of your fellow-citizens ask 
 for equal rights and equal privileges among the freemen of this 
 country. They say it is in vain that this equality of rights and 
 privileges is secured in theory by our constitutions and laws, if, 
 by a combination to subvert it, it is in fact no longer enjoyed. 
 They point you to masonic oaths, and to the effects of those 
 dreadful obligations upon our elections, upon witnesses in courts 
 of justice, and upon jurors. They show you one of your citizens 
 murdered under their influence, and the offenders escaping with 
 impunity. They exhibit to you the power of your courts defied, 
 and the administration of justice defeated, through the instru 
 mentality of those obligations. And they ask you whether our 
 country can any longer be described as a land " where no man 
 is so powerful as to be above the law, and no one so Irumble as 
 to be beneath its protection." Legislative Address, 1831. 
 
 jtlcKef fov tlje Entrijjeiit Ensane. |)c Hnton anti tfje States. 
 
 CONGRESS has passed a bill by which ten millions of acres of 
 the public domain are granted to the several states, with un 
 questioned equality, on condition that they shall accept the 
 same, and sell the lands at not less than one dollar per acre, and 
 safely invest the gross proceeds, and for ever apply the interest 
 
318 SELECTIONS. 
 
 thereon to the maintenance of their indigent insane inhabitants. 
 This grant is a contribution to the states, made from a peculiar 
 national resource, at a time when the treasury is overflowing. It 
 is made at the suggestion, and it is not stating the case too 
 strongly to say, through the unaided, unpaid, and purely disin 
 terested influence of an American woman [Miss DixJ, who, 
 while all other members of society have been seeking how to 
 advance their own fortunes and happiness, or the prosperity and 
 greatness of their country, has consecrated her life to the relief 
 of the most pitiable form in which the Divine Ruler afflicts our 
 common humanity. 
 
 The purpose of the bill has commended it to our warmest and 
 most active sympathies. Not a voice has censured it, in either 
 house of Congress. It is the one only purpose of legislation, 
 sufficiently great to arrest attention, that has met with universal 
 approbation throughout the country, during the present session. 
 It seems as if some sad fatality attends our public action, when 
 this measure is singled out from among all others, to be baffled 
 and defeated by an executive veto. Such, however, is the fact. 
 The bill has been returned by the president, with objections 
 which it is now our constitutional duty to consider. 
 #***# *#### 
 
 The president expresses deep concern lest this contribution 
 by the federal government to the states should impair their vigor 
 and independence. But it is not easy to see how a contribution 
 which they are at liberty to reject, and which they are to apply 
 to a necessary and proper purpose of government, in entire in 
 dependence of the federal government, can wound their self- 
 respect, or deprive them of any of their attributes of sovereignty. 
 
 The president is moreover, deeply disturbed by an appre 
 hension, that if the policy of this bill should be pursued, its 
 noble purposes would be defeated, and the fountains of charity 
 within the states would be dried up. The president must 
 not needlessly afflict himself in this wise, on the score of 
 humanity. Experience is against his fears. Congress has never 
 manifested a disposition of profuse liberality toward the states. 
 Every community that has received from the federal territory 
 or property, military bounties or pensions is at least as brave and 
 patriotic as it was before. Every community that has received 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 319 
 
 from the same sources contributions for tlie purposes of internal 
 improvement is more enterprising than before. Every commu 
 nity that has received aid for its schools of learning has been 
 rendered more zealous and more munificent in the cause of edu 
 cation. 
 
 As in the early days of the republic, there was a school of 
 latitudinarian construction of the constitution, which school was 
 quite erroneous ; so, also, there is now a school whose maxim is 
 strict construction of the constitution, and this school has accu 
 mulated precedents and traditions equally calculated to extin 
 guish the spirit of the constitution. Circumstances have alto 
 gether changed since that school was founded. The states were 
 then rich and strong ; the Union was poor and powerless. Vir 
 ginia lent to the United States a hundred thousand dollars to 
 build their capitol. But the states could not enlarge themselves. 
 They possessed respectively either no public lands at all, or very 
 small domains, and to such domains they have added nothing by 
 purchase or by conquest. Charged with all the expenses of 
 municipal administration, including the relief of the indigent, the 
 cure of the diseased, the education of the people, and the removal 
 of natural obstructions to trade and intercourse, they reserved, 
 nevertheless, only the power to raise revenues by direct taxa 
 tion, one which always was and always will be regarded with 
 jealousy and dislike, and is therefore never one that can be 
 freely exercised. 
 
 The Union, on the contrary, by conquest and purchase, has 
 quadrupled its domain, and is in possession of superabundant 
 revenues, derived from that domain and from imposts upon for 
 eign commerce, while it also enjoys the power of direct taxation. 
 Contrast the meager salaries of the officers of the states with 
 the liberal ones enjoyed by the agents of the Union. Contrast 
 the ancient, narrow, and cheerless capitols of Annapolis, Har- 
 risburg, and Albany, with this magnificent edifice, amplifying 
 itself to the north and the south, while it is surrounded by gar 
 dens traversed by spacious avenues and embellished with fount 
 ains and statuary, and you see at once that the order of things 
 has been reversed, and that it tends now not merely to concen 
 tration, but to consolidation. I know not how others may be 
 affected by this tendency, but I confess that it moves me to do 
 
320 SELECTIONS. 
 
 all that I can, by a fair construction of the constitution, not to 
 abate the federal strength, and diminish the majesty of the 
 Union, but to invigorate and aggrandize the states, and to ena 
 ble them to maintain their just equilibrium in our grand but 
 exquisitely-contrived political system. Speech in U. S. Senate 
 on the President s Message vetoing tlcv J$ill granting Lands to the 
 several States for the Relief of the Indigent Insane, June 19, 1854. 
 
 (Tfje <Tute 35asis of American Euticjpentience. 
 
 I AM far from supposing that we are signally deficient in in 
 dependence. I know that it is a national, an hereditary, and a 
 popular sentiment ; that we annually celebrate, and always glory 
 in our independence. We do so justly, for nowhere else does 
 even a form or a shadow of popular independence exist ; while 
 here it is the very rock on which our institutions rest. Never 
 theless, occasions for the exercise of this virtue maybe neglected. 
 
 We hold in contempt, equally just and profound, him who im 
 poses, and him who wears, a menial livery ; and yet, I think, 
 that we are accustomed to regard with no great severity, the 
 employer who exacts, or the mechanic, clerk, or laborer, who 
 yields, political conformity in consideration of wages. We in 
 sist, as we ought, that every citizen in the state shall be quali 
 fied by education for citizenship ; but we are by no means unan 
 imous that one citizen, or class of citizens, shall not prescribe its 
 own creed, in the instruction of the children of others. We con 
 struct and remodel partisan formulas and platforms with chan 
 ging circumstances with almost as much diligence and versatility 
 as the Mexicans ; and we attempt to enforce conformity to them, 
 with scarcely less of zeal and intolerance, not indeed by the 
 sword, but by the greater terror of political proscription. We 
 resist argument, not always with argument, but often with per 
 sonal denunciation, and sometimes even with combined violence. 
 We differ, indeed, as to the particular errors of political faith, 
 that shall be corrected by this extreme remedy ; but, neverthe 
 less, the number of those who altogether deny its necessity and 
 suitableness in some cases, is very small. 
 
 We justly maintain that a free press is the palladium of lib 
 erty ; and yet, mutually proscribing all editorial independence 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 321 
 
 that is manifested by opposition to our own opinions, we have 
 only attained a press that is free in the sense that every inter 
 est, party, faction, or sect, can have its own independent organ. 
 If it be still maintained, notwithstanding these illustrations to 
 the contrary, that entire social independence prevails, then, I 
 ask, why is it so necessary to preserve with jealousy, as we 
 justly do, the ballot, in lieu of open suffrage ; for if every citizen 
 is really free from all fear and danger, why should he mask his 
 vote more than his face. Believe me, fellow-citizens, indepen 
 dence always languishes in the very degree that intolerance 
 prevails. We smile at the vanity of the factory-girl at Lowell, 
 who, having spent the secular part of the week in making calicoes 
 for the use of her unsophisticated countrywomen, disdainfully 
 arrays herself on Sundays exclusively in the tints of European 
 dyes ; and yet, we are indifferent to the fact that beside a uni 
 versal consumption of foreign silks, excluding the silkworm from 
 our country, we purchase, in England alone, one hundred and 
 fifty millions of yards of the same stained muslins. We sustain, 
 here and there, a rickety, or at best a contracted iron manufac 
 tory ; while we import iron to make railroads over our own end 
 less ore fields, and we carry our prejudices against our struggling 
 manufacturers and mechanics so far as to fastidiously avoid wear 
 ing on our persons, or using on our tables, or displaying in our 
 drawing-rooms, any fabric, of whatsoever material, texture, or 
 color, that, in the course of its manufacture, has to our best 
 knowledge and belief, ever come in contact with the honest hand 
 of an American citizen. In all this, we are less independent 
 than the Englishman, the Frenchman, or even the Siberian. 
 
 It is painful to confess the same infirmity in regard to intel 
 lectual productions. We despise, deeply and universally, the 
 spoiled child of pretension, who, going abroad for education or 
 observation, with a mind destitute of the philosophy of travel, 
 returns to us with an affected tone and gait, sure indications of 
 a craven spirit and a disloyal heart. And yet how intently do 
 we not watch to see whether one of our countrymen obtains in 
 Europe the honor of an aristocratic dinner, or of a presentation, 
 in a grotesque costume, at court ! How do we not suspend our 
 judgment on the merits of the native artist, be he dancer singer, 
 actor, limner, or sculptor, and even of the native author, inven- 
 
 14* 
 
822 SELECTIONS. 
 
 tor, orator, bishop, or statesman, until, by flattering those who 
 habitually depreciate his country, he passes safely tl*e ordeal of 
 foreign criticism, and so commends himself to our own most cau 
 tious approbation. How do we not consult foreign mirrors, for 
 our very virtues and vices, not less than for our fashions, and 
 think ignorance, bribery, and slavery, quite justified at home, if 
 they can be matched against oppression, pauperism, and crime, 
 in other countries ! 
 
 On occasions too, we are bold in applauding heroic struggling 
 for freedom abroad ; and we certainly have hailed with enthusi 
 asm every republican revolution in South America, in France, 
 in Poland, in Germany, and in Hungary. And yet how does 
 not our sympathy rise and fall, with every change of the political 
 temperature in Europe 1 In just this extent, we are not only 
 not independent, but we are actually governed by the monar 
 chies and aristocracies of the Old World. 
 
 You may ask impatiently, if I require the American citizen to 
 throw off all submission to law, all deference to authority, and 
 all respect to the opinions of mankind, and that the American 
 Republic shall constantly wage an aggressive war against all 
 foreign systems ? I ansAver, no. There is here, as everywhere, 
 a middle and a safe way. I would have the American citizen 
 yield always a cheerful acquiescence, and never a servile adhe 
 rence, to the opinions of the majority of his countrymen and of 
 mankind, whether they be engrossed in the forms of law or not, 
 on all questions involving no moral principle ; and even in regard 
 to such as do affect the conscience, I would have him avoid not 
 only faction, but even the appearance of it. But I demand, at 
 the same time, that he shall have his own matured and indepen 
 dent convictions, the result not of any authority, domestic or 
 foreign, on every measure of public policy, and so, that while 
 always temperate and courteous, he shall always be a free and 
 outspeaking censor, upon not only opinions, customs, and admin 
 istration, but even upon laws and constitutions themselves. 
 What I thus require of the citizen, I insist, also, that he shall 
 allow to every one of his fellow-citizens. I would have the 
 nation also, though moderate and pacific, yet always frank, de 
 cided and firm, in bearing its testimony against error and oppres 
 sion ; and while abstaining from forcible intervention in* foreign 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 323 
 
 disputes, yet always fearlessly rendering to the cause of republi 
 canism everywhere, by influence and example, all the aid that the 
 laws of nations do not peremptorily, or, in their true spirit, forbid. 
 
 Do I propose in this an heretical, or even a new standard of 
 public or private duty ? All agree that the customaiy, and 
 even the legal standards in other countries are too low. Must 
 we then abide by them now and for ever ? That would be to 
 yield our independence, and to be false toward mankind. Who 
 will maintain that the standard established at any one time by 
 a majority in our country is infallible, and therefore final ? If 
 it be so, why have we reserved, by our constitution, freedom of 
 speech, of the press, and of suffrage, to reverse it ? No, we may 
 change every thing, first complying, however, with constitutional 
 conditions. Storms and commotions must indeed be avoided, 
 but the political waters must nevertheless be agitated always, 
 or they will stagnate. Let no one suppose that the human mind 
 will consent to rest in error. It vibrates, however, only that it 
 may settle at last in immutable truth and justice. Nor need we 
 fear that we shall be too bold. Conformity is always easier than 
 contention ; and imitation is always easier than innovation. 
 There are many who delight in ease, where there is one who 
 chooses, and fearlessly pursues, the path of heroic duty. 
 
 Moreover, while we are expecting hopefully to see foreign cus 
 toms and institutions brought, by the influence of commerce, into 
 conformity with our own, it is quite manifest that commerce has 
 reciprocating influences, tending to demoralize ourselves, and so 
 to assimilate our opinions, manners, and customs, ultimately to 
 those of aristocracy and despotism. We can not afford to err at 
 all on that side. We exist as a free people only by force of our 
 very peculiarities. They are the legitimate peculiarities of re 
 publicanism, and, as such, are the test of nationality. 
 
 Nationality ! It is as just as it is popular. Whatever policy, 
 interest, or institution, is local, sectional, or foreign, must be zeal 
 ously watched and counteracted ; for it tends directly to social 
 derangement, and so to the subversion of our democratic con 
 stitution. 
 
 But it is seen at once that this nationality is identical with 
 that very political independence which results from a high tone 
 of individuality on the part of the citizen. Let it have free play, 
 
324 SELECTIONS. 
 
 then, and so let every citizen value himself at his just worth, in 
 body and soul ; namely, not a serf or a subject of any human 
 authority, or the inferior of any class, however great or wise, but 
 a freeman, who is so because " Truth has made him free ;" who 
 not only, equally with all others, rules in the republic, but is 
 also bound, equally with any other, to exercise designing wis 
 dom and executive vigor and efficiency in the eternal duty of 
 saving and perfecting the state. When this nationality shall 
 prevail, we shall no more see fashion, wealth, social rank, politi 
 cal combination, or even official proscription, effective in suppres 
 sing the utterance of mature opinions and true convictions ; and 
 so enforcing for brief periods, with long reactions, political con 
 formity, at the hazard of the public welfare, and at the cost of 
 the public virtue ..... 
 
 Let this nationality prevail, and then we shall cease to under 
 value our own farmers, mechanics, and manufacturers, and their 
 productions ; our own science, and literature, and inventions ; our 
 own orators and statesmen ; in short, our own infinite resources 
 and all-competent skill, our own virtue, and our own peculiar 
 and justly envied freedom. Address, American Institute, N. Y., 
 Oct. 20, 1853. 
 
 THE first want of every nation is peace, the last is peace. It 
 wants peace always. So our forefathers understood the philos 
 ophy of government ; for^ they established a system which dis 
 pensed with even the forces necessary for perfect defence, rather 
 than cumber it with such as might tempt it to unnecessary collis 
 ion with other states. A democratic government has no adap 
 tation to war. War involves a nation in debt, and requires vast 
 supplies of men and taxes, and self-taxing people will not, except 
 when absolutely obliged by the exigencies of danger, vote either 
 one or the other. Our government has not effective powers of 
 conscription. No modern state has carried on, or can carry on, 
 aggressive war without conscription. War, however brief its 
 duration, and however light its calamities, deranges all social 
 industry, subverts order and corrupts public morals. The first 
 element, then, of our social happiness and security is PEACE. 
 . Oct. 29, 1844. 
 
ORATIONS AND SPEECHES. 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 
 
 THIS scene is new to me, a stranger in Ohio, and it must be 
 in a degree surprising even to yourselves. On these banks of 
 the Scioto, where the elk, the buffalo, and the hissing serpent 
 haunted not long ago, I see now mills worked by mute mechan 
 ical laborers, and warehouses rich in the merchandise of many 
 climes. Steeds of vapor on iron roads and electrical messengers 
 on pathways which divide the air, attest the concentration of many 
 novel forms of industry, while academic groves, spacious courts, 
 and majestic domes, exact the reverence always eminently due 
 to the chosen seats of philosophy, religion, and government. 
 
 What a change, moreover, has within the same short period 
 come over the whole country that we love so justly and so well. 
 High arcs of latitude and longitude have shrunk into their 
 chords, and American language, laws, religion, and authority, 
 once confined to the Atlantic coast, now prevail from the north 
 ern lakes to the southern gulf, and from the stormy eastern sea 
 to the tranquil western ocean. 
 
 Nevertheless it is not in man s nature to be content with pres 
 ent attainment or enjoyment. You say to me therefore with 
 excusable impatience, " Tell us not what our country is, but 
 what she shall be. Shall her greatness increase ? Is she im 
 mortal r 
 
 I will answer you according to my poor opinion. But I pray 
 you first, most worthy friends, to define the greatness and immor 
 tality you so vehemently desire. 
 
 * Oration at the Dedication of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, Sep 
 tember 14, 1853. 
 
828 ORATION. 
 
 If the Future which you seek consists in this ; that these 
 thirty-one states shall continue to exist for a period as long as 
 human foresight is allowed to anticipate after coming events ; 
 that they shall be all the while free ; that they shall remain dis 
 tinct and independent in domestic economy, and nevertheless be 
 only one in commerce and foreign affairs ; that there shall arise 
 from among them and within their common dtimain even more 
 than thirty-one other equal states, alike free, independent, and 
 united ; that the borders of the federal republic so peculiarly 
 constituted shall be extended so that it shall greet the sun when 
 he touches the tropic, and when he sends his glancing rays 
 toward the polar circle, and shall include even distant islands 
 in either ocean ; that our population, now counted by tens of 
 millions, shall ultimately be reckoned by hundreds of millions ; 
 that our wealth shall increase a thousand fold, and our commer 
 cial connections shall be multiplied, and our political influence 
 be enhanced in proportion with this wide development, and that 
 mankind shall come to recognise in us a successor of the few 
 great states which have alternately borne commanding sway in 
 the world if this, and only this is desired, then I am free to 
 say that if, as you will readily promise, our public and private 
 virtues shall be preserved, nothing seems to me more certain 
 than the attainment of this future, so surpassingly comprehen 
 sive and magnificent. 
 
 Indeed, such a future seems to be only a natural consequence 
 of what has already been secured. "Why then shall it not be 
 attained ? Is not the field as free for the expansion indicated 
 as it was for that which has occurred 1 Are not the national 
 resources immeasurably augmented and continually increasing ? 
 With telegraphs and railroads crossing the Detroit, the Niagara, 
 the St. Johns, and the St. Lawrence rivers, with steamers on the 
 lakes of Nicaragua, and a railroad across the isthmus of Pan 
 ama, and with negotiations in progress for passages over Te- 
 huantepec and Darien, with a fleet in Hudson s bay and another 
 at Bhering s straits, and with yet another exploring the La 
 Plata, and with an armada at the gates of Japan, with Mexico 
 ready to divide on the question of annexation, and with the 
 Sandwich islands suing to us for our sovereignty, it is quite clear 
 to us that the motives to enlargement are even more active than 
 
THE DESTINY OP AMERICA. 329 
 
 they ever were heretofore, and that the public energies, instead 
 of being relaxed, are gaming new vigor. 
 
 Is the nation to become suddenly weary and so to waver and 
 fall off from the pursuit of its high purposes ] When did any 
 vigorous nation every become weary even of hazardous and ex 
 hausting martial conquests? Our conquests on the contrary, are 
 chiefly peaceful, and thus far have proved productive of new 
 wealth and strength. Is a paralysis to fall upon the national 
 brain ? On the contrary, what political constitution has ever 
 throughout an equal period exhibited greater elasticity and ca 
 pacity for endurance ? 
 
 Is the union of the states to fail 1 Does its strength indeed 
 grow less with the multiplication of its bonds ] Or does its 
 value diminish with the increase of the social and political inter 
 ests which it defends and protects ? Far otherwise. For all 
 practical purposes bearing on the great question, the steam en 
 gine, the iron road, the electric telegraph, all of which are newer 
 than the Union, and the metropolitan press, which is no less won 
 derful in its working than they, have already obliterated state 
 boundaries and produced a physical and moral centralism more 
 complete and perfect than monarchical ambition ever has forged 
 or can forge. Do you reply nevertheless that the Union rests on 
 the will of the several states, and that, no matter what prudence 
 or reason may dictate, popular passion may become excited and 
 rend it asunder. Then I rejoin, When did the American people 
 ever give way to such impulses 1 They are practically impassive. 
 You remind me that faction has existed, and that only recently 
 it was bold and violent. I answer that it was emboldened by 
 popular timidity, and yet that even then it succumbed. Loyalty 
 to the Union is not in one or many states only, but in all the 
 states, the strongest of all public passions. It is stronger, I doubt 
 not, than the love of justice or even the love of equality, which 
 have acquired a strength here never known among mankind be 
 fore. A nation may well despise threats of sedition that has never 
 known but one traitor, and this will be learned fully by those 
 who shall hereafter attempt to arrest any great national move 
 ment by invoking from their grave the obsolete terrors of 
 disunion. 
 
 But you apprehend foreign resistance. Well, where is our 
 
330 ORATION. 
 
 enemy 1 Whence shall ho come ? Will he arise on this conti 
 nent 1 Canada has great resources and begins to give signs 
 of a national spirit. But Canada is not yet independent of 
 Great Britain. And she will be quite too weak to be formida 
 ble to us when her emancipation shall have taken place. More 
 over, her principles, interests, and sympathies, assimilate to our 
 own just in the degree that she verges toward separation from 
 the parent country. Canada, although a province of Great Brit 
 ain, is already half annexed to the United States. She will 
 ultimately become a member of this confederacy if we will con 
 sent, an ally if we will not allow her to come nearer.- At least 
 she can never be an adversary. Will Mexico, or Nicaragua, or 
 Guatemala, or Ecuador, or Peru, all at once become magically 
 cured of the diseases inherited from aboriginal and Spanish pa 
 rentage, and call up armies from under the earth and navies 
 from the depths of the sea, and thus become the Rome that 
 shall resist and overthrow this overspreading Carthage of ours ? 
 Or are we to receive our death-stroke at the hand of Brazil, 
 doubly cursed as she is above all other American states by her 
 adoption of the two most absurd institutions remaining among 
 men, European monarchy and American slavery. 
 
 Is an enemy to come forth from the islands in adjacent seas? 
 Where then shall we look for him 1 On the Antilles, or on the 
 Bermudas, or on the Bahamas ? Which of the conflicting social 
 elements existing together, yet unmixed, there, is ultimately to 
 prevail ? Will it be Caucasian or African ? Can those races not 
 only combine but become all at once aggressive and powerful ? 
 
 Shall we look for an adversary in Europe 1 Napoleon said at 
 St. Helena, "America is a fortunate country. She grows by 
 the follies of our European nations." Since when have those 
 nations grown wise ? If they have at last become wise, how is 
 it that America has nevertheless not ceased to grow 1 But what 
 European state will oppose us 1 Will Great Britain ? If she 
 fears to grapple with Russia advancing toward Constantinople on 
 the way to India, though not only her prestige, but even her 
 empire is threatened, will she be bold enough to come out of 
 her way to seek an encounter with us ? Who will feed and pay 
 her artisans while she shall be engaged in destroying her Amer 
 ican debtors and the American consumers of her fabrics ? Great 
 
THE DESTINY OP AMERICA. 331 
 
 Britain lias enough to do in replacing in Ireland the population 
 that island has yielded to us, in subjecting Africa, in extending 
 her mercantile dominion in Asia, and in perpetually readjusting 
 the crazy balance of power in Europe, so essential to her safety. 
 We have fraternal relations with Switzerland, the only republic 
 yet lingering on that continent. Which of the despotic powers 
 existing there in perpetual terror of the contagion of American 
 principles will assail us and thus voluntarily hasten on that uni 
 versal war of opinion which is sure to come at some future time, 
 and which whenever it shall have come, whether it be sooner 
 or later, can end only in the subversion of monarchy and the 
 establishment of republicanism on its ruins throughout the world 1 
 
 Certainly no one expects the nations of Asia to be awakened 
 by any other influences than our own from the lethargy into 
 which they sunk nearly three thousand years ago, under the 
 spells of superstition and caste. If they could be roused and 
 invigorated now, would they spare their European oppressors 
 and smite their American benefactors ? Nor has the time yet 
 come, if indeed it shall come within many hundred years, when 
 Africa, emerging from her primeval barbarism, shall vindicate 
 the equality of her sable races in the rights of human nature, 
 and visit upon us the latest, the least guilty and the most re 
 pentant of all offenders, the wrongs she has so long suffered at 
 the hands of so many of the Caucasian races. 
 
 No ! no, we can not indeed penetrate the eternal counsels, but 
 reasoning from what is seen to what is unseen, deducing from 
 the past probable conjectures of the future, we are authorized to 
 conclude that if the national virtue shall prove sufficient the 
 material progress of the United States which equally excites our 
 own pride and the admiration of mankind, is destined to indefi 
 nite continuance. 
 
 But is this material progress even to the point which has been 
 indicated the whole of the future which we desire ? It is seen 
 at once that it includes no high intellectual achievement, and no 
 extraordinary refinement of public virtue, while it leaves entirely 
 out of view the improvement of mankind. Now there certainly 
 is a political philosophy which teaches that nations like individ 
 uals are equal, moral, social, responsible persons, existing not for 
 objects of merely selfish advantage and enjoyment, but for the 
 
332 ORATION. 
 
 performance of duty, which duty consists in elevating themselves 
 and all mankind as high as possible in knowledge and virtue ; 
 that the human race is one in its origin, its rights, its duties, and 
 its destiny, that throughout the rise, progress, and decline of 
 nations, one divine purpose runs the increasing felicity and 
 dignity of human nature and that true greatness or glory, 
 whether of individuals or of nations, is justly measured, not by 
 the territory they compass, or the wealth they accumulate, or 
 the fear they inspire, but by the degree in which they promote 
 the accomplishment of that great and beneficent design of the 
 Creator of the universe. 
 
 " The great end and object of life," said Socrates, "is the per 
 fection of the intellect, the great moral duty of man is knowledge, 
 and the object of all knowledge is one, namely, Truth, the Good, 
 the Beautiful, the Divine Reason." 
 
 So also Plato taught that " Man ought to strive after and de 
 vote himself to the contemplation of the ONE, the ETERNAL, the 
 INFINITE." 
 
 Cicero wrote, There are those who deny that any bond of 
 law or of association for purposes of common good exists among 
 citizens. This opinion subverts all union in a state. There are 
 those who deny that any such bond exists between themselves 
 and strangers, and this opinion destroys the community of the 
 Human Race." 
 
 Bacon declared that there was in man s nature " a secret love 
 of others, which if not contracted, would expand and embrace 
 all men." 
 
 These maxims proceed on the principle of the unity of the 
 race, and of course of a supreme law regulating the conduct of 
 men and nations upon the basis of absolute justice and equality. 
 Locke adopted them when he inculcated that while there was a 
 " law of popular opinion or reputation," which in society was 
 " the measure of virtue and vice," and while there was a civil 
 law which in the state was " the measure of crime and inno 
 cence," there was also a divine law which extended over " all 
 society and all states, and which was the only touchstone of 
 moral rectitude." 
 
 Guizot closed his recital of the decline of Roman civilization, 
 with these equally true and momentous reflections : " Had not 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 333 
 
 the Christian church existed at this time the whole world must 
 have fallen a prey to mere brute force. The Christian church 
 alone possessed amoral power. It maintained and promulgated 
 the idea of a precept, o a law superior to all human authority. 
 It proclaimed that great truth, which forms the only foundation 
 of our hope for humanity, that there exists a law above all hu 
 man laws, which by whatever name it may be called, whether 
 reason, the law of God, or what not, is at all times and in all 
 places the same, under different names." 
 
 It ought not to excite any surprise when I aver that this phi 
 losophy worked out the American Revolution. " Can anything," 
 said John Adams, in replying to one who had apologized for the 
 stamp-act, " Can anything not abominable have provoked you 
 to commence, an enemy to human nature?" 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, though less necessary to the Revolution 
 than John Adams, was even more necessary to the reconstruc 
 tion of society. He directed against the same odious stamp-act 
 the authority of British law as he found it written down by 
 Blackstone. " The law of nature being coeval with God him 
 self is of course superior to any other. It is binding over all 
 the globe, in all countries, and at all time. No human laws are 
 of any validity if contrary to this ; and such of them as are valid 
 derive all their authority mediately or immediately from this 
 original." Then, as if despising to stand on any mere human 
 authority, however high, the framer of the American constitu 
 tion proceeded, " The sacred rights of mankind are not to be 
 rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They 
 are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human 
 nature, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." 
 
 How justly Knox conceived the true character of the chief 
 personage of the Revolution, even at its very beginning, " The 
 great and good Washington, a name which shall shine with dis 
 tinguished lustre in the annals of history, a name dear to the 
 friends of the liberties of mankind." 
 
 La Fayette closed his review of the Revolution when return 
 ing to France with this glowing apostrophe : " May this great 
 temple which we have just erected to liberty always be an in 
 struction to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, a refuge 
 
334 ORATION. 
 
 for the rights of the human race, and an object of delight to the 
 manes of its founders." 
 
 " Happy," said Washington when announcing the treaty of 
 peace to the army, " thrice happy shall they be pronounced here 
 after, who shall have contributed anything, who shall have per 
 formed even the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric 
 of freedom and empire on the broad basis of in dependency, who 
 shall have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and 
 establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations 
 and religions." 
 
 You remember well that the Revolutionary Congress in the 
 Declaration of Independence placed the momentous controversy 
 between the colonies of Great Britain on the absolute and inhe 
 rent equality of all men. It is not however so well understood 
 that that body closed its existence on the adoption of the federal 
 constitution with this solemn injunction addressed to the People 
 of the United States, " Let it be remembered that it has ever 
 been the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which 
 she contended were the rights of human nature." 
 
 No one will contend that our fathers after effecting the Ecvo- 
 lution and the independence of their country by proclaiming this 
 system of beneficent political philosophy, established an entirely 
 different one in the constitution assigned to its government. This 
 philosophy then, is the basis of the American constitution. 
 
 It is moreover a true philosophy, deduced from the nature of 
 man and the character of the Creator. If there were no supreme 
 law, then the world would be a scene of universal anarchy, re 
 sulting from the eternal conflict of peculiar institutions and an 
 tagonistic laws. There being such a universal law, if any hu 
 man constitutions and laws differing from it could have any 
 authority, then that universal law could not be supreme. That 
 supreme law is necessarily based on the equality of nations of 
 races and of men. It is. a simple, self-evident basis. One na 
 tion, race, or individual, may not oppress or injure another, be 
 cause the safety and welfare of each is essential to the common 
 safety and welfare of all. If all are not equal and free, then 
 who is entitled to be free, and what evidence of his superiority 
 can he bring from nature or revelation ? All men necessarily 
 have a common interest in the promulgation and maintenance 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 85 
 
 of these principles, because it is equally in the nature of men to 
 be content with the enjoyment of their just rights, and to be dis 
 contented under the privation of them. Just so far as these 
 principles practically prevail, the stringency of government is 
 safely relaxed, and peace and harmony obtained. But men can 
 not maintain these principles, or even comprehend them, with 
 out a very considerable advance in knowledge and virtue. The 
 law of nations, Designed to preserve peace among mankind, was 
 unknown to the ancients. It has been perfected in our own 
 times by means of the more general dissemination of knowledge 
 and practice of the virtues inculcated by Christianity. To dis 
 seminate knowledge and to increase virtue therefore among men, 
 is to establish and maintain the principles on which the recovery 
 and preservation of their inherent natural rights depend, and the 
 state that does this most faithfully, advances most effectually the 
 common cause of human nature. 
 
 For myself, I am sure that this cause is not a dream, but a 
 reality. Have not all rnen consciousness of a property in the 
 memory of human transactions available for the same great pur 
 poses, the security of their individual rights and the perfection 
 of their individual happiness ? Have not all men a conscious 
 ness of the same equal interest in the achievements of invention, 
 in the instructions of philosophy, and in the solaces of music 
 and the arts ? And do not these achievements, instructions, and 
 solaces, exert everywhere the same influences, and produce the 
 same emotions in the bosoms of nil men ? Since all languages 
 are convertible into each other by correspondence with the same 
 agents, objects, actions, and emotions, have not all men practi 
 cally one common language ? Since the constitutions and laws 
 of all societies are only so many various definitions of the rights 
 and duties of men, as those rights and duties are learned from 
 nature and revelation, have not all men practically one code of 
 moral duty 1 Since the religions of men in their various climes 
 are only so many different forms of their devotion toward a 
 Supreme and Almighty Power entitled to their reverence and 
 receiving it under the various names of Jehovah, Jove, and 
 Lord, have not all men practically one religion 1 Since all men 
 are seeking liberty and happiness for a season here, and to de 
 serve and so to secure more perfect liberty and happiness some 
 
336 ORATION. 
 
 where in a future world, and since they all substantially agree 
 that these temporal and spiritual objects are to be attained only 
 through the knowledge of truth and the practice of virtue, have 
 not mankind practically one common pursuit, through one com 
 mon way, of one common and equal hope and destiny ? 
 
 If there had been no such common humanity as I have in 
 sisted upon, then the American people would not have enjoyed 
 the sympathies of mankind when establishing^ institutions of 
 civil and religious liberty here, nor would their establishment here 
 have awakened in the nations of Europe and of South America 
 desires and hopes of similar institutions there. If there had 
 been no such common humanity, then we should not, ever since 
 the American Revolution, have seen human society throughout 
 the world divided into two parties, the high and the low the 
 one perpetually foreboding and earnestly hoping the downfall, 
 and the other as confidently predicting and as sincerely desiring 
 the durability, of republican institutions. If there had been 
 no sucli common humanity, then we should not have seen this 
 tide of emigration from insular and continental Europe, flowing 
 into our country through the channels of the St. Lawrence, the 
 Hudson, and the Mississippi ebbing, however, always with 
 the occasional rise of the hopes of freedom abroad, and always 
 swelling again into greater volume when those premature hopes 
 subside. If there were no such common humanity, then the 
 peasantry and the poor of Great Britain would not be perpet 
 ually appealing to us against?* the oppression of landlords on 
 their farms and workmasters in their manufactories and mines : 
 and so, on the other hand, we should not be, as we are now, 
 perpetually framing apologies to mankind for the continuance 
 of African slavery among ourselves. If there were no such 
 common humanity, then the fame of Wallace would have long 
 ago died away in his native mountains, and the name even of 
 Washington would at most have been only a household word in 
 Virginia, and not, as it is now, a watchword of hope and prog 
 ress throughout the world. 
 
 If there had been no such common humanity, then when the 
 civilization of Greece and Rome had been consumed by the fires 
 of human passion, the nations of modern Europe could never 
 have gathered from among its ashes the philosophy, the arts, 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 337 
 
 and the religion, which were imperishable, and have recon 
 structed with those materials that better civilization which, amid 
 the conflicts and fall of political and ecclesiastical systems, has 
 been constantly advancing toward perfection in every succeed 
 ing age. If there had been no such common humanity, then the 
 dark and massive Egyptian obelisk would not have everywhere 
 reappeared in the sepulchral architecture of our own times, and 
 the light and graceful orders of Greece and Italy would not, as 
 now, have been the models of our villas and our dwellings, nor 
 would the simple and lofty arch and the delicate tracery of 
 Gothic design have been, as it now is, everywhere consecrated 
 to the service of religion. " 
 
 If there had been no such common humanity, then would the 
 sense of the obligation of the Decalogue have been confined to 
 the despised nation who received it from Mount Sinai, and the 
 prophecies of Jewish seers and the songs of Jewish bards would 
 have perished for ever with their temple, and never afterward 
 could they have become, as they now are, the universal utter 
 ance of the spiritual emotions and hopes of mankind. If there 
 had been no such common humanity, then certainly Europe and 
 Africa and even new America would not, after the lapse of cen 
 turies, have recognised a common Redeemer from all the suffer 
 ings and perils of human life in a culprit who had been igno- 
 miniously executed in the obscure Roman province of Judea ; 
 nor would Europe have ever gone up in arms to Palestine to 
 wrest from the unbelieving Turk the tomb where that culprit 
 had slept for only three days and nights after his descent from 
 the cross; much less would his traditionary instructions, pre 
 served by fishermen and publicans, have become the chief 
 agency in the renovation of human society through after-coming 
 ages. 
 
 But, although this philosoph}^ is undeniably true, yet it would 
 be a great error to believe that it has ever been, or is likely 
 soon to be, universally accepted. Mankind accept philosophy 
 just in proportion as intellectual and moral cultivation enable 
 them to look through proximate to ultimate consequences. 
 While they are deficient in that cultivation, peace and order, 
 essential to the very existence of society, are necessarily main 
 tained by force. Those who employ that force seek to perpet- 
 
 15 
 
338 ORATION. 
 
 uate tlicir power, and they do this most effectually by dividing 
 classes and castes, races and nations, and arraying them for 
 mutual injury or destruction against each other. Despotism 
 effects and perpetuates this division by unequal laws, subversive 
 of those of reason and of God. Moreover, a common instinct 
 of fear combines the oppressors of all nations in a league against 
 the advance of that political philosophy which comes to liberate 
 mankind. Those who inculcate this philosophy, therefore, neces 
 sarily encounter opposition and expose themselves to danger ; 
 and inasmuch as they labor from convictions of duty and mo 
 tives of benevolence, with such hazards of personal safety, their 
 principles and character are justly regarded as heroic. Adams, 
 Hamilton, La Fayette, Knox, and Washington, although they 
 were the champions of human nature a cause dear to all men 
 were saved from the revolutionary scaffold only by the success 
 of their treason against a king whom the very necessities of 
 society required to reign. Milton s " Defence of the People of 
 England," which was in truth a promulgation of the same phi 
 losophy which we have been examining, was burned by the 
 public executioner, and its immortal author only by good fortune 
 escaped the same punishment. The American colonists derived 
 this philosophy chiefly from the instructions of Locke, Sidney, 
 and Vane. Locke fled into exile, and Sidney and Vane per 
 ished as felons. Cicero, an earlier professor of the same philos 
 ophy, fell on the sword of a public assassin, and Socrates, who 
 first inculcated it, drank the fatal hemlock, under a judicial sen 
 tence, in the jail of Athens. 
 
 Still this philosophy, although heroic, is by no means, there 
 fore, to be regarded as unnecessary and visionary. The true 
 heroic in human thought and conduct is only the useful in the 
 higher regions of speculation and activity. If republicanism, or 
 purely popular government, is the only form of political consti 
 tution which permits the development of liberty and equality, 
 which are only other names for political justice, and if republi 
 canism can only be established by the overthrow of despotism, 
 then this philosophy is absolutely necessary to effect the free 
 dom of mankind. All the citizens of this republic agree with 
 us thus far. But with many this is rather a speculation than a 
 vital faith, and so they hesitate to allow full activity to the prin- 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 339 
 
 ciples thus acknowledged, through fear of disturbing the har 
 mony of society and the peace of the world. Nevertheless, it 
 is clear that the same philosophy which brings republican insti 
 tutions into existence must be exclusively relied upon to defend 
 and perpetuate them. A tree may indeed stand and grow and 
 flourish for many seasons, although it is unsound at the heart ; 
 but just because it is so unsound, its leaves will ultimately wither, 
 its branches will fall, and its trunk will decay. It is only the 
 house that is built upon the rock that can surely and for ever 
 defy the tempests and the waves. The founders of this repub 
 lic knew this great truth right well, for they said : " If justice, 
 good faith, honor, gratitude, and all the other qualities which 
 ennoble a nation and fuliil the ends of government, shall be the 
 fruits of our establishments, then the cause of liberty will ac 
 quire a dignity and a lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and 
 an example will be set which can not but have the most favor 
 able influence on mankind. If, on the other side, our govern 
 ments should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these 
 cardinal virtues, then the great cause which we have engaged 
 to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed. The last and 
 fairest experiment of human nature will be turned against them, 
 and their patrons and friends will be silenced by the insults of 
 the votaries of tyranny and oppression."* 
 
 The example of Rome is often commended to us for our emu 
 lation. Let us consider it then with becoming care. Rome had 
 indeed forms of religion and morals and a show of philosophy 
 and the arts, but in none of these was there more than the faint 
 est recognition of a universal humanity. Her predecessor, 
 Greece, had, in a brilliant but brief and precocious career, in 
 vented the worship of nature, or, in other words, the worship 
 of deities, which were only names given to the discovered forces 
 of nature. This religion did not indeed exalt the human mind 
 to a just conception of the Divine, but, on the other hand, it did 
 not altogether consign it to the sphere of sensuality. Rome 
 unfortunately rejected even this poor religion, because it was for 
 eign and because it was too spiritual ; and in its stead she es 
 tablished one which practically was the worship of the state it 
 self. The senate elected gods for Rome, and these were ex- 
 * Address of the Continental Congress, 1789. 
 
340 ORATION. 
 
 pected to reward that distinguished partiality by showing pecu 
 liar and discriminating favor to the people of Rome, and the 
 same political authority appointed creed, precepts, ritual, and 
 priesthood. Does it need amplification to show what the char 
 acter of the creed, the precepts, the ritual, and the priesthood, 
 thus established necessarily were ? All were equally licentious 
 and corrupt. 
 
 As was the religion, so of course were the morals of Rome. 
 Ambition was the sole motive of the state. At first every town 
 in Italy, and afterward every nation, however remote, was re 
 garded as an enemy to be conquered, not in retaliation for any 
 injuries received, nor even for the purpose of amending its bar 
 barous institutions and laws, but to be despoiled and enslaved, 
 that Rome might be rich and might occupy the world alone. 
 Fraud, duplicity, and treachery, might be practised against the 
 foreigner, and every form of cruelty might be inflicted upon the 
 captive who had resisted in self-defence or in defence of his 
 country. Military valor not only became the highest of virtues 
 but exclusively usurped the name of virtue. The act of parri 
 cide was the highest of crimes, not however because of its gross 
 inhumanity, but because by a legal fiction the father was a sa 
 cred type of the Roman state. The sway of Rome, as it spread 
 over the world as then known, nevertheless gravitated toward 
 the city and centred in the order of Patricians. The Plebeians 
 were degraded and despised because their ancestors were immi 
 grants. Below the Plebeians there was yet a lower order, con 
 sisting of prisoners-of-war and their offspring, always numerous 
 enough to endanger the safety of the state. These were slaves, 
 and the code of domestic servitude established for the captured 
 Africans and their descendants in some parts of our own country 
 is a meliorated edition of that which Rome maintained for the 
 government of slaves as various in nation, language, and religion, 
 as the enemies she conquered. These orders, mutally hostile 
 and aggressive, were kept asunder by discriminating laws and 
 carefully -cherished prejudices. The Patricians divided the pub 
 lic domain among themselves, although Plebeian blood was 
 shed as profusely as their own in acquiring it. The Patricians 
 alone administered justice, and they even kept the forms of its 
 administration a profound mystery sealed against the knowledge 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. Ml 
 
 of those for whose safety and welfare the laws existed. The 
 Plebeian could approach the courts only as a client in the foot 
 steps of a Patrician patron, and for his aid in obtaining that jus 
 tice which of course was an absolute debt of the state the Patri 
 cian was entitled to the support of his client in every enterprise 
 of personal interest and ambition. Thus did Rome, while en 
 slaving the world, blindly prepare the machinery for her own 
 overthrow by the agency of domestic factions. Industry in 
 Rome was dishonored. The Plebeians labored with the slaves. 
 Patricians scorned all employments but that of agriculture and 
 the service of the state. And so Rome rejected commerce and 
 the arts. The person of the Patrician was inviolable, while the 
 Plebeian forfeited liberty and for a long period even life by the 
 failure to pay debts which his very necessities obliged him to 
 contract. The slaves held their lives by the tenure of their 
 masters forbearance, and what that forbearance was we learn 
 from the fact that they arrayed the slaves against each other, 
 when trained as gladiators, in mortal combat for the gratification 
 of their own pride and the amusement of the people. Punish 
 ments were graduated, not by the inherent turpitude of the crimes 
 committed, nor by the injury or danger resulting from them to 
 the state, but by the rank of the offender. What was that Ro 
 man liberty of which in such general and captivating descrip 
 tions we read so much ? The Patrician enjoyed a licentious 
 freedom, the Plebeian an uncertain and humiliating one, extorted 
 from the higher order by perpetual practices of sedition. Ac 
 cording to the modern understanding of popular rights and char 
 acter, there was no people in Rome. So at least we learn from 
 Cicero : " Non est enim consilium in vulgo. Non ratio, non dis- 
 crimen, non diligentia. Semper que sapienter ea quae, populus 
 fcrenda non faudanda." 
 
 The domestic affections were stifled in that wild society. The 
 wife was a slave and might be beaten, transferred to another 
 lord, or divorced at pleasure. The father slew his children 
 whenever their care and support became irksome, and the state 
 approved the act. In such a society the rich and great of course 
 grew always richer and greater, and the poor and low always 
 poorer and more debased ; and yet throughout all her long ca 
 reer did Rome never establish one public charity, nor has his- 
 
342 ORATION. 
 
 tory preserved any memorable instances of private benevolence. 
 Such was the life of Rome under her kings and consuls. She 
 attained the end of her ambition, and became, as her historian 
 truly boasts, " Populus Romanus victor dominusque omnium gen 
 tium" But at the same time the city trembled always at the 
 very breathing of popular discontent, and every citizen and even 
 the senate, generals, and consuls, were every hour the slaves of 
 superstitious fears of the withdrawal of the favor of the gods. 
 The people sighing for milder and more genial laws, after the 
 lapse of many centuries recovered the lost code which the good 
 king Numa had received from the goddess Egeria. Do we 
 wonder that the senate interdicted its publication, lest it might 
 produce agitation dangerous to the public peace ? Or can we 
 be surprised when we read that Cicero, whose philosophy was 
 only less than divine, when he found that the republic was ac 
 tually falling into ruins, implored his new academy to be silent ? 
 
 You know well the prolonged but fearful catastrophe, the civil 
 and the servile wars, the dictatorship, the usurpation, the em 
 pire, the military despotism, the insurrections in the provinces, 
 the invasion by barbarians, the division and the dismemberment 
 and the fall of the state, the extinction of the Roman name, lan 
 guage, and laws, and the destruction of society, and even civili 
 zation itself, not only in Italy, but throughout the world, and the 
 consequent darkness which overshadowed the earth throughout 
 seven centuries. This is the moral of a state whose material life 
 is stimulated and perfected, while its spiritual life is neglected 
 and extinguished. 
 
 And now it is seen that the future which we ought to desire 
 for our country involves besides merely physical prosperity and 
 aggrandizement, corresponding intellectual development and ad 
 vancement in virtue also. Has our spiritual life hitherto improved 
 equally with our material growth ? 
 
 It is not easy to .answer the question. We were at first a 
 small and nearly a homogeneous people. We are now eight 
 times more numerous, and we have incorporated large and vari 
 ous foreign elements in our society. We were originally a ru 
 ral and agricultural people. Now one seventh of our population 
 is found in manufacturing towns and commercial cities. We 
 then were poor, and lived in constant apprehension of domestic 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 343 
 
 disorder and of foreign danger, and we were at the same time 
 distrustful of the capacity and stability of our novel institutions. 
 "We are now relatively rich, and all those doubts and fears have 
 vanished. We must make allowance for this great change of 
 circumstances, and we must remember also that it is the charac 
 ter of the great mass of society now existing that is to be com 
 pared with, not the heroic models of the revolutionary age, but 
 with society at large as it then existed. 
 
 It is certain that society has not declined. Religion has, in 
 deed, lost some of its ancient austerity, but waiving the question 
 whether asceticism is a just test of religion, we may safely say 
 that the change which has occurred is only a compromise with 
 foreign elements of religion, for who will deny that those elements 
 are purer and more spiritual here than the systems existing abroad 
 from which they have been derived ? Nor can it be denied that 
 while the ecclesiastical systems existing among us have been, 
 with even more than our rigorous early jealousy, kept distinct 
 and separate from the political conduct of the state, religious in 
 stitutions have been multiplied relatively with the advance of 
 settlement and population, and are everywhere well and effectu 
 ally sustained. At the era of independence we had little intel 
 lectual reputation, except what a bold and successful metaphysi 
 cian and a vigorous explorer in natural philosophy had won for 
 us. We have now, I think, a recognised and respectable rank 
 in the republic of letters. It is true, indeed, that we have 
 produced few great works in speculative science and polite 
 literature ; but those are not the departments which, during 
 the last half century have chiefly engaged the human mind. 
 A long season of political reform and recovery from exhausting 
 wars has necessarily required intellectual activity in reducing 
 into use the discoveries before made ; and we may justly claim 
 that in applying the elements of science to the improvement and 
 advancement of agriculture, art, and commerce, we have not 
 been surpassed. 
 
 I do not seek to disguise from myself, nor from you, the ex 
 istence of a growing passion for territorial aggrandizement, 
 which often exhibits a gross disregard of justice and humanity. 
 Nevertheless, I am not one of those who think that the temper 
 of the nation has become already unsettled. Accidents favor- 
 
844 ORATIOX. 
 
 ing the indulgence of that passion, have been met with a degree 
 of self-denial that no other nation ever practised. Aggrandize 
 ment has been incidental, while society has nevertheless be 
 stowed its chief care on developments of natural resources, re 
 forms of political constitutions, melioration of codes, the diffusion 
 of knowledge, and the cultivation of virtue. If this benign pol 
 icy has been chiefly exercised within the domain of state au 
 thority, and has not reached our federal system, the explanation 
 is obvious in the facts that the popular will is by virtue of the 
 federal constitution, slower in reaching that system, and that we 
 inherited fears which seemed patriotic, of the danger of sever 
 ance of the Union, to result from innovation. If we have not in 
 the federal government forsaken as widely as we ought to have 
 done, systems of administration borrowed from countries where 
 liberty was either unknown or was greatly abridged, and so 
 have maintained armies, and navies, and diplomacy, on a scale 
 of unnecessary grandeur and ostentation, it can hardly be con 
 tended that they have in any great degree corrupted the public 
 virtue. Inquiry is. now more active than it has heretofore been, 
 ami it may not be doubted that the federal action will hereafter, 
 though with such moderation as will produce no danger and jus 
 tify no alarm, be made to conform to the sentiments of prudence, 
 enterprise, justice, and humanity, which prevail among the 
 people. 
 
 Looking through the states which formed the confederacy in 
 its beginning, we iind as general facts, that public order has 
 been effectually maintained, public faith has been preserved, 
 and public tranquillity has been undisturbed, that justice has 
 everywhere been regularly administered, and generally Avith im 
 partiality. We have established a system of education, which, 
 it is true, is surpassed by many European institutions, in regard 
 to the instruction afforded, but which nevertheless is far more 
 equal and universal in regard to the masses which are educated ; 
 and we are beginning to see that system adapted equally to the 
 education of both sexes, and of all races, which is a feature 
 altogether new even in modem civilization, and promises the 
 most auspicious results to the cause of liberty and virtue. Our 
 literature half a century ago was altogether ephemeral and 
 scarcely formed an element of moral or political influence. It 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. -U-") 
 
 is now marked with our own national principles and sentiments, 
 and exerts every day an increasing influence on the national 
 mind. The journalist press, originally a feeble institution, often 
 engaged in exciting the passions and alarming the fears of 
 society, and dividing it into uncompromising and unforgiving 
 factions, has been constantly assuming a higher tone of morality 
 and more patriotic and humane principles of action. There are 
 indeed gross abuses of the power of suffrage, but still our popu 
 lar elections on the whole, express the will of the people, and 
 are even less influenced by authority, prejudice, and passion, 
 than heretofore. Slavery, an institution that was at first quite 
 universal, has now come to be acknowledged as a peculiar one 
 existing in only a portion of the states. And if, as I doubt not, 
 you, like myself, are impatient of its continuance, then you will 
 nevertheless find ground for much satisfaction in the fact that 
 the foreign slave trade has been already by unanimous consent 
 of all the states condemned and repudiated, that manumission 
 has been eifected in half of the states, and that, notwithstanding 
 the great political influence which the institution has been able 
 to organize, a healthful, constant, and growing public sentiment, 
 nourished by the suggestions of sound economy and the instincts 
 of justice and humanity, is leading the way with marked ad 
 vance toward a complete and universal though just and peace 
 ful emancipation. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, now, that all this moral and social 
 improvement has been effected, not by the exercise of any 
 authority over the people, but by the people themselves acting 
 with freedom from all except self-imposed restraints. 
 
 Of the new states it is happily true that they have, almost 
 without exception, voluntarily organized their governments ac 
 cording to the most perfect models furnished by the elder mem 
 bers of the confederacy, and that they have uniformly main 
 tained law, order, and faith, while they have with wonderful 
 forecast been even more munificent than the elder states in lay 
 ing broad foundations of liberty and virtue. On the whole, we 
 think that we may claim that, under the republican system estab 
 lished here, the people have governed themselves safely and 
 wisely, and have enjoyed a greater amount of prosperity and 
 
 15* 
 
346 ORATION. 
 
 happiness than, under any form of constitution, was ever before 
 or elsewhere vouchsafed to any portion of mankind. 
 
 Nevertheless, this review proves only that the measure of 
 knowledge and virtue we possess is equal to the exigency of 
 the republic under the circumstances in which it was organized. 
 Those circumstances are passing away, and we are entering a 
 career of wealth, power, and expansion. In that career, it is 
 manifest that we shall need higher intellectual attainments and 
 greater virtue as a nation than we have hitherto possessed, or 
 else there is no adaptation of means to ends in the scheme of 
 the Divine government. Nay, we shall need in this new emer 
 gency intellect and virtue surpassing those of the honored found 
 ers of the republic. I am aware that this proposition will seem 
 to you equally unreasonable and irreverent. Nevertheless, you 
 will on a moment s reflection admit its truth. Did the invention 
 of the nation stop with the discoveries of Fulton and Franklin ? 
 On the contrary, those philosophers, if they could now revisit 
 the earth, would bow to the genius which has perfected the 
 steam-engine and the telegraph with a homage as profound as 
 that with which we honor their own great memory. So I think 
 Jefferson, and even Washington, under the same circumstances, 
 instead of accusing us of degeneracy, would be lost in admira 
 tion of the extent and perfection to which we have safely car 
 ried in practice the theory of self-government which they estab 
 lished amid so much uncertainty, and bequeathed to us with so 
 much distrust. Shall we acquit ourselves of obligation if we 
 rest content with either the achievements, the intelligence, or 
 the virtue of our ancestors 1 If so, then the prospect of man 
 kind is hopeless indeed, for then it must be true that not only is 
 there an impassable stage of social perfection, but that we have 
 reached it, and that, henceforth, not only we but all mankind 
 must recede from it, and civilization must everywhere decline. 
 Such a hypothesis does violence to every power of the human 
 mind and every hope of the human heart. Moreover, these 
 energies and aspirations are the forces of a divine nature within 
 us, and to admit that they can be stifled and suppressed is to 
 contradict the manifest purposes of human existence. Yet it 
 will be quite absurd to claim that we are fulfilling these pur 
 poses, if we shall fail to produce hereafter benefactors of our 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. 347 
 
 race equal to Fulton, and Franklin, and Adams, and even 
 Washington. Let us hold these honored characters indeed as 
 models but not of unapproachable perfection. Let us, on the 
 contrary, weigh and fully understand our great responsibilities. 
 It is well that we can rejoice in the renown of a Cooper, an 
 Irving, and a Bancroft, but we have yet to give birth to a 
 Shakspere, a Milton, and a Bacon. The fame of Patrick 
 Henry and of John Adams may suffice for the past, but the 
 world will yet demand of us a Burke and a Demosthenes. We 
 may repose for the present upon the fame of Morse and Fulton 
 and Franklin, but human society is entitled to look to us, ere 
 long, for a Des Cartes and a Newton. If we disappoint these 
 expectations and acknowledge ourselves unequal to them, then 
 how shall it be made to appear that freedom is better than 
 slavery, and republicanism more conducive to the welfare of 
 mankind than despotism ? To cherish aspirations humbler than 
 these, is equally to shrink from our responsibilities and to dis 
 honor the memory of the ancestors we so justly revere. 
 
 And now I am sure that your hearts will sink into some depth 
 of despondency when I ask whether American society now 
 exhibits the influences of these higher but necessary aspirations ? 
 I think that everywhere there is confessed a decline from the 
 bold and stern virtue which, at some previous time, was incul 
 cated and practised in executive councils and in representative 
 chambers. I think that we all are conscious that recently we 
 have met questions of momentous responsibility, in the organ 
 ization of governments over our newly-acquired territories, and 
 appeals to our sympathy and aid for oppressed nations abroad 
 in a spirit of timidity and of compromise. I think that we all 
 are conscious of having abandoned something of our high moral 
 ity, in suffering important posts of public service, at home and 
 abroad, to fall sometimes into the hands of mercenary men, 
 destitute of true republican spirit, and of generous aspirations to 
 promote the welfare of our country and of mankind : 
 "Souls that no hope of future praise inflame, 
 Cold and insensible to glorious fame." 
 
 I think that we are accustomed to excuse the national demor 
 alization which has produced these results, on the ground that 
 the practice, of a sterner virtue might have disturbed the har- 
 
oiS OllATIOX. 
 
 mony of society, and endangered the safety o that fabric of 
 union on which all our hopes depend. In this we forget that a 
 nation must always recede if it be not actually advancing ; that 
 s hope is the element of progress, so fear admitted into public 
 counsels betrays like treason. 
 
 But there is, nevertheless, no sufficient reason for the distrust 
 of the national virtue. Moral forces are like material forces, 
 subject to conflict and reaction. It is only through successive 
 reaction that knowledge and virtue advance. The great con 
 servative and restorative forces of society still remain, and are 
 acquiring, all the while, even greater vigor than they have ever 
 heretofore exercised. Whether I am right or not in this opinion, 
 all will agree that an increase of popular intelligence and a 
 renewal of- public virtue are necessary. This is saying nothing 
 new, for it is a maxim of political science that all nations must 
 continually advance in knowledge and renew their constitutional 
 virtues, or must perish. I am sure that we shall do this, because 
 I am sure that our great capacity for advancing the welfare of 
 mankind has not yet been exhausted, and that the promises we 
 have given to the cause of humanity will not be suffered to fail 
 by Him who overrules all human events to the promotion of 
 that cause. 
 
 But where is the agency that is to work out these so neces 
 sary results 1 Shall we look to the press ? Yes, we may hope 
 much from the press, for it is free. It can safely inculcate truth 
 and expose prejudice, error, and injustice. The press, moreover, 
 is strong in its perfect mechanism, and it reaches every mind 
 throughout this vast and ever-widening confederacy. But the 
 press must have editors, and authors men possessing talents, 
 education, and virtue, and so qualified to instruct, enlighten, and 
 jruMe the people. 
 
 Shall we look to the sacred desk? Yes, indeed; for it is of 
 divine institution and is approved by human experience. The 
 ministers of Christ, inculcating divine morals, under divine au 
 thority, with divine sanctions, and sustained and aided by special 
 co-operating influences of the Divine Spirit, are now carrying 
 further and broadly onward the great work of the renewal of 
 the civilization of the world, and its emancipation from supersti- 
 tion and despotism. But the desk, also, must have ministers 
 
THE DESTINY OF AMERICA. Mv 
 
 men possessing talents, education, and virtue, and so qualified 
 to enlighten, instruct, and guide mankind. 
 
 But however well the press, the desk, and the popular trib 
 une, may be qualified to instruct and elevate the people, their 
 success and consequently their influence must after all depend 
 largely on the measure of intelligence and virtue possessed by 
 the people when sufficiently matured to receive their instructions. 
 Editors, authors, ministers, statesmen, and people, all are qualified 
 for their respective posts of duty in the institutions of popular 
 education, and the standard of these is established by that which 
 is recognised among us by the various names pf the academy, 
 the college, and the university. We see, then, that the univer 
 sity holds a chief place among the institutions of the American 
 Republic. 
 
 I may not attempt to specify at large what the university 
 ought to teach or how it ought to impart its instructions. That 
 has been confided to abler and more practical hands. But I 
 may venture to insist on the necessity of having the standard of 
 moral duty maintained at its just height by the university. That 
 institution must be rich and full in the knowledge of the sciences 
 which it imparts, but this is not of itself enough. It must imbue 
 the national mind with correct convictions of the greatness and 
 excellence to which it ought to aspire. To do this it must ac 
 custom the public mind to look beyond the mere temporary con 
 sequences of actions and events to their ultimate influence on the 
 direction of the republic and on the progress of mankind. So it 
 will enable men to decide between prejudice and reason, expe 
 diency and duty, the demagogue and the statesman, the bigot 
 and the Christian. 
 
 The standard which the university shall establish must cor 
 respond to the principles of eternal truth and equal justice. The 
 university must be conservative. It must hold fast every just 
 principle of moral and political science that the experience of 
 mankind has approved, but it must also be bold, remembering 
 that in every human system there are always political supersti 
 tions upholding physical slavery in some of its modes, as there 
 are always religious superstitions upholding intellectual slavery 
 in some of its forms ; that all these superstitions stand upon pre 
 scriptions, and that they can only be exploded where opinion is 
 
350 ORATION. 
 
 left free, and reason is ever active and vigorous. But the uni 
 versity must nevertheless practise and teach moderation and 
 charity even to error, remembering that involuntary error will 
 necessarily be mingled also even with its own best instructions, 
 that unbridled zeal overreaches and defeats itself, and that he 
 who would conquer in moral discussion, like him who would pre 
 vail in athletic games, must be temperate in all things. 
 
 Reverend Instructors and Benevolent Founders, this new in 
 stitution by reason of its location in the centre of Ohio, itself a 
 central one among these thirty-one united communities, must 
 exert an influence that can scarcely be conceived, now, upon the 
 welfare and fame of our common country. Devote it then I 
 pray you to no mere partisan or sectarian objects. Remember 
 that the patriot and the Christian is a partisan or a sectarian, 
 only because the constitution of society allows him no other mode 
 of efficient and beneficent activity. Let " Capital University" 
 be dedicated not to the interests of the beautiful city which it 
 adorns, nor even to the interests of the great and prosperous state 
 whose patronage I hope it will largely enjoy, nor even to the 
 Republic of which I trust it is destined to become a tower of 
 strength and support. On the contrary if you would make it 
 promote most effectually all these precious interests, dedicate it, 
 I enjoin upon you, as our forefathers dedicated all the institutions 
 which they established, to the cause of Human Nature. 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 
 
 FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH.* 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : The United States, at the close of the 
 Revolution, rested southward on the St. Mary s, and westward 
 on the Mississippi, and possessed a broad, unoccupied domain, 
 circumscribed by those rivers, the Alleghany mountains, and the 
 great northern lakes. The constitution anticipated a division 
 of this domain into states, to be admitted as members of the 
 Union, but it neither provided for nor foresaw any enlargement 
 of the national boundaries. The people, engaged in reorgani 
 zing their governments, improving their social systems, and 
 establishing relations of commerce and friendship with other na 
 tions, remained many years content within their apparently am 
 ple limits. But it was already known that the free navigation 
 of the Mississippi would soon become an urgent public want. 
 
 France, although she had lost Canada, in chivalrous battle, 
 on the Heights of Abraham, in 1763, nevertheless, still retained 
 her ancient territories on the western bank of the Mississippi. 
 She had also, just before the breaking out of her own fearful 
 revolution, re-acquired, by a secret treaty, the possessions on the 
 Gulf of Mexico, which, in a recent war, had been wrested from 
 her by Spain. Her first consul, among those brilliant achieve 
 ments which proved him the first statesman as well as the first 
 captain of Europe, sagaciously sold the whole of these posses 
 sions to the United States, for a liberal sum, and thus replen- 
 *Speecl in the United States Senate, February 17, 1854. 
 
352 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 ishecl his treasury, while lie saved from his enemies, and trans 
 ferred to a friendly power, distant and vast regions, which, for 
 want of adequate naval force, he was unable to defend. 
 
 This purchase of Louisiana from France by the United 
 States, involved a grave dispute concerning the western limits 
 of that province ; and that controversy, having remained open 
 until 1819, was then adjusted by a treaty, in which they relin 
 quished Texas to Spain, and accepted a cession of the early-dis 
 covered and long-inhabited provinces of East Florida and West 
 Florida. The United States stipulated, in each of these cases, 
 to admit the countries thus annexed into the federal Union. 
 
 The acquisitions of Oregon, by discovery and occupation, of 
 Texas, by voluntary annexation, and of New Mexico and Cali 
 fornia, including what is now called Utah, by war, completed 
 the rapid course of enlargement, at the close of which our fron 
 tier has been fixed near the centre of what was New Spain, on 
 the Atlantic side of the continent, while on the west, as on the 
 east, only an ocean separates us from the nations of the old 
 world. It is not in my way now to speculate on the question, 
 how long we are to rest on these advanced positions. 
 
 Slavery, before the Revolution, existed in all the thirteen 
 colonies, as it did also in nearly all the other European planta 
 tions in America. But it had been forced by British authority, 
 for political and commercial ends, on the American people, 
 against their own sagacious instincts of policy, and their stronger 
 feelings of justice and humanity. 
 
 They had protested and remonstrated against the system, 
 earnestly, for forty years, and they ceased to protest and remon 
 strate against it only when they finally committed their entire 
 cause of complaint to the arbitrament of arms. An earnest 
 spirit of emancipation was abroad in the colonies at the close of 
 the Revolution, and all of them, except, perhaps, South Carolina 
 and Georgia, anticipated, desired, and designed an early re 
 moval of the system from the country. The suppression of the 
 African slave-trade, which was universally regarded as ancillary 
 to that great measure, was, with much reluctance, postponed 
 until 1808. 
 
 While there was no national power, and no claim or desire 
 for national power, anywhere, to compel involuntary emancipa- 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 353 
 
 
 
 tion in the states where slavery existed, there was at the same 
 time a very general desire and a strong purpose to prevent its 
 introduction into new communities yet to be formed, and into 
 new states yet to be established. Mr. Jefferson proposed, as 
 early as 1784, to exclude it from the national domain which 
 should be constituted by cessions from the states to the United 
 States. He recommended and urged the measure as ancillary, 
 also, to the ultimate policy of emancipation. There seems to 
 have been at first no very deep jealousy between the emancipa 
 ting and the non-emancipating states ; and the policy of admit 
 ting new states was not disturbed by questions concerning 
 slavery. Vermont, a non-slaveholding state, was admitted in 
 1793. Kentucky, a tramontane shareholding community, hav 
 ing been detached from Virginia, was admitted, without being 
 questioned, about the same time. So, also, Tennessee, which 
 was a similar community separated from North Carolina, was 
 admitted in 1796, with a stipulation that the ordinance which 
 Mr. Jefferson had first proposed, and which had in the mean 
 time been adopted for the territory northwest of the Ohio, should 
 not be held to apply within her limits. The same course was 
 adopted in organizing territorial governments for Mississippi and 
 Alabama, slaveholding communities which had been detached 
 from South Carolina and Georgia. All these states and territo 
 ries were situated southwest of the Ohio river, all were more or 
 less already peopled by slaveholders with their slaves ; and to 
 have excluded slavery within their limits would have been a 
 national act, not of preventing the introduction of slavery, but 
 of abolishing slavery. In short, the region southwest of the 
 Ohio river presented a field in which the policy of preventing 
 the introduction of slavery was impracticable. Our forefathers 
 never attempted what was impracticable. 
 
 But the case was otherwise in that fair and broad region 
 which stretched away from the banks of the Ohio, northward to 
 the lakes, and westward to the Mississippi. It was yet free, or 
 practically free, from the presence of slaves, and was nearly un 
 inhabited, and quite unoccupied. There was then no Baltimore 
 and Ohio railroad, no Erie railroad, no New York Central rail 
 road, no Boston and Ogdensburgh railroad ; there was no rail 
 road through Canada ; nor, indeed, any road around or across 
 
354 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 the mountains ; no imperial Erie canal, no Welland canal, no 
 lockage around the rapids and the falls of the St. Lawrence, 
 the Mohawk, and the Niagara rivers, and no steam navigation 
 on the lakes or on the Hudson, or on the Mississippi. There, 
 in that remote and secluded region, the prevention of the in 
 troduction of slavery was possible ; and there our forefathers, 
 who left no possible national good unattempted, did prevent it. 
 It makes one s heart bound with joy and gratitude, and lift 
 itself up with mingled pride and veneration, to read the history 
 of that great transaction. Discarding the trite and common 
 forms of expressing the national will, they did not merely "vote," 
 or "resolve," or "enact," as on other occasions, but they "OR 
 DAINED," in language marked at once with precision, amplifica 
 tion, solemnity, and emphasis, that there " shall be neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise 
 than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have 
 been duly convicted." And they further ORDAINED and declared 
 that this law should be considered a COMPACT between the 
 original states and the people and states of said territory, and 
 for ever remain unalterable, unless by common consent. The 
 ordinance was agreed to unanimously. Virginia, in reaffirming 
 her cession of the territory, ratified it, and the first Congress 
 held under the constitution solemnly renewed and confirmed it. 
 
 In pursuance of this ordinance, the several territorial gov 
 ernments successively established in the northwest territory 
 were organized with a prohibition of the introduction of slavery, 
 and in due time, though at successive periods, Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, states erected within that ter 
 ritory, have come into the Union with constitutions in their 
 hands for ever prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, 
 except for the punishment of crime. They are yet young ; but, 
 nevertheless, who has ever seen elsewhere such states as they 
 are ! There are gathered the young, the vigorous, the active, 
 the enlightened sons of every state, the flower and choice of 
 every state in this broad Union ; and there the emigrant for 
 conscience sake, and for freedom s sake, from every land in 
 Europe, from proud and all-conquering Britain, from heart-broken 
 Ireland, from sunny Italy, from mercurial France, from spiritual 
 Germany, from chivalrous Hungary, and from honest and brave 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 355 
 
 old Sweden and Norway. Thence are already coming ample 
 supplies of corn and wheat and wine for the manufacturers of 
 the East, for the planters of the tropics, and even for the arti 
 sans and the armies of Europe ; and thence will continue to come 
 in long succession, as they have already begun to come, states 
 men and legislators for this continent. 
 
 Thus it appears Mr. President, that it was the policy of our 
 fathers, in regard to the original domain of the United States, to 
 prevent the introduction of slavery, wherever it was practicable. 
 This policy encountered greater difficulties when it came under 
 consideration with a view to its establishment in regions not in 
 cluded within our original domain. While slavery had been ac 
 tually abolished already, by some of the emancipating states, 
 several of them, owing to a great change in the relative value 
 of the productions of slave labor, had fallen off into the class of 
 non-emancipating states ; and now the whole family of states 
 was divided and classified as slaveholding or slave states, and 
 non-slaveholding or free states. A rivalry for political ascen 
 dency was soon developed ; and, besides the motives of interest 
 and philanthropy which had before existed, there was now on 
 each side a desire to increase, from among the candidates for 
 admission into the Union, the number of states in their respec 
 tive classes, and so their relative weight and influence in the 
 federal councils. 
 
 The country which had been acquired from France was, in 
 1804, organized in two territories, one of which, including New 
 Orleans as its capital, was called Orleans, and the other, having 
 St. Louis for its chief town, was called Louisiana. In 1812, the 
 territory of Orleans was admitted as a new state, under the name 
 of Louisiana. It had been an old slaveholding colony of France, 
 and the prevention of slavery within it would have been a sim 
 ple act of abolition. At the same time, the territory of Louisi 
 ana, by authority of Congress, took the name of Missouri; and, 
 in 1819, the portion thereof which now constitutes the state of 
 Arkansas was detached, and became a territory, under that 
 name. In 1819, Missouri, which was then but thinly peopled, 
 and had an inconsiderable number of slaves, applied for admis 
 sion into the Union, and her application brought the question of 
 extending the policy of the ordinance of 1787 to that state, and 
 
356 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 to other new states in the region acquired from France, to a 
 direct issue. The house of representatives insisted on a pro 
 hibition against the further introduction of slavery in the state, 
 as a condition of her admission. The senate disagreed with the 
 house in that demand. The non-slaveholding states sustained 
 the house, and the slaveholding states sustained the senate. 
 The difference was radical, and tended toward revolution. 
 
 One party maintained that the condition demanded was con 
 stitutional, the other that it was unconstitutional. The public 
 mind became intensely excited, and painful apprehensions of dis 
 union and civil war began to prevail in the country. 
 
 In this crisis, a majority of both houses agreed upon a plan for 
 the adjustment of the controversy. By this plan, Maine, a non- 
 slaveholding state, was to be admitted; Missouri was to be ad 
 mitted without submitting to the condition before mentioned ; 
 and in all that part of the territory acquired from France, which 
 was north of the line of 36 30 of north latitude, slavery was to be 
 for ever prohibited. Louisiana, which was a part of that terri 
 tory, had been admitted as a slave state eight years before ; and 
 now, not only was Missouri to be admitted as a slave state, but 
 Arkansas, which was south of that line, by strong implication, 
 was also to be admitted as a slaveholding state. I need not in 
 dicate what were the equivalents which the respective parties 
 were to receive in this arrangement, further than to say that the 
 slaveholding states practically were to receive slaveholding states, 
 the free states to receive a desert, a solitude, in which they might 
 if they could, plant the germs of future free states. This meas 
 ure was adopted. It was a great national transaction the first 
 of a class of transactions which have since come to be thoroughly 
 defined and well understood, under the name of compromises. 
 My own opinions concerning them are well known, and are not 
 in question here. According to the general understanding, they 
 are marked by peculiar circumstances and features, viz. : 
 
 First, there is a division of opinion upon some vital national 
 question between the two houses of Congress, which division is 
 irreconcilable, except by mutual concessions of interests and 
 opinions, which the houses deem constitutional and just. 
 
 Secondly, they are rendered necessary by impending calam 
 ities, to results from the failure of legislation, and to be no 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 357 
 
 otherwise averted than by such mutual concessions, or sacri 
 fices. 
 
 Thirdly, such concessions are mutual and equal, or are accept 
 ed as such, and so become conditions of the mutual arrangement. 
 
 Fourthly, by this mutual exchange of conditions, the transac 
 tion takes on the nature and character of a contract, compact, or 
 treaty, between the parties represented ; and so, according to 
 well-settled principles of morality and public law, the statute 
 which embodies it is understood, by those who uphold this sys 
 tem of legislation to be irrevocable and irrepealable, except by 
 the mutual consent of both, or of all the parties concerned. Not 
 indeed, that it is absolutely irrepealable, but that it can not be 
 repealed without a violation of honor, justice, and good faith, 
 which it is presumed will not be committed. 
 
 Such was the compromise of 1820. Missouri came into the 
 Union immediately as a slaveholding state, and Arkansas came 
 in as a slaveholding state, sixteen years afterward. Nebraska, 
 the part of the territory reserved exclusively for free territories 
 and free states, has remained a wilderness ever since. And now 
 it is proposed here to abrogate, not, indeed, the whole compro 
 mise, but only that part of it which saved Nebraska as a free 
 territory, to be afterward divided into non-slaveholding states, 
 which should be admitted into the Union. And this is ^proposed, 
 notwithstanding a universal acquiescence in the compromise, by 
 both parties, for thirty years, and its confirmation, over and over 
 again, by many acts of successive Congresses, and notwithstand 
 ing that the slaveholding states have peaceably enjoyed, ever 
 since it was made, all their equivalents, while, owing to circum 
 stances which will hereafter appear, the non-slaveholding states 
 have not practically enjoyed those guarantied to them. 
 
 This is the question now before the senate of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 It is a question of transcendant importance. The proviso of 
 1820, to be abrogated in Nebraska, is the ordinance of the Con 
 tinental Congress of 1787, extended over a new part of the na 
 tional domain, acquired under our present constitution. It is 
 rendered venerable by its antiquity, and sacred by the memory 
 of that Congress, which in surrendering its trust, after establish 
 ing the ordinance, enjoined it upon posterity, always to remember 
 
358 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 that the cause of the United States was the cause of human na 
 ture. The question involves an issue of public faith, and national 
 morality aud honor. It will be a sad day for this republic, when 
 such a question shall be deemed unworthy of grave discussion, 
 and shall fail to excite intense interest. Even if it were certain 
 that the inhibition of slavery in the region concerned was unne 
 cessary, and if the question were thus reduced to a mere abstrac 
 tion, yet even that abstraction would involve the testimony of 
 the United States on the expediency, wisdom, morality, and 
 justice, of the system of human bondage, with which this and 
 other portions of the world have been so long afflicted ; and it 
 will be a melancholy day for the republic and for mankind, 
 when her decision on even such an abstraction shall command 
 no respect, and inspire no hope into the hearts of the oppressed. 
 But it is no such abstraction. It was no unnecessary dispute, 
 no mere contest of blind passion, that brought that compromise 
 into being. Slavery and Freedom were active antagonists, then 
 seeking for ascendency in this Union. Both Slavery and Free 
 dom are more vigorous, active, and self-aggrandizing now, than 
 they were then, or ever were before or since that period. The 
 contest between them has been only protracted, not decided. 
 It Avill be a great feature in our national Hereafter. So the 
 question of adhering to or abrogating this compromise is no un 
 meaning issue, and no contest of mere blind passion now. 
 
 To adhere, is to secure the occupation by freemen, with free 
 labor, of a region in the very centre of the continent, capable of 
 sustaining, and in that event destined, though it may be only 
 after a far-distant period, to sustain ten, twenty, thirty, forty 
 millions of people and their successive generations for ever ! 
 
 To abrogate, is to resign all that vast region to chances 
 which mortal vision can not fully foresee ; perhaps to the sover 
 eignty of such stinted and short-lived communities as those of 
 which Mexico and South America and the West India islands 
 present us with examples ; perhaps to convert that region into 
 a scene of long and desolating conflicts between not merely 
 races, but castes, to end, like a similar conflict in Egypt, in a 
 convulsive exodus of the oppressed people, despoiling their supe 
 riors ; perhaps, like one not dissimilar in Spain, in the forcible 
 expulsion of the interior race, exhausting the state by the sud- 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 859 
 
 den and complete suppression of a great Resource of national 
 wealth and labor ; perhaps in the disastrous expulsion, even of 
 the superior race itself, by a people too suddenly raised from 
 slavery to liberty, as in St. Domingo. To adhere is to secure 
 for ever the presence here, after some lapse of time, of two, 
 four, ten, twenty, or more senators, and of representatives in 
 larger proportions, to uphold the policy and interests of the 
 non-slaveholding states, and balance that ever-increasing repre 
 sentation of slaveholding states, which past experience, and the 
 decay of the Spanish-American states, admonish us has only 
 just begun ; to save what the non-slaveholding states have in 
 mints, navy-yards, the military academy and fortifications, to 
 balance against the capital and federal institutions in the slave- 
 holding states ; to save against any danger from adverse or hos 
 tile policy, the culture, the manufactures, and the commerce, as 
 well as the just influence and weight of the national principles 
 and sentiments of the slaveholding states. To adhere is to save 
 to the non-slaveholding states, as well as to the slaveholding 
 states, always, and in every event, a right of way and free com 
 munication across the continent, to and with the states on the 
 Pacific coasts, and with the rising states on the islands in the 
 South sea, and with all the eastern nations on the vast continent 
 of Asia. 
 
 To abrogate, on the contrary, is to commit all these precious 
 interests to the chances and hazards of embarrassment and injury 
 by legislation, under the influence of social, political, and com 
 mercial jealousy and rivalry ; and in the event of the secession 
 of the slaveholding states, which is so often threatened in their 
 name, but I thank God without their authority, to give t o a ser 
 vile population a La Vendee at the very sources of the Missis 
 sippi, and in the very recesses of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Nor is this last a contingency against which a statesman, when 
 engaged in giving a constitution for such a territory, so situated, 
 must veil his eyes. It is a statesman s province and duty to 
 look before as well as after. I know, indeed, the present loy 
 alty of the American people, North and South, and East and 
 West. I know that it is a sentiment stronger than any sec 
 tional interest or ambition, and stronger than even the love of 
 equality in the non-slaveholding states ; and stronger, I doubt 
 
360 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 not, than the love of slavery in the slaveholding states. But I 
 do not know, and no mortal sagacity does know, the seductions 
 of interest and ambition, and the influences of passion, which 
 are yet to be matured in every region. I know this, however 
 that this Union is safe now, and that it will be safe so long as 
 impartial political equality shall constitute the basis of society, 
 as it has heretofore done, in even half of these states, and they 
 shall thus maintain a just equilibrium against the slaveholding 
 states. But I am well assured, also, on the other hand, that if 
 ever the slaveholding states shall multiply themselves, and ex 
 tend their sphere, so that they could, without association with the 
 non-slaveholding states, constitute of themselves a commercial 
 republic, from that day their rule, through the executive, judi 
 cial, and legislative powers of this government, will be such as 
 will be hard for the non-slaveholding states to bear ; and their 
 pride and ambition, since they are congregations of men, and 
 are moved by human passions, will consent to no union in which 
 they shall not so rule. 
 
 The slaveholding states already possess the mouths of the 
 Mississippi, and their territory reaches far northward along its 
 banks, on one side to the Ohio, and on the other even to the 
 confluence of the Missouri. They stretch their dominion now 
 from the banks of the Delaware, quite around bay, headland, 
 nnd promontory, to the Rio Grande. They will not stop, al 
 though they now think they may, on the summit of the Sierra 
 Nevada ; nay, their armed pioneers are already in Sonora, and 
 their eyes are already fixed, never to be taken off, on the. island 
 of Cuba, the queen of the Antilles. If we of the non-slavehold 
 ing states surrender to them now the eastern slope of the 
 Rocky Mountains, and the very sources of the Mississippi, what 
 territory will be secure, what territory can be secured hereafter, 
 for the creation and organization of free states, within our ocean- 
 bound domain 1 What territories on this continent will remain 
 unappropriated and unoccupied, for us to annex ? What terri 
 tories, even if we are able to buy or conquer them from Great 
 Britain or Russia, will the slaveholding states suffer, much less 
 aid, us to annex, to restore the equilibrium which, by this unne 
 cessary measure, we shall have so unwisely, so hurriedly, so 
 suicidally subverted ? 
 
KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 361 
 
 Nor am I to be told that only a few slaves will enter into 
 this vast region. One slaveholder in a new territory, with 
 access to the executive ear at Washington, exercises more polit 
 ical influence than five hundred freemen. It is not necessary 
 that all or a majority of the citizens of a state shall be slave 
 holders, to constitute a slaveholding state. Delaware has only 
 two thousand slaves, against ninety-one thousand freemen ; and 
 yet Delaware is a slaveholding state. The proportion is not 
 substantially different in Maryland and in Missouri ; and yet 
 they are slaveholding states. These, sir, are the stakes in this 
 legislative game, in which I lament to see, that while the repre 
 sentatives of the slaveholding states are unanimously and earn 
 estly playing to win, so many of the representatives of the non- 
 slaveholding states are, with even greater zeal and diligence, 
 playing to lose. 
 
 *Mr. President, the committee who have recommended these 
 twin bills for the organization of the territories of Nebraska 
 and Kansas, hold the affirmative in the argument upon their 
 passage. 
 
 What is the case they present to the senate and the country ? 
 
 They have submitted a report ; but that report, brought in 
 before they had introduced or even conceived this bold and dar 
 ing measure of abrogating the Missouri Compromise, directs all 
 its arguments against it. 
 . The committee say, in their report : 
 
 "Such being the character of the controversy, in respect to the territory 
 acquired from Mexico, a similar question has arisen in regard to the right 
 to hold slaves in the proposed territory of Nebraska, when the Indian laws 
 shall be withdrawn, and the country thrown open to emigration and settle 
 ment. By the eighth section of An Act to authorize the People of the Mis 
 souri Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the 
 Admission of such State into the Union on an equal Footing with the original 
 States, and to prohibit Slavery in certain Territories, approved March 6, 
 1820, it was provided: That in all that territory ceded by France to the 
 United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty -six 
 degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of 
 the state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, other 
 wise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been 
 duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, for ever prohibited : Provided, always, 
 That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is law 
 fully claimed in any state or territory of the United State?, such fugitive 
 
 16 
 
862 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her 
 labor or service, as aforesaid. 
 
 " Under this section, as in the case of the Mexican law in New Mexico 
 and Utah, it is a disputed point whether slavery is prohibited in the Nebras 
 ka country by valid enactment. The decision of this question involves the 
 constitutional power of Congress to pass laws prescribing and regulating 
 the domestic institutions of the various territories of the Union. In the 
 opinion of those eminent statesmen who hold that Congress is invested with 
 no rightful authority to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the territo 
 ries, the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri 
 is null and void ; while the prevailing sentiment in large portions of the 
 Union sustains the doctrine that the constitution of the United States se 
 cures to every citizen an inalienable right to move into any of the territo 
 ries with his property, of whatever kind and description, and to hold and 
 enjoy the same under the sanction of the law. Your committee do not feel 
 themselves called upon to enter into the discussion of these controverted 
 questions. They involve the same grave issues which produced the agita 
 tion, the sectional strife, and the fearful struggle of 1850. As Congress 
 deemed it wise and prudent to refrain from deciding the matters in contro 
 versy then, either by affirming or repealing the Mexican laws, or by an act 
 declaratory of the true intent of the constitution, and the extent of the pro 
 tection afforded by if, to slave property in the territories, so your committee 
 are not prepared now to recommend a departure from the course pursued 
 on that memorable occasion, either by affirming or repealing the eighth 
 section of the Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the 
 constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute." 
 
 This report gives us tl.c deliberate judgment of the committee 
 on two important points. First, that the compromise of 1850 
 did not, by its letter or by its spirit, repeal, or render necessary, 
 or even propose, the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise ; 
 and, secondly, that the Missouri Compromise ought not now to 
 be abrogated. And now, sir, what do we next hear from this 
 committee 1 First, two similar and kindred bills, actually abro 
 gating the Missouri Compromise, which, in their report, they had 
 told us ought not to be abrogated at all. Secondly, these bills 
 declare on their face, in substance, that that compromise was 
 already abrogated by the spirit of that very compromise of 1850 
 which, in their report they had just shown us, left the compro 
 mise of 1820 absolutely unaffected and unimpaired. Thirdly, 
 the committee favor us, by their chairman, with an oral explana 
 tion, that the amended bills abrogating the Missouri Compro 
 mise are identical with their previous bill, which did not abro 
 gate it, and are only made to differ in phraseology, to the end 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 363 
 
 that tlie provisions contained in their previous, and now discarded, 
 bill, shall be absolutely clear and certain. 
 
 I entertain great respect for the committee itself, but I must 
 take leave to say that the inconsistencies and self-contradictions 
 contained in the papers it has given us, have destroyed all 
 claims, on the part of those documents, to respect, here or else 
 where. 
 
 The recital of the effect of the compromise of 1850, upon the 
 compromise of 1820, as finally revised, corrected, and amended, 
 here in the face of the senate, means after all substantially what 
 that recital meant as it stood before it was perfected, or else it 
 means nothing tangible or worthy of consideration at all. What 
 if the spirit, or even the letter, of the compromise laws of 1850 
 did conflict with the compromise of 1820 ? The compromise of 
 1820 was, by its very nature, a compromise irrepealable and un 
 changeable, without a violation of honor, justice, and good faith. 
 The compromise of 1850, if it impaired the previous compromise 
 to the extent of the loss to free labor of one acre of the territory 
 of Nebraska, was either absolutely void, or ought, in all subse 
 quent legislation, to be deemed and held void. 
 
 What if the spirit or the letter of the compromise was a vio 
 lation of the compromise of 1820 ] Then, inasmuch as the com 
 promise of 1820 was inviolable, the attempted violation of it 
 shows that the so-called compromise of 1850 was to that extent 
 not a compromise at all, but a factitious, spurious, and pretended 
 compromise. What if the letter or the spirit of the compromise 
 of 1850 did supersede or impair, or in any way, in any degree, 
 conflict with the compromise of 1820 1 Then that is a reason 
 for abrogating, not the irrepealable and inviolable compromise 
 of 1820, but the spurious and pretended compromise of 1850 
 
 Mr. President, why is this reason for the proposed abrogation 
 of the compromise of 1820 assigned in these bills at all ? It is 
 unnecessary. The assignment of a reason adds nothing to the 
 force or weight of the abrogation itself. Either the fact alleged 
 as a reason is true or it is not true. If it be untrue, your asser 
 ting it here will not make it true. If it be true, it is apparent 
 in the text of the law of 1850, without the aid of legislative ex 
 position now. It is unusual. It is unparliamentary. The lan 
 guage of the lawgiver, whether the sovereign be democratic, 
 
364 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 republican, or despotic, is always the same. It is mandatory, 
 imperative. If the lawgiver explains at all in a statute the 
 reason for it, the reason is that it is his pleasure sic volo, sic 
 jubco. Look at the compromise of 1820. Does it plead an ex 
 cuse for its commands ? Look at the compromise of 1850, drawn 
 by the master-hand of our American Chatham. Does that be 
 speak your favor by a quibbling or shuffling apology ? Look at 
 your own, now rejected, first Nebraska bill, which, by conclusive 
 implication, saved the effect of the Missouri Compromise. Look 
 at any other bill ever reported by the committee on territories. 
 Look at any other bill now on your calendar. Examine all the 
 laws on your statute-books. Do you find any one bill or statute 
 which ever came bowing, stooping, and wriggling into the sen 
 ate, pleading an excuse for its clear and explicit declaration of 
 the sovereign and irresistible will of the American people ? The 
 departure from this habit in this solitary case betrays self-dis 
 trust, and an attempt on the part of the bill to divert the public 
 attention, to raise complex and immaterial issues, to perplex and 
 bewilder and confound the people by whom this transaction is 
 to be reviewed. Look again at the vacillation betrayed in the 
 frequent changes of the structure of this apology. At first the 
 recital told us that the eighth section of the compromise act of 
 1820 was superseded by the principles of the compromise laws 
 of 1850 as if any one had ever heard of a supersedeas of one 
 local law by the mere 2^mciplcs of another local law, enacted 
 for an altogether different region, thirty years afterward. On 
 another day we were told, by an amendment of the recital, that 
 the compromise of 1820 was not superseded by the compromise 
 of 1850 at all, but was only " inconsistent with" it as if a local 
 act which was irrepealable was now to be abrogated, because it 
 was inconsistent with a subsequent enactment, which had no 
 application whatever within the region to which the first 
 enactment was confined. On a third day the meaning of 
 the recital was further and finally elucidated by an amend 
 ment, which declared that the first irrepealable act protecting 
 Nebraska from slavery was now declared " inoperative and- 
 void," because it was inconsistent with the present purposes of 
 Congress not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor 
 to exclude it therefrom. 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 365 
 
 But take this apology in whatever form it may be expressed, 
 and test its logic by a simple process. 
 
 The law of ]S20 secured free institutions in the regions ac 
 quired from France in 1803, by the wise and prudent foresight 
 of the Congress of the United States. The law of 1850, on the 
 contrary, committed the choice between free and slave institu 
 tions in New Mexico and Utah territories acquired from Mex 
 ico nearly fifty years afterward to the interested cupidity or 
 the caprice of their earliest and accidental occupants. Free in 
 stitutions and slave institutions are equal, but the interested 
 cupidity of the pioneer is a wiser arbiter, and his judgment a 
 surer safeguard, than the collective wisdom of the American 
 people and the most solemn and time-honored statute of the 
 American Congress. Therefore, let the law of freedom in the 
 territory acquired from France be now annulled and abrogated, 
 and let the fortunes and fate of freedom and slavery, in the re 
 gion acquired from France, be, henceforward and for ever, deter 
 mined by the votes of some seven hundred camp followers around 
 Fort Leaven worth, and the still smaller number of trappers, 
 government school-masters, and mechanics, who attend the In 
 dians in their seasons of rest from hunting in the passes of the 
 Rocky mountains. Sir, this syllogism may satisfy you and other 
 senators ; but as for me, I must be content to adhere to the ear 
 lier system. Stare super antiquas mas. 
 
 There is yet another difficulty in this new theory. Let it be 
 granted that, in order to carry out a new principle recently 
 adopted in New Mexico, you can supplant a compromise in 
 Nebraska, yet there is a maxim of public law which forbids you 
 from supplanting that compromise, and establishing a new sys 
 tem there, until you first restore the parties in interest there to 
 their statu quo before the compromise to be supplanted was estab 
 lished. First, then, remand Missouri and Arkansas back to the 
 unsettled condition, in regard to slavery, which they held before 
 the compromise of 1820 was enacted, and then we will hear you 
 talk of rescinding that compromise. You can not do this. You 
 ought not to do it, if you could ; and because you can not 
 and ought not to do it, you can not, without violating law, 
 justice, equity, and honor, abrogate the guarantee of freedom 
 in Nebraska. 
 
366 SPEECHES IX THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 There is still another and not less serious difficulty. You call 
 the slavery laws of 1850 a compromise between the slavehold- 
 ing and non-slaveholding states. For the purposes of this argu 
 ment, let it be granted that they were such a compromise. It 
 was nevertheless a compromise concerning slavery in the terri 
 tories acquired from Mexico, and by the letter of the compromise 
 it extended no further. Can you now, by an act which is not a 
 compromise between the same parties, but a mere ordinary law, 
 extend the force and obligation of the principles of that compro 
 mise of 1850 into regions not only excluded from it, but abso 
 lutely protected from your intervention there by a solemn com 
 promise of thirty years duration, and invested with a sanctity 
 scarcely inferior to that which hallows the constitution itself ? 
 
 Can the compromise of 1850, by a mere ordinary act of legis 
 lation, be extended beyond the plain, known, fixed intent and 
 understanding of the parties at the time that contract was made, 
 and yet be binding on the parties to it, not merely legally, but 
 in honor and conscience 1 Can you abrogate a compromise by 
 passing any law of less dignity than a compromise ? If so, of 
 what value is any one or the whole of the compromises ] Thus 
 you see that these bills violate both of the compromises not 
 more that of 1820 than that of 1850. 
 
 "Will you maintain in argument that it was understood by the 
 parties interested throughout the country, or by either of them, 
 or by any representative of either, in either house of Congress, 
 that the principle then established should extend beyond the 
 limits of the territories acquired from Mexico, into the territories 
 acquired nearly fifty years before, from France, and then re 
 posing under the guaranty of the compromise of 1820 ? I know 
 not how senators may vote, but I do know what they will say. 
 I appeal to the honorable senator from Michigan [Mr. CASS], 
 than whom none performed a more distinguished part in estab 
 lishing the compromise of 1850, whether he so intended or un 
 derstood. I appeal to the honorable and candid senator, the 
 senior representative from Tennessee [Mr. BELL], who performed 
 a distinguished part also. Did he so understand the compro 
 mise of 1850? He is silent. I appeal to the gallant senator 
 from Illinois [Mr. SHIELDS] ? He, too, is silent. I now throw 
 my gauntlet at the feet of every senator now here, who was in 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 307 
 
 the senate in 1850, and challenge him to say that he then knew, 
 or thought, or dreamed, that, by enacting the compromise of 
 1850, he was directly or indirectly abrogating, or in any degree 
 impairing, the Missouri Compromise 1 No one takes it up. I 
 appeal to that very distinguished nay, sir, that expression falls 
 short of his eminence that illustrious man, the senator from 
 Missouri [Mr. BENTON], who led the opposition here to the com 
 promise of 1850. Did he understand that that compromise in 
 any way overreached or impaired the compromise of 1820 ? Sir, 
 that distinguished person, while opposing the combination of the 
 several laws on the subject of California and the territories, and 
 slavery, together, in one bill, so as to constitute a compromise, 
 nevertheless voted for each one of those bills, severally ; and in 
 that way, and that way only, they were passed. Had he known 
 or understood that any one of them overreached and impaired 
 the Missouri Compromise, we all know he would have perished 
 before he would have given it his support. 
 
 Sir, if it were not irreverent, I would dare to call up the au 
 thor of both of the compromises in question, from his honored, 
 though yet scarcely grass-covered grave, and challenge any ad 
 vocate of this measure to confront that imperious shade, and say 
 that, in making the compromise of 1850, Henry Clay intended 
 or dreamed that he was subverting, or preparing the Avay for a 
 subversion of, his greater work of 1820. Sir, if that eagle spirit 
 is yet lingering here over the scene of its mortal labors, and 
 watching over the welfare of the republic it loved so well, it is 
 now moved with more than human indignation against those 
 who are perverting its last great public act from its* legitimate 
 uses, not merely to subvert the column, but to wrench from its 
 very bed the base of the column that perpetuates its fame. 
 
 And that other proud and dominating senator, who, sacrificing 
 himself, gave the aid without which the compromise of 1850 
 could not have been established the statesman of New Eng 
 land, and the orator of America who dare assert here, where 
 his memory is yet fresh, though his unfettered spirit may be 
 wandering in spheres far hence, that he intended to abrogate, or 
 dreamed that, by virtue of or in consequence of that transaction, 
 the Missouri compromise would or could ever be abrogated ? 
 The portion of the Missouri compromise you propose to abro- 
 
368 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 gate is the ordinance of 1787 extended to Nebraska. Hear 
 what Daniel Webster said of that ordinance itself, in 1830, in 
 this very place, in reply to one who had undervalued it and its 
 
 author : 
 
 "I spoke, sir, of the ordinance of 1787, which prohibits slavery, in all 
 future time, northwest of the Ohio, as a measure of great wisdom and fore 
 thought, and one which lias been attended with highly beneficial and per 
 manent consequences." 
 
 And now hear what he said here, when advocating the com 
 promise of 1850 : 
 
 "I now say, sir, as the proposition upon 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 in the United States, or any territory of the 
 United States, one single foot of land, the character of which, in regard to 
 its being free territory or slave territory, is not fixed by some law, and 
 some IUREPEALABLE law, beyond the power of the action of this government." 
 
 What irrcpcalablc law, or what law of any kind, fixed the 
 character of Nebraska as free or slave territory, except the Mis 
 souri compromise act ? 
 
 And now hear what Daniel Webster said when vindicating 
 the compromise of 1850, at Buffalo, in 1851: 
 
 "My opinion remains unchanged, that it was not within the original 
 scope or design of the constitution to admit new states out of foreign terri 
 tory; and for one, whatever may be said at the Syracuse convention or any 
 other assemblage of insane persons, I never would consent, and ne>jer have 
 consented, that there should be one foot of slave territory beyond what the 
 old thirteen states had at the time of the formation of the Union! Never! 
 Never ! 
 
 "The man can not show his face to me and say he can prove that I ever 
 departed from that doctrine. He would sneak away, and slink away, or 
 hire a mercenary press to cry out, What an apostate from liberty Daniel 
 AWbster has become! But lie knows himself to be a hypocrite and a falsi 
 fier." 
 
 That compromise was forced upon the slaveholding states and 
 upon the non-slaveholding states as a mutual exchange of equiv 
 alents. The equivalents were accurately defined, and carefully 
 scrutinized and weighed by the respective parties, through a 
 period of eight months. The equivalents offered to the non- 
 slaveholding states were : 1st, the admission of California ; 2d, 
 the abolition of the public slave-trade in the District of Colum 
 bia. These, and these only, were the boons offered to them, 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 369 
 
 and the only sacrifices which the slaveholding states were re 
 quired to make. The waiver of the Wilmot proviso in the 
 incorporation of New Mexico and Utah, and a new fugitive slave 
 law, were the only boons proposed to the slaveholding states, 
 and the only sacrifices exacted of the non-slaveholding states. 
 No other questions between them were agitated, except those 
 which were involved in the gain or loss of more or less of free 
 territory or of slave territory in the determination of the bound 
 ary between Texas and New Mexico, by a line that was at 
 last arbitrarily made, expressly saving, even in those territories, 
 to the respective parties, their respective shares of free soil and 
 slave soil, according to the articles of annexation of the republic 
 of Texas. Again : There were alleged to be five open, bleed 
 ing wounds in the federal system, and no more, which needed 
 surgery, and to which the compromise of 1850 was to be a cata 
 plasm. We all know what they were : California without a 
 constitution ; New Mexico in the grasp of military power ; Utah 
 neglected ; the District of Columbia dishonored ; and the rendi 
 tion of fugitives denied. Nebraska was not even thought of in 
 this catalogue of national ills. And now, sir, did the Nashville 
 convention of secessionists understand that, besides the enumera 
 ted boons offered to the slaveholding states, they were to have also 
 the obliteration of the Missouri compromise line of 1820 ? If they 
 did, why did they reject and scorn and scout at the compromise 
 of 1850 ? Did the legislatures and public assemblies of the non- 
 slaveholding states, who made your table groan with their re 
 monstrances, understand that Nebraska was an additional wound 
 to be healed by the compromise of 1850 1 If they did, why did 
 they omit to remonstrate against the healing of that, too, as well 
 as of the other five, by the cataplasm, the application of which 
 they resisted so long ? 
 
 Again : Had it been then known that the Missouri compromise 
 was to be abolished, directly or indirectly, by the compromise of 
 1850, what representative from a non-slaveholding state would, 
 at that day, have voted for it ? Not one. What senator from a 
 slaveholding state would not have voted for it ? Not one. So 
 entirely was it then unthought of that the new compromise was 
 to repeal the Missouri compromise line of 36 30 / in the region 
 acquired from France, that one half of that long debate was 
 
 16* 
 
370 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 spent on propositions made by representatives from slaveholding 
 states, to extend the line further on through the new territory 
 we had acquired so recently from Mexico, until it should disap 
 pear in the waves of the Pacific ocean, so as to secure actual 
 toleration of slavery in all of this new territory that should be 
 south of that line ; and these propositions were resisted strenu 
 ously and successfully to the last by the representatives of the 
 non-slaveholding states, in order, if it were possible, to save the 
 whole of those regions for the theatre of free labor. 
 
 I admit that these are only negative proofs, although they are 
 pregnant with conviction. But here is one which is not only 
 affirmative, but positive, and not more positive than conclu 
 sive : 
 
 In the fifth section of the Texas boundary bill, one of the 
 acts constituting the compromise of 1850, are these words : 
 
 " Provided^ That nothing herein contained shall be construed to impair 
 or qualify anything contained in the third article of the second section of 
 the joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, approved 
 March 1, 1845, either as regards the number of states that may hereafter be 
 formed out of the state of Texas, or otherwise." 
 
 What was that third article of the second section of the joint 
 resolution for annexing Texas 1 Here it is : 
 
 "New states, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition 
 to said state of Texas, 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 known 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." 
 
 This article saved the compromise of 1820, in express terms, 
 overcoming any implication of its abrogation, which might, by 
 accident or otherwise, have crept into the compromise of 1850 ; 
 and any inferences to that effect, that might be drawn from any 
 such circumstance as that of drawing the boundary line of Utah 
 so as to trespass on the territory of Nebraska, dwelt upon by the 
 senator from Illinois. 
 
 The proposition to abrogate the Missouri compromise, being 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 371 
 
 tlius stripped of the pretence that it is only a reiteration or a re- 
 affirmation of a similar abrogation in the compromise of 1850, or 
 a necessary consequence of that measure, stands before us now 
 upon its own merits, whatever they may be. 
 
 But here the senator from Illinois challenges the assailants of 
 these bills, on the ground that they all were opponents of the 
 compromise of 1850, and even of that of 1820. Sir, it is not my 
 purpose to answer in person to this challenge. The necessity, 
 reasonableness, justice, and wisdom of those compromises, are 
 not in question here now. My own opinions on them were, at a 
 proper time, fully made known. I abide the judgment of my 
 country and mankind upon them. For the present, I meet the 
 committee who have brought this measure forward, on the field 
 they themselves have chosen, and the controversy is reduced to 
 two questions : 1st. Whether, by letter or spirit, the compromise 
 of 1850 abrogated or involved a future abrogation of the com 
 promise of 1820 1 2d. Whether this abrogation can now be 
 made consistently with honor, justice, and good faith ? As to 
 my right, or that of any other senator, to enter these lists, the 
 credentials filed in the secretary s office settle that question. 
 Mine bear a seal, as broad and as firmly fixed there as any 
 other, by a people as wise, as free, and as great, as any one of 
 all the thirty-one republics represented here. 
 
 But I will take leave to say, that an argument merely 
 ad personam, seldom amounts to anything more than an argu 
 ment ad captanilam. A life of approval of compromises, and of 
 devotion to them, only enhances the obligation faithfully to fulfil 
 them. A life of disapprobation of the policy of compromises 
 only renders one more earnest in exacting fulfilment of them, 
 when good and cherished interests are secured by them. 
 
 Thus much for the report and the bills of the committee, and 
 for the positions of the parties in this debate. A measure so 
 bold, so unlooked-for, so startling, and yet so pregnant as this, 
 should have some plea of necessity. Is there any such neces 
 sity 1 On the contrary, it is not necessary now, even if it be 
 altogether wise, to establish territorial governments in Nebraska. 
 Not less than eighteen tribes of Indians occupy that vast tract, 
 fourteen of which, I am informed, have been removed there by 
 our own act, and invested with a fro simple to enjoy a secure 
 
372 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 and perpetual home, safe from the intrusion and the annoyance, 
 and even from the presence f the white man, and under the 
 paternal care of the government, and with the instruction of its 
 teachers and mechanics, to acquire the arts of civilization and 
 the habits of social life. I will not say that this was done to 
 prevent that territory, because denied to slavery, from being 
 occupied by free white men, and cultivated with free white 
 labor ; but I will say, that this removal of the Indians there, 
 under such guaranties, has had that effect. The territory can 
 not be occupied now, any more than heretofore, by savages and 
 white men, with or without slaves, together. Our experience 
 and our Indian policy alike remove all dispute from this point. 
 Either these preserved ranges must still remain to the Indians 
 hereafter, or the Indians, whatever temporary resistance against 
 removal they may make, must retire. 
 
 Where shall they go 1 Will you bring them back again 
 across the Mississippi ? There is no room for Indians here. 
 Will you send them northward, beyond your territory of Ne 
 braska, toward the British border? That is already occupied 
 by Indians ; there is no room there. Will you turn them loose 
 upon Texas and New Mexico ? There is no room there. 
 
 Will you drive them over the Rocky mountains 1 They -will 
 meet a tide of immigration there, flowing into California from 
 Europe and from Asia. Whither, then, shall they, the dispos 
 sessed, unpitied heirs of this vast continent, go 1 The answer 
 is, nowhere. If they remain in Nebraska, of what use are 
 your charters? Of what harm is the Missouri compromise in 
 Nebraska, in that case ? Whom doth it oppress ? No one. 
 
 Who, indeed, demands territorial organization in Nebraska at 
 all. The Indians ? No. It is to them the consummation of a 
 long-apprehended doom. Practically, no one demands it. I 
 am told that the whole white population, scattered here and 
 there throughout those broad regions, exceeding in extent the 
 whole of the inhabited part of the United States at the time of 
 the Revolution, is less than fifteen hundred, and that these are 
 chiefly trappers, missionaries, and a few mechanics and agents 
 employed by the government, in connection with the adminis 
 tration of Indian affairs, and other persons temporarily drawn 
 around the post of Fort Leavenworth. It is clear, then, that 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 373 
 
 this abrogation of the Missouri compromise is not necessary for 
 the purpose of establishing territorial governments in Nebraska, 
 but that, on the contrary, these bills, establishing such govern 
 ments, are only a vehicle for carrying, or a pretext for carrying, 
 that act of abrogation. 
 
 It is alleged that the non-slaveholding states have forfeited 
 their rights in Nebraska, under the Missouri compromise, by first 
 breaking that compromise themselves. The argument is, that the 
 Missouri compromise line of 36 30 , in the region acquired from 
 France, although confined to that region which was our western 
 most possession, was, nevertheless, understood as intended to be 
 prospectively applied also to the territory reaching thence west 
 ward to the Pacific ocean, which we should afterward acquire 
 from Mexico ; and that when afterward, having acquired these 
 territories, including California, New Mexico, and Utah, we were 
 engaged in 1848 in extending governments over them, the free 
 states refused to extend that line, on a proposition to that effect 
 made by the honorable senator from Illinois. 
 
 It need only be stated, in refutation of this argument, that 
 the Missouri compromise law, like any other statute, was limited 
 by the extent of the subject of which it treated. This subject 
 was the territory of Louisiana, acquired from France, whether 
 the same were more or less, then in our lawful and peaceful 
 possession. The length of the line of 36 30 established by 
 the Missouri compromise, was the distance between the parallels 
 of longitude which were the borders of that possession. Young 
 America I mean aggrandizing, conquering America had not 
 yet been born ; nor was the statesman then in being who dreamed 
 that, within thirty years afterward, we should have pushed our 
 adventurous way, not only across the Rocky mountains, but 
 also across the Snowy mountains. Nor did any one then imagine, 
 that, even if we should have done so within the period I have 
 named, we were then prospectively carving up and dividing, not 
 only the mountain-passes, but the Mexican empire on the Pacific 
 coast, between Freedom and Slavery. If such a proposition 
 had been made then, and persisted in, we know enough of the 
 temper of 1820 to know this, viz. : that Missouri and Arkansas 
 would have stood outside of the Union until even this porten 
 tous dav 
 
374 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 The time, for aught 1 know, may not be thirty years distant, 
 when the convulsions of the Celestial empire and the decline of 
 British sway in India will have opened our way into the regions 
 beyond the Pacific ocean. I desire to know now, and be fully 
 certified, of the geographical extent of the laws we are now pass 
 ing, so that there may be no such mistake hereafter as that now 
 complained of here. We are now confiding to territorial legis 
 latures the power to legislate on slavery. Are the territories of 
 Nebraska and Kansas alone within the purview of these acts ] 
 Or do they reach to the Pacific coast, and embrace also Oregon 
 and Washington ? Do they stop there, or do they take in 
 China, and India, and Afghanistan, even to the gigantic base 
 of the Himalaya mountains ? Do they stop there, or, on the 
 contrary, do they encircle the earth, and, meeting us again on 
 the Atlantic coast, embrace the islands of Iceland and Green 
 land, and exhaust themselves on the barren coasts of Greenland 
 and Labrador ? 
 
 Sir, if the Missouri compromise neither is in its spirit nor by 
 its letter extended to the line of 36 30 beyond the confines of 
 Louisiana, or beyond the then confines of the United States 
 for the terms are equivalent then it was no violation of the 
 Missouri compromise in 1848 to refuse to extend it to the 
 subsequently-acquired possessions of Texas, New Mexico, and 
 California. 
 
 But suppose we did refuse to extend it ; how did that refusal 
 work a forfeiture of our vested rights under it ? I desire to 
 know that. 
 
 Again : If this forfeiture of Nebraska occurred in 1848, as 
 the senator charges, how does it happen that he not only failed 
 in 1850, when the parties were in court here, adjusting their 
 mutual claims, to demand judgment against the free states, but, 
 on the contrary, even urged that the same old Missouri compro 
 mise line, yet held valid and sacred, should be extended through 
 to the Pacific ocean ? 
 
 I come now to the chief ground of the defence of this extra 
 ordinary measure, which is, that it abolishes a geographical line 
 of division between the proper fields of free labor and slave labor, 
 and refers the claim between them to the people of the territories. 
 Even if this great change of policy was actually wise and neces- 
 
MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 375 
 
 saiy, I have shown that it is not necessary to make it now, in 
 regard to the territory of Nebraska. If it would be just else 
 where, it would be unjust in regard to Nebraska, simply because, 
 for ample and adequate equivalents, fully received, you have 
 contracted in effect not to abolish that line there. 
 
 But why is this change of policy wise or necessary ? It must 
 be because either that the extension of slavery is no evil, or 
 that you have not the power to prevent it at all, or because the 
 maintenance of a geographical line is no longer practicable. 
 
 I know that the opinion is sometimes advanced, here and 
 elsewhere, that the extension of slavery, abstractly considered, 
 is not an evil ; but our laws prohibiting the African slave-trade 
 are still standing on the statute-book, and express the contrary 
 judgment of the American Congress and of the American peo 
 ple. I pass on, therefore, from that point. 
 
 Sir, I do not like, more than others, a geographical line be 
 tween Freedom and Slavery. But it is because I would have, 
 if it were possible, all our territory free. Since that can not be, 
 a line of division is indispensable ; and any line is a geograph 
 ical line. 
 
 The honorable and very acute senator from North Carolina 
 [Mr. BADGER] has wooed us most persuasively to waive our objec 
 tions to the new principle, as it is called, of non-intervention, by 
 assuring us that the slaveholder can only use slave-labor where 
 the soils and climates favor the culture of tobacco, cotton, rice, 
 and sugar. To which I reply : None of these find congenial 
 soils or climates at the sources of the Mississippi, or in the val 
 ley of the Rocky mountains. Why, then, does he want to 
 remove the inhibition there 1 
 
 But again : That senator reproduces a pleasing fiction of the 
 character of slavery from the Jewish history, and asks, Why not 
 allow the modern patriarchs to go into new regions with their 
 slaves, as their ancient prototypes did, to make them more com 
 fortable and happy ? And he tells us, at the same time, that 
 this indulgence will not increase the number of slaves. I reply 
 by asking, first, Whether slavery has gained or lost strength by 
 the diffusion of it over a larger surface than it formerly covered l \ 
 Will the senator answer that ] Secondly, I admire the sim 
 plicity of the patriarchal times. But they, nevertheless, exhib- 
 
376 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 ited some peculiar institutions quite incongruous with modern 
 republicanism, not to say Christianity, namely, that of a latitude 
 of construction of the marriage contract, which has been carried 
 by one class of so-called patriarchs into Utah. Certainly, no one 
 would desire to extend that peculiar institution into Nebraska. 
 Thirdly, slaveholders have also a peculiar institution, which 
 makes them political patriarchs. They reckon five of their 
 slaves as equal to three freemen in forming the basis of federal 
 representation. If these patriarchs insist upon carrying their 
 institution into new regions, north of 36 30 , I respectfully 
 submit, that they ought to resume the modesty of their Jewish 
 predecessors, and relinquish this political feature of the system 
 they thus seek to extend. Will they do that ? 
 
 Some senators have revived the argument that the Missouri 
 compromise was unconstitutional. But it is one of the peculiari 
 ties of compromises, that constitutional objections, like all others, 
 are buried under them by those who make and ratify them, for 
 the obvious reason that the pal-ties at once waive them, and 
 receive equivalents. Certainly, the slaveholding states, which 
 waived their constitutional objections against the compromise of 
 1820, and accepted equivalents therefor, can not be allowed to 
 revive and offer them now as a reason for refusing to the non- 
 slaveholding states their rights under that compromise, without 
 first restoring the equivalents which they received on condition 
 of surrendering their constitutional objections. 
 
 For argument s sake, however, let this reply be waived, and 
 let us look at this constitutional objection. You say that the 
 exclusion of slavery by the Missouri compromise reaches through 
 and beyond the existence of the region organized as a territory, 
 and prohibits slavery FOR EVER even in the states to be organ 
 ized out of such territory, while, on the contrary, the states, when 
 admitted, will be sovereign, and must have exclusive jurisdiction 
 over slavery for themselves. Let this, too, be granted. But 
 Congress, acording to the constitution, " may admit new states." 
 If Congress may admit, then Congress may also refuse to ad 
 mit that is to say, may reject new states. The greater includes 
 the less ; therefore, Congress may admit, on condition that the 
 states shall exclude slavery. If such a condition should be 
 accepted, would it not be binding 1 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 377 
 
 It is by no means necessary, on tins occasion, to follow the 
 argument further, to the question, whether such a condition is in 
 conflict with the constitutional provision, that the neAv states re 
 ceived shall he admitted on an equal footing with the original 
 states, because, in this case, and at present, the question relates 
 not to the admission of a State, but to the organization of a ter 
 ritory, and the exclusion of slavery within the territory while its 
 status as a territory shall continue, and no further. Congress 
 have power to exclude slavery in territories, if they have any 
 power to create, control, or govern territories at all, for this sim 
 ple reason : that find the authority of Congress over the territo 
 ries wherever you may, there you find no exception from that 
 general authority in favor of slavery. If Congress has no au 
 thority over slavery in the territories, it has none in the District 
 of Columbia. If, then, you abolish a law of Freedom in Nebras 
 ka, in order to establish a new policy of abnegation, then true 
 consistency requires that you shall also abolish the slavery laws 
 in the District of Columbia, and submit the question of the toler 
 ation of slavery within the district to its inhabitants. 
 
 If you reply, that the District of Columbia has no local or ter 
 ritorial legislature, then I rejoin, so also has not Nebraska, and 
 so also has not Kansas. You are calling a territorial legislature 
 into existence in Nebraska, and another in Kansas, to assume 
 the jurisdiction on the subject of slavery, which you renounce. 
 Then consistency demands that you call into existence a territo 
 rial legislature in the District of Columbia, to assume the juris 
 diction here, which you must also renounce. Will you do this 1 
 We shall see. 
 
 To come closer to the question : What is this principle of ab 
 negating national authority, on the subject of slavery, in favor 
 of the people 1 Do you abnegate all authority, whatever, in 
 the territories ? Not at all ; you abnegate only authority over 
 slavery there. Do you abnegate even that ? No ; you do not 
 and you can not. In the very act of abnegating you legislate, 
 and enact that the states to be hereafter organized shall come 
 in whether slave or free, as their inhabitants shall choose. Is 
 not this legislating not only on the subject of slavery in the 
 territories, but on the subject of slavery in the future states ? 
 In the very act of abnegating, you call into being a legislature 
 
378 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 which shall assume the authority which you are renouncing. 
 You not only exercise authority in that act, but you exercise 
 authority over slavery, when you confer on the territorial 
 legislature the power to act upon that subject. More than 
 this : In the very act of calling that territorial legislature into 
 existence, you exercise authority in prescribing who may 
 elect and who may be elected. You even reserve to yourselves 
 a veto upon every act that they can pass as a legislative body, 
 not only on all other subjects, but even on the subject of slavery 
 itself. Nor can you relinquish that veto ; for it is absurd to say 
 that you can create an agent, and depute to him the legislative 
 authority of the United States, which agent you can not at your 
 own pleasure remove, and whose acts you can not at your own 
 pleasure disavow and repudiate. The territorial legislature is 
 your agent. Its acts are your own. Such is the principle that 
 is to supplant the ancient policy a principle full of absurdities 
 and contradictions. 
 
 Again : You claim that this policy of abnegation is based upon 
 a democratic principle. A democratic principle is a principle 
 opposed to some other that is despotic or aristocratic. You claim 
 and exercise the, power to institute and maintain government in 
 the territories. Is this comprehensive power aristocratic or 
 despotic 1 If it be not, how is the partial power aristocratic or 
 despotic ? You retain authority to appoint governors, without 
 whose consent no laws can be made on any subject, and judges, 
 without whose consideration no laws can be executed, and you 
 retain the power to change them at pleasure. Are these pow 
 ers, also, aristocratic or despotic ? If they are not, then the 
 exercise of legislative power by yourselves is not. If they are, 
 then why not renounce them also ? No, no. This is a far-fetched 
 excuse. Democracy is a simple, uniform, logical system, not a 
 system of arbitrary, contradictory, and conflicting principles ! 
 
 But you must nevertheless renounce national authority over sla 
 very in the territories, while you retain all other powers. What 
 is this but a mere evasion of solemn responsibilities ? The gen 
 eral authority of Congress over the territories is one wisely con 
 fided to the national legislature, to save young and growing 
 communities from the dangers which beset them in their state 
 of pupilage, and to prevent them from adopting any policy that 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 379 
 
 shall be at war with their own lasting interests, or with the gen 
 eral welfare of the whole republic. The authority over the sub 
 ject of slavery is that which ought to be renounced last of all, 
 in favor of territorial legislatures, because, from the very circum 
 stances of the territories, those legislatures are likely to yield 
 too readily to ephemeral influences, and interested offers of fa 
 vor and patronage. They see neither the great Future of the 
 territories, nor the comprehensive and ultimate interests of the 
 whole republic, as clearly as you see them, or ought to see them. 
 I have heard sectional excuses given for supporting this 
 measure. I have heard senators from the slaveholding states 
 say that they ought not to be expected to stand by the non- 
 slaveholding states, when they refuse to stand by themselves ; 
 that they ought not to be expected to refuse the boon offered to 
 the slaveholding states, since it is offered by the non-slavehold- 
 ing states themselves. I not only confess the plausibility of 
 these excuses, but I feel the justice of the reproach which they 
 imply against the non-slaveholding states, as far as the assump 
 tion is true. Nevertheless, senators from the slaveholding states 
 must consider well whether that assumption is, in any consider 
 able degree, founded in fact. If one or more senators from the 
 North decline to stand by the non-slaveholding states, or offer a 
 boon in their name, others from that region do, nevertheless, 
 stand firmly on their rights, and protest against the giving or 
 the acceptance of the boon. It has been said that the North 
 does not speak out, so as to enable you to decide between the 
 conflicting voices of her representatives. Are you quite sure 
 you have given her timely notice ? Have you not, on the con 
 trary, hurried this measure forward, to anticipate her awaking 
 from the slumber of conscious security into which she has been 
 lulled by your last compromise ! Have you not heard already 
 the quick, sharp protest of the legislature of the smallest of the 
 non-slaveholding states, Rhode Island ? Have you not already 
 heard the deep-toned and earnest protest of the greatest of those 
 states, New York ? Have you not already heard remonstrances 
 from the metropolis, and from the rural districts ? Do you 
 doubt that this is only the rising of the agitation that you profess 
 to believe is at rest for ever ? Do you forget that, in all such 
 transactions as these, the people have a reserved right to re- 
 
380 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 view the acts of their representatives, and a right to demand a 
 reconsideration ; that there is in our legislative practice a form 
 of RE-ENACTMENT, as well as an act of repeal; and that there is 
 in our political system provision not only for abrogation, but for 
 RESTORATION also ? And when the process of repeal has begun, 
 how many and what laws will be open to repeal, equally with 
 the Missourri Compromise ? There will be this act, the fugitive 
 slave laws, the articles of Texas annexation, tbe territorial laws 
 of New Mexico and Utah, the slavery laws in the District of 
 Columbia. 
 
 Senators from the slaveliolding states : You are politicians as 
 well as statesmen. Let me remind you, therefore, that political 
 movements in this country, as in all others, have their times of 
 action and reaction. The pendulum moved up the side of free 
 dom in 1840, and swung back again in 1844 on the side of 
 slavery, traversed the dial in 1848, and touched even the mark 
 of the Wilrnot, proviso, and returned again in 1852, reaching 
 even the height of the Baltimore platform. Judge for your 
 selves whether it is yet ascending, and whether it will attain the 
 height of the abrogation of the Missouri compromise. That is 
 the mark you $re fixing for it. For myself, I may claim to 
 know something of the North. I see in tbe changes of the 
 times only the vibrations of the needle, trembling on its pivot. 
 I know that in due time it will settle ; and when it shall have 
 settled, it will point, as it must point for ever, to the same con 
 stant polar star, that sheds down influences propitious to freedom 
 as broadly as it pours forth its mellow but invigorating light. 
 
 Mr. President, I have nothing to do, here or elsewhere, with 
 personal or party motives. But I come to consider the motive 
 which is publicly assigned for this transaction. It is a desire to 
 secure permanent peace and harmony on the subject of slavery, 
 by removing all occasion for its future agitation in the federal 
 legislature. Was there not peace already here 1 Was there 
 not harmony as perfect as is ever possible in the country, when 
 this measure was moved in the senate a month ago ? Were we 
 not, and was not the whole nation, grappling with that one 
 great, common, universal interest, the opening of a communica 
 tion between our ocean frontiers, and were we not already reck 
 oning upon the quick and busy subjugation of nature throughout 
 
MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 381 
 
 the interior of the continent to the uses of man, and dwelling 
 with almost rapturous enthusiasm on the prospective enlarge 
 ment of our commerce in the East, and of our political sway 
 throughout the world 1 And what have we now here but the 
 oblivion of death, covering the very memory of those great 
 enterprises, and prospects, and hopes 1 
 
 Senators from the non-slaveholding states : You-want peace. 
 Think well, I beseech you, before you yield the price now 
 demanded, even for peace and rest from slavery agitation. 
 France has got peace from republican agitation by a similar 
 sacrifice. So has Poland so has Hungary ; and so, at last, has 
 Ireland. Is the peace which either of those nations enjoys 
 worth the price it cost ? Is peace, obtained at such cost, ever 
 a lasting peace ? 
 
 Senators from the slaveholding states : You, too, suppose that 
 you are securing peace as well as victory in this transaction. I 
 tell you now, as I told you in 1850, that it is an error, an unne 
 cessary error, to suppose, that because you exclude slavery from 
 these halls to-day, that it will not revisit them to-morrow. You 
 buried the Wilmot proviso here then, and celebrated its obse 
 quies with pomp and revelry. And here it is again to-day, 
 stalking through these halls, clad in complete steel as before. 
 Even if those whom you denounce as factionists in the North 
 would let it rest, you yourselves must evoke it from its grave. 
 The reason is obvious. Say what you will, do what you will, 
 here, the interests of the non-slaveholding states and of the 
 slaveholding states remain just the same ; and they will remain 
 just the same, until you shall cease to cherish and defend 
 slavery, or we shall cease to honor and love freedom ! You will 
 not cease to cherish slavery. Do you see any signs that we are 
 becoming indifferent to freedom? On the contrary, that old, 
 traditional, hereditary sentiment of the North is more profound 
 and more universal now than it ever was before. The slavery 
 agitation you deprecate so much is an eternal struggle between 
 Conservatism and Progress, between Truth and Error, between 
 Right and Wrong. You may sooner, by act of Congress, com 
 pel the sea to suppress its upheavings, and the round earth to 
 extinguish its internal fires, than oblige the human mind to cease 
 its inquirings, and the human heart to desist from its throbbings. 
 
382 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 Suppose then, for a moment, that this agitation must go on 
 hereafter as heretofore. Then, hereafter as heretofore, there 
 will be need, on both sides, of moderation ; and, to secure mod 
 eration, there will bo need of mediation. Hitherto you have 
 secured moderation by means of compromises, by tendering 
 which, the great mediator, now no more, divided the people of 
 the North. But then those in the North who did not sympa 
 thize with you in your complaints of aggression from that quar 
 ter, as well as those who did, agreed that if compromises should 
 be effected, they would be chivalrously kept on your part. I 
 cheerfully admit that they have been so kept until now. But 
 hereafter, when having taken advantage, which in the North 
 will be called fraudulent, of the last of those compromises, to 
 become, as you will be called, the aggressors, by breaking the 
 other, as will be alleged, in violation of plighted faith and 
 honor, while the slavery agitation is rising higher than ever be 
 fore, and while your ancient friends, and those whom you persist 
 in regarding as your enemies, shall have been driven together 
 by a common and universal sense of your injustice, what new 
 mode of restoring peace and harmony will you then propose ? 
 What statesman will there be in the South, then, who can bear 
 the flag of truce 1 What statesman in the North who can 
 mediate the acceptance of your new proposals 1 I think it will 
 not be the senator from Illinois. 
 
 If, however, I err in all this, let us suppose that you succeed 
 in suppressing political agitation of slavery in national affairs. 
 Nevertheless, agitation of slavery must go on in some form ; for 
 all the world around you is engaged in it. It is, then, high time 
 for you to consider where you may expect to meet it next. I 
 much mistake if, in that case, you do not meet it there where 
 we, who once were slaveholding states, as you now are, have 
 met, and, happily for us, succumbed before it namely, in the 
 legislative halls, in the churches and schools, and at the fireside, 
 within the states themselves. It is an angel of mercy with 
 which, sooner or later, every slaveholding state must wrestle, 
 and by which it must be overcome. Even if, by reason of this 
 measure, it should the sooner come to that point, and although 
 I am sure that you will not overcome freedom, but that freedom 
 will overcome yon, yet I do not look even then for disastrous or 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 383 
 
 unhappy results. The institutions of our country are so^ramed, 
 that the inevitable conflict of opinion on slavery, as on every 
 other subject, can not be otherwise than peaceful in its course 
 and beneficent in its termination. 
 
 Nor shall I " bate one jot of heart or hope," in maintaining a 
 just equilibrium of the non-slaveholding states, even if this ill- 
 starred measure shall be adopted. The non-slaveholding states 
 are teeming with an increase of freemen educated, vigorous, 
 enlightened, enterprising freemen such freemen as neither Eng 
 land, nor Rome, nor even Athens, ever reared. Half a million 
 of freemen from Europe annually augment that increase ; and 
 ten years hence half a million, twenty years hence a million, of 
 freemen from Asia will augment it still more. You may ob 
 struct, and so turn the direction of those peaceful armies away 
 from Nebraska. So long as you shall leave them room on hill 
 or prairie, by river-side or in the mountain-fastnesses, they will 
 dispose of themselves peacefully and lawfully in the places you 
 shall have left open to them ; and there they will erect new 
 states upon free soil, to be for ever maintained and defended by 
 free arms, and aggrandized by free labor. American slavery, I 
 know, has a large and ever-flowing spring, but it can not pour 
 forth its blackened tide in volumes like that I have described. 
 If you are wise, these tides of freemen and of slaves will never 
 meet, for they will not voluntarily commingle ; but if, neverthe 
 less, through your own erroneous policy, their repulsive currents 
 must be directed against each other, so that they needs must meet, 
 then it is easy to see, in that case, which of them will overcome 
 the resistance of the other, and which of them, thus overpow 
 ered, will roll back to drown the source which sent it forth. 
 
 " Man proposes, and God disposes." You may legislate, and 
 abrogate, and abnegate, as you will ; but there is a Superior 
 Power that overrules all your actions, and all your refusals to 
 act; and, I fondly hope and trust, overrules them to the ad 
 vancement of the happiness, greatness, and glory of our coun 
 try that overrules, I know, not only all your actions, and all 
 your refusals to act, but all human events, to the distant but 
 inevitable result of the equal and universal liberty of all men. 
 
384 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 
 
 SECOND SPEECH. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : I rise with no purpose of further resisting 
 or even delaying the passage of this bill. Let its advocates 
 have only a little patience, and they will soon reach the object 
 for which they have struggled so earnestly and so long. The 
 sun has set for the last time upon the guarantied and certain 
 liberties of all the unsettled and unorganized portions of the 
 American continent that lie within the jurisdiction of the United 
 States. To-morrow s sun will rise in dim eclipse over them.* 
 How long that obscuration shall last, is known only to the Power 
 that directs and controls all human events. For myself, I know 
 only this that now no human power will prevent its coming 
 on, and that its passing off will be hastened and secured by 
 others than those now here, and perhaps by only those belong 
 ing to future generations. 
 
 Sir, it would be almost factious to offer further resistance to 
 this measure here. Indeed, successful resistance was never ex 
 pected to be made in this hall. The senate floor is an old bat 
 tle-ground, on which have been fought many contests, and 
 always, at least since 1820, with fortune adverse to the cause 
 of equal and universal freedom. We were only a few here who 
 engaged in that cause in the beginning of this contest. All that 
 we could hope to do all that we did hope to do was to or 
 ganize and to prepare the issue for the house of representatives, 
 to which the country would look for its decision as authoritative, 
 and to awaken the country that it might be ready for the appeal 
 which would be made, whatever the decision of Congress might 
 be. We are no stronger now. Only fourteen at the first, it 
 
 * It will be remembered that an almost total eclipse of the sun actually 
 ccourred on that day the 26th of May, 1854. ED. 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 385 
 
 will be fortunate if, among the ills and accidents which surround 
 us, we shall maintain that number to the end. 
 
 AY e arc on the eve of the consummation of a great national 
 transaction a transaction which will close a cycle in the history 
 of our country and it is impossible not to desire to pause a 
 moment and survey the scene around us and the prospect be 
 fore us. However obscure we may individually be, our connec 
 tion with this great transaction will perpetuate our names for 
 the praise or for the censure of future ages, and perhaps in re 
 gions far remote. If, then, we had no other motive for our ac 
 tions but that of an honest desire for a just fame, we could not 
 be indifferent to that scene and that prospect. But individual 
 interests and ambition sink into insignificance in view of the in 
 terests of our country and of mankind. These interests awaken, 
 at least in me, an intense solicitude. 
 
 It was said by some in the beginning, and it has been said by 
 others later in this debate, that it was doubtful whether it would 
 be the cause of slavery or the cause of freedom that would gain 
 advantages from the passage of this bill. I do not find it neces 
 sary to be censorious, nor even unjust to others, in order that 
 my own course may be approved. I am sure that the honora 
 ble senator from Illinois [Mr. DOUGLAS] did not mean that the 
 slave states should gain an advantage over the free states, for 
 he disclaimed it when he introduced the bill. I believe, in all 
 candor, that the honorable senator from Georgia [Mr. TOOMBS], 
 who comes out at the close of the battle as one of the chiefest 
 lenders of the victorious party, is sincere in declaring his own 
 opinion that the slave states will gain no unjust advantage over 
 the free states, because he disclaims it as a triumph in their be 
 half. Notwithstanding all this, however, what has occurred 
 here and in the country, during this contest, has compelled a 
 conviction that slavery will gain something, and freedom will 
 endure a severe, though I hope not an irretrievable loss. The 
 slaveholding states are passive, quiet, content, and satisfied witli 
 the prospective boon, and the free states are excited and alarmed 
 with fearful forebodings and apprehensions. The impatience 
 for the speedy passage of the bill manifested by its friends be 
 trays a knowledge that this is the condition of public sentiment 
 in the free states. They thought in the beginning that it was 
 
 17 
 
886 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 necessary to guard the measure by inserting the Clayton amend 
 ment, which would exclude unnaturalized foreign inhabitants of 
 the territories from the right of suffrage. And now they seem 
 willing, with almost perfect unanimity, to relinquish that safe 
 guard, rather than to delay the adoption of the principal meas 
 ure for at most a year, perhaps for only a week or a day. Sup 
 pose that the senate should adhere to that condition, which so 
 lately was thought so wise and so important what then ? The 
 bill could only go back to the house of representatives, which 
 must either yield or insist ! In the one case or in the other, a 
 decision in favor of the bill would be secured, for even if the 
 house should disagree, the senate would have time to recede. 
 But the majority will hazard nothing, even on a prospect so cer 
 tain as this. They will recede at once, without a moment s fur 
 ther struggle, from the condition, and thus secure the passage 
 of this bill, now to-night. Why such haste 1 Even if the question 
 were to go to the country before a final decision here, what 
 would there be wrong in that? There is no man living who 
 will sfiy that the country anticipated, or that lie anticipated, agi 
 tation of this measure in Congress, when this Congress was 
 elected, or even when it assembled in December last. 
 
 Under such circumstances, and in the midst of agitation, and 
 excitement, and debates, it is only fair to say that certainly the 
 country has not decided in favor of the bill. The refusal, then, 
 to let the question go to the country, is a conclusive proof that 
 the slave states, as represented here, expect from the passage 
 of this bill what the free states insist that they will lose by it, 
 an advantage, a material advantage, and not a mere abstraction. 
 There are men in the slave states, as in the free states, who in 
 sist always too pertinaciously upon mere abstractions. But that 
 is not the policy of the slave states to-day. They are in earnest 
 in seeking for and securing an object, and an important one. I 
 believe they are going to have it. I do not know how long the 
 advantage gained will last, nor how great or comprehensive it 
 will be. Every senator who agrees with me in opinion must 
 feel as I do that under such circumstances he can forego noth 
 ing that can be done decently, with clue respect to difference of 
 opinion, and consistently with the constitutional and settled rules 
 of legislation, to place the true merits of the question before the 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 387 
 
 country. Questions sometimes occur, which seem to have two 
 right sides. Such were the questions that divided the English 
 nation between Pitt and Fox such the contest between the 
 assailant and the defender of Quebec. The judgment of the 
 world was suspended by its sympathies, and seemed ready to 
 descend in favor of him who should be most gallant in conduct. 
 And so, when both fell with equal chivalry on the same field, 
 the survivors united in raising a common monument to the glori 
 ous but rival memories of Wolfe and Montcalm. But this con 
 test involves a moral question. The slave states so present it. 
 They maintain that African slavery is not erroneous, not unjust, 
 not inconsistent with the advancing cause of human nature. 
 Since they so regard it, I do not expect to see statesmen repre 
 senting those states indifferent about a vindication of this system 
 by the Congress of the United States. On the other hand, we 
 of the free states regard slavery as erroneous, unjust, oppressive, 
 and therefore absolutely inconsistent with the principles of the 
 American constitution and government. Who will expect us to 
 be indifferent to the decisions of the American people and of 
 mankind on such an issue "? 
 
 Again : there is suspended on the issue of this contest the po 
 litical equilibrium between the free and the slave states. It is 
 no ephemeral question, no idle question, whether slavery shall 
 go on increasing its influence over the central power here, or 
 whether freedom shall gain the ascendency. I do not expect to see 
 statesmen of the slave states indifferent on so momentous a question, 
 and as little can it be expected that those of the free states will 
 betray their own great cause. And now it remains for me to 
 declare, in view of the decision of this controversy so near at 
 hand, that I have seen nothing and heard nothing during its 
 progress to change the opinions which at the earliest proper 
 period I deliberately expressed. Certainly, I have not seen 
 the evidence then promised, that the free states would acquiesce 
 in the measure. As certainly, too, I may say that I have not 
 seen the fulfilment of the promise that the history of the last 
 thirty years would be revised, corrected, and amended, and that 
 it would then appear that the country, during all that period, 
 had been resting in prosperity and contentment and peace, not 
 upon a valid, constitutional, and irrevocable compromise be- 
 
388 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 tween the slave states and the 4 free states, but upon an uncon 
 stitutional and false, and even infamous, act of congressional 
 usurpation. 
 
 On the contrary, I am now, if possible, more than ever satis- 
 lied that, after all this debate, the history of the country will go 
 down to posterity just as it stood before, carrying to them the 
 everlasting facts that until 1820 the Congress of the United 
 States legislated to prevent the introduction of slavery into new 
 territories whenever that object was practicable ; and that in 
 that year they so far modified that policy, under alarming ap 
 prehensions of civil convulsion, by a constitutional enactment in 
 the character of a compact, as to admit Missouri a new slave 
 state ; but upon the express condition, stipulated in favor of the 
 free states, that slavery should be for ever prohibited in all the 
 residue of the existing and unorganized territory of the United 
 States lying north of the parallel of 36 30 X north latitude. Cer 
 tainly, I find nothing to win my favor toward the bill in the 
 proposition of the senator from Maryland [Mr. PEARCE], to re 
 store the Clayton amendment, which was struck out in the house 
 of representatives. So far from voting for that proposition, I 
 shall vote against it now, as I did when it was under considera 
 tion here before, in accordance with the opinion adopted as early 
 as any political opinions I ever had, and cherished as long, that 
 the right of suffrage is not a mere conventional right, but an in 
 herent natural right, of which no government can rightly de 
 prive any adult man who is subject to its authority, and obligated 
 to its support. 
 
 I hold, moreover, sir, that inasmuch as every man is, by force 
 of circumstances beyond his own control, a subject of govern 
 ment somewhere, he is, by the very constitution of human soci 
 ety, entitled to share equally in the conferring of political power 
 on those who wield it, if he is not disqualified by crime ; that in 
 a despotic government he ought to be allowed arms, in a free 
 government the ballot or the open vote, as a means of self-pro 
 tection against unendurable oppression. I am not likely, there 
 fore, to restore to this bill an amendment which would deprive it 
 of an important feature imposed upon it by the house of repre 
 sentatives, and that one, perhaps, the only feature that harmo 
 nizes with my own convictions of justice. It is true that the 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 389 
 
 house of representatives stipulate such suffrages for white men 
 as a condition for opening it to the possible proscription and 
 slavery of the African. I shall separate them. I shall vote for 
 the former, and against the latter, glad to get universal suffrage 
 of white men, if only that can be gained now, and working right 
 on, full of hope and confidence, for the prevention or the abroga 
 tion of slavery in the territories hereafter. 
 
 Sir, I am surprised at the pertinacity with which the honora 
 ble senator from Delaware, mine ancient and honorable friend 
 [Mr. CLAYTON], perseveres in opposing the granting of the right 
 6f suffrage to the unnaturalized foreigner in the territories. Con 
 gress can not deny him that right. Here is the third article 
 of that convention by which Louisiana, including Kansas and 
 Nebraska, was ceded to the United States : 
 
 "The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union 
 of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the 
 principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of the rights, privi 
 leges, and immunities, of citizens of the United States; and in the mean 
 time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their 
 liberty, property, and the religion they profess." 
 
 The inhabitants of Kansas and Nebraska are citizens already, 
 and by force of this treaty must continue to be, and as such to 
 enjoy the right of suffrage, whatever laws you may make to the 
 contrary. My opinions are well known, to wit : That slavery 
 is not only an evil, but a local one, injurious and ultimately per 
 nicious to society, wherever it exists, and in conflict with the 
 constitutional principles of society in this country. I am not 
 willing to extend nor to permit the extension of that local evil 
 into regions now free within our empire. I know that there 
 are some who differ from me, and who regard the constitution 
 of the United States as an instrument which sanctions slavery 
 as well as freedom. But if I could admit a proposition so incon 
 gruous with the letter and spirit of the Federal Constitution, and 
 the known sentiments of its illustrious founders, and so should 
 conclude that slavery was national, I must still cherish the opin 
 ion that it is an evil ; and because it is a national one, I am the 
 more firmly held and bound to prevent an increase of it, tending, 
 as I think it manifestly does, to the weakening and ultimate 
 overthrow of the constitution itself, and therefore to the injury 
 
390 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 of all mankind. I know there have been states which have en 
 dured long, and achieved much, which tolerated slavery ; but 
 that was not the slavery of caste, like African slavery. Such 
 slavery tends to demoralize equally the subjected race and the 
 superior one. It has been the absence of such slavery from Europe 
 that has given her nations their superiority over other countries in 
 that hemisphere. Slavery, wherever it exists, begets fear, and 
 fear is the parent of weakness. What is the secret of that eternal, 
 sleepless anxiety in the legislative halls, and even at the firesides, 
 of the slave states, always asking new stipulations, new compro 
 mises and abrogations of compromises, new assumptions of power 
 and abnegations of power, but fear 1 It is the apprehension that, 
 even if safe now, they will not always or long be secure against 
 some invasion or some aggression from the free states. What 
 is the secret of the humiliating part which proud old Spain is 
 acting at this day, trembling between alarms of American intru 
 sion into Cuba on one side, and British dictation on the other, 
 but the fact that she has cherished slavery so long, and still 
 cherishes it, in the last of her American colonial possessions ? 
 Thus far, Kansas and Nebraska are safe, under the laws of 1820, 
 against the introduction of this element of national debility and 
 decline. The bill before us, as we are assured, contains a great 
 principle, a glorious principle; and yet that principle, when 
 fully ascertained, proves to be nothing less than the subversion 
 of that security, not only within the territories of Kansas and 
 Nebraska, but within all the other present and future new terri 
 tories of the United States. Thus it is quite clear that it is not 
 a principle alone that is involved, but that those who crowd this 
 measure with so much zeal and earnestness, must expect that 
 either freedom or slavery shall gain something by it in those re 
 gions. The case, then, stands thus in Kansas and Nebraska : 
 Freedom may lose, but certainly can gain nothing ; while sla 
 very may gain, but as certainly can lose nothing. 
 
 So far as I am concerned, the time for looking on the dark 
 side has passed. I feel quite sure that slavery at most can get 
 nothing more than Kansas ; while Nebraska, the wider northern 
 region, will, under existing circumstances, escape, for the reason 
 that its soil and climate are uncongenial with the staples of slave 
 culture rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Moreover, since the 
 
FREEDOM AND PUBLIC FAITH. 391 
 
 public attention lias been so well and so effectually directed 
 toward the subject, I cherish a hope that slavery may be pre 
 vented even from gaining a foothold in Kansas. Congress only 
 gives consent, but it does not and can not introduce slavery 
 there. Slavery will be embarrassed by its own over-grasping 
 spirit. No one, I am sure, anticipates the possible re-establish 
 ment of the African slave trade. The tide of emigration to 
 Kansas is therefore to be supplied there solely by the domestic 
 fountain of slave production. But slavery has also other regions 
 besides Kansas to be filled from that fountain. There are all 
 of New Mexico and all of Utah already within the United States ; 
 and then there is Cuba, that consumes slave labor and life as 
 fast as any one of the slaveholding states can supply it ; and 
 besides these regions, there remains all of Mexico down to the 
 isthmus. The stream of slave labor flowing from so small a 
 fountain, and broken into several divergent channels, will not 
 cover so great a field ; and it is reasonably to be hoped that the 
 part of it nearest to the north pole will be the last to be inunda 
 ted. But African slave emigration is to compete with free emi 
 gration of white men, and the source of this latter tide is as 
 ample as the civilization of the two entire continents. The hon 
 orable senator from Delaware mentioned, as if it were a start 
 ling fact, that twenty thousand European immigrants arrived 
 in New York in one month. Sir, he has stated the fact with 
 too much moderation. On my return to the capital, a day or 
 two ago, I met twelve thousand of these immigrants who had 
 arrived in New York on one morning, and who had thronged 
 the churches on the following sabbath, to return thanks for de 
 liverance from the perils of the sea, and for their arrival in the 
 land, not of slavery, but of liberty. I also thank God for their 
 escape, and for their coming. They are now on their way west 
 ward, and the news of the passage of this bill, preceding them, 
 will speed many of them toward Kansas and Nebraska. Such 
 arrivals are not extraordinary they occur almost every week ; 
 and the immigration from Germany, from Great Britain, and 
 from Norway, and from Sweden, during the European war, will 
 rise to six or seven hundred thousand souls in a year. And 
 with this tide is to be mingled one rapidly swelling from Asia 
 and from the islands of the South seas. All the immigrants, 
 
392 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 under this bill as the house of representatives overruling you 
 have ordered, will be good, loyal, liberty-loving, slavery-fearing 
 citizens. Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. Since 
 there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in behalf of the 
 cause of freedom. We will engage in competition for the virgin 
 soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side which is 
 stronger in numbers as it is in right. 
 
 There are, however, earnest advocates of this bill, who do not 
 expect, and who, I suppose, do not desire, that slavery shall 
 gain possession of Nebraska. What do they expect to gain ? 
 The honorable senator from Indiana [Mr. PETTIT] says that by 
 thus obliterating the Missouri Compromise restriction, they will 
 gain a tabula rasa, on which the inhabitants of Kansas and 
 Nebraska may write whatever they will. This is the great prin 
 ciple of the bill, as he understands it. Well, what gain is there 
 in that ? You obliterate a constitution of freedom. If they 
 write a new constitution of freedom, can the new be better than 
 the old ? If they write a constitution of slavery, will it not be 
 a worse one ? I ask the honorable senator that ! But the hon 
 orable senator says that the people of Nebraska will have the 
 privilege of establishing institutions for themselves. They have 
 now the privilege of establishing free institutions. Is it a privi 
 lege, then, to establish slavery ? If so, what a mockery are all 
 our constitutions, which prevent the inhabitants from capriciously 
 subverting free institutions and establishing institutions of slavery ? 
 Sir, it is a sophism, a subtlety, to talk of conferring upon a 
 country, already secure in the blessings of freedom, the power 
 of self-destruction. 
 
 What mankind everywhere want, is not the removal of the 
 constitutions of freedom which they have, that they may make 
 at their pleasure constitutions of slavery or of freedom, but the 
 privilege of retaining constitutions of freedom when they already 
 have them, and the removal of constitutions of slavery when 
 they have them, that they may establish constitutions of free 
 dom in their place. We hold on tenaciously to all existing 
 constitutions of freedom. Who denounces any man for dili 
 gently adhering to such constitutions ? Who would dare to 
 denounce any one for disloyalty to our existing constitutions, if 
 they were constitutions of despotism and slavery? But it is 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 393 
 
 supposed by some that this principle is less important in regard 
 to Kansas and Nebraska than as a general one a general prin 
 ciple applicable to all other present and future territories of the 
 United States. Do honorable senators then indeed suppose 
 they are establishing a principle at all ? If so, I think they 
 egregiously err, whether the principle is either good or bad, right 
 or wrong. They are not establishing it, and can not establish 
 it in this way. You subvert one law capriciously, by making 
 another law in its place. That is all. Will your law have any 
 more weight, authority, solemnity, or binding force on future 
 Congresses than the first had 1 ? You abrogate the law of your 
 predecessors others will have equal power and equal liberty 
 to abrogate yours. You allow no barriers around the old law, 
 to protect it from abrogation. You erect none around your new 
 law, to stay the hand of future innovators. 
 
 On what ground do you expect the new law to stand 1 If 
 you are candid, you will confess that you rest your assumption 
 on the ground that the free states will never agitate repeal, but 
 always acquiesce. It may be that you are right. I am not 
 going to predict the course of the free states. I claim no 
 authority to speak for them, and still less to say what they will 
 do. But I may venture to say, that if they shall not repeal 
 this law, it will not be because they are not strong enough to do 
 it. They have power in the house of representatives greater 
 than that of the slave states, and, when they choose to exercise 
 it, a power greater even here in the senate. The free states 
 are not dull scholars, even in practical political strategy. When 
 you shall have taught them that a compromise law establishing 
 freedom can be abrogated, and the Union nevertheless stand, 
 you will have let them into another secret, namely : that a law 
 permitting or establishing slavery can be repealed, and the 
 Union nevertheless remain firm. If you inquire why they do 
 not stand by their rights and their interests more firmly, I will 
 tell you to the best of my ability. It is because they are con 
 scious of their strength, and therefore unsuspecting, and slow to 
 apprehend danger. The reason why you prevail in so many 
 contests, is because you are in perpetual fear. 
 
 There can not be a convocation of abolitionists, however im 
 practicable, in Faneuil Hall or the Tabernacle, though it con- 
 
 17* 
 
394 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 sists of men and women who have separated themselves from 
 all effective political parties, and who have renounced all politi 
 cal agencies, even though they resolve that they will vote for 
 nobody, not even for themselves, to carry out their purposes, 
 and though they practise on that resolution, hut you take alarm, 
 and your agitation renders necessary such compromises as those 
 of 1820 and 1850. We are young in the arts of politics; you 
 are old. We are strong ; you are weak. We are, therefore, 
 over-confident, careless, and indifferent; you are vigilant and 
 active. These are traits that redound to your praise. They 
 are mentioned not in your disparagement. I say only that 
 there may be an extent of intervention, of aggression, on your 
 side, which may induce the North, at some time, either in this 
 or in some future generation, to adopt your tactics and follow 
 your example. Remember now, that by unanimous consent, 
 this new law will be a repealable statute, exposed to all the 
 chances of the Missouri compromise. It stands an infinitely 
 worse chance of endurance than that compromise did. 
 
 The Missouri Compromise was a transaction which wise, 
 learned, patriotic statesmen agreed to surround and fortify with 
 the principles of a compact for mutual considerations, passed 
 and executed, and therefore, although not irrepealable in fact, 
 yet irrepealable in honor and conscience ; and, down at least 
 until this very session of the Congress of the United States, 
 it has had the force and authority not merely of an act of Con 
 gress, but of a covenant between the free states and the slave 
 states, scarcely less sacred than the constitution itself. Now, 
 then, who arc your contracting parties in the law establishing 
 governments in Kansas and Nebraska, and abrogating the Mis 
 souri Compromise ? What are the equivalents in this law 1 
 What has the North given, and what has the South got back, 
 that makes this a contract ? Who pretends that it is anything 
 more than an ordinary act of ordinary legislation 1 If, then, a 
 law which has all the forms and solemnities recognised by com 
 mon consent as a compact, and is covered with traditions, can 
 not stand amid this shuffling of this balance between the free 
 states and the slave states, tell me what chance this new law 
 that you are passing will have ? 
 
 You are, moreover setting a precedent which abrogates all 
 
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 395 
 
 compromises. - Four years ago, you obtained the consent of a 
 portion of the free states enough to render the effort at im 
 mediate repeal or resistance alike impossible to what we 
 regarded as an unconstitutional act for the surrender of fugitive 
 slaves. That was declared, by the common consent of the per 
 sons acting in the name of the two parties, the slave states and 
 the free states in Congress, an irrepealable law not even to be 
 questioned, although it violated the constitution. In establishing 
 this new principle, you expose that law also to the chances of 
 repeal. You not only so expose the fugitive slave law, but there 
 is 110 solemnity about the articles for the annexation of Texas to 
 the United States, which does not hang about the Missouri com 
 promise ; and when you have shown that the Missouri com 
 promise can be repealed, then the articles for the annexation of 
 Texas are subject to the will and pleasure and the caprice of a 
 temporary majority in Congress. Do you, then, expect that 
 the free states are to observe compacts, and you to be at liberty 
 to break them ; that they are to submit to laws and leave them 
 on the statute-book, however unconstitutional and however 
 grievous, and that you are to rest under no such obligation 1 I 
 think it is not a reasonable expectation. Say, then, who from 
 the North will be bound to admit Kansas, when Kansas shall 
 come in here, if she shall come as a slave state ? 
 
 The honorable senator from Georgia, [Mr. TOOMBS,] and I 
 know he is as sincere as he is ardent, says if he shall be here 
 when Kansas comes as a free state, he will vote for her admis 
 sion. I doubt not that he would ; but he will not be here, for 
 the very reason, if there be no other, that he would vote that 
 way. When Oregon or Minnesota shall come here for admis 
 sion within one year, or two years, or three years from this 
 time we shall then see what your new principle is worth in 
 its obligation upon the slaveholding states. No ; you establish 
 no principle, you only abrogate a principle which was establish 
 ed for your own security as well as ours ; and while you think 
 you are abnegating and resigning all power and all authority on 
 this subject into the hands of the people of the territories, you 
 are only getting over a difficulty in settling this question in the 
 organization of two new territories, by postponing it till they 
 come here to be admitted as states, slave or free. 
 
396 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 Sir, in saying that your new principle will not be established 
 by this bill, I reason from obvious, clear, well-settled principles 
 of human nature. Slavery and Freedom are antagonistic*! ele 
 ments in this country. The founders of the constitution framed 
 it with a knowledge of that antagonism, and suffered it to con 
 tinue, that it might work out its own ends. There is a commer 
 cial antagonism, an irreconcilable one, between the systems of 
 free labor and slave labor. They have been at war with each 
 other ever since the government was established, and that war 
 is to continue for ever. The contest, when it ripens between 
 these two antagonistic elements, is to be settled somewhere ; it is 
 to be settled in the seat of central power, in the federal legisla 
 ture. The constitution makes it the duty of the central govern 
 ment to determine questions as often as they shall arise in favor 
 of one or the other party, and refers the decision of them to the 
 majority of the votes in the two houses of Congress. It will 
 come back here, then, in spite of all the efforts to escape from it. 
 
 This antagonism must end either in a separation of the antag 
 onistic parties the slaveholding states and the free states or, 
 secondly, in the complete establishment of the influence of the 
 slave power over the free or else on the other hand, in the Es 
 tablishment of the superior influence of Freedom over the inter 
 ests of slavery. It will not be terminated by a voluntary seces 
 sion of either party. Commercial interests bind the slave states 
 and the free states together in links of gold that are riveted 
 with iron, and they can not be broken by passion or by ambition. 
 Either party will submit to the ascendency of the other, rather 
 than yield to the commercial advantages of this Union. Politi 
 cal ties bind the Union together a common necessity, and not 
 merely a common necessity, but the common interests of empire 
 of such empire as the world has never before seen. The con 
 trol of the national power is the control of the great western 
 continent ; and the control of this continent is to be in a very 
 few years the controlling influence in the world. Who is there 
 North, that hates slavery so much, or who, South, that hates 
 emancipation so intensely, that he can attempt, with any hope 
 of success, to break a Union thus forged and welded together ? 
 I have always heard, with equal pity and disgust, threats of dis 
 union in the free states, and similar threats in the slaveholding 
 
FREEDOM AND- PUBLIC FAITH. 397 
 
 states. I know that men may rave in the heat of passion, and 
 under great political excitement ; but I know that when it comes 
 to a question whether this Union shall stand, either with Free 
 dom or with Slavery, the masses will uphold it, and it will stand 
 until some inherent vice in its constitution, not yet disclosed, 
 shall cause its dissolution. XOAV, entertaining these opinions there 
 are for me only two alternatives, viz. : either to let slavery gain 
 unlimited sway, or so to exert what little power and influence I 
 may have, as to secure, if I can, the ultimate predominance of 
 freedom. 
 
 In doing this, I do no more than those who believe the slave 
 power is rightest, wisest, and best, are doing, and will continue 
 to do, with my free consent, to establish its complete supremacy. 
 If they shall succeed, I still shall be, as I have been, a loyal 
 citizen. If we succeed, I know they will be loyal also, because 
 it will be safest, wisest, and best, for them to be so. The ques 
 tion is one, not of a day, or of a year, but of many years, and 
 for aught I know, many generations. Like all other great po 
 litical questions, it will be attended sometimes by excitement, 
 sometimes by passion, and sometimes, perhaps, even by faction ; 
 but it is sure to be settled in a constitutional way, without any 
 violent shock to society, or to any of its great interests. It is, 
 moreover, sure to be settled rightly ; because it will be settled 
 under the benign influences of republicanism and Christianity, 
 according to the principles of truth and justice, as ascertained 
 by human reason. In pursuing such a course, it seems to me 
 obviously as wise as it is necessary to save all existing laAvs and 
 constitutions which are conservative of Freedom, and to permit, 
 as far as possible, the establishment of no new ones in favor of 
 slavery ; and thus to turn away the thoughts of the states which 
 tolerate slavery from political efforts to perpetuate what in its 
 nature can not be perpetual, to the more wise and benign policy 
 of emancipation. 
 
 This, in my humble judgment, is the simple, easy path of duty 
 for the American statesman. I will not contemplate that other 
 alternative the greater ascendency of the slave power. I be 
 lieve that if it ever shall come, the voice of Freedom will cease 
 to be heard in these halls, whatever may be the evils and dangers 
 which slavery shall produce. I say this without disrespect for rep- 
 
398 , SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 resentatives of slave states, and I say it because the rights of pe 
 tition and of debate on that subject are effectually suppressed 
 necessarily suppressed in all the slave states, and because 
 they are not always held in reverence even now, in the two 
 houses of Congress. When freedom of speech on a subject of 
 such vital interest shall have ceased to exist in Congress, then 
 I shall expect to see slavery not only luxuriating in all new 
 territories, but stealthily creeping even into the free states them 
 selves. Believing this, and believing, also, that complete re 
 sponsibility of the government to the people is essential to pub 
 lic and private safety, and that decline and ruin are sure to fol 
 low, always, on the train of slavery, I am sure that this will be 
 no longer a land of freedom and constitutional liberty when sla 
 very shall have thus become paramount. Auferre trucidare fal- 
 sis nominibus impcrium atque ubi solitu dinem Jaciunt pacem ap 
 pellant. 
 
 Sir, I have always said that I should not despond, even if 
 this fearful measure should be effected ; nor do I now despond. 
 Although, reasoning from my present convictions, I should not 
 have voted for the compromise of 1820, I have labored, in the 
 very spirit of those who established it, to save the landmark of 
 Freedom which it assigned. I have not spoken irreverently, 
 even of the compromise of 1850, which, as all men know, I op 
 posed earnestly and with diligence. Nevertheless, I have always 
 preferred the compromises of the constitution, and have wanted 
 no others. I feared all others. This was a leading princi 
 ple of the great statesman of the South [Mr. CALHOUN]. Said 
 he: 
 
 "I see my way in the constitution ; I can not in a compromise. A com 
 promise is but an act of Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It 
 gives us no security. But the constitution is a statute. It is a rock on 
 which we can stand, and on which we can meet our friends from the non- 
 slaveholding states. It is a firm and stable ground, on which we can better 
 stand in opposition to fanaticism than on the shifting sands of compromise. 
 Let us be done with compromises. Let us go back and stand upon the 
 constitution." 
 
 I stood upon this ground in 1850, defending freedom upon it 
 as Mr. CALHOUN did in defending slavery. I was overruled 
 then, and I have waited since without proposing to abrogate any 
 compromises. 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 4 899 
 
 It lias been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now ; but 
 the proposition has come from another quarter from an ad 
 verse one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of com 
 promise are passing from under my feet, and they are now, 
 without agency of -my own, taking hold again on the rock of 
 the constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they do not 
 remain firm. This seems to me auspicious of better days and 
 wiser legislation. Through all the darkness and gloom of the 
 present hour, bright stars arc breaking, that inspire me with 
 hope, and excite me to perseverance. They show that the day 
 of compromises has passed for ever, and that henceforward all 
 great questions between freedom and slavery legitimately coming 
 here and none other can come shall be decided, as they 
 ought to be, upon their merits, by a fair exercise of legislative 
 power, and not by bargains of equivocal prudence, if not of 
 doubtful morality. 
 
 The house of representatives has, and it always will have, an 
 increasing majority of members from the free states. On this 
 occasion, that house has not been altogether faithless to the 
 interests of the free states ; for although it has taken away the 
 charter of freedom from Kansas and Nebraska, it has at the 
 same time told this proud body, in language which compels 
 acquiescence, that in submitting the question of its restoration, 
 it would submit it not merely to interested citizens, but to the 
 alien inhabitants of the territories also. So the great interests 
 of humanity are, after all, thanks to the house of representa 
 tives, and thanks to God, submitted to the voice of human 
 nature. 
 
 Sir, I see one more sign of hope. The great support of 
 slavery in the South has been its alliance with the democratic 
 party of the North. By means of that alliance it obtained para 
 mount influence in this government about the year 1800, which, 
 from that time to this, with but few and slight interruptions, it 
 has maintained. While democracy in the North has thus been 
 supporting slavery in the South, the people of the North have 
 been learning more profoundly the principles of republicanism 
 and of free government. It is an extraordinary circumstance, 
 which you, sir, the present occupant of the chair [Mr. STUART], 
 I am sure, will not gainsay, that at this moment, when there 
 
400 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 seems to be a more complete divergence of the federal govern 
 ment in favor of slavery than ever before, the sentiment of uni 
 versal liberty is stronger in all free states than it ever was before. 
 With that principle the present democratic party must now 
 come into a closer contest. Their prestige of democracy is fast 
 waning, by reason of the hard service which their alliance with 
 their slaveholding brethren has imposed upon them. That party 
 perseveres, as indeed it must, by reason of its very constitution, 
 in that service, and thus comes into closer conflict with elements 
 of true democracy, and for that reason is destined to lose, and 
 is fast losing the power which it has held so firmly and so long. 
 That power will not be restored until the principle established 
 here now shall be reversed, and a constitution shall be given, 
 not only to Kansas and Nebraska, but also to every other na 
 tional territory, which will be, not a tabula rasa, but a constitu 
 tion securing equal, universal, and perpetual freedom. 
 
T1JE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 401 
 
 THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 29, 1860. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : The admission of Kansas into the Union, 
 without further delay, seems to me equally necessary, just, and 
 wise. In recorded debates I have already anticipated the argu 
 ments for this conclusion. 
 
 In coming forward among the political astrologers, it shall be 
 an error of judgment, and not of disposition, if my interpretation 
 of the feverish dreams which are disturbing the country shall 
 tend to foment, rather than to allay, the national excitement. I 
 shall say nothing unnecessarily of persons, because, in our system, 
 the public welfare and happiness depend chiefly on institutions, 
 and very little on men. I shall allude but briefly to incidental 
 topics, because they are ephemeral, and because, even in the 
 midst of appeals to passion and prejudice, it is always safe to 
 submit solid truth to the deliberate consideration of an honest and 
 enlightened people. 
 
 It will be an overflowing source of shame, as well as of sorrow, 
 if we, thirty millions Europeans by extraction, Americans by 
 birth or discipline, and Christians in faith, and meaning to be such 
 in practice cannot so combine prudence with humanity, in our 
 conduct concerning the one disturbing subject of slavery, as not 
 only to preserve our unequalled institutions of freedom, but also 
 tp enjoy their benefits with contentment and harmony. 
 
 Wherever a guiltless slave exists, be he Caucasian, American, 
 Malay, or African, he is the subject of two distinct and opposite 
 ideas one that he is wrongly, the other that he is rightly a slave. 
 
402 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED 8TATKS SENATE. 
 
 The balance of numbers on either side, however great, never 
 completely extinguishes this difference of opinion ; for there are 
 always some defenders of slavery outside, even if there are none 
 inside of a free state, while also there are always outside, if there 
 are not inside of every slave state, many who assert with Milton, 
 that "no man who knows aught can be so stupid as to deny that 
 all men naturally were born free, being the image and resem 
 blance of God himself, and were by privilege above all the crea 
 tures, born to command and not to obey." It often, perhaps 
 generally happens, however, that in considering the subject of 
 slavery, society seems to overlook the natural right, or personal 
 interest of the slave himself, and to act exclusively for the welfare 
 of the citizen. But this fact does not materially affect ultimate 
 results, for the elementary question of the rightfulness or wrong- 
 fulness of slavery inheres in every form that discussion concerning 
 it assumes. What is just to one class of men can never be inju 
 rious to any other ; and what is unjust to any condition of persons 
 in a state, is necessarily injurious in some degree to the whole 
 community. An economical question early arises out of the sub 
 ject of slavery. Labor, either of freemen or of slaves, is the cardi 
 nal necessity of society. JSome states choose the one kind, some 
 the other. Hence two municipal systems, widely different, arise. 
 The slave state strikes down and affects to extinguish the person 
 ality of the laborer, not only as a member of the political body, 
 but also as a parent, husband, child, neighbor, or friend. He thus 
 becomes, in a political view, merely property, without moral ca 
 pacity, and without domestic, moral, and social relations, duties, 
 rights, and remedies a chattel, an object of bargain, sale, gift, 
 inheritance, or theft. His earnings are compensated and his 
 wrongs atoned, not to himself, but to his owner. The state pro 
 tects, not the slave as a man, but the capital of another man, which 
 he represents. On the other hand, the state which rejects slavery 
 encourages and animates and invigorates the laborer by maintain 
 ing and developing his natural personality in all the rights and 
 faculties of manhood, and generally with the privileges of citizen 
 ship. In the one case, capital invested in slaves becomes a great 
 political force, while in the other, labor thus elevated and enfran- 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 403 
 
 cliised, becomes the dominating political power. It thus happens 
 that we may, for convenience sake, and not inaccurately, call slave 
 states capital states, and free states labor states. 
 
 So soon as a state feels the impulse of commerce or enterprise 
 or ambition, its citizens begin to study the effects of these systems 
 of capital and labor, respectively, on its intelligence, its virtue, its 
 tranquillity, its integrity or unity, its defence, its prosperity, its 
 liberty, its happiness, its aggrandizement, and its fame. In other 
 words, the great question arises, whether slavery is a moral, social, 
 and political good, or a moral, social, and political evil. This is 
 the slavery question at home. But there is a mutual bond of 
 amity and brotherhood between man and man throughout the 
 world. Nations examine freely the political systems of each 
 other, and of all preceding times, and accordingly as they approve 
 or disapprove of the two systems of capital and labor respectively, 
 they sanction and prosecute, or condemn and prohibit commerce 
 in men. Thus, in one way or in another, the slavery question, 
 which so many amon-gst us, who are more willing to rule than 
 patient in "studying the conditions of society, think is a merely 
 accidental or unnecessary question, that might and ought to be 
 settled and dismissed at once, is, on the contrary, a world-wide 
 and enduring subject of political consideration and civil adminis 
 tration. Men, states, and nations entertain it, not voluntarily, but 
 because the progress of society continually brings it into their 
 way. They divide upon it, not perversely, but because, owing to 
 differences of constitution, condition, or circumstances, they cannot 
 agree. 
 
 The fathers of the republic encountered it. They even ad 
 justed it so that it might have given us much less than our present 
 disquiet, had not circumstances afterwards occurred which they, 
 wise as they were, had not clearly foreseen. Although they had 
 inherited, yet they generally condemned the practice of slavery 
 and hoped for its discontinuance. They expressed this when they 
 asserted in the Declaration of Independence, as a fundamental 
 principle of American society, that all men are created equal, and 
 have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi 
 ness. Each state, however, reserved to itself exclusive political 
 
40-1 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 power over the subject of slavery within its own borders. Never 
 theless, it unavoidably presented itself in their consultations on a 
 bond of federal union. The new government was to be a 
 representative one. Slaves were capital in some states, in others 
 capital had no investments in labor. Should those slaves be 
 represented as capital or as persons, taxed as capital or as persons, 
 or should they not be represented or taxed at all ? The fathers 
 disagreed, debated long, and compromised at last. Each state, 
 they determined, shall have two senators in Congress. Three- 
 fifths of the slaves shall be elsewhere represented and be taxed as 
 persons. What should be done if the slave should escape into a 
 labor state ? Should that state confess him to be a chattel and 
 restore him as such, or might it regard him as a person, and har 
 bor and protect him as a man ? They compromised again, and 
 decided that no person held to labor or service in one state by 
 the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall by any law or regu 
 lation of that state, be discharged from such labor or service, 
 but shall be delivered up on claim to the person to whom such 
 labor or service shall be due. 
 
 Free laborers would immigrate, and slaves might be imported 
 into the states. The fathers agreed that Congress may establish 
 uniform laws of naturalization, and it might prohibit the importa 
 tion of persons after 1808. Communities in the Southwest, 
 detached from the Southern states, were growing up in the prac 
 tice of slavery, to be capital states. New states would soon 
 grow up in the Northwest, while as yet capital stood aloof, and 
 labor had not lifted the axe to begin there its endless but benefi 
 cent task. The fathers authorized Congress to make all needful 
 rules and regulations concerning the arrangements and disposition 
 of the public lands, and to admit new states. So the Constitu 
 tion, while it does not disturb or affect the system of capital in 
 slaves, existing in any state under its own laws, does, at the same 
 time, recognize every human being, when within any exclusive 
 sphere of federal jurisdiction, not as capital, but as a person. 
 
 What was the action of the fathers in Congress ? They admit 
 ted the new states of the Southwest as capital states, because it 
 was practically impossible to do otherwise, and by the ordinance 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 405 
 
 of 1787, confirmed in 1789, they provided for the organization 
 and admission of only labor states in the Northwest. They di 
 rected fugitives from service to be restored, not as chattels, but as 
 persons. They awarded naturalization to immigrant free laborers, 
 and they prohibited the trade in African labor. This disposition 
 of the whole subject was in harmony with the conditions of society, 
 and, in the main, with the spirit of the age. The seven Northern 
 states contentedly became labor states by their own acts. The 
 six Southern states, with equal tranquillity and by their own de 
 termination, remained capital states. 
 
 The circumstances which the fathers did not clearly foresee 
 were two, namely : the reinvigoration of slavery, consequent on 
 the increased consumption of cotton, and the extension of the 
 national domain across the Mississippi, and these occurred before 
 1820. The State of Louisiana, formed on a slaveholding French 
 settlement, within the newly-acquired Louisianian Territory, had 
 then already been admitted into the Union. There yet remained, 
 however, a vast region, which included Arkansas and Missouri, 
 together with the then unoccupied, and even unnamed, Kansas 
 and Nebraska. Arkansas, a slaveholding community, was nearly 
 ready to apply, and Missouri, another such territory, was actually 
 applying for admission into the Federal Union. The existing 
 capital states seconded these applications, and claimed that the 
 whole Louisianian Territory was rightfully open to slavery, and 
 to the organization of future slave states. The labor states 
 maintained that Congress had supreme legislative power within 
 the domain, and could and ought to exclude slavery there. The 
 question thus opened was one which related not at all to slavery 
 in the existing capital states. It was purely and simply a na 
 tional question whether the common interest of the whole repub 
 lic required that Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, 
 should become capital states, with all the evils and dangers of 
 slavery, or be labor states, with all the securities, benefits, and 
 blessings of freedom. On the decision was suspended the ques 
 tion, as was thought, whether ultimately the interior of this new 
 continent should be an asylum for the oppressed and the exile, 
 coming year after year, and age after age, voluntarily from every 
 
406 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 other civilized land, as well as for the children of misfortune in our 
 own, or whether, through the renewal of the African slave trade, 
 those magnificent and luxuriant regions should be surrendered to the 
 control of capital, wringing out the fruits of the earth through the 
 impoverishing toil of negro slaves. That question of 1820 was 
 identically the question of 18GO, so far as principle, and even the 
 field of its application was concerned. Every element of the con 
 troversy now present entered it then : the rightfulness or the 
 wrongfulness of slavery ; its effects, present and future ; the con 
 stitutional authority of Congress ; the claims of the states and of 
 their citizens ; the nature of the Federal Union, whether it is a 
 compact between the states, or an independent government ; the 
 springs of its powers, and the ligatures upon their exercise. All 
 these were discussed with zeal and ability which have never been 
 surpassed. History tells us, I know not how truly, that the Union 
 reeled under the vehemence of that great debate. Patriotism 
 took counsel from prudence, and enforced a settlement which has 
 proved to be not a final one ; and which, as is now seen, practically 
 left open all the great political issues which were involved. Mis 
 souri and Arkansas were admitted as capital states, while labor 
 obtained, as a reservation, the abridged but yet comprehensive 
 field of Kansas and Nebraska. 
 
 Now, when the present conditions of the various parts of the 
 Louisianian Territory are observed, and we see that capital retains 
 undisputed possession of what it then obtained, while labor is con 
 vulsing the country with so hard and so prolonged a struggle to 
 regain the lost equivalent which was then guaranteed to it under 
 circumstances of so great solemnity, we may well desire not to be 
 undeceived if the Missouri Compromise was indeed unnecessarily 
 accepted by the free states, influenced by the exaggerations of 
 the dangers of disunion. The Missouri debate disclosed truths of 
 great moment for ulterior use : 
 
 1st. That it is easy to combine the capital states in defence of 
 even external interests, while it is hard to unite the labor states 
 in common policy. 
 
 2d. That the labor states have a natural loyalty to the Union, 
 while the capital states have a natural facility for alarming that 
 loyalty by threatening disunion. 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 407 
 
 3d. That the capital states do not practically distinguish be 
 tween legitimate and constitutional resistance to the extension of 
 slavery in the common territories of the Union, and unconstitu 
 tional aggressions against slavery established by local laws in the 
 capital states. 
 
 The early political parties were organized without reference to 
 slavery. But since 1820, European questions have left us practi 
 cally unconcerned. There has been a great increase of invention, 
 mining, manufacture, and cultivation. Steam on land and on 
 water has quickened commerce. The press and the telegraph 
 have obtained prodigious activity, and the social intercourse be 
 tween the states and their citizens has been immeasurably aug 
 mented ; and consequently, their mutual relations affecting slavery 
 have been, for many years, subjects of earnest and often excited 
 discussion. It is in my way only to show how such disputes have 
 operated on the course of political events, not to re-open them 
 for argument here. There was a slave insurrection in Virginia. 
 Virginia and Kentucky debated, and, to the great sorrow of the 
 free states, rejected the system of voluntary labor. The Coloni 
 zation Society was established, with much favor, in the capital 
 states. Emancipation societies arose in the free States. South 
 Carolina instituted proceedings to nullify obnoxious federal rev 
 enue laws. The capital states complained of courts and legisla 
 tures in the labor states, for interpret ing the constitutional provision 
 for the surrender of fugitives from service, so as to treat them as 
 persons and not property, and they discriminated against colored 
 persons of the labor states, when they came to the capital states. 
 They denied, in Congress, the right of petition, and embarrassed 
 or denied freedom of debate on the subject of slavery. Presses, 
 which undertook the defence of the labor system in the capital 
 states, were suppressed by violence, and even in the labor states, 
 public assemblies, convened to consider slavery questions, were 
 dispersed by mobs sympathizing with the capital states. 
 
 The whig party, being generally an opposition party, practiced 
 Borne forbearance toward the interest of labor. The democratic 
 party, not without demonstrations of dissent, was generally found 
 sustaining the policy of capital. A disposition towards the re- 
 
408 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 moval of slavery from the presence of the national capital appeared 
 in the District of Columbia. Mr. Van Buren, a democratic presi 
 dent, launched a prospective veto against the anticipated measure. 
 A democratic Congress brought Texas into the Union, stipulating 
 practically for its future re-organization in four slave states. Mex 
 ico was incensed. War ensued. The labor states asked that the 
 Mexican law of liberty, which covered the territories brought in by 
 the treaty of peace, might remain and be confirmed. The demo 
 cratic party refused. The Missouri debate of 1820 recurred now, 
 under circumstances of heat and excitement, in relation to these 
 conquests. The defenders of labor took alarm lest the number of 
 new capital states might become so great as to enable that class of 
 states to dictate the whole policy of the government ; and, in case 
 of constitutional resistance, then to form a new slaveholding confed 
 eracy around the Gulf of Mexico. By this time, the capital states 
 seemed to have become fixed in a determination that the federal 
 government, and even the labor states, should recognize their 
 slaves, though outside of the slave states, and within the terri 
 tories of the United State?, as property, of which -the master 
 could not be in any way, or by any authority, divested; and the 
 labor states, having become now more essentially democratic than 
 ever before, by reason of the great development of free labor, more 
 firmly than ever insisted on the constitutional doctrine that slaves 
 voluntarily carried by their masters into the common territories, 
 or into labor states, are persons men. 
 
 Under the auspicious influence of a whig success, California 
 and New Mexico appeared before Congress as labor states. The 
 capital states refused to consent to their admission into the Union, 
 and again threats of disunion carried terror and consternation 
 throughout the land. Another compromise was made. Specific 
 enactments admitted California as a labor state, and remanded 
 New Mexico and Utah to remain territories, with the right 
 to choose freedom or slavery when ripened into states, while they 
 gave new remedies for the recaption of fugitives from service, and 
 abolished the open slave market in the District of Columbia. 
 These new enactments, collated with the existing statutes, namely, 
 the ordinances of 1787, the Missouri prohibitory law of 1820, and 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 409 
 
 the articles of Texas annexation, disposed by law of the subject 
 of slavery in all the territories of the United States. And so the 
 compromise of 1850 was pronounced a full, final, absolute, and 
 comprehensive settlement of all existing and all possible disputes 
 concerning slavery under the federal authority. The two great 
 parties, fearful for the Union, struck hands in making and present 
 ing this as an adjustment, never afterwards to be opened, disturbed, 
 or even questioned, and the people accepted it by majorities un 
 known before. The new president, chosen over an illustrious 
 rival, unequivocally on the ground of greater ability, even if not 
 more reliable purpose, to maintain the new treaty inviolate, made 
 haste to justify this expectation when Congress assembled. He 
 said : 
 
 " When the grave shall have closed over all who are now endeavoring to 
 Meet the obligations of duty, the year 1850 will be recurred to as a period 
 filled with anxiety and apprehension. A successful war has just terminated ; 
 peace brought with it a great augmentation of territory. Disturbing ques 
 tions arose, bearing upon the domestic institutions of a portion of the Con 
 federacy, and involving the constitutional rights of the states. But, not 
 withstanding differences of opinion and sentiment in relation to details and 
 specific provisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whose devotion 
 to the Union can never be doubted, has given renewed vigor to our institu 
 tions, and restored a sense of security and repose to the public mind through 
 out the Confederacy. That this repose is to suffer no shock during my offi 
 cial term, if I have the power to avert it, those who placed me here may be 
 assured." 
 
 Hardly, however, had these inspiring sounds died away, 
 throughout a reassured and delighted land, before the national 
 repose was shocked again ; shocked, indeed, as it had never before 
 been, and smitten this time by a blow from the very hand that had 
 just released the chords of the national harp from their utterance 
 of that exhalted symphony of peace. 
 
 Kansas and Nebraska, the long-devoted reservation of labor 
 and freedom, saved in the agony of national fear in 1820, and 
 saved again in the panic of 1850, were now to be opened by 
 Congress, that the never-ending course of seed-time and harvest 
 might begin. The slave-capitalists of Missouri, from their own 
 well-assured homes on the eastern banks of their noble river, 
 
 18 
 
410 SPEECHES IN TIIK UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 looked down upon and coveted the fertile prairies of Kansas ; 
 while a sudden terror ran through all the capital states, when 
 they saw a seeming certainty that at last a new labor state would 
 be built on their western border, inevitably fraught, as they 
 said, with a near or remote abolition of slavery. What could be 
 done ? Congress could hardly be expected to intervene directly 
 for their safety so soon after the compromise of 1850. The labor 
 hive of the free states was distant, the way new, unknown, and 
 not without perils. Missouri was near and watchful, and held the 
 keys of the gates of Kansas. She might seize the new and 
 smiling territory by surprise, if only Congress would remove the 
 barrier established in 1820. The conjuncture was favorable. 
 Clay and Webster, the distinguished citizens whose unquestion 
 able devotion to the Union was manifested by their acquiescence 
 in the compromise of 1850, had gone down already into their hon 
 ored graves. The labor states had dismissed many of their re 
 presentatives here for too great fidelity to freedom, and too great 
 distrust of the efficacy of that new bond of peace, and had re 
 placed them with partisans who were only timid, but not unwilling. 
 The democratic president and Congress hesitated, but not long. 
 They revised the last great compromise, and found, with delighted 
 surprise, that it was so far from confirming the law of freedom 
 of 1820, that, on the other hand, it exactly provided for the 
 abrogation of that venerated statute ; nay, that the compromise 
 itself actually killed the spirit of the Missouri law, and devolved 
 on Congress the duty of removing the lifeless letter from >the 
 national code. The deed was done. The new enactment not 
 only repealed the Missouri prohibition of slavery, but it pro 
 nounced the people of Kansas and Nebraska perfectly free to 
 establish freedom or slavery ; and pledged Congress to admit 
 them in due time as states, either of capital or of labor, into 
 the Union. The whig representatives of the capital states, in an 
 hour of strange bewilderment, concurred ; and the whig party 
 instantly went down, never to rise again. Democrats seceded, 
 and stood aloof; the country was confounded; and, amid the 
 perplexities of the hour, a republican party was seen gathering 
 itself together with much earnestness, but with little show of 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 411 
 
 organization, to rescue, if it were not now too late, the cause of 
 freedom and labor, so unexpectedly and grievously imperilled in 
 the territories of the United States. 
 
 I will not linger over the sequel. The popular sovereignty of 
 Kansas proved to be the state sovereignty of Missouri, not only 
 in the persons of the rulers, but even in the letter of an arbitrary 
 and cruel code. The perfect freedom proved to be a hateful and 
 intolerable bondage. From 1855 to 18 GO, Kansas, sustained and 
 encouraged only by the republican party, has been engaged in suc 
 cessive and ever-varying struggles, which have taxed all her virtue, 
 wisdom, moderation, energies, and resources, and often even her 
 physical strength and martial courage, to save herself from being 
 betrayed into the Union as a slave state. Nebraska, though 
 choosing freedom, is, through the direct exercise of the executive 
 power, over-riding her own will, held as a slave territory ; and 
 New Mexico has relapsed voluntarily into the practice of slavery, 
 from which she had redeemed herself while she yet remained a 
 part of the Mexican republic. Meantime, the democratic party, 
 advancing from the ground of popular sovereignty, as far as that 
 ground is in the ordinance of 1787, now stands on the position 
 that both territorial governments and Congress are incompetent to 
 legislate against slavery in the territories, while they are not only 
 competent, but are obliged, when it is necessary, to legislate for 
 its protection there. 
 
 In this new and extreme position, the democratic party now 
 masks itself, behind the battery of the supreme court, as if it 
 were, possibly, a true construction of the Constitution, that the 
 power of deciding, practically forever, between freedom and 
 slavery in a portion of the continent far exceeding all that is yet 
 organized, should be renounced by Congress, which alone possesses 
 any legislative authority, and should be assumed and exercised by 
 a court which can only take cognizance of the great question col 
 laterally, in a private action between individuals, and which action 
 the Constitution will not suffer the court to entertain, if it involves 
 twenty dollars of money, without the overruling intervention of a 
 jury of twelve good and lawful men of the neighborhood where 
 the litigation arises, The independent, ever-renewed, and ever- 
 
412 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATICS SENATE. 
 
 recurring representative parliament, diet, congress, or legis 
 lature, is the one chief, paramount, essential, indispensable insti 
 tution in a republic. Even liberty, guaranteed by organic law, 
 yet if it be held by other tenure than the guardian care of such a 
 representative popular assembly, is but precariously maintained, 
 while slavery, enforced by an irresponsible judicial tribunal, is the 
 completes! possible development of despotism. 
 
 Mr. President, did ever the annals of any government show a 
 more rapid or more complete departure from the wisdom and 
 virtues of its founders ? Did ever the government of a great 
 empire, founded on the rights of human labor, slide away so fast 
 and so far, and moor itself so tenaciously on the basis of capital, 
 and that capital invested in laboring men ? Did ever a free repre 
 sentative legislature, invested with powers so great, and with the 
 guardianship of rights so important, of trusts so sacred, of interests 
 so precious, and of hopes at once so noble and so comprehensive, 
 surrender and renounce them all so unnecessarily, so unwisely, so 
 fatally, and so ingloriously ? If it be true, as every instinct of 
 our nature, and every precept of political experience teaches us, 
 that 
 
 " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 "Where wealth accumulates, and men decay," 
 
 then where in Ireland, in Italy, in Poland, or in Hungary, has any 
 ruler prepared for a generous and confiding people disappoint 
 ments, disasters, and calamities equal to those which the Govern 
 ment of the United States holds now suspended over so large a 
 portion of the continent of North America ? 
 
 Citizens of the United States, in the spirit of this policy, sub 
 verted the free Republic of Nicaragua, and opened it to slavery 
 and the African slave trade, and held it in that condition, waiting 
 annexation to the United States, until its sovereignty was restored 
 by a combination of sister republics exposed to the same danger, 
 and apprehensive of similar subversion. Other citizens re-opened 
 the foreign slave trade, in violation of our laws and treaties ; and, 
 after a suspension of that shameful traffic for fifty years, savage 
 Africans have been once more landed on our shores, and dis 
 tributed, unreclaimed and with impunity, among our plantations. 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 413 
 
 For this policy, so far as the government has sanctioned it, the 
 democratic party avows itself responsible. Everywhere, com 
 plaint against it is denounced, and its opponents proscribed. When 
 Kansas was writhing under the wounds of incipient servile war, 
 because of her resistance, the democratic press deridingly said, 
 Met her bleed." Official integrity has been cause for rebuke and 
 punishment, when it resisted frauds designed to promote the ex 
 tension of slavery. Throughout the whole republic, there is not 
 one known dissenter from that policy remaining in place, if within 
 reach of the executive arm. Nor over the face of the whole 
 world is there to be found one representative of our country who 
 is not an apologist of the extension of slavery. 
 
 It is in America that these things have happened. In the 
 nineteenth century, the era of the world s greatest progress, and 
 while all nations but ourselves have been either abridging, or 
 altogether suppressing commerce in men ; at the very moment 
 when the Russian serf is emancipated, and the Georgian captive, 
 the Nubian prisoner, and the Abyssinian savage are lifted up to 
 freedom by the successor of Mohammed. The world, prepos 
 sessed in our behalf by our early devotion to the rights of human 
 nature, as no nation ever before engaged its respect and sympa 
 thies, asks, in wonder and amazement, what all this demoralization 
 means 1 It has an excuse better than the world can imagine, better 
 than we are generally conscious of ourselves, a virtuous excuse. 
 We have loved not freedom so much less, but the union of our 
 country so much more. We have been made to believe, from 
 time to time, that, in a crisis, both of these precious institutions 
 could not be saved together, and therefore we have, from time to 
 time, surrendered safeguards of freedom, to propitiate the loyalty 
 of capital, and stay its hands from doing violence to the Union. 
 The true state of the case, however, ought not to be a mystery to 
 ourselves. Prescience, indeed, is not given to statesmen; but we 
 are without excuse when we fail to apprehend the logic of current 
 events. Let parties, or the government, choose or do what they 
 may, the people of the United States do not prefer the wealth of 
 the few to the liberty of the many, capital to labor, African slaves 
 to white freemen, in the national territories, and in future states. 
 
4:14 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 That question has never been distinctly recognized or acted on by 
 them. The republican party embodies the popular protest and re 
 action against a policy which has been fastened upon the nation 
 by surprise, and which its reason and conscience, concurring with 
 the reason and conscience of mankind, condemn. 
 
 The choice of the nation is now between the democratic party 
 and the republican party. Its principles and policy are, there 
 fore, justly and even necessarily examined. I know of only one 
 policy which it has adopted or avowed, namely, the saving of the 
 territories of the United States, if possible, by constitutional and 
 lawful means, from being homes for slavery and polygamy. Who, 
 that considers where this nation exists, of what races it is com 
 posed, in what age of the world it acts its part on the public 
 stage, and what are its predominant institutions, customs, habits, 
 and sentiments, doubts that the republican party can and will, if 
 unwaveringly faithful to that policy, and just and loyal in all 
 beside, carry it into triumphal success ? To doubt is to be un 
 certain whether civilization can improve, or Christianity save 
 mankind. 
 
 I may, perhaps, infer from the necessity of the case, that it will, 
 in all courts and places, stand by the freedom of speech and of the 
 press, and will maintain the constitutional rights of freemen every 
 where ; that it will favor the speedy improvement of the public 
 domain by homestead laws, and will encourage mining, manufac 
 ture, and internal commerce, with needful connections between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific States for all these are important interests of 
 freedom. For all the rest, the national emergencies, not individual 
 influences, must determine, as society goes on, the policy and char 
 acter of the republican party. Already bearing its part in legisla 
 tion and in treaties, it feels the necessity of being practical in its 
 care of the national health and life, while it leaves metaphysical 
 speculation to those whose duty it is to cultivate the ennobling 
 science of political philosophy. 
 
 But, in the midst of these subjects, or rather before fully reach 
 ing them, the republican party encounters, unexpectedly, a new 
 and potential issue one prior, and therefore paramount to all 
 others, one of national life and death. Just as if so much had 
 
THK ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 415 
 
 not been already conceded ; nay, just as if nothing at all had 
 ever been conceded to the interest of capital invested in men, 
 we hear menaces of disunion, louder, more distinct, more emphatic, 
 than ever, with the condition annexed, that they shall be executed 
 the moment that a republican administration, though constitu 
 tionally elected, shall assume the government. 
 
 I do not, certainly, know that the people are prepared to call 
 such an administration to power. I know only, that through a 
 succession of floods which never greatly excite, and ebbs which 
 never entirely discourage me, the volume of republicanism rises 
 continually higher and higher. They are probably wise, whose 
 apprehensions admonish them that it is already strong enough 
 for effect. 
 
 Hitherto the republican party has been content with one self- 
 interrogatory how many votes can it cast ? These threats en 
 force another has it determination enough to cast them ? This 
 latter question touches its spirit and pride. I am quite sure, 
 however, that as it has hitherto practiced self-denial in so many 
 other forms, it will, in this emergency, lay aside all impatience 
 of temper, together with all ambition, and will consider these ex 
 traordinary declamations seriously, and with a just moderation. 
 It would be a waste of words to demonstrate that they are uncon 
 stitutional, and equally idle to show that the responsibility for 
 disunion attempted or affected, must rest, not with those who, in 
 the exercise of constitutional authority, maintain the government, 
 but with those who unconstitutionally engage in the mad work of 
 subverting it. 
 
 What are the excuses for these menaces ? They resolve them 
 selves into this, that the republican party in the North is hostile 
 to the South. But it already is proved to be a majority in the 
 North ; it is, therefore, practically the people of the North. Will 
 it not still be the same North that has forborne with you so long, 
 and conceded to you so much? Can you justly assume that 
 aifection which has been so complying, can all at once change to 
 hatied, intense and inexorable ? 
 
 You say that the republican party is a sectional one. Is the 
 democratic party less sectional ? Is it easier for us to bear your 
 
416 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 sectional sway than for you to bear ours ? Is it unreasonable that 
 for once we should alternate ? But is the republican party sec 
 tional ? Not unless the democratic party is. The republican 
 party prevails in the House of Representatives sometimes ; the 
 democratic party in the Senate always. Which of the two is the 
 most prescriptive ? Come, come, come, if you will, into the free 
 states, into the State of New York, anywhere from Lake Erie to 
 Sag Harbor, among my neighbors in the Owasco Valley, hold your 
 conventions, nominate your candidates, address the people, submit 
 to them, fully, earnestly, eloquently, all your complaints and griev 
 ances of northern disloyalty, oppression, perfidy ; keep nothing 
 back, speak just as freely and as loudly there as you do here ; 
 you will have hospitable welcomes, and appreciating audiences, 
 with ballot-boxes open for all the votes you can win. Are you less 
 sectional than this ? Extend to us the same privileges, and I will 
 engage that you will very soon have in the South as many Repub 
 licans as we have democrats in the North. There is, however, a 
 better test of nationality than the accidental location of parties. 
 Our policy of labor in the territories was not sectional in the first 
 forty years of the republic. Its nature inheres. It will be national 
 again, during the third forty years, and forever afterwards. It is 
 not wise and beneficent for us alone, or injurious to you alone. 
 Its effects are equal, and the same for us all. 
 
 You accuse the republican party of ulterior and secret designs. 
 How can a party that counts its votes in this land of free speech 
 and free press by the hundreds of thousands, have any secret de 
 signs ? Who is the conjuror, and where are the hidden springs 
 by which he can control its uncongivgated and widely-dispersed 
 masses, and direct them to objects unseen, and purposes unavowed? 
 But what are these hidden purposes ? You name only one. 
 That one is to introduce negro equality among you. Suppose we 
 had the power to change your social system : what warrant have 
 you for supposing that we should carry negro equality there ? 
 We know, and we will show you, if you will only give heed, 
 that what our system of labor works out, wherever it works out 
 anything, is the equality of white men. The laborer in the free 
 states, no matter how humble his occupation, is a white man, and 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 417 
 
 lie is, politically, the equal of his employer. Eighteen of our 
 thirty-three states are free-labor states. They are : Maine, 
 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Con 
 necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, 
 Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, and 
 Oregon. I do not array them in contrast with the capital states. 
 I am no assailant of states. All of the states are parcels of my 
 own country the best of them not so wise and great as I am sure 
 it will hereafter be ; the state least developed and perfected 
 among them all is wiser and better than any foreign state I know. 
 Is it then in any, and in which, of the states I have named, that 
 negro equality offends the white man s pride ? Throughout the 
 wide world, where is the state where class and caste are so 
 utterly extinguished as they are in each and every one of them ? 
 Let the European immigrant, who avoids the African as if his 
 skin exhaled contagion, answer. You find him always in the 
 state where labor is ever free. Did Washington, Jefferson, and 
 Henry, when they implored you to relinquish your system, and 
 accept the one we have adopted, propose to sink you down to the 
 level of the African, or was it their desire to exalt all white men 
 to a common political elevation ? 
 
 But we do not seek to force, or even to intrude our system on 
 you. We are excluded, justly, wisely, and contentedly, from all 
 political power and responsibility in your capital states. You are 
 sovereign on the subject of slavery within your own borders, as 
 we are on the same subject within our borders. It is well and 
 wisely so arranged. Use your authority to maintain what system 
 you please. We are not distrustful of the result. We have 
 wisely, as we think, exercised ours to protect and perfect the 
 manhood of the members of the state. The whole sovereignty 
 upon domestic concerns within the Union is divided between us 
 by unmistakable boundaries. You have your fifteen distinct 
 parts, we eighteen parts, equally distinct. Each must be main 
 tained, in order that the whole may be preserved. If ours shall 
 be assailed, within or without, by any enemy, or for any cause, 
 and we shall have need, we shall expect you to defend it. If 
 yours shall be so assailed, in the emergency, no matter what the 
 
 18* 
 
418 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 cause or the pretext, or who the foe, we shall defend your sover 
 eignty as the equivalent of our own. We cannot, indeed, accept 
 your system of capital or its ethics. That would be to surrender 
 and subvert our own, which we esteem to be better. Besides, if 
 we could, what need for any division into states at all? You are 
 equally at liberty to reject our system and its ethics, and to main 
 tain the superiority of your own by all the forces of persuasion 
 and argument. We must, indeed, mutually discuss both systems. 
 All the world discusses all systems. Especially must we discuss 
 them since we have to decide, as a nation, which of the two we 
 ought to ingraft on the new and future states growing up in the 
 great public domain. Discussion, then, being unavoidable, what 
 could be more wise than to conduct it with mutual toleration and 
 in a fraternal spirit ? 
 
 You complain that republicans discourse too boldly and directly, 
 when they express, with confidence, their belief that the system of 
 lubor will, in the end, be universally accepted by the capital 
 states, acting for themselves, and in conformity with their own 
 constitutions, while they sanction, too unreservedly, books designed 
 to advocate emancipation. But surely you can hardly expect the 
 federal government, or the political parties of the nation, to 
 maintain a censorship of the press, or of debate. Would you 
 yourselves consent to the establishment of such a censorship as a 
 permanent institution ? The theory of our system is, that error of 
 opinion may, in all cases, safely be tolerated, where reason is left 
 free to combat it. Will it be claimed that more of moderation and 
 tenderness in debate are exhibited on your side of the great argu 
 ment than on our own? We all learned our polemics, as well as 
 our principles, from a common master. We are sure that we do 
 not, on our side, exceed his lessons and examples. Thomas Jeffer 
 son addressed Dr. Price, an Englishman, concerning his treatise 
 on emancipation in America, in this fashion : 
 
 "Southward of the Chesapeake, your book will find but few readers con 
 curring with it in sentiment, on the subject of slavery. From the mouth to 
 the head of the Chesapeake, the bulk of the people will approve it in theory, 
 and it will find a respectable minority ready to adopt it in practice ; a minor 
 ity which, for weight and worth of character, preponderates against the 
 greater number who have not the courage to divest their families of a prop- 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 419 
 
 erty which, however, keeps their consciences unquiet. Northward of the 
 Chesapeake, you may find here and there an opponent to your doctrine, as 
 you may find here and there a robber or a murderer ; but in no greater 
 number." ******* 
 
 " This (Virginia) is the next state to which we may turn our eyes for the 
 interesting spectacle of justice in conflict with avarice and oppression a 
 conflict where the sacred side is gaining, daily, new recruits, from the influx 
 into office of young men, grown and growing up." * * * 
 
 " Be not, then, discouraged. What you have written will do a great deal of 
 good ; and could you still trouble yourself about our welfare, no man is more 
 able to help the laboring side." 
 
 You see, sir, that whether we go for or against slavery any 
 where, we must follow southern guides. You may change your 
 pilots with the winds or the currents ; but we, whose nativity, 
 reckoned under the North Star, has rendered us somewhat super 
 stitious, must be excused for constancy in following the guidance 
 of those who framed the national ship and gave us the chart for 
 its noble voyage. 
 
 A profound respect and friendly regard for the Vice-President 
 of the United States, has induced me to weigh carefully the 
 testimony he has given on the subject of the hostility against the 
 South imputed to the republican party, as derived from the rela 
 tions of the representatives of the two parties at this capital. He 
 says that he has seen here in the representatives of the lower 
 Southern states, a most resolute and earnest spirit of resistance 
 to the republican party; that he perceives a sensible loss of that 
 spirit, of brotherhood, and that feeling of loyalty, together with 
 that love for a common country, which are at last the surest 
 cement of the Union ; so that, in the present unhappy condition 
 of affairs, he is almost tempted to exclaim that we are dissolving 
 week by week and month by month ; that the threads are gradu 
 ally fretting themselves asunder ; and a stranger might suppose 
 that the Executive of the United States was the president of two 
 hostile republics. It is not for me to raise a doubt upon the 
 correctness of this dark picture, so far as the southern groups upon 
 the canvas are concerned, but I must be indulged in the opinion 
 that I can pronounce as accurately concerning the northern or 
 republican representatives here as any one. I know their public 
 
420 SI ::! CUES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 haunts and their private ways. We are not a hostile republic, 
 or representatives of one. We confer together, but only as the 
 organs of every party do, and must do in a political system which 
 obliges us to act sometimes as partisans, while it requires us always 
 to be patriots and statesmen. Differences of opinion, even on the 
 subject of slavery, with us are political, not social or personal 
 differences. There is not one disunionist or disloyalist among us 
 all. We are altogether unconscious of any process of dissolution 
 going on among us or around us. We have never been more 
 patient, and never loved the representatives of other sections more 
 than now. We bear the same testimony for the people around us 
 here, who, though in the very centre where the bolt of disunion 
 must fall first and with most fearful effect, seem less disturbed 
 now than ever before. We bear the same testimony for all the 
 districts and states we represent. The people of the North are 
 not enemies, but friends and brethren of the South, faithful and 
 true as in the days when death has dealt his arrows promiscuously 
 among them on common battle-fields of freedom. 
 
 We will not suffer ourselves here to dwell on any evidences of 
 a different temper in the South; but we shall be content with 
 expressing our belief that hostility that is not designedly provoked, 
 and that can not provoke retaliation, is an anomaly that must be 
 traced to casual excitements, which can not perpetuate alienation. 
 
 A canvass for a presidential election, in some respects more, 
 important, perhaps, than any since 1800, has recently begun. 
 The house of representatives was to be organized by a majority, 
 while no party could cast more than a plurality of votes. The 
 gloom of the late tragedy in Virginia rested on the capitol from 
 the day when Congress assembled. While the two great political 
 parties were peacefully, lawfully, and constitutionally, though zeal 
 ously, conducting the great national issue between free labor arid 
 capital labor for the territories to its proper solution, through the 
 trials of the ballot, operating directly or indirectly on the various 
 departments of the government, a band of exceptional men, con 
 temptuous equally of that great question and of the parties to the 
 controversy, and impatient of the constitutional system which 
 confines the citizens of every state to political action by suffrage, 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 421 
 
 in organized parties within their own borders, inspired by an 
 enthusiasm peculiar to themselves, and exasperated by grievances 
 and wrongs that some of them had suffered by inroads of armed 
 propagandists of slavery in Kansas, unlawful as their own retalia 
 tion was, attempted to subvert slavery in Virginia, by conspiracy, 
 ambush, invasion, and force. The method we have adopted, of 
 appealing to the reason and judgment of the people, to be pro 
 nounced by suffrage, is the only one by which free government 
 can be maintained anywhere, and the only one as yet devised which 
 is in marked harmony with the spirit of the Christian religion. 
 While generous and charitable natures will probably concede that 
 John Brown and his associates acted on earnest, though fatally 
 erroneous, convictions, yet all good citizens will nevertheless agree, 
 that this attempt to execute an unlawful purpose in Virginia 
 by invasion, involving servile war, was an act of sedition and 
 treason, and criminal in just the extent that it affected the public 
 pence and was destructive of human happiness and human life. 
 Jt is a painful reflection that, after so long an experience of the 
 beneficent working of our system as we have enjoyed, we have 
 had these new illustrations in Kansas and Virginia of the existence 
 among us of a class of men so misguided and so desperate as to 
 beek to enforce their peculiar principles by the sword, drawing 
 after it a need for the further illustration, by their punishment, 
 of that great moral truth, especially applicable in a republic, that 
 they who take up the sword as a weapon of controversy shall 
 perish by the sword. Jn the latter case, the lamented deaths of 
 so many citizens, slain from an ambush and by surprise nil the 
 more lamentable because they were innocent victims of a, frenzy 
 kindled without their agency, in far distant fires the deaths even 
 of the offenders themselves, pitiable, although necessary and just, 
 because they acted under delirium, which blinded their judgments 
 to the real nature of their criminal enterprise ; the alarm and con 
 sternation naturally awakened throughout the country, exciting, for 
 the moment, the fear that our whole system, with all its securities 
 for life and liberty, was coining to an end a fear none the more 
 endurable because continually aggravated by new chimeras to 
 which the great leading event lent an air of probability; surely all 
 
422 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 these constituted a sum of public misery, which ought to have 
 satisfied the most morbid appetite for social horrors. But, as in 
 the case of the gunpowder plot, and the Salem witchcraft, and the 
 New York colonial negro plot, so now ; the original actors were 
 swiftly followed by another and kindred class, who sought to 
 prolong and widen the public distress by attempting to direct the 
 indignation which it had excited, against parties guiltless equally 
 of complicity and of sympathy with the offenders. 
 
 Posterity will decide in all the recent cases where political 
 responsibility for public disasters must fall; and posterity will 
 give little heed to our interested instructions. It was not until the 
 gloomy reign of Domitian had ended, and liberty and virtue had 
 found assured refuge under the sway of the milder Nerva, that 
 the historian arose whose narrative of that period of tyranny and 
 terror has been accepted by mankind. 
 
 The republican party bein^ thus vindicated against the charge 
 of hostility to the South, which has been offered in excuse for the 
 menaces of unconstitutional resistance in the event of its success, 
 I feel well assured that it will sustain me in meeting them in the 
 spirit of the defender of the English Commonwealth : 
 
 " Surely they that shall boast as we do to be a free nation, and having the 
 power, shall not also have the courage to remove, constitutionally, every 
 governor, whether he be the supreme or subordinate, may please their fancy 
 with a ridiculous and painted freedom, fit to cozen babies, but are, indeed, 
 under tyranny and servitude, as wanting that power, wjiich is the root and 
 source of all liberty, to dispose of and economize in the land which God hath 
 given them, as members of family in their own home and free inheritance. 
 Without which natural and essential power of a free nation, though bearing 
 high their heads, they can, in due esteem, be thought no better than slaves 
 and vassals born in the tenure and occupation of another inheriting lord, 
 whose government, though not illegal or intolerable, hangs on them as a 
 lordly scourge, not as a free government." 
 
 The republican party knows, as the whole country will ulti 
 mately come to understand, that the noblest objects of national life 
 must perish, if that life itself shall be lost, and, therefore, it will 
 accept the issue tendered. It will take up the word Union, which 
 others are so willing to renounce, and combining it with that other 
 glorious thought, Liberty, which has been its inspiration so long, 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 423 
 
 it will move firmly onward, with the motto inscribed on its banner, 
 " UNION and LIBERTY, come what may, in victory as in defeat, in 
 power as out of power, now and for ever." 
 
 If the republican party maintain the Union, who and what 
 party is to assail it ? Only the democratic party, for there is no 
 other. Will the democratic party take up the assault? The 
 menaces of disunion are made, though not in its name, yet in its 
 behalf. It must avow or disavow them. Its silence, thus far, is 
 portentous, but is not alarming. The effect of the intimidation, 
 if successful, would be to continue the rule of the democratic 
 party, though a minority, by terror. It certainly ought to need 
 no more than this to secure the success of the republican party. 
 If, indeed, the time has come when the democratic party must 
 rule by terror, instead of ruling through conceded public confi 
 dence, then it is "quite certain that it cannot be dismissed from 
 power too soon. Ruling on that odious principle, it could not 
 long save either the Constitution or public liberty. But I shall 
 not believe the democratic party will consent to stand in this 
 position, though it does, through the action of its representatives* 
 seem to cover and sustain those who threaten disunion. I know 
 the democracy of the North. I know them now in their waning 
 strength. I do not know a possible disunionist among them all. 
 I believe they will be as faithful to the Union now as they were 
 in the bygone days when their ranks were full, and their challenge 
 to the combat was always the war-cry of victory. But, if it shall 
 prove otherwise, then the world will all the sooner know that 
 every party in this country must stand on Union ground ; that the 
 American people will sustain no party that is not capable of 
 making a sacrifice of its ambition on the altar of the country; that 
 although a party may have never so much of prestige, and never 
 such traditional merit, yet, if it be lacking in the one virtue of 
 loyalty to the Union, all its advantages will be unavailing; and 
 then obnoxious as, through long-cherished and obstinate prejudices, 
 the republican party is in the capital states, yet even there it will 
 advance like an army with banners, winning the favor of the 
 whole people, and it will be armed with the national confidence 
 
424: SPK1-:CHKS IN THK UNITKD STATICS SENATE. 
 
 and support, when it shall be found the only party that defends 
 and maintains the integrity of the Union. 
 
 Those who seek to awaken the terrors of disunion seem to me 
 to have too hastily considered the conditions under which they 
 are to make their attempt. Who believes that a republican 
 administration and Congress could practice tyranny under a 
 Constitution which interposes so many checks as ours? Yet that 
 tyranny must not only be practiced, but must be intolerable, and 
 there must be no remaining hope for constitutional relief, before 
 forcible resistance can find ground to stand on anywhere. 
 
 The people of the United States, acting in conformity with the 
 Constitution, are the supreme tribunal to try and determine all 
 political issues. They are as competent to decide the issues of 
 to-day, as they have been heretofore to decide the issues of other 
 days. They can reconsider hereafter, and reverse, if need be, the 
 judgment they shall pronounce to-day, as they have more than 
 once reconsidered and reversed their judgments in former times. 
 It needs no revolution to correct any error, or prevent any danger, 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 Nor is any new or special cause for revolution likely to occur 
 under a republican administration. We are engaged in no new 
 transaction, not even in a new dispute. Our fathers undertook a 
 great work for themselves, for us, and for our successors to erect 
 a free and federal empire, whose arches shall span the North 
 American continent, and reflect the rays of the sun throughout 
 his whole passage from the one to the other of the great oceans. 
 They erected thirteen of its columns all at once. These are 
 standing now, the admiration of mankind. Their successors 
 added twenty more ; even we who are here have shaped and 
 elevated three of those twenty, and all these are as firm and stead 
 fast as the first thirteen ; and more will yet be necessary when we 
 shall have rested from our labors. Some among us prefer for 
 these columns a composite material; others, the pure white marble. 
 Our fathers and our predecessors differed in the same way, and 
 on the same point. What execrations should we not all unite in 
 pronouncing on any statesmen who heretofore, from mere disap 
 pointment and disgust at being overruled in his choice of materials 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 425 
 
 for any new column then to be quarried, should have laid violent 
 hands on the imperfect structure and brought it down to the earth, 
 there to remain a wreck, instead of a citadel of a world s best 
 hopes ! 
 
 I remain now in the opinion I have uniformly expressed here 
 and elsewhere, that these hasty threats of disunion are so unnatural 
 thho ey will find no hand to execute them. We are of one race, 
 language, liberty, and faith ; engaged, indeed, in varied industry, 
 but even that industry, so diversified, brings us into more intimate 
 relations with each other than any other people, however homo 
 geneous, and though living under a consolidated government, ever 
 maintained. We languish throughout, if one joint of our federal 
 frame is smitten ; while it is certain that a part dissevered must 
 perish. You may refine as you please about the structure of the 
 government, and say that it is a compact, and that a breach, by one 
 of the states or by Congress, of any one article, absolves all the mem 
 bers from allegiance, and that the states may separate when they 
 have, or fancy they have cause for war. But once try to subvert 
 it, and you will find that it is a government of the whole people as 
 individuals, as well as a compact of states ; that every individual 
 member of the body-politic is conscious of his interest and power 
 in it, and knows that he will be helpless, powerless, hopeless, when 
 it shall have gone down. Mankind have a natural right, a natural 
 instinct, and a natural capacity for self-government ; and when, as 
 here, they are sufficiently ripened by culture, they will and must 
 have self-government, and no other. The framers of our Consti 
 tution, with a wisdom that surpassed all previous understanding 
 among men, adapted it to these inherent elements of human 
 nature. He strangely, blindly misunderstands the anatomy of the 
 great system, who thinks that its only bonds, or even its strongest 
 ligaments, are the written compact, or even the multiplied and 
 thoroughly ramified roads and thoroughfares of trade, commerce, 
 and social intercourse. These are strong indeed, but its chiefest 
 instruments of cohesion those which render it inseparable and 
 indivisible are the millions of fibres of millions of contented, 
 happy human hearts, binding by their affections, their ambitions, 
 and their best hopes, equally the high and the low, the rich and 
 
426 SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 the poor, the wise and the unwise, the learned and the untutored, 
 even the good and the bad. to a government, the first, the last, and 
 the only such one that has ever existed, which takes equal heed 
 always of their wants, their wishes, and their opinions ; and appeals 
 to them all, individually, once in a year, or in two years, or at least 
 in four years, for their expressed consent and renewal, without 
 which it must cease. No, go where you will, and to what class 
 you may, with commissions for your fatal service in one hand, and 
 your bounty counted by the hundred or the thousand pieces of 
 silver in the other, a thousand resisters will rise up for every 
 recruit you can engage. On the banks equally of the St. Lawrence 
 and of the Rio Grande, on the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, on 
 the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and in the dells of the Rocky 
 Mountains, among the fishermen on the banks of Newfoundland, 
 the weavers and spinners of Massachusetts, the stevedores of New 
 York, the miners of Pennsylvania, Pike s Peak, and California, 
 the wheat-growers of Indiana, the cotton and the sugar planters 
 on the Mississippi, among the voluntary citizens from every other 
 land, not less than the native born,* the Christian and the Jew, 
 among the Indians on the prairies, the contumacious Mormons in 
 Deseret, the Africans free, the Africans in bondage, the inmates 
 of hospitals and almshouses, and even the criminals in the peniten 
 tiaries, rehearse the story of your wrongs and their own, never so 
 eloquently and never so mournfully, and appeal to them to rise. 
 They will ask you, "Is this all?" "Are you more just than 
 Washington, wiser than Hamilton, more humane than Jefferson?" 
 "What new form of government or of union have you the power 
 to establish, or even the cunning to devise, that will be more just, 
 more safe, more free, more gentle, more beneficent, or more 
 glorious than this?" And by these simple interrogatories you 
 will be silenced and confounded. 
 
 Mr. President, we are perpetually forgetting this subtle and 
 complex, yet obvious and natural mechanism of our Constitution ; 
 and because we do forget it, we are continually wondering how it 
 is that a confederacy of thirty and more states, covering regions 
 so vast, and regulating interests so various of so many millions of 
 men, constituted and conditioned so diversely, works right on. 
 
THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 427 
 
 We are continually looking to see it stop and stand still, or fall 
 suddenly into pieces. But, in truth, it will not stop ; it can not 
 stop ; it was made not to stop, but to keep in motion in motion 
 always, and without force. For my own part, as this wonderful 
 machine, when it had newly come from the hands of its almost divine 
 inventors, was the admiration of my earlier years, although it was 
 then but imperfectly known abroad, so now, when it forms the 
 central figure in the economy of the world s civilization, and the 
 best sympathies of mankind favor its continuance, I expect that it 
 will stand and work right on, until men shall fear its failure no 
 more than we now apprehend that the sun will cease to hold his 
 eternal place in the heavens. 
 
 Nevertheless, I do not expect to see this purely popular, though 
 majestic, system always working on unattended by the presence 
 and exhibition of human temper and human passions. That would 
 be to expect to enjoy rewards, benefits, and blessings, without 
 labor, care, and watchfulness an expectation contrary to divine 
 appointment. These are the discipline of the American citizen, 
 and he must inure himself to it. When, as now, a great policy, 
 fastened upon the country through its doubts and fears, confirmed 
 by its habits, and strengthened by personal interests and ambitions, 
 is to be relaxed and changed, in order that the nation may have 
 its just and natural and free developments, then, indeed, all the 
 winds of controversy are let loose upon us from all points of the 
 political compass, we see objects and men only through mazes, 
 mists, and doubtful and lurid lights. The earth seems to be 
 heaving under our feet, and the pillars of the noble fabric that 
 protects us to be trembling before our eyes. But the appointed 
 end of all this agitation comes at last, and always seasonably ; the 
 tumults of the people subside ; the country becomes calm once 
 more ; and then we find that only our senses have been disturbed, 
 and that they have betrayed us. The earth is firm as always 
 before, and the wonderful structure, for whose safety we have 
 feared so anxiously, now more firmly fixed than ever, still stands 
 unmoved, enduring and immovable. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 ABROGATION of the Missouri Compro 
 mise 147, 162,22:1,351 
 
 Adams, John 270,292.333 
 
 Adams, John Quincy 31, 33. 90. 121, 150, 219 
 Addresses, Arguments, and Speeches : 
 
 at Union College 91 
 
 in the Supreme Court of U. S. 92, 96, 243 
 
 on Invention 92 
 
 on Fugitive Slave Law 96, 243 
 
 on Freeman s Trial 107, 275 
 
 at Detroit 116 
 
 at Cleveland 123 
 
 nt Rutland 138, 176 
 
 at Columbus 158, 327 
 
 at American Institute 158, 320 
 
 at Yale College 169,291 
 
 in the U. S. Senate 176, et seq. 
 
 nt Springfield 195 
 
 at Westfield 200 
 
 at Sunday-School Celebration 204 
 
 at Anniversary of Bible Society 210 
 
 in the Court of Chancery 219 
 
 at Utica 227 
 
 to the Indians 306 
 
 in the N. Y. Senate 307 
 
 of n Republican Convention 314 
 
 a Legislative, in 1831 317 
 
 on the President s Veto Insane Bill. 317 
 
 on the Destiny of America 327 
 
 on the Nebraska Question 351 
 
 African Suffrage 
 
 Agriculture 53, 138, 175 
 
 Albany Evening Journal 42 
 
 Albany Regency, The 31, 35, 49, 314 
 
 America, Destiny of 158, 327 
 
 American Enterprise 277 
 
 American Fisheries 138, 283 
 
 American Independence, True Basis 158. 320 
 American People. Development of. 169, 291 
 
 American Steam Navigation 138, 277 
 
 Ancestry of Sewards 13 
 
 Aneodm,"* 13, 18, 21, 22 
 
 Anthon John ~ "> 
 
 Anti-Masonry 33, 317 
 
 . Anti-Rent Trouble? HO 
 
 Arctic Ocean. Survey of. 138. 283 
 
 Arguments, Forensic 92, 90, 107, 116, 243, 2<!;> 
 Armstrong. Robert. 18 
 
 PACK. 
 
 Auburn 26, 90 
 
 Austin, John M 91 
 
 P,ad<rer. Senator 225, 375 
 
 Baltimore Convention 147 
 
 Banking. Reforms in 58 
 
 Barnburners and Hunkers 122 
 
 Bell, Senator 163, 366 
 
 Belknap, General 18 
 
 Benton, Thomas H 367 
 
 Berdan, David 32 
 
 Ber i ien, Senator 225 
 
 Betts. Samuel R 18 
 
 Bible. The 27, 210 
 
 Bouck, William C 89 
 
 Bradish, Luther 50,89 
 
 Branches of Seward Family 13 
 
 Biidfman, Laura 295 
 
 British Power 287 
 
 Brown, William 28 
 
 Buel, Jesse -. 48 
 
 Burke s Speech, imaginary 278 
 
 Burr, Aaron 19 
 
 Burt, James 18 
 
 Calhoun, John C 153, 259, 312, 398 
 
 California 132 
 
 Canal, Chenango 36 
 
 Canal, Erie 68,72, 194 
 
 Cass, Senator 150.366 
 
 Chase, Senator 163, 275 
 
 Children of Exiles 212 
 
 Cincinnati Case 96 
 
 Clay, Henry 40, 88, 121, 130, 169, 367 
 
 Clemens, Senator 225 
 
 Clergy, The New Ensland 168, 223 
 
 Cleveland Speech, The 123 
 
 Clinton, De Witt 52, 159, 198 
 
 Clinton Family, The 17 
 
 Colden, Cadwallader C 17 
 
 College, Union 19 
 
 College, Yale 169 
 
 Collins Steamers, The 277 
 
 Colonel John Seward 13 
 
 Colored Citizens, Letter to 306 
 
 Colt, John C., Case of 77 
 
 Columbia, District of. 247 
 
 Columbus Oration 158 
 
 COMMERCE (Selection) 
 
 Public Faith 27 
 
 American Enterprise 277 
 
 Tin- Wliale Fisheries 283 
 
 Commerce on the Pacific 286 
 
 A Continental Railroad its Com 
 mercial Advantages 289 
 
430 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Compromse Bill, The 135, 141, 145, 147, 238 
 Compromises cannot settle the Slavery 
 
 Question 270 
 
 Congress of 1853- 54 161 
 
 Constitutional Convention 122 
 
 Continental RailroHd 289 
 
 Continental Risrhts 150 
 
 Conventions, Baltimore 147 
 
 Convention, Young Men s 33 
 
 Cooperstown Case 96 
 
 Cooper, J. Fenimore 95 
 
 Court of Errors 45 
 
 Criminal Trials 95 
 
 Crittenden, John J 66 
 
 Cuba, Annexation of 150, 155 
 
 Davis, Governor 195 
 
 Dawson, Senator 227 
 
 Dedication of University at Columbus, 
 
 Ohio 158,327 
 
 D Hauteville, Madame 80 
 
 Delinquent?, Juvenile 77 
 
 Destiny of America, The 158, 327 
 
 Detroit Case, The 115 
 
 Development of American People, &c.. 169 
 
 District of Columbia, Slavery in 247 
 
 Disunion, Apprehensions of, groundless. 257 
 
 Dix, Miss D. L 318 
 
 Dix, John A 131 
 
 Dixon, Senator 1ft} 
 
 Doctor S. S. Seward . 14 
 
 Doctor of Laws, Degree of 169 
 
 Domain, The Public 136, 161, 254, 309 
 
 Douglas, Senator 162 
 
 Duer, John 18, 25 
 
 Education, Universal 36, 53, 200, 299 
 
 EDUCATION (Selections) 
 
 its proper Range 200 
 
 a Leveller. 202 
 
 Female 205 
 
 and the People 206 
 
 better than Conquest 207 
 
 the Bible, and a Republic 210 
 
 defective System of 210 
 
 Amendments proposed 210 
 
 Children ofExiles 212 
 
 The Public School Society 215 
 
 Elections by the People 37, 62 
 
 Election of Governor. 51 
 
 Election of 1840 88 
 
 of!844 121 
 
 of 1848 122 
 
 of 18o2 141, 147 
 
 Election of Senator 131 
 
 Elgin, Lord 140 
 
 Emancipation in District of Columbia.. 247 
 
 Enlargement of Erie Canal 68, 72, 192 
 
 Enterprise, American 277 
 
 Erie Railroad ,... 3(5, 49, 73, 194 
 
 EULOGIES 
 
 on John Quincy Adams 91, 219 
 
 on O Comtell 98 
 
 on James Tallmadge 158 
 
 on Henry Clay ]fi9 
 
 on Daniel Webster 169 
 
 Europe, Freedom in i;t7 
 
 Europe. Letters from . .. . . . 42 
 
 Everett, Senator 163, 168 
 
 Exiles, Children of. 216 
 
 Extradition of Fugitives. 
 
 245 
 
 Faith, Public 276, 351 
 
 Family, The Seward 13 
 
 Female Convicts 76 
 
 Fenelon Archbishop 294 
 
 Fessenden. Senator 163 
 
 Fillmore, Millard 34, 145, 170 
 
 Fisheries, American 138 
 
 Fisheries, Whale 283 
 
 Fish, Governor 37 
 
 Fitch, Abel F 115 
 
 Flagg, Comptroller 69 
 
 Florida, Village of 14, 18 
 
 Forensic Arguments.... 92, 116, 119, 243, 295 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin 234 
 
 Freedom and Public Faith 351 
 
 Freedom and Slavery 126, 136, 219, 351 
 
 FREEDOM (Selections) 
 
 Eulogy on J. Q. Adams 219 
 
 Mutual Rights and Duties of Nations 221 
 
 The Right~of Petition 223 
 
 Political Equality 226 
 
 Religious Intolerance...... 227 
 
 Intolerance 229 
 
 Louis Kossuth 231 
 
 Congressional Compromises 238 
 
 The Recaption of Fugitive Slaves... 240 
 The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 Un 
 constitutional and Void...... . 243 
 
 Extradition of Fugitives 245 
 
 Emancipation in the District of Co 
 lumbia 247 
 
 Admission of new Slave-holding 
 
 States 249 
 
 Uses of the National Domain 254 
 
 Slavery in the new Territories 255 
 
 Apprehensions of Disunion ground 
 less 257 
 
 Slavery 268 
 
 The Slavery Question can never be 
 
 settled by Compromises 270 
 
 Moderation 273 
 
 Freeman Case, The 99, 295 
 
 French Spoliations 136, 276 
 
 Fugitives. Extradition of 245 
 
 Fugitive Slaves 82, 96, 119, 243 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 96, 243 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 144 
 
 Gadsden Treaty, The 168 
 
 Georgia, Seward Family in 13 
 
 Governor, Election of. 47, 51 
 
 Granger, Francis 34 
 
 Groundless Apprehensions of Disunion. 257 
 
 Hall, Willis 65 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander. 333 
 
 Harrison, General 65, 88 
 
 Hickok, Re.v. Dr 24 
 
 Higher Law, The 133, 242, 254, 271, 332 
 
 Hoffman. Ogden 18, 25 
 
 Holland Land Company.. 47 
 
 Hum> .-t -ail Bill, The 161,309 
 
 Houston. Senator 163 
 
 Hulbert. John M 28 
 
 Human Nature. The Cause of. 336 
 
 Hungarian Liberty 137 
 
 Hunkers and Barnburners...- 128 
 
INDEX. 
 
 431 
 
 Hunt, Governor 37 
 
 Imprisonment for Debt - 36 
 
 Indemnities, French Spoliations 276 
 
 Independence, Arm-dean, True Basis 158, 320 
 
 Indians. The 304 
 
 Insanity. 295 
 
 Insanity, Causes and Circumstances 299 
 
 fauna. Belief o( Veto 162, 317 
 
 Institute, American, Address 158, 320 
 
 In-tituto founded by S. S. So ward 15 
 
 Internal improvements.. 36, 68, 73, 121, 192 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS (Selections) 
 The Policy of the Founders of the 
 
 Republic. 
 
 Wise nnd Beneficent 
 
 Source of Prosperity to the State... 
 
 only sure Bond of Union 194 
 
 Suspension of, condemned 192 
 
 Resumption of, recommended 192 
 
 New York ami Massachusetts 195 
 
 Intolerance 227, 229 
 
 Inventors. Rights of 119 
 
 Invention. Sp.H-ch on 92 
 
 Ireland, Wrongs of 15 
 
 Irish Patriots 137 
 
 Iron, Bailroad, Speech 156 
 
 Jacicson, Andrew 33, 43, 312 
 
 Jay, John 82,251 
 
 Jay, William 51 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas 270 
 
 Jennings, Isaac 14 
 
 Jennings, Mary 15 
 
 Jury Trial for Fugitives 82 
 
 Kansas nnd Nebraska... 145.147,162,223,351 
 
 Kent, William 24 
 
 Kentucky, Seward Family 13 
 
 Kentucky, Slavery in 270 
 
 Kidnapped Negroes recovered 83 
 
 King, William R 284 
 
 Kossuth, Louis 137, 231 
 
 Lund--, The Public 136, 161, 254, 309 
 
 Law, Gov. Marcy s Loan 36 
 
 Law, The Fugitive Slave 96, 144, 243 
 
 Law, The Higher 133, 242, 254, 271, 332 
 
 Letter to Colored Citizens 306 
 
 Letter to New York, Nebraska 164 
 
 Letter to S. P. Chase 272 
 
 Libel, The Law of 119 
 
 Liberty of the Press 119 
 
 Marcy, Governor .". 36, 47 
 
 Massachusetts and New York 195 
 
 Massacre of Van Nest Family 91 
 
 Maxwell, Hugh 6 
 
 M Cormick s Reaper 282 
 
 M Lood Case, The 64 
 
 M.-aglvr, Thomas F 137 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 The Seward Family 
 
 Samuel S. Seward 
 
 The Mother of William II. S-.ward 
 
 Irish Lineage 
 
 William Henry Seward 
 
 Birthplace 
 
 Boyhood 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 School-Days 1 
 
 Orange County , - 17 
 
 Farmers Hall Academy 19 
 
 Young Sewnrd enters Union College 19 
 
 His College Life 20 
 
 Favorite Studies 20 
 
 Visits the South 20 
 
 Becomes a Teacher.. 21 
 
 Anecdotes. 21 
 
 Retu rns to College $ 
 
 Exciting Contests 23 
 
 Triumph of Seward 23 
 
 Gi ad nates 24 
 
 William Kent. 24 
 
 Seward appointed to address Dan 
 iel D. Tompkins 24 
 
 His Relations with Dr. Nott and his 
 
 College Companions 24 
 
 Enters the Law Office of John An- 
 
 thon as a Student 25 
 
 Completes his Studies with John 
 
 Duer mid Oaden Hoffman 25 
 
 Admitted to the Bar 25 
 
 Removes to Auburn 25 
 
 Associates with Judge Miller 25 
 
 Marriage - 26 
 
 Children 26 
 
 Auburn, it* Characteristics 26 
 
 Mr. Se ward s Religious Principles.. 26 
 His Early Devotion to Public Im 
 provement 27 
 
 Character as a Lawyer 27 
 
 John C. Spencer 28 
 
 John M. Hulbert 28 
 
 Mr. Sewiird s Success at the Bar... 29 
 
 His Political Predilections 29 
 
 Mr. Seward takes Ground against 
 
 Slavery 30 
 
 His Views and Course 30 
 
 His Views of the Albany Regency 
 
 in!824 31 
 
 Oration for Greece 32 
 
 Eulogy on David Berdan 32 
 
 Young Men s Convention 33 
 
 John Q. Adams and General Jackson 33 
 
 Antimasonic Excitement 33 
 
 Mr. Seward nominated for Congress 
 
 in 1828 r.... 33 
 
 Declines 33 
 
 Supports the National Republican 
 
 Party 33 
 
 Nominated for the State Senate 34 
 
 Mr. Seward enters the Senate of 
 
 New York 34 
 
 His Position and Course 35 
 
 His Maiden Speech 36 
 
 Militia Reforms 36 
 
 Internal Improvements 36 
 
 Imprisonment for Debt. ........... 36 
 
 Universal Education 36 
 
 Klrctions by the People 37 
 
 The United States Bank 38 
 
 Prison for Females 39 
 
 Oriain of the Whig Party 39 
 
 Corporations 40 
 
 Presidential Election, 1832 40 
 
 Clay and Wirt 40 
 
 Mr. Seward s Course 4C 
 
 Visits Europe 41 
 
43J 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 Letters from Europe 42 
 
 Returns and resumes his Seat in the 
 
 Senate , 43 
 
 Speech on the removal of the De- 
 
 posites - 43 
 
 Governor Marcy s Loan Law 44 
 
 The Court of Errors 45 
 
 Mr. Seward as a Judge 45 
 
 His Eulogium on Lafayette 46 
 
 Nominated for Governor, 1834 47 
 
 His large Vote 47 
 
 Delivers an Address on Education 
 
 and Internal Improvements at Au 
 burn 47 
 
 Appointed Agent of the Holland 
 
 Land Company 47 
 
 Delivers a Discourse on Education 
 
 at Westfield, Chautauque County, 
 
 July, 1837 48 
 
 Triumph of the Whigs 49 
 
 Now York and Erie Railroad 49 
 
 Second Nomination lor Governor, 
 
 1838 50 
 
 Elected Governor . . 51 
 
 Complete Success of the Whigs, 
 
 and overthrow of the Regency... 51 
 Mr. Seward the first Whit Governor 
 
 of New York .". 52 
 
 Peculiar Circumstances 52 
 
 Mr. Seward s Course and Measures 52, 53 
 His Devotion to Improvements and 
 
 Reforms 53 
 
 AgrieultJire 53 
 
 Education 54 
 
 The School Controversy 54 
 
 Immigrants 56 
 
 Law Reform 56 
 
 Decentralization of the Regency 
 
 Power 57 
 
 Reforms in the Banking System 58 
 
 Small Bill Law 58 
 
 Geological Survey 59 
 
 Notes on New York 59 
 
 Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt 59 
 Governor Seward s Course in the 
 
 Anti-Rent Difficulties 60 
 
 Vindication by Court of Appeals... 6i 
 
 Militia Reforms 62 
 
 Election Laws 62 
 
 Veto of the Registry Acts Suppressed 63 
 
 Disturbances in Canada 64 
 
 TheM Leod Case 64 
 
 General Harrison 65 
 
 Mr. Webster. 65 
 
 Mr. Crittenden 66 
 
 Mr. Van Buren 67 
 
 Willis Hall 67 
 
 John Tyler 67 
 
 Mr. Seward s Firmness and Wisdom 
 
 Illustrated . . 67 
 
 Governor Seward and the Canals.. 68 
 
 The Enlargement Question 68 
 
 Report of S. B. Ruggles 69 
 
 Mr. Flaag s Policy 69 
 
 The State Debt 69 
 
 Financial Crisis 70 
 
 Erroneous Estimates by the Canal 
 
 Commissioners Discovered 70 
 
 Suspension of the Public Work.? 71 
 
 Governor Seward s Course 71 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 Resumption of the Public Works... 72 
 His Policy vindicated and re-estab 
 lished in 1854 72 
 
 Railroads 73 
 
 NewYorkand Erie 73 
 
 Hudson River 74 
 
 Pacific 75 
 
 Pardon Cases 76 
 
 The Insane Murderer 76 
 
 Female Convicts 76 
 
 Juvenile Delinquents 77 
 
 Benjamin Rathbun 77 
 
 John C. Colt 77 
 
 Catharine Wilkins 78 
 
 James Watson Webb and Thomas 
 
 F.Marshall 79 
 
 Madame D Hauteville 80 
 
 Thnrlow Weed 81 
 
 The Registry Act 81 
 
 The Lemmon Case 82 
 
 Jury Trial for Fugitive Slaves 82 
 
 State Officers prohibited from assist 
 ing in Arrest of Fugitive Slaves.. 82 
 Recovery of Kidnapped Negroes... 83 
 
 Solomon Northup 83 
 
 African Suffrage 83 
 
 The Virginia Controversy . . 84 
 
 Imprisonment of Colored Men in 
 
 Slave States 87 
 
 Resolves to decline a Re-Election... 87 
 
 General Harrisons Election in 1840 88 
 
 Mr. Clay s Nomination in 1844 88 
 
 Governor Seward s View 88 
 
 Defeat of the Whigs 89 
 
 Luther Bradish 89 
 
 Governor Bouck 89 
 
 Mr. Seward in Private Life 90 
 
 Receives John Quincy Adams at 
 
 Auburn 90 
 
 Death of John Quincy Adams 91 
 
 Mr. Seward s Eulogy 91 
 
 Mr. Seward as an Advocate 92 
 
 Practice at the Bar 92 
 
 Patent Causes 92 
 
 Extract from Argument 92 
 
 Capital Trial at Cooperstown 96 
 
 Fugitive Slave Trial 96 
 
 EulWy on O Connell 98 
 
 The Wyatt and Freeman Cases 99 
 
 Massacre of the Van Nest Family. . . 99 
 
 Trial of Freeman 102 
 
 Extract from Mr. Seward s Argu 
 ment 107 
 
 Sentence of Freeman Ill 
 
 New Trial granted 112 
 
 Death of Freeman 112 
 
 Change in Public Opinion 113 
 
 Review of the Case 113 
 
 The Trial of Abel F. Fitch and oth 
 ers for Conspiracy at Detroit in 
 
 1851 115 
 
 Mr. Seward s Defence 116 
 
 Extract from his Argument 116 
 
 His Views of Libel Suits 119 
 
 Mr. Seward recalled to Public Life. 120 
 
 Retrospect 120 
 
 Organization of the Native Ameri 
 can Party 120 
 
 Mr. Seward s Course 121 
 
 Annexation of Texas 121 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 Hunkers and Barnburners 12 
 
 Constitutional Convention, 1846 122 
 
 Prudential Election, 1848 122 
 
 His Speech at Cleveland 123 
 
 The Whig Platform in 1848 124 
 
 Freedom and Slavery 126 
 
 President Taylor 131 
 
 Mr. Seward elected Senator 131 
 
 His Relations with General Taylor. 132 
 
 The Higher Law 133 
 
 The Compromises 135 
 
 Freedom in District of Columbia... 136 
 
 French Spoliations 136 
 
 The Public Lands 136 
 
 Kossuth 137 
 
 Smith O Brien 137 
 
 Thomas F. Meagher 137 
 
 Freedom in Europe... 137 
 
 American Steam Navigation 138 
 
 American Fisheries 138 
 
 Agricultural Address 138 
 
 The Presidential Election of 1852... 141 
 Review of the Slavery Contest otl850 141 
 
 General Taylor s Position 142 
 
 Mr. Se ward supports it 142 
 
 Denounced a* an Agitator 143 
 
 The Fugitive Slave Bill 144 
 
 The Compromises 145 
 
 Death of President Taylor 145 
 
 Mr. Fillmor s Course and Coalition 
 
 with the Democrats 146 
 
 Franklin Pierce. 147 
 
 General Scott. 147 
 
 Millard Fillmore 147 
 
 Daniel Webster 147 
 
 Platform for Slavery 147 
 
 Mr. Webster u Course 148 
 
 Election of Franklin Pierce 148 
 
 Defeat of General Scott. 149 
 
 Thirty-Second Congress, Second 
 
 Session, 1852- 53 150 
 
 John Quincy Adams and General 
 
 Cass 150 
 
 Annexation of Cuba 155 
 
 Extract from Mr. Seward s Speech 
 
 on Railroad? 15f 
 
 Texas and her Creditors 15$ 
 
 The Destiny of America 15i 
 
 Address before American Institute. 15t 
 
 Eulogium on James Tallmadge 158 
 
 Thirty-Third Congress 161 
 
 m Nebraska 161 
 
 Introduction of the Nebraska Bill by 
 
 Mr. Dougla? 165 
 
 Fruit of the Compromise Measures 
 
 of 1850 162 
 
 Mr. Seward s Letter to the New 
 
 York Merchants 14 
 
 Hi- Second Nebraska Speech 166 
 
 His Speech on the Reception of a Re 
 monstrance from 3050 Clenrymen. 168 
 Review of Mr. Seward s Course in 
 
 the S.-nate 19 
 
 Eulogium on Henry Clay 19 
 
 Eulogium on Daniel W.-b- er 19 
 
 His Relations to th-> Whit: Tarty and 
 to Mr. Fillrnoiv s AiliiiuiUtrution. 19 
 
 MessaErs. Animnl 17 
 
 Mexican Relations 15 
 
 Mexican War 12 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Jidiignn Railroad Company 115 
 
 Hliria Reforms 36,307 
 
 tiller, Elijah 25 
 
 lilnor, James 119 
 
 IISCELLANEOUS (Selections) 
 
 The American People, their Moral 
 
 and Intellectual Development 201 
 
 Insanity Defence of Freeman 295 
 
 Insanity, some of its Causes and Cir 
 cumstances 299 
 
 The W rones of the Negro 302 
 
 The Indians Speech of Onondaga 
 
 Chief Governor Seward s Reply. 304 
 Letter to Colored Citizens of Albany 306 
 The Militia System: Reforms Pro 
 posed 307 
 
 The Public Domain The Home 
 stead Principle 309 
 
 The Whig Party 313 
 
 The Albany Regency in 1824 314 
 
 Secret Political Societies 317 
 
 Relief of the Indigent Insane 317 
 
 The True Basis of American Inde 
 pendence 320 
 
 Peace 324 
 
 Missouri Compromise 30, 32, 147, 162 
 
 Moderation recommended. 273 
 
 .lonroe Doctrine, The 150 
 
 Monroe, James 150 
 
 Morris, Robert H 84 
 
 Mutual Rights of Nations 221 
 
 Nashville Convention 142 
 
 National Domain, Uses of. 254 
 
 National Republican Party 33 
 
 Native American Party 120, 229 
 
 Navigation, Steam 138 
 
 Nebraska and Kansas 147, 162, 223, 351 
 
 Negro, The Wrongs of the 302 
 
 New Jersey, Seward Family in, 13 
 
 New Mexico 133,162 
 
 New York Letter, Nebraska 164 
 
 New York and Massachusetts 195 
 
 New Territories, Slavery in 255 
 
 Northup, H.B 83 
 
 Northup, Solomon 83 
 
 Notes on New York 59 
 
 Nott,Dr 24 
 
 O Brien, Smith 137 
 
 Oceans, Arctic and Pacific, Survey of... 138 
 
 O Connell, Daniel 98 
 
 Officers, State, and Slaves 82 
 
 Ohio, Letter to 273 
 
 Ohio, Speeches in 123, 32" 
 
 Onondaga Indians, Speech to 304 
 
 Orange County, its History 17 
 
 Oration at Columbus 158, 327 
 
 Orations and Speeches (see Addresses).. 325 
 Oregon Question, The 121 
 
 Pacific Ocean, Survey of. 138 
 
 Pacific Railroad 75, 155, 289 
 
 Pardon Cases, Interesting. 76 
 
 Party, The Democratic 29 
 
 Party. The Whig 39, 49, 51, 313 
 
 P. ace ! 324 
 
 Pennsylvania, Speeches in. 123 
 
 Petition, Right of. 147 
 
434: 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGK. 
 
 Phi Beta Kappa Society. 169 
 
 Philosophy, Political 331 
 
 PifM-ce, Franklin 147 
 
 Platforms, Political *147 
 
 Politics and Slavery 29, 51 
 
 Prejudices against Improvement 192 
 
 Presidential Elections 88, 121, 141, 147 
 
 Proviso, Wilraot 123 
 
 Public Faith 276, 351 
 
 Public Lands 136,161 
 
 Public School Society 215 
 
 Quebec and Montreal 140 
 
 Question, The Nebraska.. 147, 162, 223, 351 
 
 Question, The Oregon 121 
 
 Question.The Slavery, and Compromises 270 
 Quincy, Josiah 292 
 
 Railroads advocated 73, 156 
 
 Railroad, New York and Erie.. 36, 49, 73, 187 
 
 Hudson River 74 
 
 Ogdensburgh 73 
 
 Pacific 75,155,289 
 
 Albany and Boston 195 
 
 Iron Duties 156 
 
 Rathbun s, Benjamin, Case 77 
 
 Recaption of Fugitives 240 
 
 Reciprocity Treaty 168 
 
 Reforms advocated 36, 53, 62, 307 
 
 Registry of Voters 63, 81 
 
 Relief for the Indigent Insane 317 
 
 Religious Intolerance 227 
 
 Repeal of Slavery Laws in New York.. 82 
 
 Republics and the Bible 2 
 
 Right of Petition 22:* 
 
 Rome, The Example of. 33!) 
 
 Riiggles, Samuel B 69 
 
 Rutland, Address at 138 
 
 Sabbath School Address 204 
 
 Sackett. Gary V 61 
 
 School Controversy (see Education) 55 
 
 Scott, General 147, 150 
 
 Secret Societies, Political 317 
 
 SELECTIONS 
 
 Internal Improvements 192 
 
 Education 200 
 
 Freedom 219 
 
 Commerce 276 
 
 Miscellaneous 291 
 
 Senate, The New York 34 
 
 Senate, The United States 168 
 
 Seward Family, The 13 
 
 Seward, John 13 
 
 Seward, Samuel S 14 
 
 SKWARD, WILLIAM II. (see MEMOIH)... 17 
 
 Sherwood, Luman 106 
 
 Shields, Senator 366 
 
 Sidney, Algernon 271 
 
 Slavery... 21, 30, 82, 123, 131, 141, 145, 219, 
 
 ----- - 238, 255,351 
 
 Slave Law, Fugitive 96, 144, 240, 243 
 
 Slave Laws of 1850 141, 162 
 
 Smith, Gerritt 51 
 
 Smith, Truman 163 
 
 Societies, Secret Political 317 
 
 South, The 21 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Speeches (see Addresses) 175 
 
 Spencer, John C 28, 34, 72 
 
 Spencer, Joshua A 28, 67 
 
 Spoliations, French 276 
 
 Springfi.-ld Address 195 
 
 States, New Slaveholding 249 
 
 States, The, and the Union 317 
 
 Steam Navigation, American 277 
 
 Sumner, Charles 163 
 
 Suspension of Public Works 71, 81, 192 
 
 Tallmadge, James 158 
 
 Talhnadge, N. P 41 
 
 Taylor, General 122, 131 
 
 Taylor, General, His Death 145 
 
 Territories , Slavery in..... 255 
 
 Texas, Annexation Of. 88 
 
 Tompkins, Daniel D. 24 
 
 Tracy, Albert H 28 
 
 Unconstitutional, Fugitive Laws 243 
 
 Underwood, Senator 225 
 
 Union, The 142, ....317 
 
 Union College 19 
 
 United States Bank 38 
 
 Universal Education 36,54,200 
 
 Universal Suffrage 122, 226 
 
 Uses of the National Domain 254 
 
 Utah and New Mexico 162 
 
 Van Buren, Martin 31, 43, 65 
 
 Van Buren. John 102 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Stephen 60 
 
 Vermont, Visit to 138 
 
 Veto, The President s, of Insane Bill..,. 317 
 
 Virginia Case, The 84 
 
 Virginia, Slavery in 270 
 
 Virginia, Seward Family in 13 
 
 Void, Fugitive Laws 243 
 
 Wade, Senator 163 
 
 Warwick, Town of 18 
 
 Washington, Gen., and Col. Seward 13 
 
 Washington s Neutral Policy 137 
 
 Webb, James Watson 79 
 
 Webster, Daniel 65,72,130.147,169,249,313,367 
 
 Webster, Noah 19 
 
 Weed, Thurlow 34, 8l 
 
 Whale Fisheries, The 283 
 
 Whig Convention, 1852. 147 
 
 Whig Party, Origin of. 39, 313 
 
 Whig Party, Triumph of 51 
 
 Whiting, Judge 112 
 
 Whittlesey. Frederic 34 
 
 Wilkin. Samuel J 18 
 
 Wilkins, Catharine, Pardon 78 
 
 Wilmot Proviso 123, 141 
 
 Wirt, William, and the Presidency 40 
 
 Wright, David 104 
 
 Wright, Silas, Governor 101 
 
 Wrongs of the Negro 302 
 
 Wyatt, Henry, Case of 99 
 
 Wyckoff, Mrs 100 
 
 Yale College Address 169 ; 291 
 
 Young Men s Convention . 33 
 
 THE END. 
 
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