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EXTRA EVENING POST. 
 
 Speech Delivered By 
 HON. THOMAS HART BENTON, 
 At Jefferson, The Capital of Missouri, 
 On the 26*h May, 1849 
 
EXTRA EVENING POST. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED BY 
 
 HON. THOMAS HART BENTON, 
 
 AT JEFFERSON, THE CAPITOL OF MISSOURI, 
 
 The following speech was delivered by Senator 
 Benton, at Jefferson, the Capitol of Missouri, on the 
 26th May last. The occasion for its delivery, and the 
 purpose of its distinguished author, we need not de 
 tail, for they are fully set forth in the speech itself. - 
 
 In laying this effort of Senator Benton before our 
 readers, in a shape convenient for perusal and preser 
 vation, we feel called upon to direct public attention 
 to some of its prominent features. 
 
 It is made clear in this speech, if there had been 
 any doubt before on the subject, that not only was 
 the right of the federal government under the consti 
 tution to prohibit slavery in its territories, even in 
 those where it already existed, regarded by the early 
 statesmen of the south as undeniable, but that even 
 the prominent champions < f the present extreme south 
 ern doctrine, have once held that opinion. That all 
 Mr. Monroe's cabinet, including the members from the 
 slave states including even Mr. Calhoun held that 
 Congress had authority, under the federal com act, 
 to abolish slavery in Louisiana, no man can doubt 
 who has read the analysis which Mr Bentoa gives of 
 the evidence OD this subject, and of the series of misre- 
 collections, mi^-takes, and transpositions of events by 
 which Mr. Calhoun has attempted to avoid the charge. 
 Of course, that gentleman is made to figure among 
 the early abolitionists by his relentless adversary, 
 who shows him no quarter, and holds him up as a 
 man to whom, whatever may be his present views, 
 the anti-slavery party, if they regarded only his an 
 cient services, might be almost moved to erect a sta 
 tue. The truth is manifest, that the doctrines which 
 the. South Carolina senator now labors to establish, 
 and which have been adopted by the Virginia legisla 
 ture, are almost as new as the last new novel. They 
 are the product of a mind which has wandered from 
 subtlety to sub lety until it has entirely lose sight, of 
 the plain practical sense which guided the first inter 
 preters of the constitution. 
 
 One of the ablest passages in the speech is Mr. 
 Bentou's examination of this doctrine that the slave 
 holder has a right to take his property with him in 
 
 emigrating to the territories. It is an admirable ex 
 ample of the superiority of good sense to mere inge 
 nuity, and of the ease with which a strong mind tears 
 in pieces a showy plausibility. 
 
 If any thing could add value and weight to an ar 
 gument so irresistible, it is that it is the argument of 
 a southern man, of the representative of a slave state, 
 of one who is himself a slaveholder, and who, doubt 
 less, expresses opinions shared with him by numbers 
 of the more unprejudiced and liberal-minded of that 
 class. If this does not give the argument additional 
 weight, it adds greatly to its importance. It shows 
 the existence in that quarter of a spirit of candid 
 dealing, of sincere respect for the constitution, and of 
 regard for the welfare of the new communities to be 
 founded on the Pacific, to which we may safely look 
 for the wise and pacific settlement of this fierce con 
 troversy. 
 
 In reading this speech, however, we have been 
 tempted to regret that Mr. Benton has not gone yet 
 further, so far at least as to admit the expediency of 
 prohibiting slavery in the territories. Be holds that 
 Congress has a right to enforce such a prohibition ; 
 he is against slavery, he tells us ; he would resist its 
 introduction into California and New Mexico ; the 
 ordinance of 1787 was a noble and a wise ordinance 
 in his view, and the same policy which we then adopted 
 in regard to the Northwestern Territory ought, he 
 thinks, to be pursued in the government of the 
 country acquired from Mexico, fie believes, how 
 ever, the express prohibition of slavery in these 
 provinces to be necessary ,an since slavery does not now 
 exist there, and cannot be introduced but by act 
 of Congress, and he would not vote for a regulation 
 which he thought to be simply superfluous. 
 
 But is a law unnecessary, we should ask Mr. Ben- 
 ton, the object of which is to end an angry contro 
 versy 1 He complains of the agitation of this ques 
 tion as disquieting the Union. The prohibition of 
 slavery by Congress would effectually compose the 
 agitation When opinions are divided in regard to 
 a point of existing law, declaratory statutes are often 
 
2 
 
 passed by a legislature. On ibis question of the 
 right to hold slaves in New Mexico, opinions are 
 divided not the opinions of shallow politicians 
 merely, but the opinions of men who are looked up 
 to as expositors of the constitution ; the opinions of 
 able and learned jurists. Can any man say how the 
 question would be decided if it were to be brought 
 before the Supreme Court of the United States T Mr. 
 Benton may tell us how it ought to be decided ; 
 but can he give us any guarranty that his views 
 would be adopted by the court 1 Under such cir 
 cumstances, a formal assertion of the right of Congress 
 over the question of slavery in the territories, and a 
 declaration that the institution is unlawful within 
 their limits, seems to us as far from superfluous and 
 unnecessary as we can well imagine. 
 
 If the politicians and public men, and legislatures 
 of the southern states, were all of the same opinion as 
 Mr. Benton, there would be no occasion for the exer 
 cise of this right. It would then be acknowledged 
 that slavery has not, and cannot have a legal exist 
 ence in the nw territories, and all public authorities, 
 courts of justice and individuals, would govern them 
 
 selves accordingly. To such a state of things, Mr. 
 Benton's notion of the inutility of the prohibition of 
 slavery in the territories is perfectly well suited. Bui 
 as long as the right to hold slaves in the territories ig 
 asserted by a powerful party, holding an influence 
 mighty beyond its actual numbers, and numerously 
 represented on the Supreme Bench of the United 
 States, it is very unsafe to leave the question as it 
 now stands without any declaration of Congress on 
 the subject. 
 
 Mr. Benton's argument, however, ia well calcula 
 ted for effect at the south. He tells the slaveholders 
 that they cannot and ought not to resist the exclusion 
 of slavery from the new territories ; that its introduc 
 tion would be a grievous wrong, which Congress baa 
 a right to prohibit, and that it is folly to agitate the 
 question, with Kny hope of being able to propagate 
 slavery in that quarter, inasmuch as slavery is for 
 bidden by the present laws of those provinces, which 
 are in force until repealed by Congress. Those who 
 entertain these views certainly cannot make any 
 strong opposition to the i assage of a law expressly 
 enforcing the exclusion of slavery. 
 
 JEFFERSON CITY, May 26, 1849. 
 
 CITIZENS! I have received certain resolutions 
 from the General Assembly of Missouri, denying the 
 right of Congress to legislate upon the subject of 
 slavery in territories asserting the right of the citi 
 zens of every state to remove to the territories, ac 
 quired by the blood and treasure of the whole Union, 
 with i heir property declaring it to be an insult to 
 the states to exclude any of iheir citizens from so re 
 moving aud settling with their property alleging 
 such insult to be the cause of alienation among the 
 states, and ultimately of disunion ; and instructing 
 the senators of the state, and requesting its repre 
 sentatives to vote in conformity to the resolves so 
 adopted. 
 
 These instructions, of which I now only give the 
 substance, were adopted by the General Assembly 
 after the adjournment of Congress, and after the time 
 that it must have beer* believed that the subject to 
 which they refer had been disposed of in Congress. 
 and while other resolutions incompatible with them 
 had been given by the previous General Assembly, 
 and had been complied with by me, and were still on 
 hand. They are a mere copy of the Calhoun resolu 
 tions offered in the Senate in February, 1847, de 
 nounced by me at the time as a fire brand, intended 
 for electioneering and disunion purposes, aud aban 
 doned by him after their introduction, without ever 
 calling a vote upon them, for a reason which will be 
 hereafter shown. I produce them in order to justify 
 the character 1 give of them, and to show them to be 
 the original of those which I have received from the 
 General Assembly of Missouri. 
 
 THE CALHOUN RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 " Resolved, That the territories of the United 
 States belong to the several states composing th'S 
 Union, and are held by them as their joint aud com 
 mon property 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress, as the joint agent and 
 representatives of the states of this Union, has no 
 right to make any law, or do any act whatever that 
 
 shall, directly or by its effects, make any discrimina 
 tion between the states of this Union, by which any 
 of them shall be deprived of its full and equal right in 
 any territory of the United States acquired or to be 
 acquired. 
 
 * hiesolved, That the enactment of any law which 
 should directly or by its effects, deprive the citizens 
 of any of the states of this Union from emigrating 
 with their property into any of the territories of the 
 United States, will make such discrimination, and 
 would, therefore, be a. violation of the constitution 
 and the rights of the states from which s-ueh citizens 
 emigrated, and in derogation of that perfect equality 
 which belongs to them as members of the Union, and 
 would tend directly to subvert the Union itself. 
 
 " Resolved, That as a fundamental principle in our 
 
 Solitical creed, a people in forming a constitution, 
 ave the unconditional right to form and adopt the 
 government which they may think best calculated to 
 secure liberty, prosperity and happiness ; and that, 
 in conformity thereto, no other condition is imposed 
 by the federal constitution on a state, in order to her 
 admission into this Union, except that its constitution 
 be republican, and that the imposition of any other 
 by Congress would not only be in violation of the con 
 stitution, but in direct conflict with the principle on 
 which our political system rests " 
 
 These resolutions were bronght into the Senate, 
 February 19, 1847, and are the prototype of those 
 sent mo by the Gent-nil Assembly of Missouri. 1 nee 
 no diiferencc in them but in the time contemplated for 
 the dissolution of the Union Mr. Calhoun's tending 
 "direfUy*' and those of Missouri " ultimately " to 
 that point In other respects they are identical, and 
 this d.fference is not. material, as (he Missouri rt-.--o,u- 
 tiond pledge the state to "cooperate" with other 
 slaveholdiug states, and therefore to follow their Uuil, 
 which may be directly, as the Accomac resolutions 
 vouch in <r to be the voice of the south, call fur a stale 
 Convention, as soon as a bill can be passed for the pur 
 pose, to organize the mode of action. 1 consider the 
 
Calhoun resolutions as the parent of those adopted by 
 our Legislature, and entitled to the first attention j 
 and in that point of view, shall speak to them first : 
 and begin with an argument against it derived from 
 the conduct of that gentleman himself. 
 
 In the year 1S20, Mr. Calhoun was a member of 
 Mr Monroe's cabinet, and as such was required, by 
 the President, in common with the rest of the cabi 
 net, to give his opinion in writing, to be filed in the 
 department of State, on the question of the power ot 
 Congress to prohibit slavery in territories, and on 
 the constitutionality of the 8th section of the act for 
 the admission of Missouri into the Union, and which 
 section applied the anti-slavery clause of the Or 
 dinance of 1787, to more than half of the whole Ter 
 ritory of Louisiana The questions were momen 
 tous. The whole Union was then convulsed on the 
 subject of si .very, growing out of the Missouri con 
 troversy. Congress had just passed an act for the 
 admission of Missouri without restriction, but with a 
 prohibition of slavery in all the territory north and 
 west of her. The act was just coming to Mr Mon 
 roe for his approval or disapproval. If approved by 
 him, it became a law at once ; if disapproved, the 
 act was defeated forever ! for it was known that the 
 constitutional majorities of two-thirds of Congress 
 could not be obtained for the act if disapproved by 
 the President. The whole responsibility of passing 
 or defeating the act, then rested on Mr. Monroe He 
 felt the magnitude of that responsibility, and saw 
 that it was an occasion to require the gravest advice 
 of his Cabinet. He determined to have their advice 
 and in the most matured and responsible form. The 
 act had passed on the 3d of March. He immediately 
 convoked his cabinet stated the question reduced 
 them to writing gave a copy to each member and 
 required them to be answered in writing. On the 
 6th, all the answers were given, and all in the affirm 
 ative on both quesiions ; and the act was immediate 
 ly approved and signed, and became the law of the 
 land. The law bears date on that day March 6th, 
 1820. Mr. Calhoun gave his written opinion with 
 the rest, in favor of the constitutionality of the act, 
 and no whisper was ever heard from him to the con 
 trary, or in denial of the right of Congress to prohi 
 bit or abolish slavery in territories until the introduc 
 tion of his fire-brand resolutions, twenty-seven years 
 after his cabinet opinion had been given. These reso 
 lutions were brought in near the close of the short 
 session of 1846 '7, and were intended for general de 
 bate at the session of 1847 '8, the long session 
 which preceded the Presidential election and to 
 make a chance for himself at that election by getting 
 up a test which no northern man could stand. But 
 that general debate never came on. Before the time 
 had ripened for it, the cabinet opinions of 1S20 had 
 been found out, and were produced in the Senate to 
 the confusion of Mr. Calhoun, and utter prostration 
 of his resolutions. They were first produced by Mr. 
 Westcott, of Florida, and afterwards by Mr. Dix, of 
 New York. The proofs were in writing, and to the 
 noint, and from two different witnesses and the two, 
 * bove all men ia the world, the most competent and 
 credible to testify in the case Mr. Monroe and Mr. 
 Adams both dead, but both speaking from the tomb, 
 aad in the highest form known to the law of avidence 
 that of recorded evidence, written down at the 
 time as the true history of a fact, and without the 
 slightest expectation that it was ever to be used 
 against any human being. Mr. Monroe's testimony 
 was in his own hand writing, obtained from his son-in- 
 law, and consisted of two pieces one being the inter 
 rogatories propounded to his cabinet, and the other 
 the autograph copy, or draft of a letter to a friend. 
 the interrogatories were endorsed thus : *' Interroga 
 
 tories Missouri,, March, 4, 1820'" " To the headt 
 of Departments and Attorney General " The in 
 terrogatories themselves were in these words : 
 
 " Has a Congress a right under the powers vested 
 in it by the Constitution to make a regulation prohi 
 biting slavery in a Territory 1" 
 
 " Is the 8th section of the act which passed both. 
 Houses on the 3d instant for the admission of Mis 
 souri into the Union, consistent with the Constitu 
 tion 1" 
 
 With these questions was an original draft of a let 
 ter in Mr. Monroe's band writing, not dated, signed, 
 or addressed to any one, but supposed to be written to 
 General Jackson, which letter shows that these two 
 questions were put to Mr Monroe's cabinet, were an 
 swered by them in writing, and that they were unan 
 imous in answering the questions in the affirmative. 
 This is the letter : 
 
 'DEAR SIR: The question which lately agitated 
 Congress and the public has been settled, as you have 
 seen, by the passage of an act for the admission of 
 Missouri as a state, unrestrained, and Arkansas like 
 wise when it reaches maturity, and the establishment 
 of 36d. 30m. north latitude as a line, north of 
 which slavery is prohibited, and permitted to the 
 south. I took the opinion in writing of the adminis 
 tration as to the constitutionality of restraining terri 
 tories, [and the vote of every member was unanimous 
 and*] which was explicit in favor of it, and as it was 
 that the 8th section of the act was applicaple to terri 
 tories only, and not to states when they should be ad 
 mitted into the Union. On this latter point I had at 
 first some doubt; but the opinion of others, whose 
 opinions were entitled to weight with me, supported 
 by the sense in which it was viewed by all who voted 
 on the subject in Congress, as will appear by the jour 
 nals, satisfied me respecting it." 
 
 The words in brackets were crossed out by running 
 the pen through them, and the word explicit substitu 
 teda substitution evidently made to avoid violating 
 the cabinet rule, not to tell the opinions of members, 
 which the word unanimous would do. But the word 
 explicit is sufficient. Taken in connexion yfith tha 
 rest of the paper with the result and with the 
 (almost) thirty years silence of Mr Calhoun, and that 
 word is equivalent to the word unanimous. For it il 
 not to be presumed that Mr.jCalhoun was omitted ia 
 the address of the questions or that he failed to an 
 swer, and to answer as the President required, in writ- 
 ting or,that failing to answer, it would not have been 
 noted or, answering'negatively, it would not have 
 been equally noted or, above all. that differing from 
 Crawford and other southern men on this delicate 
 point, he would not have let the secret out at the 
 time, or produced since as an evidence of his guar 
 dianship over southern interests, and as a proof of his 
 precious consistency. The presumption against him, 
 and the absence of all these concomitants of dissent, 
 are proof positive that he concurred with the rest of 
 the cabinet at the time, and never thought of deny 
 ing it until caught fast and hard in the fixed fact of a 
 killing contradiction. 
 
 But the other piece of writing is still more close 
 and stern than the letter of Mr. Monroe. It is tfee 
 diary of Mr. Adams, written down at the time, and 
 clear and pointed in every particular the questions, 
 the answers, the unanimity, the writing of the an 
 swers, and their deposit in the Department of State. 
 The extract from this diary, furnished and certified 
 by the son, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, is in these 
 words : 
 
 Extracts from the Diary of .1. Q. Adams. 
 
 "March 3, 1820 -When! came this day to my of- 
 
fice, T found there a note requesting me to call at one 
 o'clock, at the President's house. It was then one, 
 t.nd I immediately went over. He expected that the 
 two bills, for the admission of Maiue, and to enable 
 Mis<*uri to inake a constitution, would have been 
 brought to hiui for his signature ; and he had sum 
 moned all the members of the administration to ask 
 tbeir opinions in writing, to be deposited m the De 
 partment of State, upon two questions : 1. Whether 
 Congress had a constitutional right to prohibit slave 
 ry in a territory 1 and 2 Whether the eighth section 
 of the Missouri bill (which interdicts slavery forever 
 in the territory north of 36d latitude) was applica 
 ble oniy to the territorial state, or would extend to it 
 afier it should become a state 1 As to the first ques 
 tion, it was unanimously agreed that Congress have 
 the power to prohibit slavery in the territories " 
 
 " March 5 The President se t me j'esterday the 
 two questions in writing, upon which he desired to 
 have answers in writing, to be deposited in the De 
 partment of State. He wrote me that it would be 
 in time, if he f'hould have the answers to-morrow - 
 The first question is in general terms, as it was stated 
 at the meeting on Friday. The second was mod fied 
 to an inquiry whether the eighth section of the Mis- 
 eouri bill is consistent with the constitution To 
 this I can, without hesitation, answer by a simple af 
 firmative and so after some reflection, I concluded to 
 answer both. ***** 
 
 "March 6 * * * * 1 took to the President 
 my answers to his two constitutional questions and he 
 desired me to have them deposited in the department 
 together with those of the other members of the Ad 
 ministration. They differed only as they assigned 
 their reason for hinking the eighth section of the 
 Missouri bi 1 consistent with the constitution because 
 they considered it as only applying to the territorial 
 term, and I barely gave my opinion, without as 
 signing for it any explanatory reason The Presi 
 dent signed the Missouri bill this morning " 
 
 This testimony leaves no room for doubt or quib 
 ble. It is clear and positive at all points. It was 
 overwhelmingly conclusive. Mr. Calhoun should 
 have surrendered. His evil genius, and the fix he 
 was in as the leader of a part.y founded on new ideas, 
 the reverse of bis old ones, and the disease of iacon- 
 sistenc., made him hesitate and deny, not directly, 
 butarguinentativeiy, and in the way of non-recollec 
 tion He could not remember and he could not be 
 lieve that he could have given a written opinion in 
 such an important matter without remembering it ! 
 Unhappy man ! he did not perceive that this species 
 of argumentative denial was far stronger the other 
 way ! that it would have been far more difficult to 
 have forgotten his opinion, if he had stood alone in 
 the cabinet, dissenting from all the rest, and disobey 
 ing the President's command to an>Wv-r ! This would 
 have been the thing difficult to have been forgot, and 
 still more difficult to have been concealed ! Sensible 
 of the damage he iiad done himself by this non-re 
 collection, Mr Calhoun undertook to rehabilitate 
 himself by assuming to know all about the compro 
 mise, and by giving a statement of it which WHS in 
 tended to convince the Senate that his memory was 
 good, and entitled to credit in opposition to all the 
 testimony against him. He began with charac 
 teristic assumption of knowing every thing, and end 
 ed by showing that he knew nothing He said: 
 
 " I know well all about the compromise ; the cause 
 which led to it, and the reason why, that the north 
 ern men who voted against it were universally sacri 
 ficed for so doing it is quite a mistake, as some 
 suppose, that they were sacrificed for voting for the 
 compromise The very reverse is the case. The 
 I will proceed to state : During the session 
 
 of the compromise, Mr. Lowndes and myself re 
 sided together He was a member of the House 
 of Representative*, and I was Secretary of War. 
 We both felt the magnitude of the subject 
 Missouri, at the preceding session, had present 
 ed herself for admission as a member of the 
 Union. She had formed a constitution and 
 government, in accordance with an acr of Con 
 gress. Her admission was refused on the ground that 
 her constitution admitted of slavery ; and she was re 
 manded back to have the objectionable provision ex 
 punged She refused to comply with the requisition, 
 and at the next session again knocked at the door of 
 Congress for admission, with her constitution as it 
 originally stood This gave rise to one of the most 
 agitating discussions that ever occurred in Congress. 
 The subject was one of repeated conversation between 
 Mr. Lowndes and myself The quesiion was, what 
 was to be done and what would be the consequence if 
 she was not admitted After full reflection we both 
 agreed that Missouri was a state made so by a regu 
 lar process of law. and never could be remanded back 
 to the territorial condition. Such being the case, we 
 also agreed that the only question was, whether she 
 should be a state in or out of the Union 1 and it was 
 for Covgress to decide which position she should oc 
 cupy. My friend made one of bis able and lucid 
 speeches on the occasion; but whether it has been 
 preserved or not, 1 am not able to say. It carried 
 conviction to the minds of all, and in fact settled the 
 question. The question was narrowed down to & 
 single point. All saw that if Missouri was not ad 
 mitted she would remain an independent state, on the 
 west bank of tbe Mississippi, and would become the 
 nucleus of a new confederation of states, extending 
 over the whole of Louisiana None weie willing to 
 contribute to such a result ; and the only question 
 that remained with the northern members who had 
 opposed her admission was, to devise some means of 
 escaping from the awkward dilemma in which they 
 found themselves To back out or compromise, were 
 the only alternatives left ; and the latter was eagerly 
 seized to avoid tbe disgrace of the former ; so eager 
 ly, that all who opposed it at the north were consider 
 ed traitors to thai 'section of the Union, and sacrifi 
 ced for their votes." 
 
 Every part of this statement is erroneous, and to 
 such a degree as to destroy all reliance upon Mr. Cal- 
 houn's memory. He says that during the compro 
 mise session he and Mr. Lowndes resided together, 
 and that at the preceding s-ession Missouri had pre 
 sented her constitution, made under the act of Con 
 gress, and applied for admission into the Union. 
 Now this is error. The constitution of Missouri fol 
 lowed, and did not precede the compromise act. 
 That act was passed March 6th, 1820, the constitution 
 framed under it was signed July 19th of the same 
 year; and was presented to Congress ia the mon h of 
 November following Congress in that year having 
 met on the second Monday inNovember Here then 
 is an error of a year in point of time, and a transposi 
 tion of events in point of fact. The constitution of 
 Missouri was mad<? after the compromise, and in 
 pursuance of it ; and not to know that much was to 
 know nothing at all about it. Mr. Calhoun says the 
 admission was refused, and the constitution remand 
 ed back, because it admitted slavery in Missouri. 
 This is great error The act of Congress under 
 which the Missouri constitution was made admitted 
 slavery in Missouri, and herconstitution could not be, 
 and was not, refused on that ground The admission 
 was not refused for that cau^e, nor for any thing like 
 it, nor for any thing in relation to slavery, but the 
 direct opposite for a clause in relation to free peo 
 ple of color, and by which, it was contended, the 
 
citizens of other states might be prevented from re 
 moving to the state of Missouri. The clause was 
 this: " To prevent free negroes and mulattos from 
 coming to. and settling in this state, under any pretext 
 whatever." The provision was found in clause 4, sec 
 tion 26, of article 3, of the constitution, and was ob 
 jected to as being inconsistent with the constitution 
 of the United States, and the rights of the states, as 
 in some of those states free people of color might be 
 citizens. This was the clause objected to, and not 
 the one sanctioning slavery. Mr. Calhoun says the 
 constitution was remanded back to the state to have 
 the slavery clause expunged. It was not remanded 
 for the purpose of having any thi g expunged, but 
 the contrary to have something added to obtain 
 the legislative assent of the state to the joint reso 
 lution of the two Houses of Congress, declaring that 
 the clause in question should never be so construed as 
 to exclude from settlement, and the rights of citizen 
 ship, the citizens of other states einig ating to Mis 
 souri. Mr Calhoun says the state refused to comply 
 with the requisition of Congress This is more error. 
 The state complied immediately; the legislative as 
 sent to the required construction of the objectionable 
 clause being given on the 26th day of June, in the 
 same year. He says the state knocked again with 
 her constitution at the door of Congress at the next 
 session, and that this gave rise to the most agitating 
 discussion that ever took place in Congress. This is 
 the very error of the moon. The state never applied 
 to Congress again, but was admitted in the recess, 
 and before next meeting of Congress, and by procla 
 mation from President Monroe. The proclamation, 
 was issued the 10th of August, 1820, in pursuance to 
 the joint resolution of Congress of the second of 
 March of that, year, expressly framed to save the state 
 from applying to Congress again, by referring it to 
 the President to proclaim her admission as soon as 
 she assented to the required construction of the ob 
 noxious article. The fact is, that Congress did not 
 refuse to admit the s*ate at all on the contrary, 
 passed a joint resolution at her first session of the 
 presentation of the constitution, for her admission 
 *' on a certain condition'' en compliance with which 
 condition her admission was to be complete, without 
 further proceeding on the part of Congress, and was 
 to be so proclaimed by the President. All this ap 
 pears in the legislative history of the country, and 
 was authentically recited in the proclamation issued 
 on the occasion. This is the proclamation : 
 
 WHEREAS the Congress of the United States, by a 
 Joint resolution of the 2d day of March last, entitled 
 " Resolution providing for the admission of the state 
 of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," 
 did determine and declare" That Missouri should 
 be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with 
 the original states, in all respects whatever, upon the 
 fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the 
 26th section of the 3d article of the constitution sub 
 mitted on the part of said state to Congress, shall 
 ne*er be construed to authorise the passage of any 
 law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity 
 thereto, by which any citizen of either of the states 
 of this Union shall be excluded from the enjoy 
 ment of any of the privileges and immunities to 
 which each citizen is entitled under the consti 
 tution of the United States: Provided, That the 
 legislature of the said state,by a solemn public act. shall 
 declare the assent of said state to the said fundamen 
 tal condition, and shall transmit to the President of 
 the United States, on or before the first Monday in 
 November next, an authentic copy of said act ; upon 
 the receipt whereof the President by proclamation 
 shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without any 
 
 further proceedings on the part of Congress, the ad 
 mission of the said. state into thisUnion shall be consid 
 ered complete: And whereas, by a solemn publ c act 
 of the Assembly of the said state of Missouri, passed 
 on the 26t,h of June, in the present year, entitled " A 
 solemn public act declaring the assent of this State 
 to the fundamental condition contained in a resolu 
 tion passed by the Congress of the Unite'! States, 
 providing for the admission of the state of Missouri 
 into the Union on a certain condition," an authentic 
 copy whereof has been communicated to me, it is so 
 lemnly and publicly enacted and declared, that that 
 state has assented, and does assent that the 4th 
 clause of the 26th section of the 3d article of the con 
 stitution of said state, " shall never be construed to 
 authorise the passage of any law, and that no law 
 sha,ll be passed in conformity thereto, by which any 
 citizen of either of the United States shall be exclud 
 ed from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and 
 immunities to which such citizens are entitled under 
 the constitution of the United States : NOW, thereforg t 
 I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in 
 pursuance of the resolution of Congress aforesaid, 
 have issued this my proclamation, announcing the 
 fact, that the said state of Missouri has assented to 
 the fundamental condition required by the resolution 
 aforesaid : WHEREUPON the admission of the state of 
 Missouri into the Union is declared to be complete. 
 
 In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the 
 United States of America to be affixed to these pres 
 ents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at 
 city of Washington, the 10th day of August, 1821, 
 and of the Independence of the United States of 
 America, the 46th. 
 
 JAMES MONROE." 
 
 By the President, 
 JOHN Q.UINCY ADAUS, 
 
 Secretary of State." 
 
 Now this proclamation was issued from the cabinet 
 of which MY. Calhoun was a member, and appears to 
 have been as completely forgotten by him as were tha 
 cabinet decisions of the same year in favor of the pow 
 er of Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery 
 in territories, and to abolish it in territories ; for that 
 was the effect of the compromise act of 1820. He ac 
 tually forgets that Missouri was admitted upon a 
 proclamation, issued from the cabinet council of which 
 he was a member ! and goes on to substitute the 
 wanderings of his imagination for the legislative 
 history of the country, in giving a supposed circum 
 stantial account of what took place between him 
 self and Mr. Lowndes, afcer the second rejection of 
 the Missouri constitution, and which led to the con 
 clusions which, according to him, produced the com 
 promise. " To back out, or compromise, was the 
 only alternative left ; and the latter was eagerly 
 seized upon to avoid the disgrace of the former." So 
 says Mr. Calhoun : and so saying, he postpones the 
 compromise a whole year, and couples it with aa 
 event to which it does not belong, and makes it the 
 effect of a cause which never existed. It is postpon 
 ed from the se sion '19-'20 to the session '20-,2l ; 
 and it is connected with the final admission of Mis 
 souri, after she had become a state, instead of being 
 connected with the preliminary act which authorized 
 her to form a state constitution. Never was eucb. 
 blundering seen ! It is even questionable whether 
 he is not mistaken in the statement that he and Mr. 
 Lowndes resided together at the time that Missouri 
 I resented her constitution. He says they did. My 
 impression is to the contrary that Mr. Calboun 
 lived with his family at that time, (session of ? 20-'21) 
 in D street, and Mr. Lowndes in a boarding house. 
 It is also questionable whether Mr. Lowades did 
 much towards passing the joint resolution under 
 
6 
 
 which the state was admitted He was in declining 
 health at that time ; and although ho spoke once in 
 f.i\ i.r of the admission after the constitution was pre 
 sented, and spoke with the manly sense and patriotic 
 feeling which belonged o him, yet he soon ceased to 
 attend, and went abroad for his health, and died. It 
 was Mr. Clay who consulted me about the joint re 
 solution, and with whom I agreed that it would an 
 swer the purpose, and gave nay opinion that the 
 state would agree to it immediately, which she did. 
 By that joint resolution the question of admission 
 was not to come before Congress again, and did not, 
 and was purposely framed to avoid a second appear 
 ance of the state at the bar of Congress ; so that all 
 this story of Mr. Calhoun's about the manner in 
 which the compromise was seized, to avoid dis 
 grace, after the rejection of the constitution, is a 
 mere figment of the brain, coined for the purpose of 
 
 Jetting out of the cabinet council of March 6th, 
 820. Far better to have confessed what was pro 
 perto have admitted the truth of Mr. Monroe's and 
 Mr. Adams's disinterested testimony and to have 
 taken the ground of a change of opinion since that 
 time. That would have been the discreetest course. 
 But, oh, the disease of consistency! that malady 
 of his mind ! and the hard fate of a leader, almost 
 affecting the prophet, and bound under all circum 
 stances, to maintain his infallibility in the eyes of his 
 followers, under the awful penalty of losing domin 
 ion over them. 
 
 Some search has been made in the department of 
 state tor the written opinions of the cabinet, without 
 finding them : bub that weighs nothing against 
 the positive testimony that they were put there. 
 The wonder would be to find them after 27 years, 
 and so many changes of clerks ; and it is to be re 
 membered that no one of Mr, vionroe's cabinet has 
 been Secretary of State since that time but Mr. Cal 
 houn. 
 
 The fact is established established by the rules 
 of evidence which convince the human mind, even 
 the most unwilling that Mr. Calhoun, as a cabi 
 net minister under Mr. Monroe, supported the con 
 stitutionality of the Missouri compromise act. 
 This fact being established, let us see what that 
 act was ; and that will be shown by the title to the 
 act by the act itself -and by the actual condition of 
 the territory in which it was to operate. This is the 
 title: 
 
 " An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri 
 territory to form accnstitution and state government, 
 and for the admission of such state into the Union on 
 an equal footing with the original states, and to pro 
 hibit slavery in certain territories." 
 
 A very intelligible title this, especially in the con 
 cluding cause, and enough to have startled Mr Cal 
 houn, if he had held the same doctrines on the powers 
 of Congress then, which he professes now. The act 
 itself was in these words : 
 
 " Sec. 8. That in all that territory ceded by 
 France to the United States, under the name of 
 Louisiana, which lies north of 36 degrees 30 minutes 
 north latHndd, not included wiihin the limits of the 
 state contemplated by this act, slavery and involun 
 tary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of 
 the crimes whereof the parties shall have been con 
 victed, shall be, and hereby is, forever prohibited." 
 
 Such are the words of the act the very words of 
 the Wilrnot Proviso, and if a.ny modern copyist is to 
 supersede Mr Je; erson in the paternity of that pro- 
 vis-> it should be John C. Calhoun, and not Davy 
 Wilinot ! It should be called the Calhoun Proviso ! 
 
 and that for many and cogent reasons. In the first 
 place, he was nearly thirty years ahead of Davy in 
 the support of this proviso. In the second place, his 
 
 Cition was higher, being a Cabinet Minister, and 
 voice more potent al, being a southern man. In 
 the third place, he was part of the veto power where 
 three voices were a majority ; Davy only a member 
 of the legislative power, where it requires a majority 
 of both houses to do anything. In the fourth place, 
 Calhoun was successful, iJavy is not. Finally, 
 Davy's proviso is a weak contrivance to prevent 
 slavery from being where it is not, and where it 
 never will be ; Calhoun's proviso was a manly blow 
 to kill slavery, where it then existed, by law, and 
 where it would now exist in point of fact, if that 
 blow had not been struck The proviso of Mr. Cal 
 houn actually abolished slavery where it existed by 
 law in all the upper half of Louisiana from 36 
 30 to 49, and from the Mississippi to the Kocky 
 Mountains over a territory nearly a thousand miles 
 square nearly a million square miles enough to 
 make tweuty states of 50,000 square miles each 
 more in fact than all California,* New Mexico and 
 Oregon put together. Over all this vast territory 
 the proviso, supported by Calhoun, abolished slavery 
 abolished it, then existing by law and shut it up 
 from the slave emigration of the soutn. And novr 
 what becomes of the dogma, in bis month, and that 
 of his followers, so recently invented, of no power in 
 Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery in 
 territories *? what becomes, in their mouths, of the 
 new fangled point of honor, just felt for the 
 first time in thiriy years, of insult to slave 
 states in their exclusion from settlement to the 
 territories bought by the blood and treasure of 
 the whole Union 1 Louisiana was a territory, and 
 Congress legislated upon slavery in it, and legislated 
 slavery out of a million of square miles of it, and Mr. 
 Calhoun s p orted that legislation. Louisiana was 
 a territory acquired by the treasure, if not by the 
 blood, of the whole Union ; and the proviso of 1820, 
 supported by Mr. Calhoun, shut up one half of it from 
 slave emigration. If that is insult, he and his fol 
 lowers have stood being- insulted most remarkably 
 well for about thirty years ; and, perhaps, would con 
 sult their own self-respect, and lose nothing in -pub 
 lic opinion, if they should continue standing it with 
 like fortitude, for the remainder of their lives. 
 
 I do not quote this conduct of Mr. Calhoun in giv 
 ing the answer which he did to Mr. Monroe's inter 
 rogatories, for the purpose of v ndicating the right of 
 Congress to prohibit or abolish slavery in territories. 
 When J feel it necessary to vindicate that right I 
 shall have recourse to very different authority from 
 that which can be quoted on every side of every ques 
 tion it ever touchedV 1 quote it for a very different 
 purpose, for the purpose of shutting up the mouths of 
 his followers as completely as it shut up bis own from 
 the day he was confronted with it. brom tbat day 
 to the present he has never mentioned his resolu 
 tions ! never called for that vote upon them which he 
 declared himself determined to have when he intro 
 duced them. 
 
 In giving his cabinet support, where his voice was 
 so potential to the abolition of slavery over a million 
 of square miles in Louisiana, Mr. Calboun did more 
 than any one man has ever done towards abolishing 
 slavery in the world. Holung, as he then did, the 
 one fifth part of the veto power, and commanding as 
 his position was, as a southern man and a cabinet 
 minister a leading cabinet minister th largest 
 question ever started of free or clave soil, was then in 
 his hands ; and he decided it in favor of freedom. It 
 wasan immense boon to the anti-slavery party, tbenso 
 numerous and ardent ; but it was not the only service 
 
whjch he then rendered them. Texas was then ours 
 a part of Louisiana to the lower Rio Grande ; 
 large enough to form six great, or ten common states. 
 It was all slave territory, a.-,d looked to as the natu 
 ral outlet of the southern states, with their great in 
 creasing slave population. It was given to the King 
 of Spain given away by treaty, and that treaty the 
 work of Mr Monroe's cabinet Mr. Calhoun being a 
 member. And here there is no room for denial and 
 non-recollection. For a long time Mr. Adams bore 
 the blame of that cession. A friend of Mr. Calhoun 
 reproached him with it in the House of Representa 
 tives Mr Adams was then alive, and present, and 
 soon vindicated the truth of history. He showed 
 that there was a division in the cabinet, upon the 
 point ; he was against it Mr. Calhoun for it and 
 Mr Calhoun being a southern man, and the majority 
 of the cabinet southern, he carried the day, and 
 Texas was lost. 1 was not then in publio life, but I 
 wrote against that act, blaming Mr. Adams when I 
 should have blamed Mr Calhoun. By that cession 
 the expansion of slavery was stopped; the growth 
 of slave states in the southwest was stopped ; three 
 hundred and fifty thousand square miles subject to 
 American slavery, was cut off from American domi 
 nion, and presented to a toreign king This was an 
 other great gratification to the abolitionists ; but it 
 was not all There was a strip of land, about large 
 enough for two states, lying upon the Arkansas and 
 Red rivers, and between Texas and the 36 deg. 30 
 min. of north latitude. This strip -having escaped 
 the compromise line on one side, and the Texas ces 
 sion on the other, was open to the formation of two 
 respectable slave states. Mr. Calhoun was then still 
 cabinet minister Secretary at War bad the Indians 
 under his care and was riding the hobby of their 
 civilization. He required this strip to be given up to 
 the Indians for their permanent abode ; and thus it, 
 also, was lost to the slate states. All Louisiana was 
 then gone from them except the fragment which was 
 contained in the States of Missouri and Louisiana, 
 and in the territory of Arkansas. Even this frag 
 ment appeared to be too much to be left to the slave 
 states, and a slice forty miles wide, and three hun 
 dred mPes long, was cut off from Arkansas and given 
 to the Indians ; and the slaveholders with the slaves 
 upon the slice, were required to remove from the cut 
 off part, and fall back within the contracted limits 
 This was done by the Indian treaty the treaty ne- 
 
 f^tiated by & protege of Mr. Calhoun's. He was then 
 ice President of the United States, and President 
 of the Senate I was a member of the Senate op 
 posed to the ratification of this treat and came 
 within one or two votes of defeating it. The slight 
 est help from Mr. Calhoun would have defeated it, 
 and saved the slave state of Arkansas that territory, 
 And those salt .springs, the loss of which she now has 
 to lament Taken all together the compromise 
 the Texas cession the Indian domain and the slice 
 from Arkansas, and Mr. Calhoun did more, in less 
 time, to abolish slavery, diminish its area, and in 
 crease that of free soil, than any man that has ever 
 appeared on the face of the earth ; and of this the 
 anti-slave party of the north were fully sensible, and 
 duly grateful. They gave proof of their gratitude. 
 Mr Calhoun was then candidate for V ice-President 
 of the United States: he became the. favorite tho of 
 north beating even Mr. Adams, himself, on the free 
 soil track. He beat him six votes in New York ran 
 head and neck with him through New Hampshire, 
 Vermont and Rhode Island was even through Mas 
 sachusetts and came a nose ahead on the northern 
 track. He actually beat Mr. Adams in abolition 
 States and with justice. He had done more than 
 bim for free soil, and with more merit, being himself 
 
 an inhabitant of slave Boil. I told him all this in my 
 first Calhouniac, in the Senate of the United States', 
 four days after he put in his fire-brand resolutions, id 
 my speech to show him to bo the true author of the 
 Mexican war. This is what I then said to him : 
 
 " This conduct of the senator, in giving away Tex 
 as when we had her, and then making war to get her 
 back, is an enigma which he has never yet conde 
 scended to explain, and which, until explained, leaves 
 him in a state of self-contradiction, which, whether 
 it impairs his own confidence in himself, or not, must 
 have the effect of destroying the confidence of others 
 in him, and wholly disqualify him for the office of 
 champion of the slaveholding states. It was the 
 heaviest blow they had ever received, and put an end, 
 in conjunction with the Missouri compromise, and 
 the permanent location of the Indians west of the 
 Mississippi, to their future growth or extension, as 
 slave states, beyond the Mississippi. The compro 
 mise, which was then in full progress, and established 
 at the next session of Congress, cut off the slave 
 states from all territory north and we:t of Missouri, 
 and south of thirty-six and a half degrees of noith 
 latitude ; the treaty of 1849 ceded nearly all south of 
 that degree, comprehending not only all Texas, but 
 a large part of the valley of th Mississippi, on the 
 Red River, and the Arkansas, to a foieign power, and 
 brought a non-slaveholding empire to the confines of 
 Louisiana and Arkansas ; the permanent appropria 
 tion of the rest of the territory for the abode of civil 
 ized Indians, swept the little slaveholding territory 
 west of Arkansas, and lying between the compromise 
 line and the cession line ; and left the slave slates 
 without one inch of ground for their future growth. 
 Nothing was left Even the then territory of Arkan 
 sas was encroached upon. A breadth of forty miles 
 wide, and three hundred long, was cut off from her, 
 and given to the Cherokees, and there was not as 
 much slave territory left west of the Mississippi as a. 
 dove could have rested the sole of her foot upon. It 
 was not merely a curtailment, but a total extinction 
 of slaveholding territory ; and done at a time when 
 the Missouri controversy was raging, and every effort 
 made by northern abolitionists to stop the growth of 
 slave states. The senator from South Carolina, in 
 his support of the cession of Texas, and ceding a, 
 part of the valley of the Mississippi, was then the 
 most efficient ally of the restrictionists at that time, 
 and deprives him of the right of setting up as the 
 champion of the slave stat s now. 1 denounced the 
 sacrifice of Texas then, believing Mr. Adams to have 
 been the author of it ; I denounce it now, knowing 
 the senator from South Carolina to be its author; and 
 for this his flagrant recreancy to the slave interest 
 in their hour of utmost peril I hold him disqualified 
 for the office of champion of the fourteen slave states, 
 (for Delaware caariot be counted,) and shall certain 
 ly require him to keep out of Missouri, and to confine 
 himself to his own bailiwick, when he comes to dis 
 cuss his string of resolutions." 
 
 In these terms, 1 reproached him to his face for his 
 recreancy to the slave states, when he was catering 
 for free soil votes He was forced to answer, and to 
 admit the vote in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, in favor of 
 giving away Texas, and in conformity to which vote 
 the treaty was made ; but with respect to the Mis 
 souri compromise and the abolition question, he gava 
 an answer which appeared to be plausible then, but 
 which has turned out to be one of the most unfortu 
 nate of his life. He said, in his reply to me : 
 
 "I have now met, and, I trust, successfully repelled, 
 all the charges made by the senator from Missouri, 
 except those relating to the Missouri compromise, ., 
 and the abolition question at that period, for wbich I 
 am in no way responsible. I was not then in Con- 
 
8 
 
 gress I filled the office of Secretary of War at the 
 time, and had no agency or control over it." 
 
 This was the answer the whole that he chose 
 to give I did not then know of the proofs of the 
 calm et consultation, and of his opinion at the coun 
 cil table in answer to Mr. Monroe's two questions. 
 The proofs had not then come to light, and he was 
 Bate tor the time, in disclaiming all responsibility for 
 the Missouri compromise, and the consequent aboli 
 tion of slavery by a law of Congress, in upwards of 
 one-half of all Louisiana; he was safe in taking re 
 fuge under the declaration that he was Secretary of 
 War, and not a member of Congress, and, consequent 
 ly bad no agency in this act, or any control over it 
 This was a plausable answer at the time ; and he 
 stood acquitted for the moment. The discovery of 
 the proot the next year, (1848) reverses the acquit- 
 
 with impunity ; but we did not think the floor of the 
 Senate tho proper place for replying to an att^pk 
 made out or doors The forum of our respective 
 states was deemed the proper place, lie had assail- 
 us before his constituents, and we determined to an 
 swer him before ours. Gen. Houston has replied. 
 lie did so during the past session of Congress, in a 
 published address to his constituents. It was publish 
 ed while Mr. Calhoun was in the city, and where he 
 might answer it if he pleased. He did not so please 
 He stood mute as if the antagonist was not wor 
 thy of notice a privilege^of dignity which did not 
 belong to him after he had began the attack. He 
 said nothing ; and in that he did better than when he 
 denied his support of the Mis3ouricouipromi.se act. 
 He did well in saying nothing. It was a case in 
 which public attention should not be raised by con- 
 
 ..- - . troversy. Houston soon showed what the charge'of 
 
 tal-establishes his agency in the Missouri compro- defec J tion mea nt, and then carried'the war into 
 
 Africa. He charged him with his designs against 
 the Union for twenty years past, and supported what 
 he said by an array of facts which could neither be 
 explained away nor denied. That address of Hous 
 ton's should be republished by the papers friendly to 
 the Union. It is full of truth and patriotism wor 
 thy of the disciple of Jackson and killing to Cal- 
 houn. He did well not to fix public attention upon 
 
 mise act, his control over it, and his responsibility for 
 it true, he was not a member of Congress in 1820, 
 to give a vote amounting to but little among two or 
 three hundred others, for or against the Missouri com 
 promise, but he was a cabinet minister to give a heavy 
 vote, one in five, for or against its approval. He was 
 not a part of the legislative power, but he was of the 
 veto power ; and he gave his vote for the approval, 
 and against the veto. This shows that he had agen 
 
 it by replying to it. 1 told Houston that I should 
 
 cy in the question, and control over it, and is respon- jj in a speech to 'my constituents ; and that i am 
 
 Bibb for it Considering his position as a southern no Vdoing 
 
 man, and his weight in Mr. Monroe's administra- Tbig is * one of perS oDal reasons for dwelling on 
 
 tion, and be is the responsible man for that act The Mr Calhoiin: but I have another, which I will now 
 
 majority ot the cabinet were southern, and if he had gtate In the r 1844 ag ifc will be reme mbered, 
 
 made the stand then which he does now, he must 
 have vetoed the act-on the contrary he went for it, 
 
 when my fifth election was coming round there waa 
 an organization against me in the State, supported 
 
 and pas<ed it passed the act of Congress legislating b e Calhoun man, and every Calhoun newspaper 
 upon slavery in territories, and abolishing it over a ^ the ^ tat and in the United States . There was 
 millioB of square miles-and now treats such a law as coinc i dence i n their operations which showed that 
 a violation of the constitution, and an insult to the 
 slave states, for which nulification, disunion, and civil 
 war are the proper remedies 
 
 lam mortified to dwell upon Mr. Calhoun It is 
 neither my habit, nor my pleasure to speak of men. 
 In near thirty years that 1 have been in Congress I 
 
 they worked by a pattern. 1 knew at the time who e 
 it all came from; and the source has since been au 
 thentically revealed to me. There is a law in the 
 moral world by which "murder will out." By virtue 
 of that law one of those who were employed to do 
 the work upon me, and who was then a stranger to 
 
 ."*.. ., . ** .. tut; yrutik uisuu uiw* emu. r? LI\J rrca vuvu <* ov*c*ujtv* w 
 
 have never brought the name of any man before the me> and afterwards repented, revealed the plot to 
 
 public. I am now forced to do it. Mr. Calhoun's 
 resolutions are those of the Missouri Legislature. 
 They are identical One is copied from the other 
 "When the original is invalidated, the copy is of no 
 avail. I am answering his resolutions, and chose to 
 doit. It is just and proper that 1 should do so. He 
 is the prime mover and head contriver. 1 have had 
 
 me, and placed in my bands an original letter of in 
 structions, of which this is an extract : 
 
 " With regard to the course of your paper, you can 
 take the tone ot the Administration from * * * 
 I think, however, and would recommend that you 
 would confine yourself to attacks upon Benton, show- 
 
 no chance to answer him in the Senate, and it will not ing that he has allied himself with the whigs on the 
 
 ; ..j * Texas question. Quote Jackson's letter on Texas, 
 
 where he denounces all those as traitors to the coun 
 try who oppose the treaty. Apply it to Benton. 
 Proclaim that Benton, by attacking Mr. Tyler and 
 his friends, and driving them from the party, is aid- 
 
 . i i / R./I f~M _. j -i v. : :j.i~ 
 
 do to allow him to take a snap judgment upon me 
 in Missouri, and carry disunion resolutions in my own 
 state which he has been forced to abandon in ihe 
 Senate. Duty to the country requires me to answer 
 him, and personal reasons reinforce that public duty 
 
 He has been instigating attacks upon me for twenty ing the election of Mr. Clay ; and charge him with 
 years ever since 1 stood by Jackson and the Union doing this to defeat Mr. Polk, and insure himself the 
 in the first war of nulification. His Duff Green Tele- succession in 1848 ; and claim that full justice be 
 
 raph commenced upon me at the same time it done to the acts and motives of John Tyler by the 
 id upon Jackson, and for the same cause because leaders. Harp upon these strings. Do not propose 
 we stood by the Union ! Last summer, in his own the union; ''it is the business of the democrats to 
 state of South Carolina, where I never was, he drag- do this, and arrange it to our perfect satisfaction 1 I 
 ged my name and that of (Jen Houston before his quote here from our leading friend at the south, 
 constituents, and denounced us in a public speech, and Such is the course which I recommend, and which 
 held us up to a public reprobation. He accused us of you can pursue or not, according to your real attach- 
 defection to the south the interpretation being that ment to the Administration." 
 
 " Look out for my leader, of to-morrow, as an indi 
 cator, and regard this letter as of the most strict and 
 inviolate confidence of character." 
 
 I read this extract to Mr. Calhoun in the Senate of 
 the United States, in February, 1*47 four days after 
 his fi.e-brand resolutions wore introduced. He said he 
 
 we would not join him in bis scheme of a southern 
 convention, to array one half of theUtiion against the 
 other, aud form a southern confodeiacy. It was an 
 audacious attack upon two absent gentlemen, and 
 who, as senators, were entitled to senatorial court 
 esy from him. Neither General Houston nor iny 
 self thought it right to sutler such an attack to pass did not write it. 
 
 I know he did not. Neither did ho 
 
9 
 
 write the papers of the A. B plot against Mr. Craw 
 ford, nor the resolutions of the last Missouri General 
 Assembly. He is no such bungler as that. When a 
 paw is to go into the fire, he prefers that of any cat, 
 or dog, to his own. But he was Secretary of State 
 under Tyler at the time, and had dominion over three 
 hundred newspapers, to each of which the same in 
 structions were issued They were intended for their 
 guidance in the Presidential election, and in the 
 state elections of 1844; and especially for my own, 
 which was coming on. I only read the extract which 
 is special to myself. How well the instructions were 
 obeyed was seen in this state, and in other states, 
 and in all the presses and politicians which followed 
 the lead of "our leading friend at the south.''' Ben- 
 ton Clay Whigs Texas Harp upon these strings, 
 and harp they did, until the strings were worn out ; 
 and then the harps were hung upon the willows. Now 
 a new set of strings are furnished, and from the same 
 "leading friend at the south, and the music recom 
 mences to the old tune set to new words Benton 
 Whigs Abolitionism Wilmot Proviso" are now 
 the strings, and harp away again the word ! and harp 
 away they will, the old performers and some new 
 ones, until the drooping willows shall again claim the 
 appendage of their tuneless instruments. 
 
 I owe an apology to General Jackson's memory for 
 reading a letter in which he is quoted against me. It 
 was unjust to him, and would have been mortifying, 
 to see his name quoted against one of his best friends 
 by one of his greatest enemies. I never mortified his 
 feelings by letting him know that I had heard how his 
 name had been used ; but when near his end I sent 
 him a kind message by Major Lewis, which he re 
 turned in the most affectionate terms, and which I 
 think it right he-e to repeat. After giving an account 
 of his visit to him, and how he found him, Major 
 Lewis continues : 
 
 '* He enquired after many old friends, and among 
 them yourself, desiring to know when I had seen you 
 last, and how you were. 1 told him that 1 had seen 
 you but a few days before i left Washington, and 
 that you were well, and at the same time delivered to 
 him your n essage. He was evidently much affected, 
 when I had repeated what you had desired me to say 
 to him. After a short pause, he said : ' / thank the 
 Colonel for his kind recollection of me in my old age 
 and sore afflictions ; it would give me great pleasure 
 to see him once more, but that I fear is impossible, as 
 my life is rapidly drawing to a close.' Here be 
 again paused, and then added : The Colonel was not 
 only an able and distinguished statesman, but a warm 
 and sincere patriot, and his country is under great ob 
 ligation to him. A fed grateful for the able and effi 
 cient support he gave me during the whole of my Ad 
 ministration, and 1 beg you when you next see him to 
 remember me to him, and thank him in my name for his 
 kind and affectionate message ' These, I believe, my 
 dear sir, are his precise words ; for, as they were 
 spoken with much feeling, and in a deep and solemn 
 tone of voice, they made an impression on my mind 
 that can never be effaced " 
 
 This is my second personal reason for dwelling on 
 Mr. Calhoun. It is to repel his attacks upon me. 
 Public duty, in the innate of the United States, 
 would have required me to reply to his resolutions, if 
 he had ever caUed them up there. Their passage 
 through the M s^ouri Legislature makes it still more 
 my duty to do .o These resolutions are his ! copied 
 from his, with -such exactitude of ideas, that some 
 transposition o r clauses, and some variation of phrase, 
 can deceive no one. It only betrays a design 60 dis 
 guise, where di.-guise is impossible. I have read the 
 original : here is the copy : 
 
 " RESOLUTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY 
 
 Resolved, by the General Assemby of the State of 
 Missouri, That the federal constitution was the result 
 of a compromise between the conflicting interests of 
 the states which formed it, and in no part of that in 
 strument is to be found any delegation of power to 
 Congress to legislate on the subject of slavery, ex 
 cepting some special provisions, having in view the 
 prospective abolition of the African slave trade made 
 for the securing the recovery of fugitive slaves ; any 
 attempt, therefore, on the part of Congress, to legis 
 late on the subject, so as to affect the institution of 
 slavery in the states, in the District of Columbia, or 
 in the territories is, to say the least, a violation of the 
 principles upon which that instrument was founded. 
 
 2. That the territories, acquired by the blood and 
 treasure of the whole nation, ought, to be governed for 
 the common benefit of the people of all the states, and 
 any organization of the territorial governments ex 
 cluding the citizens of any part of the Union from re 
 moving to such territories with their property, would 
 be an exercise of power, by Congress, inconsistent 
 with the spirit upon which our federal compact was 
 based, insulting to the sovereignty and dignity of the 
 states thus affected, calculated to alienate one por 
 tion of the Union from another, and tending ultimate 
 ly to disunion. 
 
 3. That this General Assembly regard the conduct 
 of. the northern states on the subject of slavery, as re 
 leasing the slaveholding states from all farther adher- 
 ance to the basis of compromise fixed on by the act of 
 Congress, of March 6, 1820 even if such act ever did 
 impose any obligation upon the slave-holding states, 
 and authorises them to insist upon their rights under 
 the constitution ; but for the sake of harmony and for 
 the preservation of our federal Union, they will still 
 sanction the ap lication of the principles of the Mis 
 souri compromise to the recent territorial acquisitions, 
 if by such concessions future aggressions upon the 
 equal rights of the states may be arrested, and the 
 spirit of anti-slavery fanaticism be extinguished 
 
 4 The right to prohibit slavery in any territory, 
 belongs exclusively to the people thereof, and can 
 only be exercised by them in forming their constitu 
 tion for a state government, or in their sovereign ca- 
 paci y as an independent state. 
 
 5 That in the event of the passage of any act of 
 Congress conflicting with the principles herein ex 
 pressed, Missouri will be found in hearty co-operation 
 with the slave-holding states, in such measures as 
 may be deemed necessary for our mutual protection 
 against the encroachment of northern fanaticism. 
 
 6. That our senators in Congress be instructed, and 
 our representatives be requested to act in conformity 
 to the foregoing resolutions." 
 
 The Calhoun resolutions were entitled, " The rights 
 of Congress over the territories of the Union in rela 
 tion to slavery," and were introduced into the Senate, 
 February, 1847. Those of the Missouri Legislature 
 were entitled, " Resolutions in relation to slavery," 
 and were introduced December, 1838 the object of 
 both, the same, to deny the right of Congress to pre 
 vent, or prohibit slavery in territories, and to denounce 
 a dissolution of the Union if it did. One was parent 
 to the otber. and I presume no man will deny it. And 
 here I make the exception which truth and justice 
 requires from me. I have no idea that the mass of 
 the members who voted for the resolutions in the last 
 General Assembly, had any idea that they were Cal- 
 houn's, or considered the dissolution of the Union 
 which they announced, as a thing in actual contem- 
 plaiion But they are not the less injurious on that 
 account. They are the act of the General Assembly, 
 and stand for the act of the state, and bind it to the 
 oar of Mr. Calhoun, and encourage him more than 
 
10 
 
 any event that has taken place. But they are not the 
 sense of the state, nor even the sense of all the mem 
 bers who voted for them The true sen -6 of the state, 
 and, 1 doubt not, of a large majority of the members 
 of th last Legislature, was faithfully expressed in the 
 resolves and instructions of the previous Legislature, 
 which I had received and obeyed, not only in the let 
 ter, but iu the spirit. These aie they : 
 
 " Joint Resolution in relation to the Missouri Corn- 
 prom is-j Act, of 1820. 
 
 " Resolved, That the peace, permanency and wel 
 fare of our national Union, depend upon a strict ad 
 herence to the letter and spirit of the 8th section of 
 the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, 
 'An act to authorize the people of the Missouri Ter 
 ritory to form a Constitution and State Government, 
 for the admission of such state into the Union on an 
 equal footing with the original states, and to prohib 
 it slavery in certain territories,' approved March 6th, 
 1820. 
 
 " Resolved, That our Senators in the Congress of 
 the United States are hereby instructed, and our 
 representatives requested to vote in accordance with 
 the provisions and the spirit of the said eighth sec 
 tion of the said act, in all the questions which may 
 come before them in relation to the organization of 
 new territories, or states out of the territory now be 
 longing to the United States, or which hereafter may 
 be acquired, either by purchase, by treaty, or by 
 conquest." 
 
 The resolves passed the General Assembly of Mis 
 souri on the 15th day of February, 1847 just four 
 days before Calhoun brought into the Senate of the 
 United States his fire-brand resolutions, which I de 
 nounced upon the spot which have been adopted by 
 the Missouri Legislature at the last session, and from 
 which I now appeal to the state the whole state. 
 How different how irreconcileably hostile to each 
 other tho two sets of resolutions ! One makes the 
 peace, permanency, and welfare of our national 
 Union, dependent upon strict adherence to the spirit 
 and terms of the Missouri Compromise, in its appli 
 cation to new territory that is to say, upon the con 
 stitutional right, and the equitable exercise of that 
 right, to legislate upon slavery in the new territory, 
 and to admit it in part, and prevent it in part ; the 
 other makes the dissolution of the Union dependent 
 upon the same platform of fact and principle deny 
 ing the right of Congress to permit, or prohibit, sla 
 very in a territory asserting its prohibition to be a 
 violation of the constitution of the United States 
 an insult to the sovereignty of the states and tend 
 ing to the dissolution of the Union. Sad contradic 
 tion this, when the same remedy is both to cure and 
 to kill ! and although the political doctors may pre 
 scribe both, yet, surely, the political patient who has 
 taken one, has a right to talk a little with the doc 
 tors before he swallows the other. 
 
 Yes, citizens ! Congress has the power to legislate 
 upon slavery in territories, and to admit, or prohibit, 
 its existence, in fac,t, to compromise it. She has the 
 constitutional power, but can never hereafter exer 
 cise it. The new dogma of no power in Congress to 
 legislate on the sutgect, has killed all compromise. 
 Those who deny the power cannot vote for it ; it 
 would be a breach of their oath. Those who want no 
 slavery in the now territories, will not vote for com 
 promise ; and thus extremes meet combine against 
 the middle and defeat all compromise. The resolu 
 tions of Mr. Calhoun have done this ; and to talk 
 about compromise now, is to propose to call Methusa- 
 lem from his tomb. The effect, if not the design, of 
 his new dogma, was to kill compromise and dead it 
 ia. The constitution will not permit him and his fol 
 
 lowers to vote for any compromise line. Opposition 
 to the extension of slavery will not, permit northern 
 men to do it , and thus there is no chance for any 
 line. Principle cannot bo compromised The Mis 
 souri Compromise was not of a principle, but of inter 
 est*-' after the principle was established The lirst 
 question put by Mr Monroe to his cabinet, was, as 
 to the constitutional power of Congress over the sub 
 ject. That being established in the affirmative, the 
 application of the principle was matter of detail and 
 of expediency. 
 
 I have shown that Mr Calhonn supported the abo 
 lition of skvery in the territory of Louisiana ; I 
 have now to show that he did the same thing in a 
 state in the state of Texas. The case was this : In 
 the session of 1844-'45, two resolutions were adopted 
 for the admission of the state of Texa^s one, single 
 and absolute, with the Missouri compromise in it ; 
 the other authorizing negotiations with Texas for her 
 admission on an equal footing with the original 
 states. 
 
 The Senator from South Carolina was then Secre 
 tary of State, and virtually President of the United 
 States; and in that capacity he seized upon the ab 
 solute resolution, selected it, and applied it the State 
 of Texas, and thus ran the Missouri compromise line 
 through that state, thereby abolishing slavery in a 
 state in a part of a state making one part of the 
 same state free soil, and one part slave soil, and 
 so it stands at this day ! Before that act of Mr. Cal 
 houn, the whole state of Texas was slave soil made 
 so by the laws and constitution of Texas The ques 
 tion with our Congress was, how to admit her consis 
 tently with her rights as a sovereign state 1 The 
 House resolution imposed a restriction an abolition, 
 in fact, of slavery, in all her territory above 36 30, 
 and that was a great deal ; for the state extended in 
 one part to 42 degrees ; the Senate amendment im 
 posed nothing, but proposed to treat with Texas, and 
 to admit her upon agreed terms Mr. Calhoun seized 
 upon the House resolution, and adopted it, and .hero- 
 by adopted the Missouri compromise, and imposed it, 
 not upon a territory, but upon a state. He abolished 
 slavery in a state! and in this he carried abolitionism 
 further than any barnburner ever proposed ; for they 
 limit their abolitionism to territories. This Mr. 
 Calhoun did, and did as late as March the 3d, 1845. 
 There is no dispute about it. Gen. Houston charged 
 him with it in his circular address, to his constituents 
 at the late session of Congress. Every body was 
 struck with the force of the accusation, and looked 
 out anxiously for M.r Calhoun's reply. They looked 
 in vain He d'd not reply, and could not. Confes 
 sion would do no good, and denial would make it 
 worse. The fact was notorious, and of public record. 
 He could not throw the blame upon Tyler, for he had 
 often boasted in the Senate that he, himself, had se 
 lected that resolution. 
 
 I repeat : I do not cite this conduct of Mr. Cal 
 houn in abolishing slavery in a part of Texas, as au 
 thority to justify abolishing slavery in states, but to 
 show that he went farther than any " northern fana 
 tic" has ever proposed to go ; and further, that up to 
 that date, March 3, 1845, he bad not invented his 
 new doctrine of ne power in Congress to legislate 
 upon slavery in territories ; and still further, to show 
 that up to the same period, he had not felt the prick 
 ing of that point of honor the insult to the slave 
 states, in being excluded with their property from the 
 soil which their common blood and treasure won. 
 Texas was all won, as well north as south of 36 de 
 grees 30 minutes, by the same blood and treasure 
 the taxes of the people and the blood df Goliad, the 
 Alamo, and San Jacinto. And yet there were citi 
 zens of the eaiue state excluded, by the act of Mr. 
 
11 
 
 Calhoun, from removing with their property from one 
 part of it to another ! 
 
 And now I have arrived at a point which claims 
 particular attention If will he remembered hy all 
 that after the rejection of the Texas treaty in '44, va 
 rious propositions were subrnitte I in Congress for her 
 admission, and that every proposition contained 
 some plan for dividing her into free and .*lave terri 
 tory Every body will remember this. Now, 1 do 
 not recollect a single instance in which the constitu 
 tionality of such propositions were dispu'ed, or a sin 
 gle instance in which it was deemed an insult to the 
 slaveholding states to see slavery excluded from any 
 part of it. These propositions were particularly nu 
 merous in the session of 1844-5, which ended with 
 two propositions, enacted into two alternative reso 
 lutions one to run the compromise line through the 
 state, the other to negociate with her upon the sub 
 ject. Mr Calhoun sekcted the former a full proof 
 that neither himself, nor the major! y of the two 
 Houses of Congress, nor the President of the United 
 States, who approved their resolutions, saw any thing 
 in them either unconstitutional or insulting to the 
 slave states, or tending to disunion. 
 
 1, myself, made one of these propositions, [t was 
 to divide by a parallel of longitude. It proposed to 
 Texas that she should surrender to the United States 
 all the territory west of the 100th parallel of longitude, 
 which was to be free soil that on the east 
 side to be slave soil. I proposed to limit slave 
 ry by aline north and south, and that upon negotia 
 tion with Texas; and if any person wishes to know 
 my principles about the extension of slavery west 
 into New Mexico, they may see it in that proposi 
 tion. I thought it right then ; and do not change my 
 opinions of right to suit calculations or circumstances. 
 What is more, I never heard of any body that thought 
 I was wrong then ; and the only difference between 
 my position and Mr Calhoun's act, was, that I was 
 in favor of limiting slavery by a line drawn north and 
 south, and that by negotiation with the s f ate to be 
 attached. Mr. Calhoun divided the free and slave 
 aoil of the state itself by a line drawn east and west, 
 and accordingly did so divide it ; and the state so 
 stands at this day. The difference between us was 
 the difference between a longitudinal and latitudinal 
 line, and between taking the boundary of a state, 
 upon negotiation with her, for the boundary between 
 free and slave soil, and running the line through the 
 state itself. 
 
 It is absurd to deny to Congrees the power to le 
 gislate as it pleases upon the subject of slavery in 
 territories ; it has exercised the power, and with the 
 sanction of all authorities, state and federal, from 
 the foundation to the present time, and never had it 
 been questioned until Mr. Calhoun put forth those 
 unfortunate resolutions, from which be had to back 
 out under his own mortifying contradictions. It is 
 absurd to claim it for the territories. They have no 
 form of government but that which Congress gives 
 them, and no legislative power but that which Con 
 gress allows them. Congress governs the territory 
 as it pleases, and in a way incompatible with the 
 constitution, and of this any state that has been a 
 territory is a complete example, and our own as much 
 so as any. 
 
 Congress has the power to prohibit, or admit sla 
 very, and no one else. It is not in the territories ; for 
 their governments are the creatures of Congress, and 
 its deputies, so far as any legislative power is con 
 cerned, it is not in the states separately ; and this 
 leads to one of the grossest delusions which has grown 
 out of the political metaphysics of Mr. Calhouu. He 
 claims aright for the citizens of the slave states to 
 remove to New Mexico and California with their 
 
 slave property. This is a profound error. The pro 
 perty is io the law which creates it, and the law can 
 not be carried an inch beyond the limits of the ^tate 
 which enacts it No citizen of any state can carry 
 any property, derived from a law of that state, an 
 inch beyopd the boundary line of the state which 
 creates it. The instant he passes that boundary, to 
 settle with his property, it becomes eubj ct to another 
 law, if there is one, and is without law if there is not. 
 This ia the case with all with the northern man, 
 with his corporation and franchises with the south 
 ern man and his slaves. This is the law of the land, 
 and let any one try it that disputes it. We, in Mis 
 souri, are well situated to make the experiment con 
 veniently, and in all its forms. Let any one of Mr. 
 Calhoun's followers try it, and he will soon see what 
 becomes of his property, his slave property. Let him 
 remove to Iowa ; he will meet there the 8th section 
 of the act of Congress of March 6th, 1820 the Cal 
 noun proviso ; and will in vain invoke state rights 
 and Missouri statutes. Let him remove to Illinois ; 
 he will find there the Jefferson proviso, ir the form of 
 the ordinance of 1787- Let him remove to Kentucky j 
 the law of Kentucky takes hold of his slaves, and con 
 verts the chattel interest of the Missouri slave into 
 real estate ; for, in Kentucky, slaves are now 
 made real estate, and placed on the footing 
 of land, as they are in Louisiana. Let him 
 move into Arkansas, his chattel slave will remain 
 chattel, but by virtue of Arkansas law, and subject to 
 its regulation. Finally, let him remove west, and 
 settle in the territory of Nebraska, when it shall be 
 created ; and the Calhoun proviso will be on him 
 again, and his property will evaporate. Thus a citi 
 zen of Missouri cannot get out of his own state, on 
 any one of its four sides, with his slave property, 
 without having its character altered, or holding it by 
 another law ; and twice he will lose it on two sides 
 of his state on contiguous territory he will lose it 
 under an act of Congress, which became a law under 
 the advice and opinion of Mr, Calhoun, in his high 
 character of cabinet minister, and assisting at a coun 
 cil armed with the veto power. This is the case of 
 the Missouri citizen, and has been ever since Missou 
 ri was a state ; and no one ever thought the state 
 sovereignty insulted, or felt Rimself bound to dis 
 solve the Union on acoountof it. 
 
 No ! the citizens of the states cannot carry the laws 
 of their states with them to Oregon and -California; 
 and if they could, what a Babel of slave law would 
 be there ! Fourteen states, each carrying a code dif 
 ferent, in many respects, from each other ; and all to 
 be exercised by the same judges, in territories where 
 there is no slave law. What absurdity! No such 
 thing can be done The only effect of carrying slaves 
 there would be to pet them free. It would be in vain 
 to invoke the constitution, and say it acknowledges 
 property in slaves. It does so : but that is confined 
 to states. 
 
 And now we arrive at substance at a practical 
 point. Congress has the constitutional power to abol 
 ish slavery in territories ; but she has no slave terri 
 tory in which to exercise the power. We have no 
 territory but the remainder of Louisiana north and 
 west of Missouri, that in California, New Mexico 
 and Oregon, and that north of Wisconsin, now Mi- 
 nesota. In Louisiana, north and west of us, it was 
 abolished by Congn ss in 1820. In the territory north 
 of Wisconsin, now Minesota, it was abolished by the 
 Jefferson proviso of 1787. In Oregon it was abolished 
 by Congress in 1848, by what you may call the Ben- 
 ton proviso, if you please. In New Mexico and Cali 
 fornia it was abolished by the Mexican government 
 in 1829 confirmed in 1837, and again in 1844. Here 
 are the decrees, the originals of which I have read ia 
 
12 
 
 the authentic bound volumes of the Mexican laws, 
 and which were produced in the Senate of the United 
 States by Mr. Dix. of New York. 
 
 [Translation.] 
 ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 "The President of the United Mexican States to 
 the inhabitants of the republic : 
 
 " Desiring to signalize, in the year 1829, the anni 
 versary of independence by an act of national justice 
 and beneficence, which may tend to the benefit and 
 support of so important a good ; which may strength 
 en more and more the public tranquillity ; which may 
 co-operate in the aggrandizement of the republic ; 
 and which may restore to an unfortunate portion of 
 its inhabitants the sacred rights which nature gave 
 them, and the nation protected by wise and just 
 laws, in conformity to the provision of the 30th arti 
 cle of the constitutive act ; exercising the extraor 
 dinary powers which are conceded to me, 1 do de 
 cree : 
 
 1. Slavery is abolished in the republic. 
 
 2. Those who until to-day have been considerd 
 slaves are consequently free. 
 
 3. When the condition of the treasury will permit, 
 the owners of the slaves will be indemnified in the man 
 ner which shall be provided for by law. 
 
 Mexico, 16th September, 1829, A. D. 
 
 JOSE MARIA DE BOCANEGRA. 
 
 LAW* of 1837. 
 
 [Translation.] Slavery is forever abolished, with 
 out any exception, in the whole republic ; April 5th, 
 1837 [Collection of Laws and Decrees of the General 
 Congress of the United Mexican States, volume 8, 
 page 201.] 
 
 [Translation.] The masters of slaves manumitted 
 by the present law or by the decree of the 15th of 
 September, 1829, shall be indemnified. *fec. [Collec 
 tion of Laws and Decrees, &c , vol.8, page 201 ] 
 
 Ibis is the decree, and this is the act of Congress 
 confirming it, abolishing slavery throughout the Mex 
 ican Republic. The Constitution of 1844, does not 
 abolish slavery, for that was done before, but pro 
 hibits future establistfment. Thus, there is no slavery 
 now in Mexico and California ; and consequently none 
 in any territory belonging to the United States ; and 
 consequently, nothing practical, or real, in the whole 
 slavery question, for the people of the United States 
 to quarrel about. There is no slavery now bylaw 
 in any territory ; and it cannot get thereby law, ex 
 cept by act of Congress ; and no such act will be pas 
 sed, or even asked for. The dogma of, no power in 
 Congress to legislate upon slavery in territories, kills 
 that pretension. Mo legal establishment of slavery 
 in California and New Mexico is then to be looked 
 for. That is certain. Equally certain it will never 
 be established in either of them in the point of fact. 
 The people of both territories the old inhabitants- 
 are unanimous against it. 
 
 Of the new emigrants, all those from Europe, Asia, 
 Mexico, Central and South America, and all those 
 from the non slaveholding part of the United States, 
 will be unanimously against it. There remains, then, 
 to overbalance all this unanimous mass, only the emi- 
 grants'from the slaveholdiug parts of the United 
 States in itself the smallest branch of the emigra 
 tion, and it divided on the question many going for 
 the express purpose of getting rid of slavery and 
 very few so far in love with it as to go that distance 
 for the pleasure of having a lawsuit with his own ne 
 gro, apd with the certainty of coming out second 
 best in the contest. There is, then, no slavery, at 
 this time, eHhcrin New Mexico or California, in law 
 or in fact ; and will never be either in law or in fact. 
 
 What, then, is all the present uproar about*? Ab 
 straction ! the abstract right of doing what cannot 
 be done! the insult to the sovereignty of the states, 
 where there is no insult ! all abstraction ! and no 
 rea'ity, substance, or practice in it. 
 
 The Romans had a cluss of disputes which they 
 called de lana C'iprina that is to sa , about goat's 
 wool ; and as the goat has no wool, the dispute was 
 about nothing. So it is of this dispute among us 
 about excluding slavery from New Mexico and Cali 
 fornia. There is none there to exclude, and the dis 
 pute now raging is about nothing. 
 
 The Missouri resolutions were copied from those 
 of Calhoun ; and I do not believe there exceeded half 
 a dozen members in the two Houses, all told, who 
 were in the secret, either of the origin or design of 
 that proceeding. They were copied from Calhoun ; 
 and to see their design you % must know his His 
 were aimed at the Union at* the harmony and sta 
 bility of the Union and at the members from the 
 slaveholding states who would not follow his lead 
 myself especially. This makes it my duty to speak 
 to him, and to show his design in bringing forward 
 the resolutions from which he was so suddenly backed 
 out in the Senate, and which some half a dozen mem 
 bers have succeeded in passing through the Missouri 
 Legislature This carries me rather far back, but I 
 will make rapid work, and short work. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun came into public life to be President 
 of the United States. The weird sisters, in the shape 
 of the old man that taught him grammar, had whis 
 pered in his ear thou, shall be President. Unonthat 
 oracular revelation he commenced his political career, 
 and has toiled at its fulfilment for forty years at first 
 openly, and it may be fairly, by , utting himself at 
 the head of all the movements which promised ad 
 vancement in the public favor. In 1816 protection of 
 domestic industry was popular : he put himself at the 
 head of the protective policy, and went for the mini 
 mum provision the cotton minimum which was the 
 father of all the rest, and the ouly real injury to ihe 
 cotton growers, by suppressing for thirty > ears thafi 
 class ot cotton goods which was of most universal use, 
 and of the largest cotton consumption the corduroys 
 and velvets, so universally worn before 1816 so to 
 tally suppressed under the Calhoun minimum of that 
 year and just beginning to appear again under the 
 tariff of 1846. At the same time (1816) a national 
 bank the state banks having failed, and brought 
 odium on the state institutions was much called for ; 
 Mr Calhoun put himself at the head of the call, and 
 carried through the bank charter. 
 
 About the same time internal improvement, by the 
 federal government, became popular: he seized upon 
 the subject ; and in 1823, as Secretary of War, made 
 an elaborate report in favor of a general system of 
 roads and f-anals, pervading all parts of the Union. 
 In 181920 the Missouri controversy raged, and the 
 whole north stood up as one man for curtailing the 
 area of slave soil: betook the free soil current and 
 expunged slave soil from all the territories of the 
 United States by joining in the abolition of slavery in 
 Upper Louisiana, giving Texas to the King of Spain, 
 and giving the rest of Louisiana to the Indians. At 
 the same time Jackson became the favorite of the peo 
 ple for President : he withheld and postponed his own 
 pretensions to the presidency, became the advocate of 
 Jackson, went upon bis ticket, and was elected Vice 
 President with him. But this was the end of his po 
 pular movements to gain the presidency. lie expect 
 ed to succeed Jackson, and that he would only have 
 to wait and strve eight years. That was only one 
 year longer than Jacob had to wait, and serve Laban 
 for Rach 1. But oh ! the disappointments in love 
 and politics ! Like Jacob, when he woke up, he 
 
13 
 
 found it was Leah ! a little magician of the north had 
 got into the bed, and was to be Jackson's successor ! 
 Unlike J cob, be could not wait and serve another 
 long eight years, and determined to clutch the prize 
 at once. 
 
 Then came nullification No 1, (pretexed by that 
 tariff of which he himself was the main au'hor,) and 
 that scheme for dissolving the Union which Jackson's 
 proclamation put down The tariff failed to bear 
 him through : a more inflammable subject was want 
 ed and was found in the sensitive question of slavery. 
 Then came that long succession of abolition plots for 
 blowing up slavery in the United S r ate?, compared to 
 which all the popish plots in England for blowing up 
 the Protestant religion the gunpowder, rye-house, 
 meal tub, and oth^r plots, so formidable in their day, 
 were tame and impotent inventions. First, there 
 was the London abolition plot of Ashbel Smith, 
 John Andrews, and Lord Aberdeen, for lighting the 
 train of abolition in Texas, and tberce running it 
 into the United States, where it was to explode and 
 blow all up ! and to prevent which it became a case 
 of "self-defence," admitting of no delay, to jerk 
 Texas instanter, by treaty, out of their hands, before 
 the plot was ripe something like jerking the fuse out 
 of the loaded bomb before it would explode. 
 
 The treaty did not stand the jerk, and was broke ; 
 and the plot evaporated without harm Duff Green 
 had been paid a thousand dollars by the Tyler admin 
 istration, out of the United States treasury, for 
 bringing that plot from London ; but it was money 
 lost. Then came the World's Convention plot, also 
 located in London, for the abolition of slavery 
 throughout the world the United States inclusively, 
 but it came up feebly, and had no run Then came 
 the incendiary transportation mail matter plot: and 
 that, for a while, threatened to break up the trans 
 portation of the mails, and to leave the two halves of 
 the Union in a state of non-intercourse It ripened 
 into a bill for searching the mails ; and then expired. 
 Then came the incendiary petitions plot : that occu- 
 pi^d the time of Congress for several years, and con 
 siderably alarmed the country, until everybody saw 
 that it was a game, performed by two sets of player?, 
 playing into each others hands, for their own benefit 
 at home, and getting up an agitation of which the 
 public peace and the public business was the victim. 
 It then died out Thus ail the abolition plots pre 
 texts for a second rmlifieat ion failed They were 
 what the New York law reform statute, abolishing 
 latin, interprets the writ cfrie exeat to be no go. 
 
 In the meantime, there was an ep : sode which will 
 require a full history some day, but which can only 
 be hinted at no v, to complete the picture, ft hap 
 pened that after Mr Van Buren's election, Mr Cal- 
 noun became a sort of a supporter of his administra 
 tion ; and, upon the principle that one good turn 
 deserves another, expected his support for the succes 
 sion. 'J hat involved a scheme for northern votes. 
 There was a slave subject which prevented it the 
 liberation of American slaves by the British authori 
 ties in the Bahama islands who had revolted against 
 their owners, committed murder and piracy, and car 
 ried their master's vessels into British ports. When 
 these enormities occurred, Mr. Calhouti took up the 
 cause of the south with justice and vehemence, and I 
 stood by him. When he took it into his head to be 
 come Van Buren's successor, he abandoned the south, 
 and left me and a few others alone, by the side of the 
 ill-fated owners of the Comet, Encomium, Creole, 
 Enterprise, and others. 
 
 In his new-born zeal then to please the north, he 
 shot ahead he must always be ahead beatine 
 Woodbury, Buchanan, and other northern senators 
 in his votes and speeches on the northern side of the 
 
 question. Some view of this may be seen in my 
 speech on the Ashburton treaty ; but the subject re 
 quires a separate examination, and thall receive it, 
 but not now. It will be a curious episode, and will 
 place Mr Calhoun a second time where he was in 
 1819-'20 on the northern side of the sla.very ques 
 tion ; but only for a brief space. Mr. Van Buren 
 preferred to try to be his own successor ; and the 
 Texas treaty having gone over without making its 
 author President, and the Mexican war promising a 
 large crop of popular Presidential candidates, a new 
 political test became necessary ; and. the tariff ques 
 tion being set 1 led by the act of 1846, a recourse to 
 slavery and abolition became indispensable. Hence 
 the firebrand resolutions of 1847 a firebrand which 
 has had the singular fate of dying out where it \.aa 
 put, and of raising a conflagration a thousand miles 
 off. 
 
 The design of these resolutions then point directly 
 to the subversion of the Union It is their language. 
 And for what cause 1 For a cause so absurd acd un 
 founded, so contradicted by his own conduct, and by 
 the whole action of the government from its founda 
 tion to the present day, that, being confronted with 
 his own conduct, he has never dared to ask a vote 
 upon his resolutions. 
 
 I have no new opinions to express about the design 
 of those resolutions. I gave my opinion of them at 
 the time they were introduced, and in many ways, 
 and among the rest in a letter to the people of Ore 
 gon, and another to the people of Howard county. 
 The people of Oregon had formed a provisional gov 
 ernment, and inserted in their articles of government, 
 a fundamental act for the prohibition of slavery, co 
 pied from the Jefferson proviso of 1787. The House of 
 Representatives passed a bill in the session of '46 '47, 
 to establish a territorial government for Oregon, 
 sanctioning their articles of government with the 
 provi o against slavery in it This bill was defeated 
 in the Senate just twelve davs after Mr. Calhoun 
 brought in his firebrand resolutions ; and in giving 
 an account of that defeat to the people of Oregon, in 
 a letter which was then published, 1 said : 
 
 " Your fundamental act against that institution, 
 copied from the ordinance of 1787 the work of the 
 south in the great day of the south prohibiting slave 
 ry in a territory far less northern than yours will 
 not be abrogated ! nor is that the intention of the 
 prime-mover of the amendment. Upon the record, 
 the judiciary committee of the Senate is the author of 
 that amendment ; but not so the fa^-t That com 
 mittee is only midwife to it. Its author is the same 
 mind that generated the ' firebrand resolutions,' of 
 which Isend you a copy ; and the amendment is its 
 legitimate derivation. Oregon is not the object ! 
 The most rabid propagandist of slavery cannot ex 
 pect to plant it on the shores of Pacific in the lati 
 tude of Wisconsin and tic Lake of the Woods A 
 home agitation, for election, and disunion purposes, is 
 all that is intended by thrusting that firebrand ques 
 tion into your bill ; and, at the next session, when it 
 is thrust, in again, we will scourge it out." 
 
 A home agitation for election, and disunion purpo 
 ses, is what 1 told them the object of these resolutions 
 was. Cass and Butler were defeated upon tests fram 
 ed out of these resolutions ; but the election part of 
 th object was against all northern men, and to bring 
 forward Mr. Calhoun himself as the southern candi 
 date. Failing in this object to get himself nomina 
 ted, the next design of the resolutions came into play; 
 and this brings me to the meeting of southern members 
 of Congress got up and conducted by Mr. Calhoun. 
 It was a meeting with closed doors every citizen, 
 not. an actual member from a slaveholding state, was 
 excluded even Mr. Bibb, of Kentucky, a former 
 
14 
 
 Senator, and who was turned out under the ppecial 
 decision of Mr. Calhoun himself. Members came 
 upon invitation. I was not invited, and would not 
 have gone if 1 had been. Gen. Houston was not in 
 vited, but went without invitation, and moved the 
 opening of the doors to the public, which was voted 
 down. 1 have been told that disunion was expressly 
 discussed ; and that would seem to flow, as a regular 
 consequence, from the fundamental proposition of the 
 original address, drawn by Mr. Calhoun, and assimi 
 lating its importance to the declaration of wrongs 
 which separated the American Colonies from Great 
 Britain, and give a higher importance to the present 
 Crisis, as going beyond the former, and involving not 
 merely rights, but life and property every thing 
 the safety of the sou'h, and all. The paragraph 
 which contained this declaration was this : 
 
 ' We whose names are hereunto annexed, address 
 you in discharge of what we believe to be a solemn 
 duty on the most important subject ever presented for 
 your consideration, not excepting the declaration 
 which separated you andthe other United Colonies 
 from the parent country, That involved your inde 
 pendence ; but this your all, not excepting even your 
 safety. We allude to the conflict between the two 
 great sections of the Union, growing out of a differ 
 ence of feeling and opinion in reference to the rela 
 tion existing between the two races the European 
 and African which inhabit the southern section, and 
 the acts of aggression and encroachment to which it 
 has led." 
 
 From this strong language, exalting the crisis above 
 that of the revolution, it would naturally be supposed 
 that the remedy was to be the same ; and so it wasun- 
 derstood by many, and the words struck out. The same 
 conclusion would seem naturally to result from a con 
 cluding part of the address, in which unanimity was 
 invoked, consequences disregarded, the Union treated 
 as hypothetically worse than useless, called a sword 
 to assault, and not a shield to defend, and in which it 
 was !eft to the north to count its value This is the 
 paragraph which contained these expressions: 
 
 "As the assailed, you would stand justified by all 
 laws, human and divine, in repelling a blow so dan 
 gerous, without looking to consequences, and to resort 
 to all means necessary for that purpose. Your assail 
 ants, and not you, would be responsible for conse 
 quences. [It would be for them, and not for you, to 
 count the value of the Union. Without your rights, 
 it would be worse than useless a sword to assault, 
 and not a shield to defend you !"] 
 
 The most significant nf these phrases were struck 
 out, doubtless because they more than squinted in 
 fact looked straight--at disunion. The stricking out of 
 these passages shows that the majority of the meet 
 ing dissented from Mr. Calhoun's views, and caused 
 to be expunged from his address the anti-union 
 passages. The majority were doubtless in favor of 
 preserving the Union ; but that is not the present in 
 quiry. The present inquiry is into Mr. Calhoun's 
 designs his designs in his resolutions of February, 
 1847 : and every thing that occurred in the meeting, 
 and especially tha passages expunged from his ad 
 dress, show that his deliberate design was what his re- 
 eolutions hypothetically imported the subversion of 
 the Union. The paragraph assimilating the condi 
 tion of the south in relation to the north to that of 
 the colonies at the declaration of independeEce, was 
 awfully significant, and dreadfully false. No wonder 
 it was expunged. 
 
 Compare the list of grievances which he drew up, 
 and which constituted the staple of his address that 
 was published compare this with the list of grieran- 
 oes against Great Britain, drawn by Mr. Jefferson 
 
 and prefixed to the declaration of independence and 
 then see what truth there was in Mr. Calhoun's reck 
 less comparison. According to his assertion the 
 southern grievances were not only equal, but greater 
 than those enumerated by Mr. Jefferson. The 
 declaration of independence is in every house ; but 
 there is another place where the list is more perfect 
 the preamble to the constitution of Virginia also 
 drawn by Mr. Jefferson, and where an item suppres 
 sed in the national declaration of independence, to 
 gratify some extreme southern friends, was retained 
 in all its vigor by his native state. That item was 
 this. "By prompting our negroes to rise in arms 
 among us those very negroes, whom, by an inhuman 
 use of his negative, he hath refused his permission to 
 exclude by law" 
 
 What a contrast! The king's refusal to authorize 
 the exclusion of slaves from Virginia, then one of 
 the causes of separation, inserted in her declaration 
 of wrongs, prefixed to her constitution the nominal 
 exclusion by law of slavery from a territory where it 
 is not, and cannot be, now a cause of separation of 
 the southern from the northern states ! Surely the 
 Father of his country had, in his mind's eye, this ad 
 dress of Mr. Calhoun when, in his farewell to his 
 children, he warned them against the misrepresenta 
 tions of designing men who, for their own ends, would 
 raise up sectional differences for the purpose of alien- 
 ating one part of the Union from another. His pro 
 phetic vision foresaw the present state of things 
 when he wrote this paragraph : 
 
 " In contemplating the causes which may disturb 
 our Union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern, 
 that any ground should have been furnished for char 
 acterizing parties by geographical discriminations 
 Northern aud Southern Atlantic and Western ; 
 whence designing men may endeavor to excife a be 
 lief that there is a real difference of local interests 
 and views Oneof the expedients of party to acquire 
 influence within particular districts, is to misrepre 
 sent the opinions and aims of other districts You 
 cannot shield yourself too much against the jealousies 
 and heart burnings which spring from these misrepre 
 sentations ; they tend to render alien to each other 
 those who ought to he bound together by fraternal 
 affection " 
 
 This malediction of the father of his country falls 
 upon Calhoun falls upon the twenty years' promo 
 ter of hatred and alienation between the north and 
 the south. But, why multiply proofs. From the ful 
 ness of the heart, the mouth speaker h ! and foe twen 
 ty years the mouth of Calhoun has poured fourth the 
 language of disunion. Surely the Holy Scriptures are 
 right: and deadly enmity to the Union must be in 
 that heart from which its death knell is daily sounded. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is baulked in his mode of proceeding. 
 He finds a difficulty in the first step. The experience 
 of the first nullification has convinced him that one 
 state, and that a small one, is too narrow a founda 
 tion to build upon. He needs a broader foundation ; 
 and ever since the Texas annexation treaty of 1844, 
 he has manoeuvred for a southern convention, in or- 
 derto unite all the southern states under his control. 
 He/wants a convention. He is great upon a small 
 body where he can work upon individuals in detail 
 and by units. He is great then. A southern con 
 vention was his plan at the rejection of the Texas 
 treaty in 1844 ; [ contributed to break up that plan. 
 At rhe passage of the Oregon bill, in the summer of 
 1844, he tried for the convention again ; and a sub 
 scription paper was cautiously circulated in the House 
 of Representatives lor signatures. Jt was " no go." 
 But few subscribers were got, and the paper was sup 
 pressed. 
 
15 
 
 This brings ua to the last winter's work the meet 
 ing convoked of the members of 'Congress from the 
 slaveholding states, its object has been stated, and I 
 do not repeat it I only name it as a part of the ma 
 chinery for getting up a southern convention. It was 
 in fact a sort of southern convention itself a caucus 
 convention intended to pave the way for the real 
 convention, at d to call it It was intended to com 
 bine whigs and democrats, and bring the whole under 
 the control of the head Contriver. It was a failure. 
 The wh'gs hauled off from it : only a part of the de 
 mocracy remained, and many of them for innocent 
 and laudable purposes. Nothing came from this con 
 gress convention but an emasculated address, deprived 
 of the A r enoin in its head, and of the sting iu its tail, 
 and proposing nothing. The- contrivance for the 
 southern convention had failed again: and his last 
 resource was in state legislatures, and county meet 
 ings. The fire brand resolutions were to be adopted 
 in state legislatures, and county ineetiags got up 
 to stimulate the people 1 omit other states. 
 The resoluiions were adopted in Missouri immedi 
 ately after the failure of the Congress caucus, and 
 after the publication of the address about as soon as 
 they could be known. The resolutions bad laid in a 
 torpid state all winter. They slept during the time 
 they should have been awake, and in ray hands at 
 Washington, if they were intended fo my guidance. 
 They were passed after Congress adjourned, and the 
 county meetings immediately started. This was in 
 accordance to the practice elsewhere ; and, if they 
 still go on, should conform to Accomac, which have 
 at least the merit of doing a wrong thing in the right 
 way. They propose a convention of the state, to be 
 called at a special session of the general assembly, to 
 decide fundamentally on the course of action. That, 
 at least, is consulting the people fairly, and giving 
 them a chance to decide understaudingly. This is 
 their resolution: 
 
 " Resolved, That the danger of the state and the 
 safety and welfare of the people of Virginia call for 
 a convention, to be assembled as soon as the Legis 
 lature can pass a bill for that purpose, to determine 
 upon the whole question of encroachment by the Fe 
 deral Government, and by the " Free Soil" states 
 and the people of the north, on the institution of 
 slavery in the states, territories and districts of the 
 United States, that it is full time for the state to de 
 cide what will be its sovereign action finally, on this 
 subject ; and to inform its c'tizens and subjects whe 
 ther they will be authorized to resist, if thmy are re 
 quired bjf Federal Legislation to submit to the op 
 pression of a majority iu Congress, and that a State 
 Convention, organized according to law, can best 
 settle the rule of conduct for the citizen." 
 
 The Accomac meeting reports its proceedings to 
 Mr. Calhoun ; and that is right again. He is the 
 chief of the movement, and his adjuncts should report 
 to him. 
 
 I deem it most unfortunate that the General As- 
 eembly of Missouri should have adopted Mr. Cal- 
 houn's resolutions. I am certain not six members of 
 the body had the scienter of their origin and design ; 
 or meant harm to the country or myself. But that 
 is no impediment to their evil effect. They are the 
 act of the General Assembly. Upon the record, they 
 are the will of the state. Abroad, they are the pledge 
 of the state to back Mr. Calhoun in his designs to 
 put the state under his lead and to stop my oppo 
 sition lo his mad career. And, although I know that 
 the event will deceive his hpes, yet the mischief 
 will be done, in the fatal encouragement he will re 
 ceive, before another General Assembly can correct 
 the error. 
 
 1 consider my proposition the one with which I 
 
 commenced my speech now made good; namely, 
 that the Resolutions of the General Assembly of 
 which 1 complain are copied from those of Mr. Cal 
 houn that to understand their design, you must un 
 derstand liis design and that, from the words of hia 
 own resolution, and from bis conduct for twenty yeara 
 past, the subversion of the Union is intended. In the 
 execution of this design I cannot be an instrument, 
 nor can I believe that the people, or the mass of the 
 General Assembly wish it; and I deem it right lo 
 have a full understanding with my constituents on 
 the whole matter. 
 
 I, therefore, appeal from the instructions I have 
 received, because they are in conflict with instruc 
 tions already received and obeyed because they did 
 not emanate from any known desire, or understood 
 will of the people because they contain unconstitu 
 tional expositions of the Constitution which I am 
 sworn to support because they require me to pro 
 mote disunion because they pledge the state to co 
 operate with other states in eventual civil war be 
 cause they are copied from resolutions hatched for 
 great mischief, which I have a right to oppose, and 
 did oppose in my place of Senator in the Senate f 
 the United States, and which I cannot cease opposing 
 without personal disgrace and official dereliction of 
 public duty and because 1 think it due to the people 
 to give them an opportunity to consider of proceed 
 ings so gravely affecting them, and on which they 
 have notbeen consulted. 
 
 I appeal to the people the whole body of the peo 
 ple. It is a question above party, and should be kept 
 above it. 1 mean to keep it there. 
 
 And now I have a secret so tell, in relation to these 
 resolutions, which I have guarded long enough I 
 marked their first appearance in the General Assem 
 bly, knew their origin and design, and determined to 
 let them go on. It so happens that there are a few- 
 citizens in this state, successors to those who have 
 passed away, and who are denominated, in the Acco 
 mac resolutions, adjuncts to Mr. Calhoun. The de 
 nomination is appropriate. Adjunct (English) is- 
 from ad and junctus (Latin) and signifies joined to ; 
 which this set of citizens seems to be, both soul and 
 body, with respect to their southern leader. 
 
 These few are in a state of permanent conspiracy 
 against me, either on their own account, or that, of 
 their "leading friend at the *o/A," or both, and 
 hatch a perpetual succession of plots against me. To 
 go no farther back, 1 refer to the summer of 1843, and 
 the plot on the Texas Annexation question, which I 
 will call the jews-barp plot, in consideration of the mu 
 sic which was to be then made upon that instrument, 
 and to discriminate it from others. That plot show 
 ed its head, but it hid itself afterward. It failed, and 
 its contrivers went back into their perpetual state of 
 incubation. When the Calboun resolutions were 
 moved in the General Assembly, and that was at the 
 commencement of the session, I saw that a new plot 
 was batching, and determined to let it quit the shell. 
 I knew that if I gave hint of what they were about 
 if I had communicated the tithe of what I have said 
 to you to-day, it would have stopped the proceeding. 
 But that would have done me no good. It would 
 only have postponed and changed ihe form of the 
 work. 1 determined to let it go on, and to do no 
 thing to alarm the operators ; and for that reason 
 wrote nor a word not a word on the subject to any 
 one of the hundred members who would have blown 
 the resolutions sky high if they had known their ori 
 gin and design. I did not even answer a letter from 
 my friend who sits there (Lieut. Gov. Price). The 
 resolutions were introduced at the very beginning of 
 the sessiou ; they lay torpid until its end. 
 
 The plotters were waiting for the signal from the 
 
16 
 
 "leading friend" waiting the Calhonn address. 
 The moment they got it, they acted, although it was 
 too la'e for the resolutions to have the effect of in 
 structions. They were passed after Congress had ad 
 journed, and after it must have been believed that the 
 subject to which they relate had been disposed of; 
 for it was notorious that the territorial government 
 bills were in process of enactment, and in fact they 
 only failed alter midnight on the last night of the ses 
 sion, and that on disagreement between the two 
 Houses ; and their failure, on the 3d of March, was 
 not known at Jefferson on the 7th the day of passing 
 the resolutions It was too late to pass the resolu 
 tions for the purpose of instructing me how to vote at 
 Washington. 
 
 It was too late for that ; bat was early enough for 
 the summer campaign at home ; and, therefore, they 
 were passed ! and now I have them. I mean the plot 
 ters ; and between them, and me, henceforth and for 
 ever, is a high wall and a deep ditch ! and no commu 
 nion, no compromise* no caucus with them Nor 
 does it require any boldness, on my part, to give them 
 defiance. There are only a dozen of them a baker's 
 dozen, perhaps and half of them outside of the le 
 gislature. Woe to judges, if any such there are in 
 this work ' The children of Israel could not stand 
 the government of judges ; nor can we. 
 
 Citizens ! I have finished the view which 1 proposed 
 to take of the subject which has induced my appeal 
 to the people ; but there are other matters upon 
 which my constituents desire to hear from me, and in 
 which desire it is right they should be gratified. 
 
 " Barnburner." And what did I go to New York 
 for, la.t summer, but to use my utmost exertions to 
 prevent Mr. Van Buren and his friends from engag 
 ing in the Buffalo Conventon 1 I went there, that is 
 certain. My public speeches show that 1 went for 
 that object, and the newspapers in the interest of 
 thofe called barnburners all assailed me for doing so, 
 not with billiogsgate and as blackguards, but with 
 keen reproaches for coining out of my state, contrary 
 to the practice of my life, to interfere in the politics 
 of another state, and that against ihocC who had al 
 ways been my friends. 
 
 My answer was, that 1 came to use the privilege of 
 an old friend to give my opinion that the separate 
 organization contemplated was wrong in principle, 
 and would be injurious to those engaged in it : and, 
 wbat was m ire, iijuriou* to the grtat party to which 
 they belonged. Such was the object of my visit to 
 New Yoik, and such my rectption. The event dis 
 appointed my hopes and expectations, and 1 had my 
 trouble for my paii,s, and a good deal of newspaper 
 condemnation into th-s bargain. All this was public 
 and notorious, published m all the newspapers, and 
 known to every body. There is not a man in Mis 
 souri that does not know it And now, what are we 
 to think of the language applied to me 1 Why, that 
 is a most excellent thing fur me. It shows the char 
 acter of the plotters, ani that they will nullify and 
 falsify public recorded hit">ry to vilify inc. 
 
 "The Wjlmot I'.oviso." Well! 1 think it is the 
 Jefferson Proviso the same that Mr. Jefl'ercon drew 
 Up for the north-western Territory, in 1784; which was 
 adopted in the Congress of the Confederation or 1787, 
 with the unanimous vcice of the slaveholding states; 
 was ratified by the Virginia General Assembly the 
 10th of December, 17a8 ; which was applied by the 
 CbngreM of 1820 to all the upper half of Louisiana ; 
 which was applied by the Congress of 1848 to the 
 Oregon Territory; which was recommended for the 
 new Territories by the Missouri General Assembly, 
 Feb.uarylS, 1847, and never attempted to be con 
 demned until Friday, (a, day of omen,) the 19th of 
 
 Feb. 1847, just four days after the dte of the Mis 
 souri recommendations, when Mr. Calbun brought 
 in his resolutions declaring it unconstitutional, insult 
 ing to the states, and subversive to the Union. I 
 think Mr Jefferson, and not Davy Wilinot, was the 
 author of this Proviso, and that it should bear his 
 name, and not Davy's. 
 
 With respect to the character of the proviso, if it 
 should be prescribed by Congress for any new territo 
 ry, 1 think it will remain just what it has been for 
 sixty years a constitutional provision, made in pur 
 suance of the Constitution ; and that, being so made, 
 it is binding upon all law-abiding citizens, and that 
 its resistance by force and arms, militarily, would be. 
 treason against the United States, and punishable by 
 death under the laws of the land. With respect to 
 the expediency of the act, there is no necessity for it, 
 and there are prudential reasons why 'it should not 
 be passed. California and New Mexico are now free 
 from slavery both by law and by fact ; and will for 
 ever remain free from it, both by law and in fact. 
 As a general proposition, unnecessary laws ought 
 not to be passed ; but if it is passed, it is an empty 
 provision, having no practical effect whatever. To 
 make an issue against it between the north and south 
 is unwise, for it is an issue about nothing, and on the 
 part of the south an issue made for defeat, for Dela 
 ware has instructed for it ; and that insures a majori 
 ty in the ?enaie for the proviso, there being already 
 a large majority in the House of Representatives in 
 structed for it. 
 
 But there is a stronger reason to claim forbearance. 
 This proviso is the last card in Calhoun's hand! his 
 last stake in the slippery game which he has been 
 playing. Take that last card from him, and his game 
 is up : bankruptcy comes upon him political bank 
 ruptcy and he must be driven to take the act. He 
 will have to haul down his sign close his doors shut 
 up shop and give in a schedule of bis effects and 
 stock in trade ; and a beautiful schedule it will be. 
 Let us see some items of it a few, by way of sample: 
 
 Imprimis: United States Bank charter in 1816 
 opposition to it when he joined Jackson in 1830 re- 
 charier for 12 years to the Bank whea he turned a- 
 gainst Jackson 1834. 
 
 lUm: Protective Tariff and Cotton Minimum in 
 1816; and Nullification and Disunion for the same in 
 1830. 
 
 Item: General International Improvement by the 
 Federal Government in 1823 ; denial of the whole 
 power afterward; and admission of half the power 
 at the Memphis Convention. 
 
 Item : Solemn written opinion in Mr. Monroe's ca 
 binet in favor of the power of Congress to abolish sla 
 very in the territories, and in favor of the exercise of 
 that power over the whole of Upper Louisiana north 
 and west of Missouri, together with the resolutions in 
 the Senate of the United States in 1847, denying that 
 power intoto. J\ota Btnc : The wri'ten opinion is 
 lost or mislaid, but its existence can be proved, and 
 that it; good both in law and equity. 
 
 item : Opuiio.i of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet in 1819 in 
 favor of giving away Texas when we possessed her. 
 and the London abolition plot invented afterward to 
 to get up a slavery agitation for political purposes in 
 getting her back. 
 
 Jlem : All the abolition plots invented for ten years 
 and charged upon Lord Aberdeen, the World's Con 
 vention, iiiucndiary petitions, and incendiary com 
 munications through the mail 
 
 Jlfiit : Tin' I'iplotnic correspondence with Foreign 
 ( S.,\ i ;iunent.-;ou the subject of-lavery while Secretary 
 of State under (or over) Tyler, and especially the 
 autograph letter of forty foolscap page's to toe King 
 of the French, to indoctrinate him into the new and 
 
17 
 
 sublime science of Negroology. 
 
 Item : Speeches and resolutions against the con 
 duct of Great Britain in protecting and liberating 
 slaves guilty of piracy and murder on board Ameri 
 can ships going from one port of the United States 
 to another, and demands for redress ; and subsequent 
 contradiction of all such speeches and resolutions at 
 the Ashburton treaty. 
 
 Item : New mode of amending the Constitution of 
 the United States on the subject of internal improve 
 ment, by making inland seas out of a river and three 
 states invented at the Memphis Convention. 
 
 Item : Opposition to the highway of nations be 
 tween St. Louis and San Francisco, because part of 
 it will have to go through free soil ; and besides, 
 when the Union is dissolved the road would be on the 
 wrong side of the line. 
 
 Item : The bones of 3,000 followers strewed along 
 my political path since the commencement of nullifi 
 cation and disunion in 1830. 
 
 Item : The army of political martyrs preparing to 
 march to the Southern Convention, preceded by the 
 " forlorn hope" from Missouri, and having for its 
 banner the Accomac resolutions. 
 
 Drive him to the schedule, and the country will 
 have peace 1 
 
 " My opinions." They are wanted. Heretofore 
 the public acts of public men have stood for their opin 
 ions : it has been only the new men, unknown by their 
 acts, that have been subjected to political cate 
 chism. Thirty years almost 1 have been in the Senate 
 and during that time have always been a voter, and 
 often a speaker on this subject of Slavery ; and com 
 menced with it in my own State. I was politically 
 born out of a slave agitation out of the Missouri 
 restriction controversy and have acted an open part 
 on it from the time it began to the present day. 
 
 My writings had some influence on the formation 
 of the constitution of this state. They were pretty 
 well known then, though forgotten now. They con 
 tributed to keep off restriction, and to insert the 
 clause in the constitution for the sanction of slavery. 
 I urged the putting it in the constitution for the ex 
 press purpose of giving security to property, and pre 
 venting agitation. I wantedpeace from the question 
 at home, and contributed to provide for it, by con 
 tributing to put that clause in the constitution ; and 
 now it is hard that we should have an agitation im 
 ported, or transported upon us, to harrass us about 
 slavery, when we have taken such care to keep out 
 agitation. 
 
 My votes in Congress have been consistent with my 
 conduct at home non-interference, no agitation se 
 curity to property and tranquility to the people. In 
 thirty years I have not given a vote that has been 
 complained of. I have voted thirty years, avoiding 
 all extremes, and giving satisfaction. The old gene 
 ration, and the generation that has been born during 
 that time, ought to consider this, so far as to let it 
 stand as the evidence of my opinions. But it will not 
 do. Finding nothing in the past to condemn, seme 
 people must go into futurity, to see if any thing can 
 be found there ! and even into my bosom, to see if 
 any thing is hid there, which can be condemned. 
 
 Very good : they shall know my opinions. 
 And first, they may see them in my public acts 
 in my proposals for the admission of TEXAS five years 
 ago, in which I proposed to limit the western exten 
 sion of Slavery by longitudinal line, I believe the 100th 
 degree of west longitude next in my votes upon the 
 Oregon bill, in which 1 opposed the introduction of 
 Slavery there and, again in my letter to the people 
 of Oregon, in which 1 declare myself to be no pro 
 pagandist of Slavery. 
 
 These were public acts. But you want public de 
 
 clarations of personal ^sentiments ; very good ; you 
 shall have them. My personal sentiments, then, are 
 against the institution of slavery, and against its in 
 troduction into places in which it does not exist. If 
 there was no slavery in Missouri to-day, I should op 
 pose its coming in ; if there was none in the United 
 States, I should oppose its coming into the United 
 States ; as there is none in New-Mexico or Calfornia 
 1 am against sending it to those territories, and could 
 not vote for such a measure a declaration which costs 
 me but little, the whole dispute now being about the 
 abstract right of carrying slaves there, without the 
 exercise of the right. 
 
 No one asks for the exercise of the right, and can 
 not ask it in the face of the dogma which denies the 
 power to grant it. States do as they please. These 
 are my principles ; and they reduce the difference be 
 tween Mr. Calhoun and myself to the difference be 
 tween refusing and not asking. And for this the 
 Union is to be subverted ! Oh ! metaphysics ! politi 
 cal metaphysics ! far better stick to the innocent bu 
 siness of amending the constitution by putting three 
 states and a river together ! 
 
 If any one wishes to know still more about my prin 
 ciples on slavery, I will give him a reference : he may 
 find them in Tucker's edition of Blackstone's Com 
 mentaries (appendix to the second volume), where I 
 imbibed, forty-four years ago, when a student at law, 
 and have held fast to them ever since, all the prin 
 ciples of slavery but the remedy, and the difficulty of 
 that is one of the evils itself of slavery, and one of the 
 arguments against one aet of people putting it upon 
 another, and a distant set of people, especially while 
 they are lifting their imploring hands against it. 
 
 To finish this personal exposition, I have to say 
 that my profession and conduct no unusual thing 
 with frail humanity do not agree. I was born 
 to the inheritance of slaves, and have never been 
 without them. I have bought some, but only on 
 their own entreaty, and to save them from execu 
 tion sales : I have sold some, but only for miscon 
 duct. I have had two taken from me by the Abo 
 litionists, and never inquired after them ; and lib 
 erated a third, who would not go with them. I 
 have slaves now in Kentucky, who were elevated 
 to the dignity of real estate, by being removed from 
 Missouri to Kentucky ; and will have to descend 
 next fall to the low degree of a chattel interest in 
 spite of the laws of Kentucky, when 1 shall remove 
 them back to Missouri. And 1 have slaves in Wash 
 ington city perhaps the only member of Congress 
 who has any there and am not the least afraid that 
 Congress will pass any law to affect this property 
 either there or here. 
 
 I have made no slave speeches in Congress, and 
 do not mean to make them. Property is timid ; 
 and slave property above all. It is not right to 
 disturb the quietude of the owner to harrass him 
 with groundless apprehensions. It is a private 
 wrong to disturb a single individual, by making 
 him believe, untruly, that his property is insecure. 
 It becomes a public evil to disturb a whole com 
 munity. It creates a general uneasiness, gener 
 ates animosities, deranges business, and often leads 
 to hasty and improvident legislation. I have seen no 
 danger to the slave property of any state in this Union 
 by the action of Congress ; and cannot contribute to 
 alarm the country by engaging in discussions which 
 assert or imply danger. 
 
 But I have a still higher reason for not engaging 
 in these discussions. We are a Republic the heaa 
 of that form of government and owe a great exam 
 ple to a struggling and agonized world. All the 
 American States of Spanish origin, in spite of the 
 difference of religion, language, manners, <mstoms 4 
 
 2 
 
have imitated our example ; Europe is now attemp 
 ting to imitate it. 
 
 Liberty is now struggling in ancient empires, and 
 her votaries are looking to us for the exemplification 
 of the blessings of which she is in search, and for an 
 argument in favor of her efforts what do they 
 see 1 wrangling and strife, and bitter denunciations, 
 and threats of separation. They see a quarrel 
 about slavery! to them a strange and incompre 
 hensible cause of quarrel. They see slavery and 
 disunion coupled in one eternal wrangle. They 
 see us almost in a state of disorganization leg 
 islation paralyzed distant territories left with 
 out government insult, violence, outrage on the 
 floors of Congress disunion threatened. Their hearts 
 are chilled at this sad spectacle ; their enemies re 
 joice at it, and by every mail ship that leaves our 
 shores the representatives of, the crowned heads of Eu 
 rope send forth the record of our debates to encour 
 age the enemies, and to confound the friends ot free 
 dom. 
 
 France all parts of Italy even the papal States ; 
 all parts of Germany even the old and gloomy Em 
 pire of Austria all, all are struggling for liberty,and 
 turning anxious looks to us for aid and succor, not by 
 arms, for that they know to be impossible, but for the 
 moral aid of a grand example. They look in vain. 
 Our example is against them ; and if the present 
 struggle for liberty shall again miscarry in Europe, 
 we may take to ourselves a large share of the blame. 
 Once called the model Republic by our friends, we 
 
 are now called so in derision by our foes ; and the 
 slavery discussions and dissensions quoted as proofs of 
 the impracticable form of government which we have 
 adopted. I cannot engage in such discussions, nor do 
 anything to depress the cause of struggling freedom 
 throughout Europe. 
 
 Nor can I disparage the work, or abuse the gift of 
 our ancestors. Never has there appeared upon earth 
 a body of men who left a richer inheritance, or a nob 
 ler example to their posterity. Wisdom, modesty, 
 decorum, forbearance, dignity, moderation, pervaded 
 all their works, and characterized all their conduct. 
 They conducted a revolution with the order of an old 
 established government; they founded a new govern- 
 ment with the wisdom of ages ; they administered it 
 in their day with temperance and judgment. They 
 left us the admiration and the envy of the friends of 
 freedom throughout the world. 
 
 And are we, their posterity, in the second genera 
 tion, to spoil this rich inheritance mar this noble 
 work discredit this great example and throw the 
 weight of the Republic against the friends of republic 
 anism in their deadly struggle 1 I cannot do it. 
 Taught to admire the founders of our government in 
 my early youth, 1 reverence them now ; taught to 
 value their work then, I worship it now; a Senator 
 for thirty years, I cannot degrade the Senate by en 
 gaging in slavery and disunion discussions. Silence 
 such debate is my prayer ; and if that cannot be done, 
 I silence myself. 
 
Troo