University Library
University of California Berkeley
Printed by the BEPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE of California.
Campaign Document No. 5.
"POSTING THE BOOKS BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH."
SPEECH
HON, JOHN jfPERRY, OF MAINE.
Delivered in the U. S. House of Representatives, March 7, 1860.
In the discussions which have here taken
place. Southern gentlemen have expressed a will
ingness to stand by the Constitution of our com
mon country, to observe in good faith its obliga
tions and compromises. We, of the North, join
hands with you here. We claim that we aiv not
only loyal to this great fundamental law, but
that we have been so in all times past. And here
comes the issue to be tried : you charge us with
numerous derelictions of duty ; we charge them
back upon you. You have arraigned the great
Republican party of the Union before the high
court of the American people, and charged it
with treason to the Constitution ; we fling all
special pleadings to the winds, join issue upon
the merits, and go to the country. <**>*+
What is the Constitution ? Is it a mere mem- J
orandum of an agreement, entered into by the (
States of this Union in their sovereign capacity
as States, to be observed or broken at the pleas
ure of any one or more of the high contracting
parties? Is it a great confederated partnership,
in which the several States have agreed to do
business under the firm name of the " Union,"
with the right reserved to each and every part
ner to withdraw at pleasure ? Is it a compact
or league between the several States, entered
localities in this GovernmenCjMThe discordanfjl into and ratified by State sovereignty simply
notes of DISUNION ! DISUNION ! have in defiant tones f an agreement that can be kept or broken at the
will of any or either of the parties thereto ? Is
this a fair interpretation of the Constitution ? I
The
and
-> The House being in Committee of the Whole
on the State of the Union, and having under
Consideration the President's message
Mr. PERRY said :
Mr. Chairman, since the adoption of the Amer-
. ican Constitution, our beloved country has been
called upon to pass through several fiery ordeals.
Our Government was an experiment, and as such
it has been put to severe tests and trials.
Upon one of these important occasions, when
a crisis was apparently upon us, there stood up
a hero, a chieftain, a patriot, clothed with au
thority by the American people, and solemnly
declared by the Great Eternal : " THE UNION, IT
MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED."
That illustrious old hero, backed up and sup
ported by millions of patriotic hearts, rallied
around the Constitution of our common country,
and the Union was saved. Since that time, we
have been traveling on as a nation to glory,
greatness, and power.
Although we have been increasing in wealth,
extending our borders, developing our vast and
; varied national resources, diffusing the means of
intelligence and education in every direction,
there is an apparent restlessness, a stirring up
of the bitter waters of sectional strife, in certain
grated upon our ears, from the first day that we
took our seats in this Hall, until the present
time ; while upon every Southern breeze there
answer most emphatically in the negative,
reasons for this opinion are numerous
weighty. If this is all there is of the Constitu-
comes up to the Capitol, from Southern Execu
tives, Southern Legislatures, Southern Conven
tions, and the Southern press, the same unwel-j tion then it need never have been formed. The
come threatenings. J thirteen original States or Colonies, as far back
At this point the question suggests itself, what 1 as before the Revolution, entered into a corn-
has the North done, or left undone, that it should \ pact ; they reduced this compact to writing, and
be thus rudely assailed ? And what reason has r it is found in the old Articles of Confederation,
the South for dealing out these bitter threats L framed in JJJ^. Acting under this compact, the
and denunciations against their brethren in the! thirteen colonies sent forth to the world and
free States?)! This question, with its incidental] posterity that great magna charta of Republican
connections, 1 now propose briefly to discuss ;
and while I feel called upon to speak plainly,
and in all frankness, I mean to observe that
principles, the Declaration of Independence.
Under this compact, our fathers struggled and ,
toiled through seven long years of revolutionary
strict courtesy and gentlemanly bearing which | warfare, and achieved the independence and lib-
is due from every member upon this floor to his a erties of our common country. The preamble to
peers. [ this compact defines the "Articles ot Confedera-
V^..
/
tion to be a perpetual union between the States ; "
while the thirteenth and last article closes by
declaring " that the articles thereof shall be in
violably observed by the States, and that the
UNION SHAM. BE PERPETUAL." Why did our fa-
"Hthers abandon the olcTIeague or compact formed
under these Articles of Confederation, and sub
stitute the Constitution ? If they had been sat
isfied to have lived under a league or compact,
they never Would have changed their form oi
government ; and this is the reason that they
(preferred a Constitution to a compact.
Although there has been a slight conflict of
opinion among American statesmen and jurists
upon this subject, yet a vast majority of the au
thorities concur in this opinion, that the Consti
tution is not a league, compact, or confederacy,
but a fundamental law. The idea that the Con-
I stitution is a mere compact between the States
I is completely refuted by the instrument itself. In
the preamble, it declares the " people," and not
the States, made it, in words too plain and direct
to be mistaken : " We, the people of the United
, States, in order to form a more perfect union, do
j ordain and establish this Constitution." I make
these remarks as the basis of what I may desire
to say hereafter relative to the doctrine proclaim
ed by certain honorable gentlemen upon this
floor that a State, in its sovereign capacity, has
| a right peaceably to secede from the Union.
I now turn to another point involved in this
controversy namely, the compromises entered
into upon the slavery question, between the
North and the South, at the formation of the
Constitution.
Neither the word " slave " nor ' slavery " any-
jwhere appears in the Constitution, and this omis
sion was iiot accidental. Mr. Madison, who had
more to do with framing the Constitution than
any other man, said he " thought it wrortg to
admit into the Constitution the IDKA that there
I could be property in men." (3 Madison Papers,
1492.) Mr. Sherman said " he was opposed to
a tax on slaves, because it implied they were
^property." (3 Madison Papers, 1390.) Other
members expressed similar opinions. Notwith
standing our fathers carefully guarded the lan
guage incorporated into the Constitution, with a
! direct view to the ultimate extinction of slavery.
* yet the fact is not to be denied, that the institu
tion then existed in nearly all the States, " under
the laws thereof; " and this fact entered into the
compromises which resulted in its formation and
adoption. The first compromise agreed upon is
(found in article one, ^eTtion**'!w*o, clause three,
of the Constitution, and was a direct concession
to theSouth.N|This provision allows a property
basis or" representation upon this floor, which is
not allowed the North 5 the operation of which
is to give to the slaveholding States to-day, as
was truly remarked by an honorable gentleman
t from Mississippi, [Mr. LAMAR,] twenty Reprtigent-
atives in this House based upon property.
The members of the Convention which framed
the Constitution from the North contended that
if " three fifths " of the slave property in the
South was to be added to the " whole number of
[.free persons," then the exports the products of
/*"*
Vthe :
;he slave population should be taxed as an
equivalent to the North. Mr. King expressed
the opinions of the North when he said : "At all
event?, either slaves should not*be represented
or exports should be taxable." (3 Madison Pa
pers, 1262.) The only equivalent which the North
received was the connecting, provision in the
article and section abgve referred to ? .which de
clares, that in levying " direct taxes," they
should be apportioned according to the basis of
representation 5 and, as we raise our taxes from
a tariff of duties levied upon imports, this pro
vision is worthless to the people of the free
States.
The next compromise embodied in the Consti
tution upon tliesTavery question is found in
section nine, article one :
migration or importation of such persons as any of
the States now existing shall ihink proper to admit, shall
not be prohibited by Congres> prior to the year 1808; but
a^tax or duty may be imposed ou such importation, not ex-
eediug ten dollars for each person."
Trior to this time, Maryland, Virginia, and sev
eral other States, had abolished the foreign slave
trade. A large majority of the Convention de
sired to abolisli it at once. We have the most
conclusive evidence upon this point. Mr. Iredell,
in the North Carolina State Convention called to
ratify the Constitution, said :
m "^It was the wish of a great majority of the Convention
to put an end to the trade immediately, but South Caroli
na and Georgia would not agree to it."
Again he said :
' It is probable that all the members reprobated the in
human traffic, but South Carolina und Georgia would not
consent to an immediate prohibition of it; one reason was,
that during the last war, the .Revolution, they lost a vast
number ol negroes, which they wished to supply." '6 Eli
ot s Debates, 96, 97, 98.
Mr. Spaight, in the same Convention, said that
" The limitation of this trade to the term of twenty years
Was a compromise between the .Eastern and Southern
g ta tes South Carolina and Georgia wished to extend the
term the Eastern States, insisted on the entire abolition
of the trade." 3 Eliot's Debates, 96.
General Pinckuey, in the South Carolina rati
fication State Convention, said, that while some
of the Eastern States were willing, for the sake
01 the South, to wait a little before putting stop
the slave traffic
The Middle States and Virginia made us no such prop-
ssition; they were for an immediate and total prohibition."
rEliofs Debates, 357,
Thus the fact is established and proved, that
ongress was prevented from abolishing the
slave trade for twenty years, as special favor to
two Southern States of this Union.
The only remaining clause in the Constitution
relating to slavery is article four, section two,
lause three :
k " No person held to service or labor in one State, under
the laws thereof, escaping intoanother.shall,iu consequence
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged Irom such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the
)arty to whom such service or labor may be due."
This provision was another concession to slave-
lolding States.
And here it is important to inquire whether
;he framers of the Constitution considered sla
very national or local? The rendition clause
ust quoted is an answer to the question : " Per
sons held to service or labor in one State, " under
the laws thereof" Here they put upon record, in
the great fundamental law of the land, the fact
+v,of " "
States, and not by force of the Constitution. Its
framers so expressed themselves in the Constitu
tional Convention. Mr^errv sajd^
' We had nothing to do with the conduct of States as to
slaves, but ouylit to be careful not to give any sanction to #."
3 Madison Papers, page 1394. *^
They left the whole question where they found
it with the States, to be continued or abolish
ed as they severally, in their sovereign capaci
ties, should determine.
II. The framers of the Constitution made that
instrument with the desire and expectation that
si > very would ultimately be abolished in all the
States ; that in this country it would come to a
fuial end. Tuis proposition is clearly demon
strated in their openly avowed opinions upon
the slavery question.
General Washington, although a slaveholder,
believed slavery wrong. He freely expressed
himself upon this point, and has left the clearest
evidence behind him upon this question.
Thomas Jefferson, in his official acts and pub
lic writings, has left to posterity a record that
cannot be mistaken. In his Notes on Virginia,
he boldly declares :
' Nobody wishes more ardently than I, an abolition not
only of the slave taade, but of the condition of slavery."
Page 170.
Governeur Morris, in the Convention which
formed the Constitution said :
" He never could consent to uphold human slavery ; it
was a nefarious institution." 3 Madison Papers, 1263. /
Mr. Sherman said :
' That the abolition of slavery seemed to be going on in
the United States, and that the good sense of the several
States would, probably by degrees, complete it." 3 Madison
Papers, loV'J. *
Col. Mason, of Virginia, said :
" Slavery discourages the arts and manufactures, ana 1
brings the judgment of Heaven on a country." 3 Madison
Papers, 13yl.
In the Virginia Convention to ratify the Con
stitution, Mr. Henry said :
" Slavery is detested ; we feel its fatal defects ; we de
plore it with all the pity of humanity." 2 Eliot's Debates,
437.
The illustrious William Pinkuey, in the Ma
ryland Legislature. mTT88", KB : J0
' By the eternal principles of eternal justice, no maste
the State has the right to hold his slave in bondage for a
single hour. * * * \Ve may talk of liberty in our pub
lic councils, and fancy that we feel reverence for her dic
tates. * * * In the uamy of Heaven, can we call our
selves the friends 01 equal freedom and the inherent rights
of our species, when we wantonly pa#s laws inimical to
e$ch; when we reject every opportunity of destroying, by
silent, imperceptible degrees, the horrid fabric of individual
bondage, reared by the mercenary hands of those from
whom the s;icivd ll.une of liberty received no devotion ?"
"X,,,
,
evidence to this point. The enacting of the eele-\
brated ordinance of JI&L by which all territory
then outside of the istates was made forever
free, is another incontrovertible proof of their
I
3. The opinions of the founders of this Re
public were not only acquiesced in and endorsed,
but taken as authoritative expositions of the
Constitution, by nearly all the great statesmen
of the country during the first sixty years of its
existence. " 11 " * -
aaEirst, that Congress has power, under the Con-7
stltuTibn, to prohibit slavery in the Territories.
The ordinance 6f~rrg7, passed by the First Con
gress under the (Constitution, in which were
twenty members of the Federal Convention which
framed the Constitution, is a direct exercise of J
this power.WIt passed unanimously, and was \
approved by General Washington. Subsequent
acts, in which the same principle was directly
recognised, were passed, as follows : an act,
April 7, 1798, organizing Mississippi Territory ; i
in the Sixth Congress, an act organizing Indiana
Territory ; an act, March 26, 1804, dividing
Louisiana into two Territories ; January 11, 1805,
an act organizing Michigan Territory ; February
3, 1809, an act establishing Illinois Territory;
June 4, 1812, an act establishing Missouri Terri
tory ; March 3, 1817, an act relating to Alabama |
Territory 5 March 9, 1819, an act establishing
Arkansas, Territory ; March 6, 1820, the Missouri
compromise was established ; March 10, 1822,
an act establishing Florida Territory ; April 20,
1836, an act establishing Wisconsin Territory
June 12, 1838, an act for the government of Iowa;
and March 3, 1848, an act establishing the gov
ernment of Oregon. ***
These different acts received the sanction oT*J
fourteehdifferent Congresses, and the official ap-
proySFof Presidents Adams, Jefferson, Madjgpn,
Monroe, Jackson. VanTSjftren, ^d Polk. All
ctly acknowleded t
ckson.
curectly acnowledged trmstitu-
tional power of Congress to prohibit slavery in
the Territories, and that it was right and expe- t
dient to exercise it. V
Secondly, until within a very few years, the
opinions of the early statesmen that slavery was
dependent upon state regulations for its exist
ence and protection a local and not a national
institution has been uniformly concurred in by
Congress, State Legislatures, the Judiciary of the
United States aad of the several States. The j
proof is found in the acts of Copgress, of State ''
Legislatures, and in the numerous decisions of /
United States and State courts. M
Mr. Chairman, having briefly referred to the
Constitution, its compromises upon the slavery
question, the rules of construction applicable to
from L
?" Jit, as handed down to us by its framers, and con-
oft* Umted States, volume s.Jf ^ ^^ curred in by all the great statesmen of the coun-
But I will not further elaborate a proposition
which cannot be successfully denied, by quoting
additional extracts from the writings ot early
American statesmen.
2. The hypothesis here set up is proved by
the cotemporaueous acts of our fathers. The
provision in the Constitution relating to the sup
pression of the slave trade after 1808 is strong
try for more than half a centuryil now come to
a material point involved in tnis cRSJu^fSn.
Has tin- South received what legitimutely be-
lougrtf to lie?*tmder the ConstitutionTlmd if
there have been sectional aggressions, from which
party nave they come?
In discussmg lHHWftatter, I shall deal in facts
a,n<l figures, and not in inflammatory declamation
and vague generalities, which have been so much
indulged in by gentlemen upon the other side.
1. Hasthe Sou^ had the property representa-
tffrantiefr 1
l tion girafantiecrHBy the Constitution? No one
I denies it ; and she has to-day twenty Representa-
tives upon this floor upon a property basis, while
the free States have none. Taking the census of
1850 as the basis of calculation, sixmillion free
* whites in the South have under tffi^fpportion-
ment ninety mejjnber^t thirteen million in the
North nave'Hme xfuiLd/M arnTTorty^Sevep mem-
' ^ ratio equSfwrth the South"Would give
North one hundred and ninety-eight mem
bers.
2. The South has always had the benefit of a
fugitive slave law to reclaim their runaway
slaves. "Some of the provisions of the present
law are extremely obnoxious to the people of the
free States ; yet it has been enforced with as
little difficulty as any other law of doubtful con
stitutionality, and made for the exclusive benefit
of a particular section of country. It is true,
slaves sometimes run away, and are not recap
tured and carried back 5 and just as long as they
possess the power of locomotion, just so long
more or less of their number will abscond. This
very fact is a sad commentary upon the asser
tion often made, respecting this uncertain kind
of property, that the African prefers slavery to
freedom.
^** It would be passing strange if the whole sub
ject of negro slavery could be discussed upon
slave territory, in the midst of the slave popula-
Ition, by Southern politicians, as it has been done
for several years last past, without waking up
in the minds of some of this degraded race, ideas
of personal liberty. If these negroes love sla
very, and are contented, of course they will re
main where they are ; but if they get a little of
\ Bunker Hill or Yorktown into their heads, judg-
1 ing from the past, they will be quite likely to
suffer their magnetic attractions to vibrate in the
direction of the north pole. Northern people
are not to blame for all this. It is one of the
incidents which always did and always will con
nect itself with your peculiar institution. Just
so long as there is slavery, just so long there
will be runaways from it. All past history proves
this fact. Then again, the way and manner in
which you sometimes undertake to execute it are
highly exceptionable. Under some fraudulent,
false pretence, the fugitive is often assaulted,
knocked down, and dragged off like a dog, hur
ried away before some five-dollar commissioner,
\ and by him summarily sent off' into slavery, upon
I proof thai would not warrant a magistrate in
giving judgment for a claim of four or six pence
before a country justice.
j^*The very first persgg you undertook to reclaim
f under* this iSw^wasa free manyano 1 when your
I Union-saving slave-catchers from New York
f landed him at the door of his alleged master, in
Maryland,, like an honest, high-minded, honor-
abieman as I am frank to say many of the
(slaveholders are he denied ever owning him,
and the kidnappers had to let him run. A fair
trial in. a. case which places a person's personal
liberty for life in the power of a single man, and
1 liben
that man sometimes the corrupt tool of the power
that made him, is bad enough, in all conscience;
but when those engaged in this business under
take to make a mockery of this, do you wonder
the people of the free States sometimes get "a
little excited ? V
If our Southern friends expect the people of-
the freeotates to turn slave hunters, and join in
the chase in running down the panting iugitive,
they will be disappointed. We never agreed to
any such thing, and we^never will do it 5 it is not
the bond." J|
ad as the law is, and as objectionable as is
the manner in which it is attempted to be execu
ted, it is enforced by the people of the free States.
The honorable gentleman from Ohio [ex-Gov
ernor CORWIN] has told you in this House it is
enforced in the West. So it is in the middle
States, and so it has been in New England. Yes,
sir, Boston court-house has been put in chains,
and the peaceable people of that State kept out
of the temple of justice by federal bayonets,
and the Treasury of the United States robbed of
its thousands and tens of thousands to pay the
bills for returning a fugitive slave.
It is due fairness to add, that individually,
I believe the present fugitive slave law uncon
stitutional ; and if a bill were introduced into
this House for its unconditional repeal, I would
vote for it, and in so doing should reflect the
opinions of a vast majority of my constituents of
all parties.
Mr. Chairman, I do not intend to stop her<>,
but shall pursue this subject further, and show
that the people of the free States have nut only
kept good faith with the South so tar as their
constitutional obligations are concerned, but
have dealt not only fairly but generously in
other matters growing out of the relations ex
isting between the two sections.^ This J.eads m
ip my third point under this divisYfiif "'fll Tny
* , . tnitju&^fe
jsubjecl : ' y ^
Sq. Miles.
At the treaty of peace in 1783. the United States
had a territory of. 820,680
Since that time we have acquired by
The Louisiana purchase 899,579
The Florida purchase 00.900
The Texas annexation 318.000
The Oregon treaty 3u8,052
The treaty with Mexico 522.965
Total territory acquired since 1783, 2,115,486
From the territory thus purchased, there have
been five new slave States adnaitt d into the
Union, to wit : Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas,
Florida, and Texas ; and four free States,, as fol
lows: California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon
The five^lave States have l^n^Seuator.- and six-
iyn Representatives in Congress iLthe^^li^r tree
States, eight ^enators and sc\vn iirpr s ht.ai.ives.
And in this division of territory betweenfhe two
sections, it ought not to be forgotten that the
joint resolution annexing Texas ha^ a provision
that f'ojir more slave States may be carved ont of
that temto'ry. To say nothing of this, the Souih
has, ouT*o"f territory thus acquired,o:ic more
State, tw_o niore United States Senators7"lud
nine more Representatives, than theTFri e States ;
and yet they keep up the cry of aggression ! ag
gression ! against the North. ^
Another inquiry here suggests itself. What
has been the cost of the territory purchased by
the United States, and w o paid for it, the peo
ple of the free or slave States ? I have spent a
good deal of time and labor in collecting, from
the documents in the Government archives and
oitber sources, the aggregate cost of our acquired
territory. Many of the items can be accurately
stated ; others have to be estimated. The ex
pense of the Mexican war is given by the Secre
tary of the Treasury in his report in 1851. (Ap
pendix to Globe, vol. 23. p. 21.) Below, we give,
in a table, the result of our investigations, and,
where we have been obliged to form estimates,
have been careful not to overstate them : \/
Louisiana Territory purchased, in 1803 $15.000.000
Interest paid on same 8.327.353
Florida bought of Spain 5.000 000
Interest paid on same 1,430.000
Texas, fin- boundary claim 10.000,000
Texas, for indemnity claim 10.000,000
Texas, for creditors in Thirty-third Congress 7.750,000
ndian expanses, all kinds inclusive (estimate).. 5,000.000
To purchase navy, p^y troops ("estimate) 5.000,000
All other expenditures not included above (esti
mate) 3,000.000
Expense of Mexican war 217,175,575
Soldiers' pensions and bounty lands (estimated). 7,000.000
Expenses of Flo ida war 100.000,000
Soldiers' pensions and bounty lands (estimate)... 15.000,000
To remove Indians. &c. (estimated) 5.000,000
Amount paid for Vew Mexico, by treaty 15,000,000
Paid to extinguish Indian titles (estimated) 100,000,000
Paid t<> Georgia 3.082.000
Paid for Arizona, purchased of Mexico. 10,000.000
Tears fiHed Tears fitted Difference
from slave, from free favor of
$842.764,928
Who paid the bills? Let us see. I fina rjy*
the researches I have made from official docu
ments. and other reliable sources of information,
that from 1791 to IgjOthe total revenue collect
ed from customs is asTTSllows I bring it up to
this time, as most of my calculations are made
up to 18oO : ^
Whole amount of revenue collected ............... $1,169,299,265
Amount of revenue in free States .................. 932.222,911
Expenses of collecting in free States ............. 36.894.926
Net sum p;iid into Treasury from free States.. 895 327,985
Amount of revenue in slave States ............... 237.076,354
Expenses of collecting in slave States ............ 17.362,393
Net sum paid into Treasury from slave States 219.713,965
Sxcess paid by free States ........................... 675,614,024
*' ' " ' ' _ **
f~ Thus, facts and figures prove that, while'The
I slave States have taken the " lion's share " from
territory purchased, the free States have paid
- FOURTHS of the purchase-money.Jr m
ourth. Let us look at some of tHe offices
under the General Government, and see whether
the S'uth has had its share. I have prepared
from the official records the following table.
which speak* for itself. From this, it appears
the South, with six millions, ^have over f j[i r ff- n
fifths oflne imporfflfolfices, and the XorJ,
^wFtti thirteen millions, less than fagp-fifths. ll
have lookl^ into" fhe u localities fromwnich our
foreign ministers, consuls, and other important
officers, have oeen takent and find that the Sojjth
have had rnor" than, double the number to which
l they have been entitled by their relative popu-
/t
Officers.
States. Slates.
President of U States... 48 26
President of the Senate,
protem ............. . ....... 62 11
Speaker of the House... 45 25
Secretary of State ......... 40 29
Secretary of War ......... 38 34
Secretary of Navy ......... 30 30
Attorney General ......... 42 27
Chief Justice Supreme
Court U. States ......... 57 9
Associate Justices of Su
preme Court U. States 225 194
48
61
232
n
< *
617 385
The South have not been contented
nopolizing nearly all the great offices in the
country, but they make a lordly claim to all the
subordinate places. In all the Departments in
this city, Northern men have been crowded out
to make way for Southerners. I find, in a speech
which I made in the Thirty-fourth Congress, the
following table, which I carefully prepared from
the Blue Book. From this, it appears that the
North, taking their population as a basis, are
fairly entitled to more than two-thirds, yet they
get only about one-fourth. OhTTBe* aggressive I
North ! ** *r
Difference
Whole No. From slave From free in favor
employed, territory, territory. ofSmtth.
Departments.
State
Treasury
Interior
War
Navy
Post Office
Attorney Gen..
1.242
17
285
349
64
39
47
5
806
13
160
191
20
13
43
1
441
4
125
158
44
26
4
4
365
Just look at the committees of both
in the last Congress, and then cry out " Northern \
aggression." Of the twenty^wo important com- i
mittees in the Senate7"ffle 8 l PSve States had the
chairman upon sixteen, and the free Statessjg.
And of the twent^Wt important committees aa <5r
the House, tneoouth had the chairman upon
seventeen, and the North eiaht. Thirteen million^
hea
while sx
at the hea
^
the North*$!r represented at We-
standing committees in Congress,
ion in theSouth are represented
thirtggyge slandin g committees.
This packing operamm on committees to favor
the South was no new thing in the Thirty-fifth
Congress ; they have always had. it in just that
kind oLaway; Such Northern aggression ! It
should IbeTSorne in mind that these cormnjttfes
shape the whole-legislation of the cownljj^.
Again nSolt at the Senate committees of this
Congregs ; out of twenty-two committees, the
Srmth"Eave the chairman* ufkm sixteen and the
North on sixj and upon every single^ne < f the
fourteen important committees, TJfflTBIkv. States
havVf Ull the chairmen. ^)f the e __
States representW'fti the Senate, fourteen are
tof|ny disfranchised upon the heads of the Sen-
areVcommTOJEffi while twentyf )ur Republican
Senator^Tr^presenting moferJnan twelve million
of the people of the Union, out of out? "uTTfTred
and twenty-five places on said committees, get
only thjrffiBrne, and that at the taU-^noof every ',
one {JpTnwhich they are placed. 1 call upon
/the country, North and South, to look at this
| beautiful picture of nationality, equality, Democra
cy, and a magnanimous, generous Soutffe* 1 ^?*'
Fourth.'*in fSOTTthe se'aT'of the~Greneral Gov-
ernmUftTwas, by virtue of a previous act of Con
gress, removed to the slave territory where it
now stands. Washington was then nearly an
unbroken wilderness ; now it numbers nearly
seventy thousand inhabitants. Northern votes
brought the seat of Government here^*9lfd itT!a"s
been built up, to a very great extent? by Northern
treasure. These splendid massive piles of mar
ble, which rear their lofty columns in every di
rection, in, this city, were built by Gwmmfjffa
money. Who graded the beautiful lawnstnat
stretch themselves out around these buildings
like some panoramic fancy sketch ? Who planted
the shade trees that ornament them? Govern
ment money did all this. Yes, sir, the Federal
Treasury has been depleted for the
years of its Jjumflfts an ^ ^ ens of
build up this" great city upon slave territory.
Who gets the benefits? Principally the "slave
States. Washington city furnishes a great mar-
k*eT"fo? Southern produce, raised in Virginia and
Maryland. The Government not only has built
fhiB city, but annually appropriates enormous
sums from the Federal Treasury to supportil.
It grades and lights its streets, paves its walks.
It has gone seventeen miles up the Potomac,
and plundered the national Treasury of about
five million dollars, to furnish the city with
splendid" water-works. ffit indirectly feeds and
clothes a large number of its inhabitants. It
furnishes their swaddling-clothes when first they
open their eyes upon the light of creation, and
pays the sexton's bill when life's fitful scenes are
over.
But I will do no injustice to the good people
of the city of Washington, but will give them an
item of credit which they may file in set-off
against my general allegations. It is this : they
gratuitously furnish an army of patriotic men
who are exceedingly anxious to serve their
country, in places of trust and profit, who will,
just as circumstances require, sing paeans to
DOUGLAS or SEWARD, BOCOCK or SHERMAN, al
ways pitching their key-note to the tune of the
" Ipave. 8 and fishes." And. as evidence of their
patriotism ancTToyalty to the Constitution, we
have heard many of their numbers, day after
day, during the sitting of this Congress, vocif
erously applauding disunion sentiments uttered
upon this floor, which, IT Carried into practical
operation, would raze this magnificent Capitol to
the ground, a heap of smouldering ruins, light
up theirhouses with the torch-light of the incen
diary, desolate their fields, murder their wives
and children in a war of strife, and make this
great city only a fit habitation for the owls and
bats. ^
"""Having shown that the North has been gen
erous to the South, and fulfilled all its constitu
tional obligations to her in letter and in spirit, I
now desire, in all fairness, to examine the other
side of this question ; and, in discharging this
part of my duty, I shall "carry the war into
Africa"
1. Article one of the amendments to the Con
stitution of the United States provides that
r Congress shall make no law respecting an establish
ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof:
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the. press ; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances."
I charge that the South has not always in good
faith lived up to the above provision, inasmuch
as that section of the Union, for a great number
of years, by Congressional action, aided by
Northern Democrats, refused to receive petitions
coming from the people of the free States. Gag
tions. by which the pctitionsTmhe people
wereTreated with contempt, were from year to
year forced through Congress. For years the
people sent up to the Ca*pTfol their memorials,
and they were summarily met. and their peti
tions kicked out of doors in both houses of Con
gress. Fo7*a long time this war of the slave-
holding interest against the people was waged
with fierceness, but at length, through the deter
mined will and perseverance of the " old man
eloquent," aided by his patriotic compeers, the
rights of American citizens were once more re
stored, and the Constitution vindicated against
those who had rudely assailed it.
2. The South has undertaken, in carrying out
their aggressive policy upon the North, to r<
the Territorial policy of the Government, as es
tablished ftfltS founders, and concurred in by
every National Administration for more than
half a century.
I shall not now stop to argue the constitu
tional right of Congress to inhibit slavery in the
Territories, for that has been successfully done
a thousand times before, upon the floors of Con
gress and in other places ; I have already said
mainly what I desire to upon that point.
As we have shown from the passage of the
ordinance of 1787 to the establishment of Oregon
Territory in I''4S the polioy of every depart
ment of the Government was uniform; that Con
gress had the right under the Constitution to
prohibit slavery in the Territories of thu United
States. Hence it follows, that the introduction
of the Wilmot proviso was, in no proper sense, an
infringement ; up~on Southerorights ; for it had
been made a great fundanfeTffaTprinciple of the
Government itself. The very converse of this
proposition was true, that the resistance of th^
South to the application of this wholesome rule
to the territory acquired by the treaty with Mex
ico, was, per se, an aggression upon Northern
rights.
*JU this juncture of.affairs in this country,what
right had the South to step up to the North and
demand a new policy? What right had the
Southern States to carry their local laws into
{ the Territories, to the exclusion of the people of
the free States?
But our Southern friends claim what they call
an equal right in the territory of the United
States. But the demand they make does not
stop with an "equal" balancing of ihe scales.
They demandmore. They not only ask to carry
with them'infcJ The Territoilef^verything which
the common law recognizes as property every
thing" "a property which the JWOplFbf the free
'*!.
States can carry with them ; but they demand to
carry and plant upon free territory a system of
involuntary serv^tj^de, which invades the rights
of the free JaVtQjrer from the North, robs him of
his capUaL disgraces him in sojjjgjy. and in the
end. artves him away, as I shall hereajjjer show.
If it is said toe Constitution, proprio vigore,
establishes slavery in the Territories, I answer,
that is begging the question. We deny it ; and
that is the very question now in issue which the
PEOPLE, and not the Sum-erne Court of the United
States, have got to settle.
3. The terms upon which Texas was annexed
to the United States were unjust to the North
and free SJajjes. This was a SoutherDygga^jug,
to strengthen the slave intgjggjin tmsc3antry.
Its whole history shows it.jt The joint resolutions
providing for annexation provided for the forma
tion of four new States out of this terri&ry ; and
in fairness to the frene^Stejjes, at least an equal
portion sHould have beenfree terrUory ; but. in-
st^ad of this, they provide that aft territory SQuth
of 36 30' should be left open to slavery, and all
north of that line free. Now, any one who will
take pains to Jook upon a map of Texas, will
find only a mere fragment lying north of the
Missouri compromise line. It is too small ever
to make a single State, and is a virtual surren
der of the whole territory to slavery, under the
mjjggr^le pretence of a dj^jpn. Mr. Buchanan,
then a member of the Senate, voted for the ex
tension of the Missouri compromise line through
Texas, and made a speech in favor of it. thereby
acknowledging, as Mr. Benton says, in his Thirty
Years' View, the vaMUy and constitutionality
of the Missouri compromise.
4. The next aggression upon the North which I
shall notice, was the repeal of the Missouri com
promise. The history of that compromise has
been so thoroughly discussed before the country,
that a repetition of it is unnecessary. It is suf
ficient to say that it was a Southern measure.
Upon the vote on the question of admitting" Mis
souri with the restriction, twenty Senators from the
Sjiujh jroti'd for it only two against it. In the
"House of Representati VPS,' upon ^be vote insert
ing the Missouri restriction, thjrty-nine Southern
Representatives voted for itTlSnirjhjrrty-seven
against. We have not only the receded votes
to show this a Southern measure, but other test
imony direct to the point. Charts. Pjncknev.
of South^C^arolina. who was a member of that
Congress aiifV voted against the bill, in a letter^
dated ^ Congress HaJl. Morch 2. 12J^ fflfe'e
-o'clock at night." speaking of the Missouri com
promise, said :
" It is considered here by the, slaveholding States as a great
'-' '-'&'-&
JMr. Benton. in his Thirty Years in the United
States- Senate, says : ~nr.n-r
" This [the Missouri compromise] was the work of the
. sustained by the UNITED VOICE OF Mr. MoxROK;g CABI
NET, the united voice of the SonyjMjyJjggatorsyand a ma
jority of the Southern Representatives.
r. Monroe's cabinet then consisted of John
Q-iincy Adams. S-cretary of State : John C.
Calhoun, Secretary of War ; William H. Craw
ford, Secretary of the Treasury ; Smith Thornp-
Fson, Secretary of the Navy ; John McLean,
master General ; and William Wirt, Attorney;
General.
No special pleading, no circumlocution of ar
gument, no declamation, can destroy or blot out
these/jjgs. There they stand, and there they
will forever stand, as conclusive proof that the
Missouri compromise was a Southern measure ;
the " work of the South," and a " great Southern
triumph." The considereration received by the
South for ttitT'Pe'striction was paid down by the
admjssion of Missouri as a slave Ste
This leads to anoffier inquiry:
stood by their own compromise, orvio ed it ?
This question too, shall be answeredn&y stub
born factg facts which politicians neither North
nor South can ever disprove. In the Senate, upon
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. aJBfij&a^.
Southern Senators voted for it ; two agaiM^nT"
In fhe House, sixtgnine SoulEefn members*voled
for it j and /jja-eagamst it. And yet we are coolly
to~fcf, becausea piToYthern man introduced the bill,
it is a ^orthernm^^e. Will gentlemen from
the South J= stana~up"'iG ere and tell me that a bill
which commanded the votes of eighty-eight
Southern men, with only eleven against it, was not
a Soujhjgiimeasure If it be sa -id Kansas and
NebraskawTft be eventually free States, my an
swer is, npjthjinkjs to the South for that. I
charge, then, tnat the Missouri compromis was
a Souther^ measure ; and that the Southern men
went almost entirely in a body for a violation of
their own cojaaact a compact to which they
had made themseT^giykjjarty.
5. My next charge against the South is, that,
after it hadbrokendown the Missouri restriction,
under the pfefence that the people of a territory
were, by the Kansas-Nebraska bill, to be ' left
perfectly free to form and regulate their own do
mestic insjjjjujykms in theftr own way," it under-
toolf^to foF(j|~jjyjavery into Kansas, first by vio
lence, and secondly J^JD-^pd- V
The first election 'nelttin Kansas was on the
29th day of November, 1854_. The polls were
taken forcible" possession of by a horde of armed
ruffians from the slave States; and. out of 2,258
votes cast for General Whitfield. the Democratic
candidate for Congress, l^jffi. were thrown by
those lawless invaders. These facts appear in
the report of a committee of the Thirty-fourth
Congress, sent out Uyrfie House to investigate
theserratids. (See House Document, No. 200,
first sessiWthirty-fourth Congress.) ^
In January and February, 18^5. a census of
the inhabitants of the Terr:tory*was taken, by
order of the Governor ; and 2^905 men were
found, by this census, qualified torote for num
bers of a Territorial Legislature. On the 30th
of March, of the same year, an election for mem
bers of a Territorial Legislature was holden. At
this election, another armed foray was made into
the Territory, and _6,3J)_9 votes were returned as
St. A siibsequenfrfWestigSfton proved only
jjast
legal ^rotes thrown, leaving 4^900 illegal
voes cast by*ruffian iuvad r-.
The Territorial Legislature chosen at this
worse than mock election passed the infamous
" Kansas code " a compilation of laws worse
8
than the code of Draco. This illegitimate Leg
islature passed an act, providing, that in October,
J^yJJ, the people should vote whether a Consti
tutional Convention should be called or not. The
bonafide citizens of the Territory spurned the act
of these " usurpers,-' 7 and refused to participate
in the election. A few tools of the Administra
tion voted; and the bogus Legislature, on the
of February, 1JJ&L passed an act providing
or the election of aele gates to frame a State
Const : ution. The law providing for the Con-
ventii n and election of delegates required a cen
sus to be taken, and the votes registered, in the
thirty-fouj^gunties recognized as election dis
tricts. iQ^nmeteen of these thirty-four counties,
there was no^fhsus taken ; and in fi%gft, of the.
thirty-four, there was no registry of voters. Gov
ernor Walker, in his letter^oT resignation, says
these fifteen disfranchised counties contained
more voters than were east in the whole Terri
tory at this election. This election was a mock
ery, and the main body of the Free-State men
very properly refused to have anything to do
with it. SL
-,-tMi. .
Subsequently, the people of Kansas, at their
Territorial election in October, 1857, achieved
an overwhelming Free- Stafe^ictoryt** After this.
the Convention of ''usurpers" assembled, and
framed the atrocious " Lecompton Constitution."
These " usurpers " did not dare to submit this
Constitution to a fair vote of the people, for they
knew they would spurn it : so they provided that
" no alteration should be made to affect the right
of property in tlie ownership of slaves until after
"
18(>4 ; v and then provided, in "the schedule, that
it should be submitted to the people, and the
ballots should contain, "./iw^Jjjje Constitution
with slavery, or for the Constitution without
.. J
slavery!
~~At the election on the 21st of December, 1857,
the pro-slavery clause was voted into thi8~Uon-
stitutioii by illegal votes and false returns.
These frauds were investigated by the Governor
of the Territory, and It was shown that, "at Ox
ford, where there were but forty-two votes, all
iold. over ^e thousand votes were returned. At
Shuwuee, where there were but forty le^al votes.
twelve hundred votes were returned : and from
DfilawartTprossing, which had only forty-three
legal votes,- four hundred votes were returned.
I have not stopped to even glance at cities
sacked, peaceable citizens murdered in cool
biood, public highways lined with assassins and;
robbers burglaries, arsons, and other crimes,
committed by border-ruffian raids into Kan
sas but have briefly given an authentic history
. of pro-slavery violence and fraud at the ballot-
box, up to the time the Lecomptoji swindle was
sent to Congress by James Buchanan '**"
Well knowing these facts, the President of the
United States not only sent this Constitution to
Congress, with a message urging its adoption,
but exerted the whole power ;j;i<l patronage of
his Administration to force .it. through Congress.
Is pro^_dema1icted ? Letmecall attention to
some remarks made in this House by an honor
able member from New Jersey, who was also a
-"
iber of the last Congress. I mean Mr.
ADIUIN. He said :
" During the Lecompton controversy, I was approached
in such a manner as shows corruption on the part of the
Administration Jf I had given my support to the Lecomp
ton podcy. I was assured that I could secure a foreign ap
pointment for one most near and dear to me." Daily Globe
of December 13.
is but a solitary case, among many oth
ers. No greater outrage was ever attempted to
be perpetrated upon the people of the freeStates;
and yet it was most emphatically a "SouUia-ii
measure. Here is the proof: in the S'-niale". 'every
!Joiiin~ern member, with two exceptions, voted
for" iTi e bill ; and in the HoVi'seT'llie enj're Soul!:,
with sevengxceptions, supported the measure.
The measure finally assumed the shape of the
English _bjll, wenVTo the people of Kansas, and
was by ' ihenr ^rejected with scorn and contempt
by more than ten thousand majority.
This is a "specimen article" of Democratic
popular sovereignty. I leave the country to
make further comments.
6. The South have undertaken to drive free
labor from the Territories by force of judicial con
struction.
I here refer to the Dred Scott decision, in
which a majority of the court have traveled out
of the record to overturn the well-settled opin
ions of a great majority of American jurists and
statesmen, agreed to and acquiesced in in all
parts of the country for more than sixty years.
When a majority of the judges decided Dred
Scott was not a citizen of the United States, and
was not rightfully in court, it was an end of the
no rg
. Tfut
. ut when they TinHertook to travel out of
theTecord, and give opinions involving questions
not legally before them, their opinions have no
bi lulinjr force upon the people of the country.
The able amT~conclusive opinions of Justices
McLean and Curtis, upon the question of Con
gressional intervention in the Territories, are
entitled to equal respect with those of a major
ity of thecourt. Great political questions, in
volving "matters of national policy, are for the
people^, and not th^^reme^cour'L
~James lJnchanan*"ente"Han'ied and expressed
the same opinions now entertained by the Re
publican party upon this question, in 1841. On
the 7th of July of that year, he made a speech
in the United States Senate on the bank ques
tion. Spe^kmgk of the.J['acJL-that the United
States courthad decided a national
/ . i , 11 < ^rf amm "^"^ /
.stit.utioiiyl. he said :
"Now. if it were not unparhamemary language, and if \
did not desire to treat all my friends on this [Whig] side of
the House with the respect which T feel for them. I would
sa that the idea of the question having been settled so as
to bind the consciences of members of Congress when voting
on the present bill, is ridiculous and absurd. If all the
judges and all the lawyers in Christendom had decided in
the affirmative, when the question is thus brought home to
me as a legislator, bound to vote for or against a new char
ter. upon oath to support the Constitution. I must exercise
my own judgment. I would treat with profound respect
the arguments and opinions of judges and constitutional
lawyers : but if. aftf-r all. they fail to convince me that the
law was constitutional, I should be guilty of perjury before
high Heaven it I voted in its favor.
''But even if the Judiciary had settled the question. I
should never hold myself bound by their decision while acting
in a legislative character Unlike the Senator from Massa
chusetts, [Mr. Bates.] I shall never corisent to place the liber
ties of the people in the hands of any judicial tribunal."
* A
-
precisely as I dp, that they are ruling it now.
A5c^fl*ding to fiie last census, the free white pop
ulation of the United States was. in gross num
bers, eighteen millions, and while this favored
class the slaveholders numbered less than
three hundred and fifty thousand, they rule
seventeen and a half million not possessed of
slave property. African slavery has been con
verted into an eiigine of politiggj^power. through
the agency of the_jD(mocratic party. Under what
article or sectioiT*m the Constitution has an
aristocracy of wealth, combined in three hundred
and fifty thousand perso'.s, " ruled " the teeming
millions of this country for ''sixty out of seventy
o 11 -- - - ^liuut,
Years.''-
HCr it is asked how the Sou^b, being in the mi
nority, has succeeded in controlling the country?
I answer, it has been done by creating and fos
tering a spirit of sectionalism, through the agency
of party maqhin^eryT ""Colonel^Bei ton, who is
certainly goocT^authority in this*Tnatter, in his
Thirtvjfears in the Senate, says that Mr. Cal-
I 1 ~ t r*r*n. .,...
t the 1
Now, this same James Buchanan stultifies him
self ; allows the South to back him down from the
tenable position he occupied in 1^1; takes the
back track, and declares this same' Supreme
Cflurt has ' made a final settlement of the"sia*v%ry
question in the Territories." that " neither Con
gress nor a Territorial Legislature, nor ANY HUMAN
POWKR, can annul or impair ;" and yet, because
the people refuse to follow him into the very
sewers of absolute construction, judicial despot
ism, and tyranny, the President insults their
honesty and intelligence, by denouncing them as
jiraitors and fanatics.
""The (i'n'fir /icTum of the court in the Dred Scott
case, relative to Congressional sovereignty over
the Territories, has been caught up by the South,
and an attempt made by Democratic politicians
to give it the authority of Igw^ This is an as
sumption against right : a d-'inand set up against
the people of the North wjthout authority. The
people oTTfie Norjji were "neither p^rJies nor
prices in the DrejJJpcott case^and hence they . ^,
are not ejjjapped from contesting the usurpations I ho n
setup against them by th*3iLrt. The sequence f"" 1 ' Y ent !\ ome fr T Con ^ e8S - and told his friends that the
**w.i. ^iiii^ n ,, * fc,wpii.n, . ff South could never be united against the North on the tariff
growing out of these premises cannot be misun- f question . that the 811Rar int o,ests of Louisiana would keep
derstood. This attempt to plant slavery upon [her out; that the basis nf southern union must be shifted to J
free soil, and spread it over every foot of terri- kthe SLAVE QUESTION?' Vbl_2, p. 786. ***/
tory outside of^Sjate lines, merely because fivf This policy of " uniting the slave States" upon
the slavery question was inaugurated by Mr.
Calhoun. It was persisted in by him and his
followers until it entirely broke up old party
lines. It destroyed the old Whig party, and com
pletely corrupted and sectionalized the Demo
cratic party, and placed it under the control of
the slave power, where it has remain* d until this
day. The ' Texas Plot," Colonel Benton declares,
in the work already alluded to, was^tiriginated
to kilTMr. Van Buren, and it did its work. He
men have undertaken TO say
noTWg'ally iHuiv tlu'in. is
able aggression, against the
so.
n
unwarrant-
of
States. ItTsueh an unjustifiable encroacmem
up"on*The rights of the free laboring H]iilift|js
of this country as they never will siyywLM). Itls
a narrow-minded sectional policy^ which can
never be made nationaffS^the Union jja^ut of
it. It is a demand madeby less than halfja mil-
lion slaveholders t f)~rnonopolize more than one
.... m*~*aaat ., ,. , 1 .
million square rmlcs <>1 terl'itpry, to the exclusion
had a majority of^votes at the NationaTtonven-
consequences.
7. The,. South, although numerically less by
one-halC'tJiarfihe North, claim the exclusive con
trol of the General Government. Men of the
South, especially her ponffiPTans, seem to have
got an idea into their heads that they are born
to rule, and the people of the free States are
te^^^ 7 r I
bornTo obey. It is the boast of the slaveholders
that Agj/Rave ru^d and governed this country
from its j-nfancy/Listeu to what a distinguished
S nutor from South Carolina [Mr^H.yjiMOxn] said
a speech in the United Statesoenate, March
of fw^hty-six unlliou freemen, who have no in- tion, in 1844, at which Mr. Polk was nominated;
terest in slaSyBtoperty. "Tf is a monstrous ag- |but the^South managed to get the ^
gression. am^one that should be met and re- rule," wKlcn" enabled them to defeat him. The
polled at every hazard, and without regard to'^outh, in the same Convention, defeated the late
"TTovernor Fairfield, of my own State, for the
n
overnor
Vice Presidency, and nominated Mr. Dallas,
although the latter had but thirteen votes on the
first ballot. Bfttl
8. Another aggressive movement is now being
agitated in the South, which is clearly against
the Constitution and the laws.. I well know dis-
tinguished gentlemen upon this floor have arisen
in their places and denied any intent to make
this matter a party test, or to repeal the laws
which make th^gforeign slave trade piracy. I
give them all tmTrJe'nen'ts of this disclaimer; yet
it is not denied that this is a mooted question in
thegouth. The President, in his recent mes-
sage, admits that the Wanderer brought over
I one cargo, numbering three or four hundred.
! Again he says : ; - Those engaged in this unlaw-
. took our country in her infancy, and, ful enterprise have been rigorously prosecuted,
sixty out of seventy years of her exist- U) U t not ^^ as muc h Access as their crimes de-
e Senator from New York [^lr. SKWAHD] says thaTyou
intend to take the Government from us. that it will pass
from our hands. Perhaps what he says is true it may be;
but do not forget, it can never b forgotten, it is written on
the brightest paire of human history, that we, THE SLAVE
HOLDERS OF THE
after nci.iMt IHM
ence. we shall surrender'her to you without a stain upon i n . rlmission whinh diows ' deep svni'
her honor, boundless in prosperity, inca'culable in her I Served , ana ) Sym
strength, the wonder and admiration of the world." Ap-t pathy of feeling with the enterprise among tne
><i;.r i,, a,, Congressional Globe, vol. Si, p. 71. m*A Southern people. If the laws cannot be enforced,
The honorable Senator says. " the slaveholders | there is no occasion for agitating for their re-
of the South have ruled the com tryjsixty out of j peal 5 and I understand there has not been a
seventy years," and he understandstne matter single conviction in any of our Southern courts
-" -. rntt. m<MMi.lB,-<.
10
JLtV
* on
of any person who has been engaged in this ne
farious business.
While the people of the free States, in their
courts, enforce the fugitive slave law, odious as
it is to a large majority of them, the South fails
to convict or punish persons engaged in a trade
declared by the General Government to be pira
cy. I leave the country to iudj^e between us.
Another clear aggression upon the rights
9.
of the free States is a demandjbr a Congres-
siqnaVcode to fasten slavery*upon*the peoplfe of
^^i*** - - 1-1 *ii ~ ~~
their will.
-IT
e Territories against
Mr. Buchan
an, in his message, the mouthpiece of his party, ([ leges and immunities of citizens in the severai States."
now owned and controlled by Southern men,
said :
..
" I cordially congratulate you upon the final settlement'
by the Supreme Court of the United*States. of the question
of slavery in the Territories, which had presented an aspect
so truly formidable at the commencement of my adminis
tration The right has been established of every citizen to
* take his property of any kind, including slaves, into the
common Territories belonging equally to all the States of
p. the Confederacy, and to have it protected there under the
/ Federa' Constitution. Neither Congress nor a Territorial
Legislature nor any human power has any authority to an
nul or impair this vested right."
And here I wish to call the attention of the
country to the facts here assumed that the
court has settled* this question that the Consti
tution protects slavery in the Territories, and
that " neither Congress nor a Territorial Leg : s-
lature, nor any human power, has any authority
to annul or impair this vested right." This is
D i gmjocracy iflUU^jO One would think, by anal
ogy of reasoning, that if there is 110 " liumnn
power" on earth that can even ' impair" the
right of a slaveholdar to his slave property in
the Territories, that ought to be satisfactory to
him; yet that class dggtand Federal legislation
to compel the free wn|ie*5faborers in the Territo-
tories into a servile srfBmfSlfon to kiss the hand
that strikes down their capital, and degrades
them to the condition of meniaji slaves,
A great leader in the DemocraMc party I
mean Senator IVERSON. of Georgia in a speech
. |n the Senate a few weeks since, said :
" He believed, and the Southern people believed, that
under the Constitution they had a right to emigrate to any
of the Territories with their slave property, and, when there.
Ttave a right lo the protection of the law in the enjoyment of
that property, and Congress has the power to give that pro
tection, and IT IS ITS DUTY TO DO IT."
We have here an authentic exposition of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill. We now understand
what the Democratic party mean when they say
that " the people of a Territory should be left
PERFECTLY FREE to form their own domestic in
stitutions." First, that the Constitution, of its
own force, establishes slavery in the Territories;
and, second, that Congress should enact a code
placing rops around the necks of the citizens
stitution a despotism which prevents any at
tempt, on their part, through their Territorial
Legislature, or otherwise, to rid themselves of
what they believe a positive evil. If the Consti
tution makes slaves of the blacks in the Territo
ries of the United States, it only needs such a
code as is now demanded by the South to make
slaves of the whites.
10. Another charge I have against the South
is, the violation of article four, section two, of
Constitution, which reads as follows :
" The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Jprivi-
t ***
of article five of the amendments to the
Constitution, which expressly provides, that
*" No person * * shall be deprived of life, LIBERTY, or
property, without due process of law."
** Under the Constitution, a citizen of Maine on
lawful business has a right to travel through any
SQ.U them State without molestation, provided
he Bl imerferes with none of the lawful rights of
the people of that State. Southern gentlemen
travel tnro'ugh the freeJ-y^tes. and everywhere
are treated with becoming respect and conside
ration. They are suffered everywhere to mingle
with the people of the North, enjoying every right
possessed by the people they are visiting. Not
so with.^Morthern men, when traveling in the
Southern^ ptes. There a system of espionage
is in operation, exce< dingly annoying to a travel
er. Strangers fr&ni theNgrth, instead of meet
ing with that g'e'nerousnospitality which they
are always ready, when at home, to extend
their Southern brethren, are watched, scrutinized,
questioned ; their baggage is overhauled, their
persons searched, and upon mere suspicion are
thrust into jail. A mere expression of opinion,
inadvertently uttered, in some localities, is an un
pardonable crime, for which they are visited with
the grossest insults. Men, for merely uttering
sentiments which have been taught by Jefferson
and other Southern men, have been dragged into
prison, lynched, tarred and feathered, and their
lives threatened by infuriated mobs.
I will refer to a few recent cases. The CharL^s-
tonJJ/ercMT-y, of the 17th of December, says
f*"That a man, supposed to be an Abolitionist, of dark
"complexion, with black hair, and a scar over the left eye,
about five feet eleven inches in height, and calling himself
James W. Rivers, was taken up on the 13th by the vigilant
comitttee. tarred and feathered, and the right side of his
head shaven."
A few weeks ago, an Irishman who had been
naturalized, and had always voted the Demo
cratic Ticket, as he says, a citizen of Pennsylva
nia, while at work on the State Capitol at
Columbia, South Carolina, not in the hearing
of slaves or any black man, but to his associate
laborers, uttered sentiments not considered ex-
of a Territory opposed to it ; thereby degrading actly orthodox ; for which he was caught, put in
free white labor to the same level with African jail, stripped, and thMy-nine lashes put upon his
ba,re back f*a bucket of tar poured upon him, and
feathers applied. lie was then allowed a pair of
pants" and, after being imprisoned a further
slave labor. Not only does the South, through
its authorized aorent, the so-called Democratic
party, claim f he right to carry slaves into all the
Territories of the United States, and there hold length of time, was put on board the cars for
them by judicial construction ; but it demafPSs if New York, where he arrived, and related the
v *T?6ngressionaT^nterverMon, by which the iron' facts above given,
heefof despotisnTlfiall be fastened upon the A clergyman, one of the most respectable citi-
necks of all persons therein opposed to the in- jjzeiis of Connecticut, a bookseller, was arrested
I
, .
/ in one of the Southern States a short time since ;
* and, on supicion. without a shadow of evidence
against him. thrust into jail, and on the interfer
ence of some of the citizens of his State was
j finally liberated ; but not until he had received
Insufficient abuse to make him a maniac. During
sf" speech in this House by an honorable mem
ber from Georgia, [Mr. CRAWFORD,] on the 15th
of December last, the following colloquy took
place :
" Mr. CRAWFORD. Beecher said that he would preach the
8ame doctrines in Virginia as in Massachusetts Brown
says: Beecher, why don't you come and do it?' I ask
you why you do not come on ?
"Mr. KiUjORK. I will answer the gentleman, if he will
permit meTiwill tell the gentleman why Mr Beecher
would not preach in Virginia. Because liberty of speech is
denied in the South : and if he were to golEEere, he wtmI8
ffet a coat of tar and feathers.
^**M. CKAWFORD. Yes. sir; not only would he be denied
'-. liberty of speech, but he would be denied personal liberty
also, and w<mld be hung higher than Hainan.''
**Not only is Beecher threate*BeTTwith the"*gaP
lows if he goes South, but the distinguished
Senator from New York is threatened with the
halter if he is ever found in that quarter. An
honorable member from Mississippi, [Mr. JXvvisJ
^ \
ill a speech on the 8th of December last, is re
ported in the Globe to have said :
j^"**Vii-gitiia hag decided, and has hung the traitor. Brown.
Tind will hang the traitor, SEWARD, if he is found in her
/border. [Laughter.]" at~>
"""Now, I put it to our Southern friends, when
you and we are both living under the same
Constitution which declares, "That the citizens
of each State shall be entitled to att the privi
leges and immunities of citizens in the several
States." whether these things are not unjust
toward the people of the frgaJSiaies ? Not only
are the citizens of the North threatened with
stripes, imprisonment, and death, if we visit the
Southern JStates. and that under the summary
proce?s'W n 'rn( > i > law. but. from recent indications,
peaceable, unoffending citizens in the South are
to be driven out by unlawful violence, not for
overt acts not for anything they have done;
but merely for entertaining opinions held by
Washington, Jefferson, and Madison nearly all
the early fathers of the Republic. The Cincin
nati Commercial, of December 21, contains the
following narrative, which explains itself: r .~
j*+ " Thirty-six persons arrived in this city from Kentucky,
f yesterday, having been warned to leave the StatWWr the
crime of holding slavery to be a sin. They are from Berea
and vicinity Mndison county. Kentucky, where they were
living industrious, sober, and peaceful lives. Most of these
persons are stopping at the Denison House, though a por
tion have been received at private houses
"They are inoffensive persons, men of peace, and would
not have been driven from any community in the world
except one oppressed and benighted by the slave system.
They were neighbors, friends, and co-workers of the Rev.
John G. Fee. whose reputation as an earnest and quiet op
ponent of slavery is well known to the country. Among the
exiles nre the Rev. J. R. Rogers, principal of a flourishing
school at Berea. and his family; J. G. Reed and family ;
John S. Hanson and family. Mr. Hanson is a native of
Kentucky. HIK! a hard- working, thrifty man He had re
cently erected a steam saw-mill, and owns five hundred
acres of land in Madison county. Kentucky. The Bev. J. F.
Bough ton ; E. T. Hayes, and S. Life, carpenters ; A. G. W.
Parker, a native of South Carolina ; Touey. a native of
Tennessee; John Smith, a native of Ohio, a farmer, who
has lived in Kentucky some years. * * *
"Mr. Togers describes the warning that he received quite
graphichally. He was in his cottage, when a summons for
him to appear was heard. On going to the door, he discov
ered an imposing cavalcade, sixty-five well-mounted men
being drawn up in warlike array. He wa informed that he
had ten days in which to leave the State. This was on the
23d of December. He told them that he had not consciously
violated any law of the Commftnweal'h. and that, if he had
unconsciously done so. he would be most happy to be tried
according to law. He was informed that they did not know
that he had violated any law, but that his principles were
incompatible with the public peace, and that he must go."
I make no comment, but leave the fair-minded
men, North and South, to pass judgment upon
such proceedings. But I do protest, in the name
of the eighteen million freemen in the free States,
against a system of vindictive eaoionage, which
arrests peaceable, unoffending (jmzens upon
groundless suspicions, tries them at the revolu
tionary tribunal of Judge Lynch, and then mur
ders them, under the miserable pretext of carry
ing into execution the mandates of mob law.
Who has not heard of jTayard Taylor, the cel
ebrated traveler, who has been the world over,
among savage and civilized men in Europe, Asia.
Africa, and America? In a recent letter pub
lished by him, in answer to a letter from the
Young Men's Christian Association of Rich
mond, Virginia, breaking off a lecture engage
ment because Mr. Taylor had at some time been
a literary correspondent of the New York Tri
bune, he said : -/~~
; I have traveled in all 'he principal portions of the
earth ; I know all forms of government and all religious
creeds, from personal observation and study : but nowhere, i ; A
in any of the lands or races most bitterly hostile to repnb- ''}
licanism and Christianity, have T ever been subjected to a
narrower or more insulting censorship." x j r ^/
In fifteen States in this Union, an " American
citizeu^peaceably and lawfully traveling, has
no more protection than he would have in a
land of savages, upon whom the light of civili
zation had never dawned. It is God's truth, that
there is not a despotic Government in the Old
World, w r here an American citizen, living in the
North, w T ould not be better protected than in the
slave States of this Union. The " stars and
stripes" afford protection to the humbJ^eskftUi-
zen abroad, yet, upon our own soiL in fit'tpgnJStale
sovereignties, owing allegiance 10 the Federal
Union and to the Constitution, it gives no more
projection to a freeman of the N^rth^ than the
blacK^lag of a West Indian piraJe,^
This is the legitimate, natural effect of the
system of Africa^glavery. Carry it into the
Territories, and iKesame results will follow. Free
laborWlll be degraded ; free speech suppressed ;
and free men, guilty of no offense against the
laws, lynched, tarred and feathered, whipped,
bung, and driven out, by the menaces, bowlings,
and infuriatedra'vings of a fanatical, blood
thirsty mob. These are the practical conse-
quences,*g?owing out of Democratic doctrines, as
enunciated and expounded in 1^0.
ll.^Iarraign the DetnoTratic pany in the South
for anaRe^npt, now being made on their^part, to
deprive the people of the free States of their
right of FRANCHISE, secured to them in article
two of the Constitution of the United States, and
in section twelve of the amendments to the same.
These provisions secure to the PEOPLE of all the
States the right, once in four years, to elect a
President and Vice President by a majority of
electoral votes. Strange and monstrous as is
rf U.M m,
12
the proposition, yet it is no more strange than
true, that a portion of thej^outh have undj^-
taken to dicf^to the freemen or' the Nojth as to
how and fofwhom, theylmaUvpte. It is substan
tially a proplSsTTion of the 1 South to oversee the
North in the exercise of the dearest right an
American citizen has under the Constitution
the right to act free and untrammeled at the
ballot box. The people of the free States were
gravely told by their Southern brethren, prior to
the last Presidential election, "We will permit
you to elect Buchanan ; but if you have the
audacity to elect Eremont, we will bbpwuT) the
Government." Andwe*&re now substantiaYly told
the same thing; for we have been solemnly
warned, in this House and out of it. to beware
how we vote; to be "careful and not elect a
RepublicarPrVesident in 1860 ; if you do, we will
> *
resisthis inaiiffiiraj^n."
Aifftrmorable member from Georgia, [Mr.
CRAWFORD,] in a speech in this House, December
15, said : ,
*" " Now. in recrard to the election of a Black Republican I
Presi 'ent. T hav" this to say and T speak the sentiment of
every Democrat on this floor from the State of Georgia we
will never submit to the inauguration of a Black Republi
can President [Applause from the Democratic benches, and
ij, hisses from the Republicans] I repeat it. sir and T have
:,. authority to say so that no Democratic Representative
b. from Georgia on this floor will ever submit to the inaugu-
, ration of a Black Republican President [Renewed applausej
./and hisses."] ***
Another honorable gentleman, from Missis-
sip-n. rMr. SINGLETON.] in a speech upon this
floor. December 21, speaking of the time when
the South would be in favor of taking steps for
^disunion, said :
" You ask me. when will the time come ; when will the
South be united ? It will be when you elftcf a Black Repub-
| lican Ha'e. Seward. or Chase President' of the United
"* States. Whenever you undertake to place such a man to
* preside over the destinies of the South, you may expect to
see us undivided and indivisible friends, and to see all par
ties of the South arrayed to resist his inauguration-" ^J
But I will defer what further remarks I desire
to make under this head, and finish them under
my next point.
12. Another aggression upon the free States
is a threatened attempt to dissolve the Union. As
I mean to deal fairly in these matters. I will not
charge this attempt upon the South, but upon
the so-called Democratic party, where it b^ong-a :
for I thank HoSvWwe have upon this floor,
from the sunny South, as noble a band of patri
ots as ever rallied under the flag of the Constitu
tion. I refer to the SouJ^grn Opposition. Sir,
the soul-stirring appeals of the eloquent NELSON
and his coadjutors upon this floor, in behalf of
our beloved Union, have already met with a
warm and cordial response from millions in all
parts of the country.
I have said the very existence of the Union is
threatened, and I have selected several extracts
from speeches mad^ in this House at this session.
as reported in the Congressional Globe, in proof
of this allegation, to let the people and the coun
try know from what section and party they have
come.
"It may be asked, when will the time come when we
shall separate from the North? I say candidly, if the views
expressed by the gentleman from Iowa are, as he says, com
mon to the Republican party, and if they are determined to
enforce those views, T declare myself ready to-day. I would
not ask to delay the time a singie hour. * * * But not
only is my district, but. I believe, every district in my State,
is prepared to take ground in favor of a dissolution of the
Union, when you rell them that such are your sentiments
and purposes." Hon. 0. R. Singleton, Mississippi.
" The South here asks nothing but its rights. As one of
its Representatives, I would have no more ; but, as God is
my judge, as one of its Representatives, I would shatter
this Republic from turret to foundation-stone before I would
take one tittle less. [Applause in the galleries.]" Hon. L.
M. Keitt, South Carolina.
" Now, sir, however distasteful it may be to my friend
from New York. [Mr. CLARK.] however much it may revolt
the public sentiment or conscience of this country. I am not
ashamed or afraid publicly to avow that the election of Wil
liam II. Seward. or Salmon P Chase, or any such represent
ative of the Republican party, upon a sectional platform,
ought to be resisted to the disruption of every tie that binds
this Confederacy together. [Applause on the Democratic
side of the House.]" Hon. J. L. M. Carry, Alabama.
" I speak for no one but myself and those I have here the
honor to represent, and I say, without hesitation, that upon
the election of Mr. SEWARD or any other man who endorses
and proclaims the doctrines held by him and his party
call him by what name you please I am in favor of an im
mediate dissolution of the Union And. sir. I think I speak
the sentiments ot my own constituents, and the State of
South Carolina, when I say so." Hon. M. L. Bonham, South
Carolina.
" Now, I speak for myself, and not for the delegation. Wo
h tve endeavored for forty years to settle this question be
tween the North and the 'South, and find it impossible. I
therefore am without hope in the Union ; so are hundreds
of thousands of my countrymen at home. The most ci'iilid-
ing of them all are, sir, for ' equality in the Union, or inde
pendence out of it ;' having lost all hope in the former, I
am for 'INDEPENDENCE NOW. AND INDEPENDENCE FOREVER.' "
Hon M. J Crawford, Georgia.
"Gentlemen of the Republican party, I warn you. Pre
sent your sectional candidate for 1860; elec' him as the
representative of your system of labor ; take possession of
the Government as the instrument of your power in this
conflict of 'irrepressible conflict,' and we of the South will
t<-ar this Constitution to pieces, and look to our guns for
iustice and right against aggression and wrong Decide,
then, the destinies of this great country We are pivpaml
for the decision." Hon. R. Davis, Mississippi.
" I shall announce the solemn fact, disagreeable though
it may be to you as well as to me. to my people as well as
to yours, that 'if this course of aggression shall be contin
ued, the people of the South, of the slaveholding States, will
be compelled, by every principle of justice, of honor, and of
self-preservation, to ' disrupt every tie that binds us to the
Union peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must.'"
Hon. L. J. GartrdL, Georgia.
We have here a distinct proposition addressed
to the people of the free States, that there is
really an intention on the part of at least a por
tion of the South to dissolve this Union_ in a
certain contingency, and tliat contingency is the
election of a Republican President. The issue
is tendered, and in the name of the people of the
North we accept it We will try the issue ; we
will test the strength of the Union. Here is the
alternative presented to the North ; either to
abandon their clear, unquestionable rights under
the Constitution, freely to participate in the elec
tion of a President, or to acknowledge them
selves contemptible, servile slaves, by marching
up to the polls under duress. I speak for myself
and for my people when I say. if the Union can
not stand the election and inauguration of a Re
publican President, standing upon the platform
of the fathers of the Republic, " let it slide;" it is
not worth preserving a single hour. And we
want no delay in this matter; let the crisis come
in 1860. The great Republican party of this
country demand that the issue be tried ; let it
come, and come in 1860.
In the face and eyes of these threats, the Na-
13
tional Republican Committee have met and issued
their call to nominate a candidate for President
and Vice President at the next election.
"The Republican electors of the several States, the
members of the People's party of Pennsylvania, and of the
Opposition party of .New Jersey, and all others who are
willing to co-operate with them in support of the candidates
who shall there be nominated, and who are opposed to the
policy of the present Administration ; to Federal corrup
tion and usurpation; to the extension of slavery into the
Territories ; to the new and dangerous political doctrine
that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into
all the Territories of the United States : to the reopening
of the African slave trade;* to any inequality of rights
among citizens; and who are in favor of the immediate
admission of Kansas into the Union under the Constitution
recently adopted by its people; of restoring the federal
administration to a system of rigid economy ; and to the
principles of Washington and Jefl'erson ; of maintaining
inviolate the rights of the States, and defending the soil of
every State and Territory from lawless invasion ; and of
preserving the integrity of this Union, and the supremacy
of the Constitution and laws passed in pursuance thereof,
against the conspiracy of the leaders of a sectional party
to resist the majority principle as established l>y this Gov
ernment, at the expense of its existence, are invited to
send from each State two delegates from every Congres
sional district, and four delegates at large, to the Con
vention."
Mr. Chairman, the sun will rise and set, and
that Convention will meet, and adopt a pl.tform
embodying the doctrines indicated in the above
call ; and then it will nominate a statesman, a
man of comprehensive, n itioual views, one whose
opinions will square with the platform ; and
then, sir, under the broad, national banner of
the " stars and stripes," we will go into the
contest, and elect the nominee of the Chicago
Convention President of the United States. I
will not stop to argue the question whether we
can inaugurate the President elect or not. As
the gallant Miller said, when charging the
enemy's battery at Lundy's Lane, " We shall
try.""
Some weeks since, I received from a friend
several copies of the Cincinnati Commercial, un
der date of December last, in which is related
the incidents of a pilgimage to Wheatland, in
1856, by William M. Correy, who, I understand,
was, and is, one of the bright and shining lights
of the Democratic party in Ohio. Among others
Mr. Correy met at Wheatland, was A. D. Banks,
then editor of the South-Side Democrat. Speaking
conversation there had with Mr. Banks, Mr.
orrey says : \f
There was another matter discussed on Mr. B. r s motion.
He toid us the South would have dissolved the Union if
Fremont had been elected President of the United States :
that Governor Wise and the Virginia leaders were ready to
take the field march on Washington, depose the Federal
officers, take the Treasury, archives, buildings, grounds, &c.,
declare the Confederation ck. facto overthrown, and the Dis
trict to have reverted to Virginia, the purpose for which
she had conveyed it having failed."
these representations, which Mr. Correy de
clares were made to him by Mr. Banks, were
true, then we have the programme of ' 4 Governor
AVise and the Virginia leaders "for dissolving
the Confederacy in 1857. It was to have been a
foray, not of John B?6wn, but of Governor Wise;
not into Virginia, but out of it | not on Harper's
Ferry, but the city of Washington. The public
buildings, the archives, and the public Treasury,
were to be seized and plundered. Well, if that
is to be the^pi*6gramme fiT^TSGL Governor Wise
and his " Virginia leaders," it they do make a
raid upon the Treasury, after it has been plun
dered lor four years by this profligate Adminis
tration, will find it empty as a contribution-box.
In view of these things, the question returns :
would it be prudent for the people of the fiee
States, after electing a Republican for President,
to attempt to inaugurate him aud take the reins
of Government in 18(U ? or would it be the
" better part of valoT ~^\o do as history informs
us certain Southern soldiers did when Washing
ton was invaded by a lew companies of British
soldiers \n 1814, who came straggling up from
the waters of the Chesapeake throw away our
arms without firing a gun, and leave the " build
ing and archives aud Treasury (v ults) to the
mercy of the invaders?" I migbt answer, in
the words of the good old maxim ' ; sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof." But allow ine
to suggest, and, in so doing, to use the terse lan
guage of the distinguished gentleman Irom Penn
sylvania, [Mr. HICK.MAN,] that eighteen milLon
men, reared to industry, with all the appliances
of art to assist them, aided by at least four mil
lion more of Union men at the South, would de
vise a way to inaugurate a President ; aud more
than that, to administer the Government under
his lead.
13. I charge upon the South, through the
agency of the Democratic party, that they are
the aggressors in bringing about the present in
tense slavery agitation iu the country and that
they are responsible for all the evils it has pro
duced. You complain of this agitation, and yet
you put it out of our power to stop it. Who
does not remember the halcyon days of national
peace and quiet that followed the adoption of
the compromise measures of 1850 ? Mi u in all
parts of the country, if they did not approve, so
far conquered their prejudices," as to acquiesce
in these measures. From 1850 to 1854. upon
this exciting topic, the political heavens were
draped in the mellow light of a serene autumnal
day. AVho first disturbed this peaceful repose ?
Who sounded the tocsin of war, which came
pealing upon the public ear like an ' alarm tire-
bell in the night ? " I will let Ex-President Fill-
more answer the question. In his ktter to the
New York Union meeting, he said :
f" In an evil hour this Pandora's box of slavery was again
'opened by what 1 conceive to be an unjustifiable attempt to
force slavery into Kansas by a repeal of the Missouri com
promise; and the flood of evils now swelling and threaten
ing to overthrow the Constitution, and sweup away the
foundations of the Government itself, and deluge this laud
ith fraternal biood, may all be traced to this untortunatdj
L ' : *m*e
There never was more truth uttered in the
same number of lines never. I have already
said the South repealed the Missouri compromise
aud in this I am corroborated by Senator IVER-
SON, of Georgia, wno, in a recent spcecii iu the
Senate, when'speaking of what Nortut-ru Demo
crats had done for the South, said :
41 They aided the South in repealing and removing the
^Missouri restriction, that degrading badge of Southern mfe- -
riority and submission/' ' /
Every evil that has grown out of slavery lig^
tation is clearly traceable to this aggr ssive act
Then followed your border-ruffictu forays into
Kansas, to force slavery upon au uuvviliiug p eo -
\
*
14
pie by violence, fire and aword, usurpation, mur
der, and rapine ; and, to cap the climax of your
wrongs, you summoned to your aid the contempt
ible dynasty of James Buchanan, and the disci
pline of your sectional Democracy, to cram down
the throats of the peopfeof Kansas the infamous
and atrocious Lecompton Constitution. Did you
suppose the people of the free States were suf
ficiently " servile " and craven-hearted to submit
to these outrages upon their rights, and not re
sist at the ballot-box these unpardonable ag
gressions ? If so, you reckoned " without your
host." The Democratic party in the North, which
has been ^a'l'flThg " the SouTn in these acts of
wanton aggression, has been stricken down by
the uplifted hand of an indignant, patriotic peo
ple. If the South had not slaughtered the glo
rious old Whig party in the house of its friends,
and completely demoralized and sectionalized
that other glorious old party, once led by Jefler-
son and Jackson, the Repu-blican organization
would not have been a matter of necessity. The
North, in self-defence, inaugurated the great Re
publican party. The South complains of North
ern sentiment upon the slavery question. Our
answer to our Southern brethren is : you manu
factured it ; not we. You forced upon the coun
try the mistaken measures that have produced
it. You have driven every member of the so-
called Democratic party from all New England
out of both ends of this Capitol.
From the great free Northwest, out of fifty-
two members in this House, you have sixteen
remaining, and in the other end of the Capitol
only five and growing beautifully less every
year. In the middle free States, out of sixty-
three members of this House, you have driven
out all but seven. In the Thirty-third Congress,
which repealed the Missouri compromise, the
Democratic party had. from the free States, ninety-
one members in the House 5 now that party has
but just twenty-six members in this House. And
here let it be borne in mind that this decadence
has been the direct fruit of Southern aggressions.
If any class of men ever had occasion to pray fer
vently and earnestly, " save us from our friends"
it is those Democrats in the free States who have
undertaken to paddle to the Capitol with South
ern millstones about their necks, and have gone
down to the bottom under the fury of Southern
storms, raking in madness and fury across North
ern seas. If Caesar has been stabbed in the
American Congress, it is because Ca3sar has been
his own Brutus. But our Southern friends com
plain because, as they say, there are " one hun
dred and twelve Black Republicans on this side
of the House." Well, gentlemen, you stirred up
the Northern people to send us here. JThere
always was a South in Congress and no \ ,
through your o!7r<^t intejTJSsmon, there is a
.AV^toJake tbetr^seats me by side with you
in this Hail.
Our people and your people entertain different
opinions upon the great question of slavery ; and
so do you and we, as the representatives of those
antagonistic opinions upon this floor. If you
say, * ; we have Abraham for our father," so do
we. It was your fathers, your immortal Wash-
ington, your Jeffersons. and Madisons, and Hen-
rye.' and Masons, and Piukneys, in conjunction
with our fathers, who handed down to us the
very doctrines now advocated by the Republican
party. Will you denounce us as traitors because
we listen to the teachings of your own noble
Southern ancestry ? Are we to be maligned as
enemies to the Constitution because we follow
" with a careful tread " in the very footsteps of
the heroes and statesmen who framed it? Your
fathers believed slavery to be a groat social,
moral, and political evil 5 and that it was wrong,
and against the best interests of our common
country, to spread and perpetuate it : and while
you have broken down their old landmarks, we
of the North stand by them.
But you complain on account of the raid of
John Brown into Virginia. I admit you have
reason to complain of the act. I most unquali
fiedly condemn the acts of Brown and his mad
followers in their attempts to disturb the domes
tic relations of a sovereign State ; but while I
do this, I deny that tiie people of the Tree States,
or the Republican party, ought to be held re
sponsible in any sense for the acts of Brown and
his followers. Mr. Fillmore, who, I believe, is
good Southern authority, in his New York letter,
lamentable tragedy at Harper's Ferry is dearly
traceable to this unfortunate controversy about slavery in
Kansas."
i Had there, then, been no raids into Kansas to
force slavery into that Territory, there would
have been none into Virginia to force slavery out
of it. Violence begets violence ; and the seed
sown in Kansas germinated in Virginia. It is
easier to raise a storm o'f domestic violence than
to quell it. But sir, it is not to be d.-nied that
slavery is a dangerous element of itself, in any
State or community where it exists. Who can
sit down and read the debates in the__V_ir_ginia
Legislatu.iv in 1832, without becoming impressed
with this idea?
In one of the most eloquent speeches that ever
I read, the Hon. James McDowell, jun.. afterwards
Governor of Virginia and a distinguished mem-
*~ jr of Congress, said : ^
"It has been frankly and unquestionably declared, from
the very commencement of this debate, by th>- m st decided
enemies of abolition themselves, as well as oih rs, that this
property i-< an -evil,' anil that it is a DVNGrji <>i> property.
Yes. sir. so dangerous has it been represented to be, even
by those who desire to retain it. that we have been re
proached for speaking of it, other w is t >an "in fireside
whispers; reproached for entertaining debate upon it in
this Hall."
Hou. Charles J. Faulkner, just appointed by
Mr. Buchanan to thJe~Tench missio i. in a speech
in the Virgmia House of Delegates, la i nary 20,
1832, in'speaking of the slave population in that
Sf?ft, said : ^
Sir, to the eye of the statesman as to the eye of Omnis
cience, dangers pressing, and dangers that must n.-cessarily
press, are alike present. With a .single glance h ; embraces
Virginia now with the ELEMENTS OF )/. s reposing
quietly upon her bosom, and Virginia lighted from one ex
tremity to the other with the torch of S'-rvilo in-urrectioa
and massacre It is not sufficient for him that the match
is not yet applied. It is enough that the in.iga/iiit) is open,
and that the match will shortly be applied. '
"*1 speak not of these things to reproach Vir
ginia, but adduce them as facts worthy of serious
STATES;" "to make all laws which shall be neces
sary and proper for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers," (in section eight,) " and all
other powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States, or any department
or t>mTe"1Jnereof."
The President, before entering upon the execu
tion of his office, is obliged by the Constitution
to take an oath or affirmation, that lie will, " ac
cording to the best of his ability, preserve, protect,
and defend, the Constitution of the bmted Siates."
[Article two, section one.] The Constitution
[article three, section three] gives Congress the
power to "declare the puuisiiment of tieason;"
and they have done it. Any attempt on tiie part
of a State, or of any of its citizens, to break up
the Union, is rebellion against the laws oi Con
gress and war upon the Constitution, and '-levy
ing war against the United States,'' wnich the Con
stitution, in the same article, declares to be
"treason." In such an event, it would be the
duty of the President of the United Slates, by
virtue of his oath, and the authority with wnicn
he is vested by the Constitution, to put down
such rebellion, and, if necessary, to use the
" army and navy of the United States,'" to aid in
doing it. And it would be equally the duty of
the Federal courts to try all .persons engaged in
such overt acts, aud, if found guilty, fiang them
high as Hamau. There is no such tnmg as seces
sion without revolution the oue necessarily in
volves the other. The people made this Govern
ment and " established the Constitution," and
they can abolish it by revolution, and in no
other way. Any other construction 01 the Con
stitution would make it a mere rope oi sand a
Government liable to fly into fragments at auy
moment, with no cohesive power to perpetuate
its existence or protect itself against domestic
violence, insurrection, and treason.
Sir, this Government cost too much blood and
treasure to be destroyed upon any slight pretext
under it. From thirteen feeble coionies, with
three million inhabitants, we have, in a little
m^re'nnan seventy years, advauced with giant
strides until we have thirty-three poweriul States,
and about tweuty-eight million mnabiunts.
Our national doniainJoas increased iroin eight
hundred and twenty ftio usaud six hundred and
eighty, to two million nine hundred and thirty-
six thousand one hundred and sixty -six bo^uare
miles. It stretches across the continent irom
tJc"eau to ocean, from the Atlantic to tne Pacific,
aud irom the Gulf of Mexico to the In^id regions
of the North. Our natural resources are un
bounded. Our waving fields not only yield a
generous return to the hand of the huooandman,
majorj.tes. bec-tuse they are citizens of the I but furnish bread for the world. Our workshops
consideration; facts not only admitted but proved
by some of Virginia's most distinguished states-
men. I will rTpTfrt what has been~saicr so many
tunes before, that the Republican party all over
?nec(5untry is opposed to" aby and all measures
which tend toTiisturb the domestic relations be
tween master andslave in those States where it
lawfully exisfsT"aT*?he same time they are in fa
vor of all constitutional, lawful measures which
will prevent its extension now and forewZf
Mr. Chairman, I oeslre to say a few words in
reply to the threats of disunion which have so
often been made on the Democratic side of this
House, and I have done. AncTit is a significant
fact, that should go out to the country, that all
political organizations in this House, excepting
the Democratic party, are willing to unite upon'
broad iiaHonal grounds for the preservation of
the Union. When gentlemen talk about a disso
lution of the Union, there are two views to be
taken of the subject. The history of the past
discloses the fact that the Union has often been
threatened before, and as often dissolved ; and
yet these marble columns steadily maintain their
places, and instead of States going out of the
Union, they have all the time been coming in,
until we have a glorious galaxy of thirty-three
States. A serious purpose to dissolve the Union
involves the great inquiry, how can it be done ?
If I understand the theory of those who advo
cate this doctrine, it is this : that a State, in its
sovereign capacity, has a right to judge for it
self, and determine, independently of the General
Government or of the other States, how long it
shall remain in the Union ; and whenever it de
termines no longer to remain in the Confederacy,
it can peaceably secedeJ\Against this doctrine
I enter my suWfBll'pfblest. For the sake of the
argument, if it were true, that the Union was a
simple compact between the States, it would re
quire the consent of all the parties to the com
pact to permit one of its members to go out ;
hence there could be no such thing as a peacea
ble dissolution of such Union.
But the States, as independent sovereignties,
did not make the Constitution ; it wasiuework
of the people, as expressed in the preamble: " We,
the peojTpmo ordain and establish this Consti
tution 1 !"^ Every citizen is a citizen not only of
his State, but of the United States, and has a
right, under the Federal Constitution, to claim
its protection. But how can- a State settle the
paint that they will secede? It can only be done
by a majority, acting through its Legislature or
by Convention ; and in such a case, what be
comes of the minority, who are opposed to seces
sion ? They caTmo't be forced out of the Union
United Spates, and have a right to claim the pro
tection the Constitution atfords all its citizens.
Again, so far as the several States consented, as
sovereignties, to enter the Union, therlTVas no
reservation of a right to withdraw. The bond
was to be perpetual. HencelT'lsTlear that there
can be no such thing as a peaceful secession.
The Constitution (article one, section eight) gives
Congress the pow r to " provide for the com-,
man defense and general welfare of the UNITED
dot every valley and encircle every hai, wnne
tiie busy fiuni oi machinery seiids loitn its music,
from almost every gurglin^ stream and waterlall.
The phaut hand of American industry nas digged
do\vii into the mine of the earth, developing our
vast mineral resources, furnitMiiug. not only to
Amer.ca, but the world, tiie precious metals
coal, iron, lead, and other valuable productions,
lying in the subterranean regions ueneatn our
feet. All over our land, as by tut naud oi inagic,
16
have sprung into active life splendid and mag-
niflceut cities, mighty in wealth, vast in popula
tion, abounding in marts of trade and the bustle
of mercantile life.
Along our coasts, washed by the ebbing and
flowing tides of two mighty oceans, may be
heard the chiming music of the axe, the saw,
and the mallet, plied by the ingenious hands of
American mechanics, transferring the rugged
oak and the lofty pine into " ships which go
down into the deep " to whiten every ocean and
every sea with their canvas, and visit every port
around the vast circle of the -globe. Our insti
tutions of learning, our colleges, our academies,
and common schools, travel along pari passu
with the advancing wave of a refined American
civilization, all over our States and Territories.
Among our sons and daughters, there is none
too poor to tread the classic halls of lore, or
climb the rugged " hills of science." From every
part of our laud, the church spire points away to
heaven; and in these temples, made with hands,
the G*>d of our fathers is adored and worshipped
by their posterity. Our country is bound to
gether by bands of iron, spreading themselves
like one vast network in every direction, annihi
lating space, bringing distant cities near ; while
the thundering tramp of the fiery steed and the
shrill scream of the locomotive are echoed and
i't;-< choed wherever the arts of American indus-
tiy have found a home. Through the instru
mentality of American inventive genius, thought,
with, lightning speed, Hashes over a thousand
wires, makes far-off distant cities next-door
neighbors, while New Orleans, Boston, Charles
ton, and Chicago, tip their beavers and shake
hands before breakfast.
Where is the American citizen that can glance
Ms eyes over this young but mighty Western
empire this beacon-light of warning to tyrants
and despots in the Old vVorld this laud, where
the hand of honest toil and industry reaps a sure
reward, without patriotic emotions and national
pride? Who can gaze upon the "stars and
stripes" the proud banner under whose floating
folds our brave countrymen from every sectiou
have fought the battles of a common country:
and tuen indulge in a desire to strike it down,
and trail it in the dust? We gaze upon these
lofty domes, colossal pillars, and marble col
umns : we view these standing evidences of
national wealth and greatness then turn away
to inquire, where is the American citizen that is
ready to strike them down a heap of ruins ?
Our country in the past had its lights and shades,
its sunshine and its storms. ' Clouds and dark
ness'' have sometimes hung low over our politi
cal horizon 5 the lightning's flash, and hoarse,
muttering thunder foreboded the coming storm ;
y^t they nave passed away behind the beautilui
rainbow of peace, cheering the patriot's heart
with bright visions of promise and hope. Shall
we, instead of learning wisdom from the past,
and in God's good time correcting the evils in
the Union, rush madly out of it?
We talk of disunion; anJ yet how can we do it
without waking up the memories of the pa,>t?
Comes there not a voice ironi tue .sequestered
The State Central Committee request full
shades of Mount Vernon, rolling over the waters
of the Potomac in trumpet tones, .exclaiming :
"Stay the rude hand, already uplifted to disturb
the peaceful repose of the mighty dead, and des
ecrate the quiet home of the sleeping hero? 1 '
Will you visit that hallowed spot, just rescued
from the destroying hand of time by the benevo
lence and affection of American mothers and
daughters, from the North, the South, the East,
and the West,- with the frightful torch-light of
civil war? Shall American citizens fight over
the bones of the immortal Warren, under the very
shadow of Bunker Hill monument, or rudely con
tend for the sacred relics entombed at Monticello?
Will they invade the peaceful retreats that sur
round the tombstone which marks the final rest
ing place of Ashland's illustrious departed states
man, or sound the direful alarm of civil war over
the grave of Jackson, or insult the ashes of the old
hero of the Hermitage? Have we quite forgotten
Bunker Hill and Trenton. Saratoga and Yorktowu?
But I will indulge in no dreary foreboding
upon this subject. This mighty Republic has not
yet fulfilled its manifest destiny. Lives there a
man, who owes allegiance to American soil, who
would hazard the experiment ? Roll out your
rattling car of disunion from its black^Demo-
j*atic charnel house ; dress up your hi<U ous,
ghastly goddess of disunion, with habiliments
stained with human go'rej drawn from the veins
of our own brethren. Mount her upon your
clanking charioFvvlTe'els ; drive her, with all the
pageantry cf an Eastern monarch, through the
length and breadth of the Union ; everywhere
exhibit her bloody hands ; her eyes lit up by the
tires of hell ; her teeth chattering with horrid
grimaceT,~frlghtful even to the King of Terrors
himself; then call upon the American people co
fall down and worship the image you have set
upjfhow many vvould be found ready to worship
*ainer shrine? 'Just as soon would they cast
bodies before the sacrilegious wheels of a Hin
doo Juggernaut, as pay homage to such an idol.
No, sir ; the American people love and rever
ence the Union ; and, in a spirit of true patriot
ism, they will cheerfully endure the ills that are
in it until they can be corrected, rather than aid
in its destruction.
If ever the time shall come when the black
flag of disunion shall be unfurled ; when the
tocsin of civil war, domestic strife, and servile
insurrection, shall be sounded ; when American
hands, guided by the lawlessness of treason,
shall be reached forth to pull down the tall pil
lars which support the American Union ; then,
from the Nortn and the South, the East and the
West ; from every hill and valley ; from the
snow-capped mountains of the North, the sunny
fields or the South, and wide-extended prairies
of the West, men of brave hearts and strong
hands will be seen flocking around one common
standard ; with steady step and solid columns
advancing, shoulder to shoulder, in defense of
the CONSTITUTION and the UNION ; lighting
for their homes and firesides; rallying to the old
battle-cry of our fathers, ONE DESTINY, ONE
COUNTRY I INDEPENDENCE NOW, AND
INDEPENDENCE FOREVER 1 1
returns of Clubs to be sent to their office,
1k