CHAPTER XXXIX. Re-election to the Senatorship-General Cass proceeds to Washington-Reception in New York CityCampbell P. White and others address him-Invited to a Public Dinner-His Letter of Declension -In the Senate again-Wilmot Proviso-Instructed to vote for it-Declines-Instruction repealed -General Cass' Motives impugned-Charged with Inconsistency-The Refutation. The Legislature of Michigan, in January, 1849, returned General Cass to the United States Senate, to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation. This was in accordance with the general wish of the Democratic party in Michigan, and elsewhere, and he immediately resumed his seat in that body. On his way to Washington in the following autumn, he was waited on by many of his fellow-citizens in the city of New York, and invited to partake of their hospitality. The following correspondence was of importance at the time, as disclosing his opinions and position on the difficult questions that then presented themselves on the horizon, relative to the newly acquired territories of New Mexico and California. "NEW YORK, November 21st, 1849. "Hon. LEWIS CASS. SIR:- Even amid the fierce contests of party, all men have awarded to you the praise and admiration due to one who has so highly distinguished himself as the father of the west, a soldier in war, a statesman in peace, an eloquent advocate and defender of the honor of his country, both in her councils at home and her representation abroad; and, therefore, you can not be surprised to learn that the Democracy of this city, whose leader and champion you are, regard you with an affection almost filial. Your arrival in this city affords them the long desired opportunity to testify to you the sincerity of their devotion, as ardent now as when they were struggling to crown you with the highest honor of the republic. To enable them to do so, we respectfully solicit you to name some day when you will partake of a public dinner, at which, we are well assured, you will be joined by those who can and do appreciate the eminent services of one who has devoted his whole life to the good of his fellowmen, and contributed so much to the permanency of the Union, the happiness of our people, and the elevation of our national character. "With sentiments of profound respect, CAMPBELL P. WHITE, HENRY M. WESTERN, "Your Democratic fellow-citizens, HENRY STORMS, EDWARD STRAHAN, LORENZO B. SHEPARD, GUSTAVUS A. CONOVER, and many others." "NEW YORK, November, 26th, 1849. "GENTLEMEN:-I thank you for the honor you have conferred on me, by the offer of a public dinner; and while I decline the invitation, which I trust you will excuse me for doing, I can not withhold the expression of my feelings for such a testimonial of regard from the Democracy of this great city. I shall cherish it with grateful recollection during life. "I thank you, also, for the favorable terms in which you have been pleased to allude to my position and services. These, I am very sensible, have few claims to consideration, but such as are derived from your kind partiality. An emigrant to the West in early youth, the better portion of my life has been passed in that great contest with nature in which the forest has given way and an empire has arisen, already among the most magnificent creations of human industry and enterprise. Placed in a geographical position to exert a powerful influence upon the duration of this confederacy of republics, attached to the Union and to the whole Union, and attached equally to the principles of freedom, and to the Constitution by which these are guarded and secured, should the time ever come-as I trust it will not-and come whence and why it may, when dissolution shall find advocates, and the hand of violence shall attempt to sever the bond that holds us together, the West will rise up as one man to stay a deed so fatal to the cause of liberty here and throughout the world-ay, and it will be stayed. Success can never hallow the effort. If we are not struck by judicial blindness, we shall hold on to the Constitution with a tenacity defying time and accident, thanking the God of our fathers, and our own God, for political institutions which have secured to us a greater measure of national prosperity than it has ever been the lot of any people before us to enjoy. "We have but one danger to fear. As to military power and the general corruption of manners and morals-causes to which history attributes the fall of many republics in ancient and in modern days-I believe, if they are not the last, they are among the last of the evils we have to apprehend. Our future would be all the patriot could desire, if that future contained no other seeds of danger than these. The prophetic sagacity of Washington foresaw and foretold the true danger which threatens us: the danger of sectional interests and passions arraying one portion of the Union against another. A spirit of compromise was necessary to create this confederation, and it is equally necessary to preserve it in its integrity and efficiency. When questions come, deeply affecting the country, and dividing it by geographical lines, then comes the time of trial, which no true American can contemplate without anxiety. It is seldom that such issues can be presented when mutual forbearance is not dictated alike by duty and by wisdom. If one half of a great country, abandoning all other differences of opinion, is unanimous in its sentiments upon any measure of internal policy locally affecting itself, its citizens should meet from their countrymen of the other section kindness, and not denunciation; argument, and not recrimination; and a desire to reconcile conflicting opinions as harmoniously as is compatible with the nature of the controversy. No such views, respecting their rights or their position, can be so held by an extensive community without the existence of forcible considerations which call for careful inquiry, and for a wise as well as a kind decision. In this spirit should sectional questions be discussed; and, if they are so, they will bring with them no danger, but will furnish additional motives for union, and will contribute powerfully to our strength and prosperity. "I am, gentlemen, with great respect, "CAMPBELL P. WHITE, Esq., and others." "LEWIS CASS. The first session of the thirty-first Congress, in 1849-50, was prolific with propositions, resolutions, and bills, that augured no good to the internal peace of the country. The southern members had long complained of trespasses upon their rights as members of the confederacy. This feeling was not confined simply to their peculiar domestic institutions, but extended to commercial and monetary matters. The politicians of the north retorted; and this crimination and recrimination, increasing in bitterness and exasperation, culminated at this session of Congress. Mr. Hale-a senator from New Hampshire-even went so far as to present a petition to dissolve the Union, and asked for its reception and consideration by the Senate. It was evident enough to the wise statesmen of the land, that an evil of portentious magnitude was suspended over the country-being no less than civil war, with all its horrors-unless this discord and dissension were removed. Eminent men from both sections, north and south, and from both the Democratic and Whig parties, paused to unite in devising some measures to allay the irritation. They saw that, if the spirit of compromise was necessary at the formation of the Constitution, it was now still more so. Several measures were suggested, and offered in Congress. Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, and Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, respectively proposed measures to compromise and adjust all questions in controversy between the free and slave States, relative to the subject of slavery. The propositions of Messrs. Clay and Bell were embraced in a series of resolutions, which elicited much discussion. Mr. Foote simply introduced a resolution to the effect, that it was the duty of Congress, at that session, to establish suitable territorial governments for California, New Mexico, and Deseret. General Cass supported this resolution with his accustomed zeal and ability. Mr. Hale gave notice that he should move the Wilmot proviso as an amendment, to be attached to the resolution, and thus again brought up that vexed and exciting point for discussion. Much had been said, during the Presidential canvass of 1848, with reference to the principles of legislation shadowed forth in the Nicholson letter; and General Cass availed himself of this opportunity to give his views at still greater length. He contended that Congress was not vested with unlimited power of legislation over the Territories. He insisted that there was a wide difference between the right to institute governments for Territories and the right to legislate over their internal concerns. "It was precisely this claim of unlimited legislation which led to our revolutionary struggle, and to our separation from England. And I must confess I have listened with amazement, in this hall of American legislation, to the long and subtle metaphysical inquiries into the rights of sovereignty, and the power it brings with it, as if the rights of sovereignty were everything, and the rights of man nothing. It is a revival almost, in terms, of the discussions between the parent country and the colonies, but in which we have changed places, and now assume to exercise the very power -the power of legislation without representation-which we first denied in argument, and then resisted in arms. The British statesmen could not understand what practical limits there could be to the power of the sovereign Parliament over the colonies, and, as they found none in their constitution, they admitted none in their legislation. They could not elevate their eyes from their own narrow system to those fundamental principles of human freedom,written,' as Lord Chatham said, 'in the great volume of nature,' which are immutable and indestructible. They had one advantage, however, in the argument, of which we are deprived; they had an unwritten Constitution to appeal to, and a legislature to act, which, by the theory of their government, was omnipotent. When, therefore, the exercise of any power was brought into question, it was not necessary to establish its existence, but it was for those who opposed it to establish the limitations by which it was sought to be controlled. But the powers of our government are both defined and limited, and, before the authority of Congress can be brought to bear upon any subject, the constitutional grant of power must be clearly pointed out. "Now, sir, it is no pleasant task to argue with any man who does not see, and feel, and acknowledge the difference between the right of unlimited legislation over distant regions, where there is no representation, and the right to organize governments, leaving |