for, with all its licentiousness, and all its evil, the entire and absolute freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of government, on the basis of a free constitution. Wherever it exists, there will be foolish paragraphs, and violent paragraphs, in the press, as there are, I am sorry to say, foolish speeches and violent speeches in both Houses of Congress. In truth, sir, I must say that, in my opinion, the vernacular tongue of the country has become greatly vitiated, depraved, and corrupted, by the style of our congressional debates. [Laughter.] And if it were possible for our debates in Congress to vitiate the principles of the people as much as they have depraved their taste, I should cry out, God save the Republie! Well, in all this I see no solid grievance-no grievance presented by the South, within the redress of the Government, but the single one to which I have referred; and that is, the want of a proper regard to the injunction of the constitution, for the delivery of fugitive slaves. There are also complaints of the North against the South. I need not go over them particularly. The first and gravest is, that the North adopted the constitution, recognizing the existence of slavery in the States, and recognizing the right, to a certain extent, of representation of the slaves in Congress, under a state of sentiment and expectation which do not now exist; and that, by events, by circumstances, by the eagerness of the South to acquire territory, and extend their slave population, the North finds itself, in regard to the influence of the South and the North, of the free States and the slave States, where it never did expect to find itself when they entered the compact of the constitution. They complain, therefore, that, instead of slavery being regarded as an evil, as it was then, an evil, which all hoped would be extinguished gradually, it is now regarded by the South as an institution to be cherished, and preserved, and extended-an institution which the South has already extended to the utmost of her power by the acquisition of new territory. Well, then, passing from that, everybody in the North reads; and everybody reads whatsoever the newspapers contain; and the newsdapers, some of them-especially those presses to which I have alluded-are careful to spread about among the people every reproachful sentiment uttered by any Southern man bearing at all against the North-every thing that is calculated to exasperate, to alienate; and there are many such things, as everybody will admit, from the South, or some portion of it, which are spread abroad among the reading people; and they do exasperate, and alienate, and produce a most mischievous effect upon the public mind at the North. Sir, I would not notice things of this sort appearing in obscure quarters; but one thing has occurred in this debate which struck me very forcibly. An honorable member from Louisiana addressed us the other day on this subject. I suppose there is not a | [MARCH, 1850. more amiable and worthy gentleman in this chamber, nor a gentleman who would be more slow to give offence to anybody, and he did not mean in his remarks to give offence. But what did he say? Why, sir, he took pains to run a contrast between the slaves of the South and the laboring people of the North, giving the preference in all points of condition, and com fort, and happiness, to the slaves of the South. The honorable member doubtless did not suppose that he gave any offence, or did any injustice. He was merely expressing his opinion. But does he know how remarks of that sort will be received by the laboring people of the North? Why, who are the laboring people of the North? They are the North. They are the people who cultivate their own farms with their own hands-freeholders, educated men, independent men. Let me say, sir, that fivesixths of the whole property of the North, is in the hands of the laborers of the North; they cultivate their farms, they educate their chil dren, they provide the means of independence; if they are not freeholders, they earn wages; these wages accumulate, are turned into capital, into new freeholds; and small capitalists are created. That is the case, and such the course of things, with us, among the industrious, and frugal. And what can these people think when so respectable and worthy a gentleman as the member from Louisiana, undertakes to prove that the absolute ignorance, and the abject slavery of the South, is more in conformity with the high purposes and destinies of immortal, rational, human beings, than the educated, the independent, free laborers of the North? There is a more tangible, and irritating cause of grievance at the North. Free blacks are constantly employed in the vessels of the North, generally as cooks and stewards. When the vessel arrives, these free colored men are taken on shore, by the police or municipal authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison, till the vessel is again ready to sail. This is not only irritating, but exceedingly inconvenient in practice, and seems altogether unjustifiable, and oppressive. Mr. Hoar's mission, some time ago, to South Carolina, was a well-intended effort to remove this cause of complaint. The North thinks such imprisonment illegal, and unconstitutional; as the cases occur constantly and frequently, they think it a great grievance. Now, sir, so far as any of these grievances have their foundation in matters of law, they can be redressed, and ought to be redressed; and so far as they have foundation in matters of opinion, in sentiment, in mutual crimination and recrimination, all that we can do is, to endeavor to allay the agitation, and cultivate a better feeling and more fraternal sentiments between the South and the North. Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard from every member on this floor, declarations of opinion that this Union should never be dissolved, than the declaration of MARCH, 1850.] Mr. Clay's Compromise Resolutions. [31ST CONG. opinion that in any case, under the pressure of design to separate. I am sorry, sir, that it any circumstances, such a dissolution was pos- has ever been thought of, talked of, or dreamed sible. I hear with pain, and anguish, and dis-of, in the wildest flights of human imagination. tress, the word secession, especially when it But the idea must be of a separation, including falls from the lips of those who are eminently the slave States upon one side, and the free patriotic, and known to the country, and States on the other. Sir, there is not-I may known all over the world, for their political express myself too strongly perhaps but some services. Secession, Peaceable secession! things, some moral things, are almost as imposSir, your eyes and mine are never destined to sible, as other natural or physical things; and see that miracle. The dismemberment of this I hold the idea of a separation of these Statesvast country without convulsion! The break- those that are free to form one government, and ing up of the fountains of the great deep with- those that are slaveholding to form another-as out ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish-I a moral impossibility. We could not separate beg everybody's pardon-as to expect to see the States by any such line, if we were to draw any such thing? Sir, he who sees these States, it. We could not sit down here to-day, and draw now revolving in harmony around a common a line of separation, that would satisfy any five centre, and expects to see them quit their men in the country. There are natural causes places and fly off without convulsion, may look that would keep and tie us together, and there the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush are social and domestic relations which we from their spheres, and jostle against each could not break, if we would, and which we other in the realms of space, without producing should not, if we could. Sir, nobody can look the crush of the universe. There can be no over the face of this country at the present such thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable moment-nobody can see where its population secession is an utter impossibility. Is the great is the most dense and growing-without being constitution under which we live here-cover-ready to admit, and compelled to admit, that, ing this whole country-is it to be thawed and ere long, America will be in the valley of the melted away by secession, as the snows on the Mississippi. mountain melt under the influence of a vernal Well, now, sir, I beg to inquire what the sun-disappear almost unobserved, and die off? wildest enthusiast has to say, on the possibility No, sir! no, sir! I will not state what might of cutting off that river, and leaving free States produce the disruption of the States; but, sir, at its source and its branches, and slave States I see it as plainly as I see the sun in heaven-down near its mouth? Pray, sir-pray, sir, let I see that disruption must produce such a war as I will not describe, in its twofold char acters. me say to the people of this country, that these where, upon the lower banks of the Mississippi? Peaceable secession! peaceable secession! The concurrent agreement of all the members of this great Republic to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side and on the other. Why, what would be the re-government, down somewhere, the Lord knows sult? Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to secede ? What is to remain American? What am I to be?-an American no longer? Where is the flag of the Republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower? or is he to cower, and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, sir, our ancestors-our fathers, and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living among us with prolonged lives-would rebuke and reproach us; and our children, and our grandchildren, would cry out, Shame upon us! if we, of this generation, should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the Government, and the harmony of the Union, which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army? What is to become of the navy? What is to become of the public lands? How is each of the thirty States to defend itself? Sir, I hear there is to be a Convention held I know, although the idea has not been stated at Nashville. I am bound to believe that if distinctly, there is to be a southern confeder-worthy gentlemen meet at Nashville in Conacy. I do not mean, when I allude to this statement, that any one seriously contemplates such a state of things. I do not mean to say that it is true, but I have heard it suggested elsewhere, that that idea has originated in a There vention, their object will be to adopt counsels conciliatory-to advise the South to forbearance and moderation, and to advise the North to forbearance and moderation, and to inculcate principles of brotherly love, and affection, and attachment to the constitution of the country, as it now is. I believe, if the Convention meet at all, it will be for this purpose; for certainly, if they meet for any purpose hostile to the Union, they have been singularly inappropriate in their selection of a place. I remember, sir, that when the treaty was concluded between France and England, at the peace of Amiens, a stern old Englishman and an orator, who disliked the terms of the peace as ignominious to England, said in the House of Commons, that if King William could know the terms of that treaty, he would turn in his coffin. Let me commend this saying of Mr. Windham, in all its emphasis and in all its force, to any persons who shall meet at Nashville for the purpose of concerting measures for the overthrow of the Union of this country, over the bones of Andrew Jackson. Sir, I wish to make two remarks, and hasten to a conclusion. I wish to say, in regard to Texas, that if it should be hereafter at any time the pleasure of the Government of Texas to cede to the United States a portion, larger or smaller, of her territory which lies adjacent to New Mexico and north of the 34° of north latitude, to be formed into free States, for a fair equivalent in money, or in the payment of her debt, I think it an object well worthy the consideration of Congress, and I shall be happy to concur in it myself, if I should be in the public counsels of the country at the time. I have one other remark to make: In my observations upon slavery as it has existed in the country, and as it now exists, I have expressed no opinion of the mode of its extinguishment or melioration. I will say, however, though I have nothing to propose on that subject, because I do not deem myself so competent as other gentlemen to consider it, that if any gentleman from the South shall propose a scheme of colonization to be carried on by this Government upon a large scale, for the transportation of free colored people to any colony or any place in the world, I should he quite disposed to incur almost any degree of expense to accomplish that object. Nay, sir, following an example set here more than twenty years ago by a great man, then a Senator from New York, I would return to Virginia, and through her for the benefit of the whole South, the money received from the lands and territories ceded by her to this government, for any such purpose as to relieve, in whole or in part, or in any way, to diminish or deal beneficially with, the free colored population of the Southern States. I have said that I honor Virginia for her cession of this territory. There have been received into the treasury of the United States eighty millions of dollars, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands ceded by Virginia. If the residue should be sold at the same rate, the whole aggregate will exceed two hundred millions of dollars. If Virginia and the South see fit to adopt any proposition to relieve themselves from the free [MARCH, 1850. people of color among them, they have my free consent that the Government shall pay them any sum of money out of its proceeds which may be adequate to the purpose. And now, Mr. President, I draw these observations to a close. I have spoken freely, and I meant to do so. I have sought to make no display; I have sought to enliven the occasion by no animated discussion; nor have I attempted any train of elaborate argument. I have sought only to speak my sentiments, fully and at large, being desirous, once and for all, to let the Senate know, and to let the country know, the opinions and sentiments which I entertain on all these subjects. These opinions are not likely to be suddenly changed. If there be any future service that I can render to the country, consistently with these sentiments and opinions, I shall cheerfully render it. If there be not, I shall still be glad to have had an opportunity to disburden my conscience from the bottom of my heart, and to make known every political sentiment that therein exists. And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibility or utility of secession, instead of dwelling in these caverns of darkness, instead of groping with those ideas so full of all that is horrid and horrible, let us come out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union; let us cherish those hopes which belong to us; let us devote ourselves to those great objects that are fit for our consideration and our action; let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the importance of the duties that devolve upon us; let our comprehension be as broad as the country for which we act, our aspirations as high as its certain destiny; let us not be pigmies in a case that calls for men. Never did there devolve, on any generation of men, higher trusts than now devolve upon us for the preservation of this constitution, and the harmony and peace of all who are destined to live under it. Let us make our generation one of the strongest, and the brightest link, in that golden chain which is destined, I fully believe, to grapple the people of all the States to this constitution, for ages to come. It is a great popular constitutional Government, guarded by legislation, by law, by judicature, and defended by the whole affections of the people. No monarchical throne presses these States together; no iron chain of despotic power encircles them; they live and stand upon a Government popular in its form, representative in its character, founded upon principles of equality, and calculated, we hope, to last forever. In all its history, it has been beneficent; it has trodden down no man's liberty; it has crushed no State. Its daily respiration, its liberty and patriotism; its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. It has received a vast addition of territory. Large before, the country has now, by recent events, become vastly larger. This Republic now extends, with a vast breadth, across the whole continent. The two great seas of the world wash the one and the other shore. We realize, on a mighty scale, the beautiful description of the ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles "Now the broad shield complete the artist crowned, With his last hand, and poured the ocean round; In living silver seemed the waves to roll, [31ST CONG, Now, sir, we come to Texas. Perhaps no gentleman had more to do with the acquisition of Texas than myself; and I aver, Mr. President, that I would have been among the very last individuals in the United States, to have made any movement at that time for the acquisition of Texas; and I go farther: if I know myself, I was incapable of acquiring any territory simAnd beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." ply on the ground that it was to be an enlargeMr. CALHOUN, I rise to correct what I ment of slave territory. I would just as freely conceive to be an error of the distinguished have acquired it if it had been on the northern Senator from Massachusetts, as to the motives as on the southern side. No, sir; very dif which induced the acquisition of Florida, ferent motives actuated me. I knew at a very Louisiana, and Texas. He attributed it to the early period-I will not go into the history of great growth of cotton, and the desire of the it-the British Government had given encour southern people to get an extension of terri-agement to the abolitionists of the United tory, with the view of cultivating it with more States, who were represented at the World's profit than they could in a compact and Convention. The question of the abolition of crowded settlement. Now, Mr. President, the slavery was agitated in that convention. One history of these acquisitions, I think, was not gentleman stated that Mr. Adams informed correctly given. It is well known that the ac- him, that if the British Government wished to quisition of Florida was the result of an Indian abolish slavery in the United States, they must war. The Seminole Indians residing along the begin with Texas. A commission was sent line attacked one of our fortresses; troops were from this World's Convention to the British ordered out; they were driven back; and, Secretary of State, Lord Aberdeen; and it so under the command of General Jackson, Pen- happened, that a gentleman was present when sacola and St. Marks were seized. It was these the interview took place between Lord Aberacts, and not the desire for the extended culti- deen and the committee, who gave me a full vation of cotton, which led to the acquisition account of it shortly after it occurred. Lord of Florida. I admit that there had been for a Aberdeen fell into the project, and gave full long time a desire on the part of the South, encouragement to the abolitionists. Well, sir, and of the Administration, I believe, to acquire it is well known that Lord Aberdeen was a Florida; but it was very different from the very direct, and, in my opinion, a very honest reason assigned by the honorable Senator. and worthy man; and when Mr. Pakenham There were collected together four tribes of was sent here to negotiate with regard to OreIndians-the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chick- gon, and incidentally with respect to Texas, he asaws, and the Cherokees-about thirty thou-was ordered to read a declaration to this Govsand warriors-who held connection, almost the whole of them, with the Spanish authorities in Florida, and carried on a trade perpetually with them. It was well known that a most pernicious influence was thus exercised over them; and it was the desire of preventing conflict between the Indians and ourselves in the South, as I believe, which induced the acquisition of Florida. I come now to Louisiana. We well know that the immediate cause for the acquisition of Louisiana, was the suspension of our right of deposit at New Orleans. Under a treaty with Spain we had a right to the navigation of the river as far as New Orleans, and a right to make deposits in the port of New Orleans. The Spanish authorities interrupted that right, and that interruption produced a great agitation at the West, and I may say throughout the whole United States. The gentlemen then in opposition, a highly respectable party-the old Federal party, which I have never said a word of disrespect in regard to-if I mistake not, took the lead in a desire to resort to arms to acquire that territory. Mr. Jefferson, more prudent, desired to procure it by purchase. A purchase was made, in order to remove the difficulty, and to give an outlet to the west to the ocean. That was the immediate cause of the acquisition of Louisiana. ernment, stating that the British Government was anxious to put an end to slavery all over the world, commencing at Texas. It is well known, farther, that at that very time a negotiation was going on between France and England to accomplish that object, and our Government was thrown, by stratagem, out of the negotiation; and that object was-first, to induce Mexico to acknowledge the independence of Texas upon the ground that she would abolish it. All these are matters of history; and where is the man so blind-I am sure the Senator from Massachusetts is not so blindas not to see, that if the project of Great Britain had been successful, the whole frontier of the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, and the adjacent States, would have been exposed to the inroads of British emissaries. Sir, so far as I was concerned, I put it exclusively upon that ground. I never would run into the folly of re-annexation, which I always held to be absurd. Nor, sir, would I put it upon the ground upon which I might well have put it-of commercial and manufacturing considerations, because those were not my motive-principles, and I chose to assign what were. So far as commerce and manufactures were concerned, I would not have moved in the matter at that early period. The Senator objects that many northern gentlemen voted for annexation. Why, sir, it was natural that they should be desirous of fulfilling the obligations of the constitution; and besides, what man at that time doubted that the Missouri compromise line would be adopted, and that the territory would fall entirely to the South? All that northern men asked for, at that time, was the extension of that line. Their course, in my opinion, was eminently correct and patriotic. Now, Mr. President, having made these corrections, I must go back a little farther, and correct a statement which I think the Senator has left very defective, relative to the ordinance of 1787. He states very correctly that it commenced under the old Confederation; that it was afterward confirmed by Congress; that Congress was sitting in New York at the time, while the Convention sat in Philadelphia; and that there was concert of action. I have not looked into the ordinance very recently, but my memory will serve me thus far, that Mr. Jefferson introduced his first proposition to exclude slavery in 1784. There was a vote taken upon it, and I think on that vote every southern Senator voted against it; but I am not certain of it. One thing I am certain of, that it was three years before the ordinance could pass. It was sturdily resisted, down to 1787; and when it was passed, as I had good reason to believe, it was upon a principle of compromise-first, that the ordinance should contain a provision similar to the one put in the constitution, with respect to fugitive slaves; and next, that it should be inserted in the constitution; and this was the compromise upon which the prohibition was inserted in the ordinance of 1787. We thought we had an indemnity in that, but we made a great mistake. Of what possible advantage has it been to us? Violated faith has met us on every side, and the advantage has been altogether in their favor. On the other side, it has been thrown open to a northern population to the entire exclusion of the southern. This was the leading measure which destroyed the compromise of the constitution, and then followed the Missouri compromise, which was carried mainly by northern votes, although now disavowed and not respected by them. That was the next step; and between these two causes, the equilibrium has been broken. [MARCH, 1850. of the North relative to the stipulations of the constitution for the restoration of fugitive slaves; but permit me to say, for I desire to be candid upon all subjects, that if the Senator, together with many friends on this side of the chamber, puts his confidence in the bill which has been reported here, farther to extend the laws of Congress upon this subject, it will prove fallacious. It is impossible to execute any law of Congress, until the people of the States shall co-operate. I heard the gentleman with great pleasure say, that he would not vote for the Wilmot proviso, for he regarded such an act as unnecessary, considering that nature had already excluded slavery. As far as the new acquisitions are concerned, I am disposed to leave them to be disposed of as the hand of nature shall determine. It is what I always have insisted upon. Leave that portion of the country more natural to a non-slaveholding population, to be filled by that description of population; and leave that portion into which slavery would naturally go, to be filled by a slaveholding population-destroying artificial lines, though perhaps they may be better than none. Mr. Jefferson spoke like a prophet, of the effect of the Missouri compromise line. I am willing to leave it for nature to settle and to organize governments for the territories, giving all free scope to enter and prepare themselves to participate in their privileges. We want, sir, nothing but justice. When the gentleman says that he is willing to leave it to nature, I understand he is willing to remove all impediments, whether real or imaginary. It is consummate folly, to assert that the Mexican law prohibiting slavery in California and New Mexico, is in force; and I have always so regarded it. No man would feel more happy than myself, to believe that this Union, formed by our ancestors, should live forever. Looking back to the long course of forty years' service here, I have the consolation to believe, that I have never done one act which would weaken itthat I have done full justice to all sections. And if I have ever been exposed to the imputation of a contrary motive, it is because I have been willing to defend my section from unconstitutional encroachments. But I cannot agree with the Senator from Massachusetts, that this Union cannot be dissolved. Am I to understand him, that no degree of oppression, no outrage, no broken faith can produce the destruction of this Union? Why, sir, if that bcomes a fixed fact, it will itself become the great instrument of producing oppression, outrage, and broken faith. No, sir! the Union can be broken. Great moral causes will break it, if they go on; and it can only be preserved by justice, good faith, and a rigid adherence to the constitution. Having made these remarks, let me say, that I took great pleasure in listening to the declarations of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts upon several points. He puts himself upon the fulfilment of the contract of Congress, in the resolutions of Texas annexation, for the admission of the four new States provided for by those resolutions, to be formed out of the territory of Texas-all that was manly, statesmanlike, and calculated to do Mr. WEBSTER. Mr. President, a single word good, because just. He went farther: he con- in reply to the honorable member from South demned, and rightfully condemned-and in Carolina. My distance from the honorable that he has shown great firmness-the course | member, and the crowded state of the room, VOL. XVI.-28 |