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thing, and still think it to be a very desirable thing, to get rid of the free negroes and colored people of this country, on the principle, and with the view of promoting the quiet, safety, and happiness, of the slaves themselves, as well as of their masters at home. "It is a vile bird"-and I shall not do any thing to disparage the nest, although it be no longer mine. Without meaning to say a word, at this time, against this Society; as an experiment, I must say it has failed; and, so far as it has done any thing, it has done mischief instead of good.

[MARCH 2, 1826.

That of the Saracens-of infidels of Mahounds and Termagaunts-who were painted in the same colors by the priesthood and fanatics of that day that the Pharisees and Fanatics of this day, paint every man in, whose misfortune, or whose good fortune it is, to be master of slaves. Sir, I have no hesitation in saying, that the affections of these men whom I have named, are more strongly rivetted upon the French African descendants of Hayti-on the Negroes of Jamaica and Sierra Leone-than they are not only on us unfortunate Southrons-than they are on their own felAs regards the principles of those who were the first low subjects of Jamaica-and I verily believe of Old Eng promoters of the abolition of the Slave Trade-I don't land also, of Lancashire or Yorkshire. There was once a say it of this Society-I am borne out by the facts when I time, Sir, when a ministerial member had the indiscreassert that they have held, and yet hold, perhaps I ought tion-no minister can always stop the mouth of an indisto say, endeavor to hold, a language esoteric, and a lan-creet friend-to say—it was during the Prussian war, which guage exoteric-one language for the novice, and a language consisted of the battle of Jena-that Hanover ought to be for the initiated: or, to speak in terms more familiar to us, a as dear to England as Hampshire; I suppose for the sake language official, and a language confidential. They af- of the alliteration. I do believe that I should not be far fected to have nothing in view but the abolition of the Slave wrong in saying-I know that to a great portion of these Trade. Sir, they had another object-they had an object misled men, the black population of the West Indies and in view, which now they have the courage to declare, for the Africans of this country, are dearer than their English which they have very lately united themselves into an fellow-subjects: and why so? I judge them partly by their anti-slavery society-they have given no small impulse, if language which I have heard—not in private-but in Freenot the first impulse, to this black "ball of Spanish mason's Hall-in London-with an applauding auditory of American Revolution." It is they who have done it-it is thousands-but chiefly by their acts, which never lie. I they who have been the fosterers of Hayti: for I could have heard as pious, as good a man, apparently, as ever name illustrious names that are laboring under delusion as lived I believe I dont know it-he had every characterstrong as that which led away the French Convention,istic of a good man and pious Christian, except this mania when they thought they were establishing liberty, equali-setting this aside, he was all that could be wished, and ty, and fraternity, on a foundation slippery and red within this he manifested that there was no guile in him-he human blood and judicial murder. I will name, I must is an officer in the British army-I could have had him name Wilberforce-I will name master Stephen, the cc-cashiered-say that, in case of a revolt in the Island of Jaiebrated author of "War in disguise," and "The maica, he should feel himself compelled to take part with Dangers of the Country"-Macauley, the principal con- the blacks, as the oppressed party. I say that is a geneductor of the "Christian Observer." I do not mean to in-ral sentiment throughout Old England-I say Old Engclude all of that numerous and respectable body of men, land-I wish it may not extend any where else I hope it who generally think and act with them, as equally intem- does not. One thing it behoves me to say-one act of jusperate; because I know that some, and believe that tice it behoves me to do-and I trust I shall never refuse others, of those who associated with them, in religious opi-justice to any man:-up to this time, the conduct of the nions, who do not see, or seeing do not approve, the rash President of the United States-I mean prior to his beulterior measures of these well-meaning, but misled men; coming President of the United States-has been such as amongst them I would name, if I dared to do it, the vene- no Southern man could take exception to, in this behalf, rable President of the English Bible Society. at least-I restrict my admission to that. I will go farther in saying, that this body has already shown that it pos sesses the will, as well as the power-which I trust it will exercise on more than that occasion-of resisting influence within, and clamor from without-I speak in reference to the Treaty on the subject of the Slave Trade and the Right of Search. Sir, the Senate have acquitted themselves like men, like Senators, like conscript fathers; I hope, as I believe, that they will never acquit themselves otherwise-"Be just, and fear not."

Sir, the same great authority whom I before quoted, lays it down as a principle, that, when men are furiously and fanatically fond of any object, of any set of opinions whatever, they will sacrifice to that fanatical attachment, their own property, their own peace, their own lives, and (he adds) can there be a doubt that they would prefer it to the peace of their country? Will the love, then, of another country, of Jamaica, or the Southern States, be a 'consideration strong enough to induce them to halt-to pause? Fanaticism, political or religious, has no stopping place short of Heaven-or of Hell. All history upholds me in this. What were the crusades? I speak it in sober sadness-they were, in my opinion, as regarded their object, incomparably more worthy, more desirable, in the object, more wise in the means taken to attain it, than this modern black crusade. What did they fight for? For the sepulchre of the Redeemer of an otherwise undone world. It was a noble object, however mistaken the principle. But what were they fighting for? For a hewn stone, if it yet existed, which had belonged to a rich and pious Jew of Arimathea-for they knew-they believed-they said they did, and no doubt they were sincere-but they did not recollect that it was not a place of human sepulturethat the body, never subjected to the animal law, was gone that the incarnate part also had ascended to its Father that is in Heaven. They might as well have got up a crusade for the manger in which the lowly infant had lain in its swaddling clothes; still here was a sentiment, something elevating and ennobling, that the heart is better for having felt; and whose blood did they seek to shed when they poured out their own like water in this cause?

And now, Sir, one word. I will readily agree that, if the gentleman from South Carolina had made the motion to amend, I would have accepted his modification with great pleasure, if it had been to this effect-to inquire officially what proportion the black, the sambo, the mulatto, and the mestizo population, and the proportion that the Indians, the mixed, and the half-breeds, of that race, bear, respectively, in those States, to what is called the white population-for a great deal of it, although not the major part, is white population, whether Creoles or natives of Old Spain. This is an important thing to be taken into consideration. If, therefore, the Senate will indulge me in not postponing my resolution, I will so modify it as to obtain the thing by the best authority accessible to us.

Sir, I said yesterday, that I was very glad to find that this Proclamation of General Bolivar was denied by the consular authority here. I said so on the information of a gentleman, whose information on such subjects I very much respect, and of whose accuracy, in this instance, I entertain no doubt; but when I said so, I did not mean to say, that the disavowal by the consular authority would satisfy me, when there was a regular diplomatic envoy

Mancu 2, 1826.

Negro Slavery in South America.

[SENATE.

from that court at our court. I would follow the good dead of night, and put him into a boat, and take him down rule of courts that I am more conversant with-not to the Potomac, and ship him off to a foreign country, would take a worse proof when a better was within my reach; be taken for a moon-struck madman. Yet he who is said therefore I shall wait with patience, and trust, (whether to have once uttered that threat, passed for a man of very this resolution shall pass or be rejected,) that the Presi- uncommon abilities. But this, sir, is a threat which the dent will be enabled to inform this body, that the proper parties have not only the capacity, as well as the disposiSpanish American Minister-I dont know his name or de- tion, but the peculiar capacity to carry into execution; signation; I never saw one of them in my life-has disa- and shall we stand idle? Shall we sit still, like those Rovowed this Proclamation. That he can disavow the prin- man Senators who had no other resource, Mr. President, ciples, which, I agree with the gentleman from South Ca- until the Gauls shall come into this room, and after offerrolina, are of general notoriety, is impossible. But, sir, ing indignity to our persons, finish the tragedy with our there is a wide difference between invading another blood? No, sir; we are not brought to that point-the cacountry, with this proclamation of negro emancipation in pitol is untouched; the sentinels, it is to be hoped, are the van, and setting the slaves of that country to cutting vigilant; the God Terminus has not gone back-yes, sir, their master's throats-by way of making allies of them he has gone back-he has given way, and, at the very -by way of effectually invading and conquering the point, too, of weakness; and he who is now considered to country and doing with them in your own country what-be the right arm of this administration, was the loudest ever you please, however wild and mischievous-and, in- and fiercest denouncer of that retrograde movement, and deed, wicked-it may be. If the State of Virginia was, of the councils under which it was made. I speak of the in a moment of phrenzy, to pass an act of general and cession on the Southwest; I speak of Texas, of the cession immediate emancipation-that would be one thing. If adjacent to the country known to us as New Mexico; of the State of Virginia-supposing the control of this Go- the cession of the Upper Red River; of the cession of the vernment to be out of the way-should go on a crusade Gates, of the Keys of New Orleans; and shall Louisiana into the Carolinas with these principles before them, and support this, whether it be the man or the measure? I the negroes behind them, it would be doing a very differ- hope not. Yes, sir; they have the capacity, and they ent thing. It is, therefore, of importance to us to know have the will; and, unless we take some steps to arrest it, officially, if we can, whether these provinces mean to the evil must come home to your bosom, to mine; and we make use of this instrument of revolution and conquest, must then do what all other People do under like circumas the French Convention made use of their weapons, stances, never fail to do, or perish: for, sir, when things their liberté, egalité, fraternité, against the rest of the get to extremes, the ink and parchment fail. It will sigworld. It is of the utmost importance that we should nify very little what my notions, or yours, or any other know it officially, although it be a matter of notorious man's notions may be, of the powers of the Federal Goalarm to Cuba, as I said yesterday. Cuba has labored vernment or the rights of the States, because, according under this apprehension, not without cause, and has tak- to the exigence of the case, we shall act for our self preen means to guard against it. servation: "for, as self-preservation is in individuals the first law of nature, so it is with societies." The Southern States will look to their safety as States and as individuals, whatever the ink and sheepskin may say, or be made to say.

There is another circumstance to be taken into our estimate of danger, whether on this quarter or on that of our neutrality, and that is, the present condition of these former colonies of Spain-these South American States-whatever Congress may decree. whether it be pacific and neutral, like our own, or, as it notoriously is, belligerent. Have they not armies on foot, and navies afloat, and does this count for nothing in the calculation of wise men and statesmen, as to what they may do, or we may suffer from Powers so circumstanced? Are we to consider and treat with a country as if in time of peace, and with its armor thrown off? Are we to consider what she even says, then, in the same light that we would consider it in, when she is bristled with steel, armed cap-a-pie for war? The two cases are very differentwhereas they are belligerent, the United States are pacific every thing is on the peace establishment-our armor thrown aside, and our attitude that of the most amiable and enviable repose. The U. States are, moreover, not only what every peaceable People ought to be-neutral; but they have a treaty of amity with Spain; they have a positive stipulation with Spain to do no un-neutral act. Does this, or does it not, affect the question? It does. It affects the question vitally, as affecting the capacity, as well as the disposition, to act without breach of neutral duty and of faith, express as well as implied. How long is it since our neutral rights ceased to be dear to us? Do they not imply neutral duties? How long since the faith of the United States has become so cheap? The warlike attitude and armor of these belligerents will, with every man of sober sense, enter into the calculation of their means of enforcing their principles of universal emancipation upon us, through the instrumentality of an invasion and servile war of insurrection in Cuba-for, sir, a wise man will disregard threats coming from a quarter which has no capacity to enforce them; they indicate only a silly malignity, that is best treated with contempt. Any man who should be blockhead enough now to say, that he would take the President of the United States out of his palace in the

If, said Mr. R. I were, what I am not-an acute philologer-I should sometimes amuse myself with the manner in which words slip from their original meanings, and come to purport something very different from what any body ever attached to them when they first came into use: the word sophist, (a wise man,) got so much into disrepute, that philosopher, (a lover of wisdom,) had to supply its place; the word libertine meant what a liberal means now; that is, a man attached to enlarged and free principles-a votary of liberty; but the libertines made so ill an use of their principles, that the word has come, (even since the days of Shakspeare,) to be taken in a bad sense; and liberal will share the same fate, I fear, if it contracts this black alliance. There are some other words, such as principle, "conscience," which are also in great danger. But I am coming to a word which is in the mouth of every man in this country every day, and all day long-it is Congress. Why, sir, although this body, this Senate, be indeed, in some sense, a Congress of deputies from sovereign States, yet-the Constitution to the contrary notwithstanding(for if there is any thing that I find in the Constitution itself which I deem not to be true, I shall not scruple to deny it-or in any bill of rights, or declaratory act, or any where else—always excepting the Bible-because I do not believe that there is any thing in that book that is not true-not meaning, however, to make a confession of my faith)-this word Congress was properly applied to the deputies first assembled at Albany, to bring about a closer colonial union, and afterwards at Philadelphia, to create a Confederacy that might enable us to carry on the war with more effect against the common enemy. At first, she was not the common enemy-we did not so consider her, or call her-we did, indeed, call her our unkind mother, but we professed the most dutiful love for her, and only asked

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[MARCH 2, 1826.

voted to General Pakenham for his glorious attack on New Orleans.-This is the way to render that cheap and worthless, which is above all price; that which indeed may well be called the cheap defence of nations.

to be treated on the footing of her other children. We a statesman. I am one of those who think that this world distinguished between her and the unworthy hands to has been much injured by Parliamentary eloquence; by a which she had committed her authority-but avowed that, false notion, that ability of this sort is a necessary qualifi if she would deny us the rights which we claimed as Bri- cation for Government; and England to her dying day-if tish subjects, as her legitimate children, of voting away she ever does die-will repent her of the dialectics of Mr. our own money; would insist and persist to do what we Pitt. He was admirably qualified for a Professor of Rhesuffer every day to be done here-plunge her hands into toric; he would have filled that Chair well at Cambridgeour pockets ad libitum con amore, da capo, for purposes I do not mean Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum, but Cambridge utterly foreign to our interests-we should be driven, in Old England-but as a Minister, his great measures all however reluctantly, to resist her injustice. failed. He was, indeed, a most expert gladiator on the This was a Congress-its object was the formation of a floor of Parliament a good Palinurus in smooth waternew Confederacy, and the name is endeared to every man but he, too, must be a soldier, and from that day, as to his of the good old thirteen States of America, and is deserv-measures, they every one failed; and his friend and adedly dear to them and to the shoots, the scions that have mirer, Mr. Windham, assigns their failure in justification sprung from them-the other States; and what are the of his vote of a refusal to grant him the honor of a public other States? They are bone of our bone, and flesh of our funeral—for there, and every where but here, a public flesh. This word Congress, sir, was deservedly dear to funeral counts for something as it ought to do on the the American People: for out of it grew their Confedera- ground that public funerals and monuments should never tion and their Independence; and when the new Constitu- be erected except to eminently successful statesmen, getion was made, the framers of it were men well enough nerals, or admirals, not to the defeated-and the public versed in human nature to know that words were things, funeral and the monument of Pitt, Mr. Windham, with and they called the new project the Congress of the his manly independence and sagacity of character, was unUnited States of America. It is a Congress by force of the willing to pay for-(he did not grudge the money-that Constitution, but, to all intents and purposes, it is not a was another consideration-he voted to pay the debts of Congress according to the meaning of the word in the Pitt)—and that funeral and monument voted to the deEnglish language. What, then, is it? It is a convention, or feated statesman-the monument to the pilot that did not legislature, like another proposed Congress for a confede-weather the storm-was the forerunner of the monument racy. Suppose that, during the late war, every State in the Union had sent a deputation, as Mr. Jefferson had said to "the Hartford Nation"-it would have been a Congress, such as we are now invited to. Suppose, now, under the Constitution, a convention, to be got up to Mr. Fox said, speaking of the history of James the Seamend the Constitution, according to its provisions in arti- cond and Charles the Second, that of all Governments in cle five, will it not be what the Constitution declares it to the world, restorations were the worst: he applied it to be a convention-a coming together of States for par- the restoration of the House of Stuart, not against the conticular purposes? Now, sir, in reference to that on which sent of the People-but by general acclamation, which my resolution bears: suppose that, during the last war, soon led to as general a vote of expulsion, of that misFrance, or any other neutral Power-France was not a guided, unteachable, bigot race. The House of Bourbon, neutral Power-any neutral Power, if such could have restored by foreign bayonets, forced upon France against been found-had sent deputies to our Congress at Hart- the wishes of a large majority of her People, was not then ford, for purposes certainly not of embarrassing, much less an example to which the illustrious historian could have reendangering, the Union, but of giving force and effect-ferred-a yet stronger proof of the truth and sagacity of such I understood to have been the avowed motive of that that wonderful man. There is, said Mr. R. another restorameeting to the war-could they have shown authority tion of another illustrious house-I push the parallel no from their Governments for so doing? would they not have further-by what means it has been brought back upon partaken of your belligerent nature and character? I go us, I shall not now stop to inquire, though in my heart further, and say, that, in a Congress of States, it is a very and conscience, I believe the sceptre having been clutchstrange sort of bargain that the Congress should be con- ed, this is the last four years of the Administration of the stituted by deputies from each of its States, and that we father, renewed in the person of the son. I am not afraid twenty-four States should be represented by deputies only of the re-enactment of the sedition law-No, not at all. from the aggregate body of States. If we are to go, let us One of our diplomatists said, in Paris, I think, speaking of go, the Representatives of all the States; let each of our their Protean vexations of our commerce, that the mode States be represented as well as their States; and why not? only, not the measure, was changed-So it is here-For This is the fact-they, as a Spanish American Confedera- old federalism, we have ultra federalism-I do not speak tion, are one body politic; we, as a North American Con- in the future but in the plus quam perfectum, in the prefederacy, are another. Whoever heard of a Congress of terpluperfect tense. Ministers from two Governments? No, sir, I should as soon expect to hear of a concert of two instruments; we might have a duet; but whoever heard of a Congress where there were only two parties? We have a treaty with Great Britain that makes special provision for an umpire to decide in certain cases of difference. Our umpire is dead-he does not sleep, he is dead-and his death will constitute to any man who can and will look before as well as after who is not engrossed with the present-and that with his own advancement-a consideration that will make him pause before he does any thing that might influence, directly or indirectly, the peace, the safety, the neutrality, of these United States, which, under the new circumstances in which the world is about to be placed, we shall find it no easy matter to preserve without any foreign entanglements. Mr. Fox was a statesman; he was not only an orator, confessedly the first debater that the world ever saw, but

But, sir, I shall be told, perhaps, that there is only a nominal war between Spain and these belligerents-that there is nothing else-a war of name-and that Spain is unable any longer to wag a finger-to use a familiar phrase-or any thing but her tongue in the contest.-If that be the condition of Spain, by what arguments can king-craft and priest-craft be prevailed on to renounce this nominal claim, which will, like some others, keep cold until the chapter of accidents may realize it. Did Philip the Second ever recognize the independence of the Dutch, the illustrious ancestors of my friend, [Mr. VAN BUREN] on my left, when that independence was more firmly established than his own?-No, sir-Spain is made of sterner stuff. Truce after truce was patched up without any such recognition-and they were the united Provinces, and so remained till the French gave them the coup de grace by the true fraternal hug.-What, sir, was the con

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dition of the war between England and France a little while ago one not having a ship at sea, except a few frigates, which she employed in burning our ships in a friendly way, so as to induce us to join in making a diversion in aid of her crusade against Moscow-from which I hope we shall take warning: for that attempt was not only plausible, but promised success-was quite practicable, compared with the crusade to which I have alluded—and England had not a man, at the time I speak of, after the battle of Jena, in arms on her side, on the continent of Europe-not one man; and there they stood, a complete non-conductor interposed between them, except the United States, who received the blows of both!

[SENATE.

ples of the man until you are shown the man of the principles? But this and such like conceits are given over and again in toasts and sentiments, until the People at last come to believe that there is something in them besides a clinch of words. What would be said to a proposition just about as true and sensible as this principia non homines, announced in these words: "Love, not women"worth just as much as your principles not men. There is another, which, taken from a different source, I shall speak of as I trust I shall always feel, with reverence I mean faith without works, as the means of salvation. All these great positions, that all men are born equally free, and faith without works, are in a certain sense, in But, though that war was for a long time little else but which they are hardly ever received by the multitude, & suspension of arms, from the inability of each to attack true; but in another sense, in which they are almost invaon the other's element-was it nominal-was it war like riably received by nineteen out of twenty, they are false a peace, or even a peace like a war, as was said of Ami- and pernicious. I hope I am understood, sir. The prinens?-Oh no-old England had nailed the colors to the ciples to be sure are what make the man; but you must mast; she had determined to go down rather than give up see the man, to be a judge of his principles; you must the ship-She wisely saw no safety for her in what might know the man; it is not his making a profession of faith, be called a peace; and it was a glorious determination: and political or religious-you must know his conduct-thisit is that spirit-it is not thews, muscle-though I have tles do not produce figs; so, sir, it is impossible that the greatest respect for the authority of the gentleman weak, wicked, or bad public councils can proceed from a from Kentucky (Mr. Rowax)-it is not brawn, it is that man of good public principles: So is it as it regards spirit which gives life to every nation-that spirit which works and faith: there is no question in the minds of carries a man, however feeble, through conflicts with nineteen out of twenty Christians, that it is the faith and giants, compared to him in point of strength, honorably, not the works that they are to be indebted to and they triumphantly. Sir, I consider the late conflict between are in fact so far right; but then they forget that the works England and France-England against the congregated constitute the only competent evidence of faith; and continent of Europe to say nothing of any other make that with a bad life there is no true faith; yet Christians weights in the scale-confident against a world in arms- go on tearing one another to pieces about these things, as far surpassing, in sublimity of example, the tenacious- and yet may find, if they will but take the trouble to conness of purpose of Rome during the second Punic war, sider, that they have been all along beating the air and as that surpasses any of our famous Indian wars and expe- disputing about terms, except such as are strict predestiditions. It is a lesson of the constancy of the human mind, narians and such as believe in works of supererogationwhich ought never to be thrown away; and I have some that they can buy a place in heaven, and spare a little to times been inclined to believe that it has done that nation a friend to help him in his purchase. In regard to this more good than-I know I make a dangerous admission- principle, that all are born free and equal, if there is an anithan the debt accumulated by the war has done her harm, mal on earth to which it does not apply that is not born But when we look at her present condition under the free, it is man-he is born in a state of the most abject want, operation of that system, I think we shall pause, as she and a state of perfect helplessness and ignorance, which might have done, before we take any measures that may is the foundation of the connubial tie. I have heard it lalead to a suspension of specie payments, to the dissolution mented elsewhere, that the complainant was born to inof all law, and of all morals; to that state of things which fancy; but that is only the common lot of all men, except places the honest man not merely on a footing with the the first man; and I believe the schoolmen were as well dishonest, but far below him. employed in disputing, as Hudibras tells us they were in -But, sir, perhaps I may be told, that in case I do not his day, whether any signs of the Umbilicus were found accede to the proposition of the gentleman from South about Adam, as they have been in disputing this nice Carolina, the answer is very plain and triumphant to my distinction, without a difference in practice, of faith withresolution. That the principles of these South American out works. I have heard it lamented by the same person States are the principles that were of high authority on that he was born to indigence, but none of us bring any another great question-the Missouri question--are the thing more into the world (not even the breath of our principles of the declaration of Independence. What nostrils) than we carry out of it-and as to ignorance, more will you have, what more can you ask? What re- Locke says that we bring no innate ideas with us into the source have you now left' Sir, my only objection is, world; it is true, but man is born with certain capacities that these principles, pushed to their extreme conse--which assume the impression, that may be given by edquences that all men are born free and equal-I can ucation and circumstances; but the mathematician and never assent to, for the best of all reasons, because it is the astronomer, who of all men on earth are the most unnot true; and as I cannot agree to the intrinsic meaning safe, in affairs of government and common life-who of the word Congress, though sanctioned by the Consti- should say that all the soil in the world is equally rich, the tution of the United States, so neither can I agree to a first rate land in Kentucky and the Highlands of Scot falschood, and a most pernicious falsehood, even though land, because the superficial content of the acre is the I find it in the Declaration of Independence, which has same, would be just as right, as he who should maintain been set up, on the Missouri and other questions, as para. the absolute equality of man in virtue of his birth. The mount to the Constitution. I say pernicious falsehood-ricketty and scrofulous little wretch that first sees the it must be, if true, self-evident: for it is incapable of de-light in a work-house, or in a brothel, and who feels the monstration; and there are thousands and tens of thous ands of them that mislead the great vulgar as well as the small. There are some in bald Latin, such as principia non homines-principles not men-that sounds quite an-tithetical and quaint, and is quite taking with some folks -but what are principles without men any more than men without principles? and how can you tell the princi

effects of alcohol before the effects of vital air, is not equal in any respect to the ruddy offspring of the honest yeoman; nay, I will go further, and say that a prince, provided he is no better born than blood royal will make him, is not equal to the healthy son of a peasant.

We know that this Constitution is a Constitution of compromise, of compact, between States. It is a com

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Negro Slavery in South America.

MARCH 2, 1826.

pact between States, which acknowledges the rights of ever." But, said Mr. R. how is it with the professor? In the master over his negro slave, in terms to be sure, the next edition of his book, or in the refutation of his sowewhat squeamish as to words. I may be told that the adversary, all the mischief that he has done may be unword is not in the Constitution. I care not a farthing done and corrected. But when this same professor bewhether the word is in the Constitution or not; not only comes a statesman? If you want to know the effect of his the existence of negro slavery, but the slave trade itself, metaphysical madness, look to the history of the French for a limited time, was secured under the panoply of the Revolution, and the undoing of the country-look to the Constitution-and thousands were brought, under that history of such men as Condorcet and Brissot, and Miraguarantee, into the ports of Charleston and Savannah, and beau-men of good intentions, of learning, and geniussold as slaves, and their progeny will be slaves ad indefi- not that I count Mirabeau among the good men of that nitum, unless the States of Georgia and South Carolina Revolution: but Lafayette was one of them. What was shall, in their sovereign capacities, choose to decree the the consequence of this not stopping to parley with the contrary. Did South Carolina stickle for the trade in imprescriptible rights of man, in the abstract? It is that slaves, as she had a right to do, and with the aid of Con- they have now full leisure to meditate on the imprescripnecticut especially, carry her point until 1808; and were tible rights of their king in the concrete; that is the rethe Southern men so ineffably stupid as to take no secu-sult of devotedness to abstract politics-of their managerity for their slaves already here, or that might be brought ment-look at it in Hayti and every where-I would say, in ander the "first clause of the 9th section of the 1st ar- if I was not afraid of being considered as treating this ticle" of the Constitution, which was unalterable, even subject too lightly, which lies heavy on my heart-look by the mode prescribed by the Constitution in other at the famous academy of Lagado, and you will have a cases, until that time? And even if they had been so un- pretty fair specimen of a country governed by Mathemaguarded, what would the casus omissus prove but that, ticians and star-gazers, from light-houses in the sky. It is the Constitution being silent, Congress have no power mournful while it is ludicrous. I have seen men who over the subject? If these things are not recognized by could not write a book, or even make a speech-men the book, let me put a case, and it is a question for the who could not even spell this famous word Congresscourt below. Nothing too hard for them-Supposing that (they spelled it with a K) who had more practical sense an African should sue for his liberty-where? in the fed- and were more trust-worthy, as statesmen, or generals, eral court-why-is he a citizen? No-Is he an alien? than any mathematician, any naturalist, or any literati, No Is he of a different State from his master? No under the sun. -Nothing of all this; but is it not "a case arising under the Constitution?" Will not the Supreme Court clutel it-can they refuse jurisdiction? Is there a man on that bench who for one instant-I am putting a supposititious case-a case being brought in the last resort to that tribunal is there a judge there or any where else, who would, for one instant, listen to Counsel, who should rely upon the Declaration of Independence, or any other fanfaronade of abstractions, as paramount law-paramount to the Constitution itself. The language I have applied to it is strong, but who can be cold in such a cause?

If, said Mr. R. I make use, in the heat of debate, of any improper expression, I beg pardon of the Senate. I have long thought that I could discern, even in that paper [the Declaration of Independence] rather more of the professor of an university than the language of an old statesman; what I have discerned in other state papers I shall not now say. But I will now, with the liberty of the Senate, relieve them from my tedious talk, by reading an authority from this book [taking up a volume of Burke's works] which is pat to my purpose. It is on the subject of any man of sense suffering himself to be led away from the case before him, to travel out of the record of common sense, into the mazes of abstraction.

"I never govern myself-no rational man ever did govern himself by abstractions and universals. I do not put abstract ideas wholly out of any question, because I well know that, under that name, I should dismiss principles; and that, without the guide and light of sound, well-understood principles, all reasoning in politics, as in every thing else, would be only a confused jumble of particular facts and details, without the means of drawing out any sort of theoretical or practical conclusion. The statesman differs from the professor of an university-the latter has only the general view of society, the former, (the statesman,) has a number of circumstances to combine with those general ideas, and to take into his consideration. Circumstances are infinite, are infinitely combined -are variable and transient; he who does not take them into consideration, is not erroneous, but stark mad-dat operam ut cum ratione insaniat-he is metaphysically mad. A statesman, never losing sight of principles, is to be guided by circumstances; and, judging contrary to the exigencies of the moment, he may ruin his country for

Sir, as a natural death is preferable to a death superinduced by the lavish use of chemical and mineral poisons-so, in my humble judgment, at least, a natural fool is preferable to a fool secundum artem-he is the least dangerous animal of the two-at least, not having been deeply cultivated, like other shallow soils, what little mother-wit is in him is not turned up by some new patent plow, and buried beneath the sand, never to give birth to vegetation more; whereas, the over-educated fool never dreams that, with all his learning and acquirements, he is but a greater fool than ever. We, of the cotton country, sir, know that deep cultivation is fatal to shallow soils. Some of these, wise men have discovered that a whale is not a fish, but we have not, therefore, altered the phrase. ology of the laws relating to the whale fishery, because one of our cognocenti has found out that a whale is no fish at all, and has not, as far as I know, told us what to call it; and the hardy seamen of Marblehead and Cape Ann, who have stood by us, and by whom I will stand, no wiser than the Congress, for all their schooling, will persist in talking of their good or bad fishing, and of their having taken so many fish.

Sir, we have a military school, and we are to have a naval school-I should not like to see the experiment tried-but, sir, it would be a good subject for a bet, (not that a bet is a proper subject to be named here,) but it would be a good thing-I would take some rough Massachusetts or Nantucket, or Maine and Sagadahock, or a New Hampshire seaman-such a man as Isaac Hull, and pit him against any man coming from a naval academy. if we had an army of cadets, if they came across such a man as Jackson, or Morgan, or such self-taught men, their diagrams at West Point would stand them in little stead in time of action. We must at last come down from our stilts-we must agree to be what the fathers of the Constitution, the pater patriæ, made us to be, the good old United States, courting the arts of peace, minding our own business, and not interfering with that of others, or with alliances, holy or unholy, Greek or Barbarian; above all, not departing, under the idea of a foreign mission, of sending to England or France, or to the Congress of Verona, ministers to change our whole policy, and perhaps our very form of government-departing, fundamentally, from the principles of the Constitution.

The

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