FEBRUARY, 1847.]

[29TH CONG.

cess.

He considered it, then, his duty to withhold supplies of men and money for more extended movements; but would pay our forces already in service. His policy would be to withdraw our army to our own territory; and this not with reference to Mexico, but with reference to ourselves, to self-respect, to truth, and justice; and then proclaim to Mexico and the world that we want none of her territory; that we want nothing but a just and honorable peace, with such indemnity as she may owe our citizens. This proposition would bring Mexico to terms, and secure peace in a very short period. Mr. H. having concluded,

Mr. JENKINS rose and said:

Mr. CHAIRMAN: The remarks which I propose to make at this time will mainly be devoted to the support of the amendment offered by the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding the exciting nature of the subject, I am happy to notice that it has been treated, both by the North and the South, generally, with the cool deliberation suited to its importance. It has been suggested upon this floor, that the support of this proviso is an act hostile to the Administration, and tends to embarrass the Government in the prosecution of the war. For the purpose of showing that this opinion is founded in misapprehension, it is proper to take into consideration the legislation upon the subject of the war.

On the thirteenth day of May last, Congress passed an act recognizing the existence of war with the republic of Mexico. By the same statute, the army and navy were placed in the hands of the President, and the Government authorized to increase the amount of seven millions then in the treasury by the loan of ten millions of dollars, and to raise fifty thousand volunteers, for a vigorous prosecution of the war. Upon the passage of this act one hundred and seventy-four members of this House voted in the affirmative, and fourteen only voted in the negative-making a majority in favor of the measure larger than can be found upon so important a subject from the days of Jefferson to the present time. The confidence of Congress in the Government was further evinced during last session, by the most liberal appropriation bills for the maintenance of our army and navy.

Congress has manifested a similar spirit at the present session. The bill under consideration was made a special order for the first day of March instant. But in order to hasten the passage of some important appropriation bills,

dollars, and the raising of ten regiments for the increase of the regular army. Appropriation bills suited to the gigantic undertaking of the Government, have been passed with unexpected unanimity; and every war measure recommended by Government of any considerable importance, has already passed this House. On the part of the Government, the war has been prosecuted with commendable vigor and brilliant success. A large amount of territory, equal to one-third of the whole Mexican republic, is now under our control. It rests with the Executive to direct the further operations. Men and means have been provided by a patriotic country, and a soldiery not less patriotic have given in the past, a pledge of future bravery and renown.

The essential war measures having been provided for, the President has thought proper to invite our attention to the subject of peace. Upon his recommendation, the Committee on Foreign Relations have introduced the bill in question, which provides that "the sum of three millions of dollars be hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the President to conclude a treaty of peace with the republic of Mexico; to be used by him in the event that said treaty, when duly ratified by Mexico, shall call for the expenditure of the same, or any part thereof."

This bill is not a war but a peace measure. The money cannot be drawn from the treasury until the republic of Mexico has agreed on terms for adjusting her difficuties with this country. How soon that event will occur is a question of great doubt. Present appearances are not propitious of early negotiation. But it may be wanted at some time; and, before voting for the bill, I shall not fail to inquire, to what specific purpose is this three millions of money to be devoted? When it is remembered that our Government has announced its determination to require of Mexico the payment of the immense amount due our citizens for spoliations long since committed, and an adequate indemnity for the expenses of the war, as conditions of peace; when we consider that Mexico is unable to raise money for that purpose, and that the surrender to us of a portion of her territory is the only way in which she can make the required recompense-we shall not be at a loss to know why our forces have taken possession of that portion of Mexico, which, from its contiguity to our own dominion and its commercial and agricultural advantages invites the hardy industry and resistless enterprise of our people. Our laws are already administered there; the press is scattering intelligence in our own language there; and an army has been sent to California, with express

orders to be disbanded west of the Rocky Mountains. When that army shall return they will bring the country with them.

Upon the return of peace and the acquisition of a part of the Mexican territory, it may well be expected that expediency as well as justice will suggest the propriety of paying to the Mexican Government this three millions as a balance due Mexico, over and above her indebtedness to us, for the territory we shall acquire. This is the purpose for which the three millions is wanted. When we consider how much more than she can pay Mexico owes already, it woud be idle to ask, for what other purpose can the three millions be required?

When we are thus taking measures for a permanent acquisition of territory, ordinary prudence forces upon us the inquiry, To what purpose shall this territory be devoted? Shall it be hallowed by free and cheerful toil, or must it be condemned to yield a stinted supply to the reluctant labor of the slave? The proviso under consideration is intended to perform the office of reserving this territory to the enjoyment of free labor. Some effort has been made to brand this movement with hard names, and to impress upon it the odium of Abolitionism. But the day has gone by when men can be driven from the performance of their duty by such expedients. This is no Abolition project. The proviso does not interfere with slavery in the States where it now exists. With that subject we have nothing to do. We take this up as a great national question-a question untrammelled by any vested right-one which addresses itself to us not as mere philanthropists or partisans, but as legislators.

But, Mr. Chairman, I have another case of the highest authority-an authority which honorable gentlemen who take the other side of this question by no means should question. It will be remembered that a few days since, when the bill to organize the Territory of Oregon was in progress through this House, the honorable gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. BURT) proposed an amendment to that bill, fixing the line for slave territory at thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude. The honorable mover of that amendment, with those who deny the power generally, voted in favor of that amendment; thus explicitly admitting, by their most solemn acts, the power of Congress to control this question. Acts are better evidence of the real opinions of men than declarations. Thus, upon authority of the highest character, judicial and legislative, am I borne out in the conclusion, that the constitution has vested in Congress the power to prohibit the introduction of slavery in territory thus acquired.

Mr. STEWART opposed the grant of three millions of dollars proposed by the bill under consideration, as intended to ratify any treaty the President of the United States might think proper to make for the acquisition of territory. It was the ratification of a treaty beforehand,

[FEBRUARY, 1847.

and if passed in its present form, would preclude both Houses from objecting to ratify and carry out any treaty whatever which the President might be disposed to make.

He denounced the war as a Presidential war, and a war of conquest, and would vote for the "Wilmot proviso as the most effectual means, if carried, of bringing it to a speedy termination. The object of the Administration was to acquire new territory to make it slave territory, and if this prohibition of slavery were imposed by Congress, their warlike spirit would quickly subside. Still he had voted supplies because the President, by plunging us into war and our army into danger, had left him no choice. He had done it for the protection of our army.

He commented upon the fatuity and madness of the Administration in involving us in war for the sake of acquiring territory with which we could do nothing when got, and which would but prove an apple of discord, and was fraught with danger to the existence of the Union itself.

Mr. BROCKENBROUGH said, upon the subject of the "Wilmot proviso," unlike many gentlemen from the South, he had no fears for the institution of slavery, or for the dissolution of the Union; not from any wilful blindness, but because, after calm reflection, it appeared to him that whenever the governments of this country, either State or Federal, had undertaken to legislate in advance of public opinion, and prescribe rules for public opinion, their enactments were but a dead letter on the statute book. Any legislation at this time, declaring that lands which may hereafter be acquired by the United States shall be occupied by one portion of the country to the exclusion of the other, would be perfectly futile and ineffectual. From the beginning of the Government down to the present day, the North and the South had been advancing with giant and equal stride towards the West, and no arbitrary line could restrain the advances of the institutions of either. The Missouri compromise line had only been acquiesced in by the South because north of that line slavery could not go, from the nature of the case, so as to be for the interest of the people.

But granting that the principles of the amendment could be enforced, (in case it were adopted.) Mr. B. presented a picture of the blighting influences it would entail upon the South, resulting finally in the extermination of the entire white race in that section; a consequence disastrous in the extreme to the North and of all sections of our country.

On the other hand, if this institution were allowed to take its natural course, and to spread southward and westward, by diffusion it would lose its strength, and in the course of a century, he prophesied, its very existence itself. It was already beginning to ebb in the southern States, and white labor and industry were coming in to take the place of those of the slave.

Advancing to the subject of the war, and premising that it was a just war upon our part, a redress of aggressions and wrongs, Mr. B. did not understand that our Government was, nor would he have it to be, a new-modelled, Quaker sort of a Government, which, with hands bound, was to submit to all public injuries and insults, either because it was too good to present them, or because the Government making them was too poor to make reparation; but he said, if that party had waste lands, (as it made no other indemnity,) he did not see why those waste lands should not be appropriated by us. It might be called dismemberment, robbery, &c.; but nine-tenths of the nations of the present day had no better title to their own territory than that of conquest. Mexico should be made to pay our just demands; and if she had no money, it was no crime to take her land for indemnity to our citizens and to the Government for the expenses of the war she has brought upon us. He did not pretend to designate what portion of her territory; but his objections to taking a particular line, and defending and holding it, were very much removed by the argument of a distinguished Senator from his own section of the country a few days since.

Mr. MCCLELLAND signified his intention to vote for the Wilmot proviso, in accordance with what he believed to be the wishes of his constituents; and briefly mentioned the points which he should make in its support, upon constitutional grounds, as well as those of expediency.

Mr. GIDDINGS said he would present a synopsis of what he would have said were there a more general attendance of the committee. He said he desired to call the attention of the country to the fact that the time had arrived when the great question of freedom and slavery was to be passed upon by this body. From that issue no member could escape; each must show whether he be on the side of oppression or freedom.

There is now (said he) no longer doubt as to the objects and ulterior designs of this war. They are now understood through the country. That object (he said) is the acquisition of further slave territory; it is carrying out the policy of the annexation of Texas. He had regarded that measure at the time as fatal to the continuance of the Union. He stated that the policy of territorial aggrandizement, if continued, must end in the overthrow of our Government and separation of the States. He did not regret that an issue so distinct was presented. He was himself prepared to meet it. He rejoiced to see northern men of both parties uniting upon this important question. "No more slave territory "has become the watchword among the free States. They will adhere to that doctrine. They will never permit Texas to extend beyond its actual limits.

He desired particularly to call the attention of the country to the proposition just made by

[29TH CONG.

an eminent statesman in the other end of the Capitol. That plan was to take possession of territory large enough to form twelve such States as that of Ohio. He proposes to hold this immense territory under military occupation. That will ensure an emigration into it of slaveholders with their slaves, which will render it slave territory. If we should not then obtain it from Mexico, it will be prepared for revolt, after the example of Texas. If we should obtain any portion of the territory it will then be called slave territory; and we shall be told that we must not interrupt the relation of master and slave, and therefore it must remain slave territory. He wished to warn the people of the free States against this insidious proposition. He insisted that not another inch of slave territory should be acquired. The boundaries of Texas must never extend beyond the Nueces; nor must there ever be another slave State admitted to the Union.

He repelled the idea that had been thrown out that the Whig party were in favor of prosecuting the war. He said he represented the strongest Whig district in the Union, and that they had authorized no man to pledge them to the support of the war.

Mr. SEAMAN obtained the floor, and said that some of the measures of this Congress were as extraordinary as important. The acquisition of territory by annexation and compromise-a change in our system of keeping and disbursing the public moneys, and the revenue laws— a war of conquest, and a national debt, are among its prominent features. These he should speak of freely and honestly.

He voted for the two million bill at the last session, with the Wilmot proviso, and should vote for it now. He was willing to go with him that would go farthest in placing at the disposal of the President the means to secure a peace with Mexico. He did not believe the bill would accomplish such a wished-for result; but the Wilmot proviso would lead him to give his vote for the bill, much as he disliked it. He opposed the admission of Texas into the Union on the ground that it extended the institution of slavery. He was opposed to any further extension of it, and thought it ought to be confined within its present limits. He was opposed to the war. It was wrong in principle, and unjust in its inception. It was waged for conquest and to extend slavery. The President provoked it. He was in favor of withdrawing our troops from Mexico to the Rio Grande, or even across the disputed boundary if it would stop the war, and lead to an adjustment of the difficulties between the two Governments. He considered the sub-treasury an unfortunate and an unwise measure. It was condemned by all intelligent merchants as a measure of mischief, and ought to be repealed. The specie clause could not be carried out.

discuss more fully in his written speech. In it, he should endeavor to show that this was a presidential war; a war of aggression: that it was caused by the movement, by the order of the President, of our troops to the Rio Grande, into a territory which was not ours, over which, notwithstanding what had been said by the gentleman from Texas, (Mr. PILLSBURY,) Texas had never exercised jurisdiction: that it was not a war for the redress of grievances; but that the failure of Mexico to make payment of indemnities to our citizens, was made the pretext for commencing the war, for the object of a permanent acquisition of territory: that the conduct of this war reflected no honor upon the Administration; but that it was a war upon our brave generals, who had shed lustre upon the arms of our country. He declared himself in favor of the Wilmot proviso: it was not a question with the North; they were decided that no more territory should be acquired, to be made slave territory. He maintained that the whole object of the war was the acquisition of foreign territory, that the South, in all time to come, might have the control of the Government, as had been stated in the public papers there. The orders to the American army and navy, to invade and conquer a portion of Mexican territory, and establish political and civil power therein; the troops sent by Colonel Stevenson to California, with their families, implements of agriculture, &c., were evidences of the fact.

An additional motive was, to gain or secure political power, regardless of the interests to the country. This is clear, from the course pursued by the Administration and its friends in and out of this House, in regard to the conduct of General Taylor in the war.

This bill (he said) was nothing more or less than one to give the President three millions of dollars as secret-service money, to be used, if the President so please, to fulfil any arrangement he may have made with Santa Anna, when he permitted him to return to Mexico, and assume the command of the Mexican army: that this was giving aid and comfort to the enemy far beyond any thing in the whole Whig party to afford: that this money may, and probably will, be used to bribe and corrupt the authorities of Mexico, both civil and military, to procure a quasi peace: that this was in direct conflict with the purposes of the party in power made heretofore, which were, to "conquer a peace;" and not only so, but to revel in the halls of the Montezumas: " that he would not have any agency in furnishing funds for a purpose so profligate and disgraceful. He said we had now a country unoccupied, of an extent sufficient to make several new States: that he was opposed to the purchase of the territory sought by the President, that is, New Mexico and Upper California-an extent of country greater than the original thirteen States of the Union: that the introduction of this territory into the Union would agitate

[FEBRUARY, 1847.

the question of slavery, which, ultimately, and at no very remote period, in his opinion, would shake this Union from its centre to its circumference, and terminate in the subversion of the liberties of the people, and the destruction of the union of the States.

Mr. THOMASSON opposed the three million bill, either with or without the Wilmot proviso, and gave his reasons why he voted for it last year. He then digressed into some discussion of political topics in general.

Mr. PENDLETON then obtained the floor, and moved that the committee rise.

The question was put, and no quorum voted. The committee rose, and the Chairman reported that fact to the House.

Mr. PENDLETON moved that the House adjourn. The question was decided by yeas and nays as follows-yeas 13, nays 40.

The House having refused to adjournMr. DROMGOOLE moved a call of the House. The question was put, and decided in the affirmative.

The SPEAKER accordingly ordered the Clerk to call the roll.

When the call had progressed a few minutes— Mr. STROHм moved that the further proceedings of the call be dispensed with.

The question was put and negatived. The roll being called through, it appeared that fifty-eight members had answered to their names.

The absentees were then called, when it appeared that five other members were presentmaking sixty-three in all.

The doors of the Hall were now closed, and the list of absentees were then again called for excuses; and Messrs. ABBOTT, JOHN Q. ADAMS, BELL, CULVER, DOBBIN, LEWIS, MCKAY, PETTIT, STARKWEATHER, and YOUNG, were severally excused.

During the call of the absentees several motions to suspend the call and to adjourn were made and rejected.

When the absentees were called through, the following order was adopted:

Ordered, That special messengers, to be appointed for that purpose, be sent for the absent members, and that they be taken into custody and brought to the House.

Mr. FARAN moved to suspend the call, and stated that, as a member of the Committee on Accounts, he had been called on to pass upon accounts of the Sergeant-at-Arms for arresting members during the process of calls of the House. It frequently happened, that during the calls of the House the Sergeant-at-Arms arrested members and had them in attendance at the door of the Hall when the call was suspended, which always released members from custody without the payment of the fine, and the House was then called upon to pay it.

Mr. F.'s motion was then put and agreed to, and the call was suspended.

Mr. GEORGE W. JONES moved that the House adjourn. Rejected.