AUGUST, 1848.]

ABRIDGMENT OF THE

Special Message from the President-Oregon Territorial Bill.

ernor, the yeas and nays were ordered, and it
was determined in the affirmative-yeas 31,

nays 23.

Upon the question to recede from the second amendment, relating to the same subject, it was determined in the affirmative without a division.

Upon the question to recede from the third amendment, being the section extending the line of the Missouri compromise to the Pacific Ocean, the yeas and nays were ordered, and it was determined in the affirmative, as follows: YEAS.-Messrs. Allen, Baldwin, Benton, Bradbury, Breese, Bright, Cameron, Clarke, Corwin, Davis of Massachusetts, Dayton, Dickinson, Dix, Dodge, Douglas, Felch, Fitzgerald, Greene, Hale, Hamlin, Hannegan, Houston, Miller, Niles, Phelps, Spruance, Upham, Walker, and Webster-29.

NAYS.--Messrs. Atchison, Badger, Bell, Berrien, Borland, Butler, Calhoun, Davis of Mississippi, Downs, Foote, Hunter, Johnson of Maryland, Johnson of Louisiana, Johnson of Georgia, Lewis, Mangum, Mason, Metcalfe, Pearce, Rusk, Sebastian, Turney, Underwood, Westcott, and Yulee-25.

[Mr. ATHERTON was present, but did not vote, having, as it is understood, paired off with Mr. KING, who had been compelled to leave from exhaustion. Messrs. CLAYTON and STURGEON were also absent, the former being still detained at home by the indisposition of a member of his family.]

The remaining amendments were separately receded from without a division, and the bill stands passed in the precise form in which it came from the House of Representatives.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

MONDAY, August 14. Oregon Territorial Government. Mr. ROBINSON, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, reported that the committee had examined the bill to establish a Territorial Government for Oregon, and found it correctly

enrolled.

He moved to suspend the seventeenth joint rule, which forbids bills being presented to the President on the last day of the session, so as to permit the Oregon bill, and all other bills which had passed, or might pass, to be sent to the President; and on that motion he demanded the previous question.

Mr. BAYLY moved that the House adjourn. Mr. RHETT demanded the yeas and nays on the motion.

The SPEAKER decided that the motion to adjourn was not in order. The two Houses, by a joint resolution, had fixed twelve o'clock today as the time for the adjournment sine die. By the Constitution of the United States, neither House, without the consent of the other, could adjourn for more than three days. If the motion to adjourn were received and agreed to, the House would stand adjourned until the first Monday in December. motion was not, therefore, in order.

The

[30TH CONG.

Special Message from the President-Oregon
Territorial Act-Reasons for Approving the
Act-Harmony and Stability of the Union,
Overruling Consideration-Impressive Ap
peal to the People to preserve forever invio-
late the Missouri and the Texas Compro-
mises.

of the President's Message just received, (and
Mr. COBB, of Georgia, called for the reading
which, it was understood, had reference to his
approval of the Oregon Territorial bill.)
To the House of Representatives
[The following is the Message:

of the United States:

When the President has given his official sanc quires that he shall notify the House in which it tion to a bill which has passed Congress, usage reoriginated of that fact. The mode of giving this notification has been by an oral message delivered by his private secretary.

Having this day approved and signed an act entitled "An act to establish the Territorial Government of Oregon," I deem it isting circumstances, to communicate the fact in a proper, under the ex

more solemn form,

which have taken place in both Houses of Congress,
and the absorbing interest which the subject has
The deeply interesting and protracted discussions
excited throughout the country, justify, in my judg
served in other cases.
ment, this departure from the form of notice ob-

of the Government, made proper by the considerIn this communication with a co-ordinate branch ations referred to, I shall frankly, and without reserve, express the reasons which have constrained me not to withhold my signature from the bill to establish a Government over Oregon, even though the two Territories of New Mexico and California are to be left, for the present, without Governments. ment in Oregon. Indeed, it has been too long deNone doubt that it is proper to establish a Governlayed. I have made repeated recommendations to Congress to this effect. The petitions of the people of that distant region have been presented to the and the protection of our laws, which as citizens Government, and ought not to be disregarded. To of the United States they claim, is a high duty on give to them a regularly organized Government form, unless there be controlling reasons to preour part, and one which we are bound to pervent it.

In the progress of all Governments, questions
of such transcendent importance occasionally arise,
character.
as to cast in the shade all those of a mere party
But one such question can now be
our glorious Union, the source of our greatness
agitated in this country; and this may endanger
slavery. With the slaveholding States this does
and all our political blessings. This question is
not embrace merely the rights of property, how-
volves the domestic peace and security of every
ever valuable; but it ascends far higher, and in-
family.

patriotic men who laid the foundation of our insti
tutions-foreseeing the danger from this quarter,
acted in a spirit of compromise and mutual con-
cession on this dangerous and delicate subject;

The fathers of the constitution-the wise and

1ST SESS.]

Special Message rom the President-Oregon Territorial Bill.

and their wisdom ought to be the guide of their successors. Whilst they left to the States exclusively the question of domestic slavery within their respective limits, they provided that slaves who might escape into other States not recognizing the institution of slavery, shall "be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."

Upon this foundation the matter rested until the Missouri question arose.

In December, 1819, application was made to Congress by the people of the Missouri Territory for admission into the Union as a State. The discussion upon the subject in Congress involved the question of slavery, and was prosecuted with such violence as to produce excitements alarming to every patriot in the Union. But the good genius of conciliation which presided at the birth of our institutions finally prevailed, and the Missouri compromise was adopted. The eighth section of the act of Congress of the 6th of March, 1820, "to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State Government," &c., provides: "That, in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the States contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, other wise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services aforesaid."

This compromise had the effect of calming the troubled waves, and restoring peace and good-will throughout the States of the Union.

The Missouri question had excited intense agitation of the public mind, and threatened to divide the country into geographical parties, alienating the feelings of attachment which each portion of our Union should bear to every other. The compromise allayed the excitement, tranquillized the popular mind, and restored confidence and fraternal feeling. Its authors were hailed as public benefactors.

I do not doubt that a similar adjustment of the questions which now agitate the public mind would produce the same happy results. If the legislation of Congress on the subject of the other Territories shall not be adopted in a spirit of conciliation and compromise, it is impossible that the country can be satisfied, or that the most disastrous consequences shall fail to ensue.

When Texas was admitted into the Union, the same spirit of compromise which guided our predecessors in the admission of Missouri, a quarter of a century before, prevailed without any serious opposition. The "joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States," approved March the first, one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, provides that "such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admis

[AUGUST, 1848.

|sion may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of the Missouri compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited."

The Territory of Oregon lies far north of thirtysix degrees thirty minutes, the Missouri and Texas compromise line. Its southern boundary is the parallel of forty-two, leaving the intermediate distance to be three hundred and thirty geographical miles.

And it is because the provisions of this bill are not inconsistent with the terms of the Missouri compromise, if extended from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean, that I have not felt at liberty to withhold my sanction. Had it embraced territories south of that compromise, the question presented for my consideration would have been of a far different character, and my action upon it must have corresponded with my convictions.

Ought we now to disturb the Missouri and Texas compromises? Ought we, at this late day, in attempting to annul what has been so long established and acquiesced in, to excite sectional divisions and jealousies; to alienate the people of different portions of the Union from each other, and to endanger the existence of the Union itself?

From the adoption of the Federal Constitution, during a period of sixty years, our progress as a nation has been without example in the annals of history. Under the protection of a bountiful Providence, we have advanced with giant strides in the career of wealth and prosperity. We have enjoyed the blessings of freedom to a greater extent than any other people, ancient or modern, under a Government which has preserved order, and secured to every citizen life, liberty, and property. We have now become an example for imitation to the whole world. The friends of freedom in every clime point with admiration to our institutions. Shall we, then, at the moment when the people of Europe are devoting all their energies in the attempt to assimilate their institutions to our own, peril all our blessings by despising the lessons of experience, and refusing to tread in the footsteps which our fathers have trodden? And for what cause would we endanger our glorious Union? The Missouri compromise contains a prohibition of slavery throughout all that vast region extending twelve and a half degrees along the Pacific, from the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes to that of forty-nine degrees, and east from that ocean to and beyond the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Why, then, should our institutions be endangered, because it is proposed to submit to the people of the remainder of our newly acquired territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, embracing less than four degrees of latitude, the question whether, in the language of the Texas compromise, they "shall be admitted (as a State) into the Union with or without slavery?" Is this a question to be pushed to such extremities by excited partisans on the one side or the other, in regard to our newly-acquired distant possessions on the Pacific, as to endanger the union of thirty glorious States which constitute our Confederacy? I have an abiding confidence that the sober reflection and sound patriotism of the people of all the States will bring them to the conclusion that the dictate of wisdom is to follow the example of those who have gone before us, and settle this dangerous question on the Missouri compromise, or some other

Holding as a sacred trust the Executive authority for the whole Union, and bound to guard the rights of all, I should be constrained, by a sense of duty, to withhold my official sanction from any measure which would conflict with these important objects.

[30TH CONG

equitable compromise, which would respect the | ern; whence designing men may endeavor to ex rights of all, and prove satisfactory to the different cite a belief that there is a real difference of local inportions of the Union. terests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection." JAMES K. POLK.

I cannot more appropriately close this message than by quoting from the Farewell Address of the Father of his Country. His warning voice can never be heard in vain by the American people. If the spirit of prophecy had distinctly presented to his view, more than a half-century ago, the present distracted condition of his country, the language which he then employed could not have been more appropriate than it is to the present

occasion. He declared:

WASHINGTON, August 14, 1848.

[This Message, requiring no action on the part of the House, and being merely justificatory and explanatory, had fulfilled its mission when it had been read at the clerk's table; and the act itself had become law in receiving his sanction.]

Mr. BURT moved to lay the resolution on the table, and on that motion he demanded the and nays.

yeas

The yeas and nays were ordered, and being taken, resulted: Yeas 72, nays 77.

So the House refused to lay the resolution on the table.

The question recurred on the adoption of the resolution.

[It now wanted but twelve minutes to twelve o'clock.]

"The unity of Government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar, in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth -as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be the most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directedit is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immov-yeas and nays would more than exhaust all the time which was left. If the yeas and nays were able attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your ordered, it would be his duty to arrest the political safety and prosperity; watching for its call and adjourn the House at twelve o'clock. preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

"For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affection. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and success.

"With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its bands.

"In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations-Northern and Southern, Atlantic and West

Mr. BURT and other gentlemen demanded the yeas and nays.

The SPEAKER stated that another call of the

Mr. HOUSTON of Alabama, asked the general consent that the President's Message be printed.

Objections were made, unless gentlemen on Mr. HOUSTON's side would withdraw the demand for the yeas and nays. [Increased confusion.]

Mr. HUNT moved to reconsider the vote by which the yeas and nays had been ordered. He appealed to gentlemen not to persist in killing the little time that remained.

and nays on the motion to reconsider.
Mr. JONES of Tennessee demanded the yeas

The yeas and nays were refused, and the motion to reconsider the demand for the yeas and nays was agreed to.

At two minutes to twelve, Mr. STANTON made another unsuccessful appeal to have the Message laid before the House.

The Clerk still progressed with the call, and having reached the name of Mr. RICHARDSONThe Speaker's hammer fell, and

The SPEAKER rose, and said that the Senate and House of Representatives, by joint resolution, having directed the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to adjourn their respective Houses on the 14th day of August at twelve o'clock, M., and that day and that hour having now arrived, the Chair declares that this House stands adjourned sine die.

A bill for the introduction of California as a be commensurate with the boundless blessings State of the Union.

DECEMBER, 1848.]

The President's Message.

and all our great interests are still prosperous and successful.

[30TH CONG, consolidate and strengthen the power of Germany, it must essentially promote the cause of peace, commerce, civilization, and constitutional liberty throughout the world.

With all the governments on this continent our relations, it is believed, are now on a more friendly and satisfactory footing than they have ever been at any former period.

Since the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of peace with Mexico, our intercourse with the Government of that Republic has been of the most friendly character. The Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico has been received and accredited; and a diplomatic representative from Mexico of similar rank has been received and accredited by this Government. The amicable relations between the

This gratifying condition of our foreign relations renders it unnecessary for me to call your attention more specifically to them.

In reviewing the great events of the past year, and contrasting the agitated and disturbed state of other countries with our own tranquil and happy condition, we may congratulate ourselves that we are the most favored people on the face of the earth. While the people of other countries are struggling to establish free institutions, under which man may govern himself, we are in the actual enjoyment of them-a rich inheritance from our fathers. While enlightened nations of Europe are convulsed and distracted by civil war or intestine strife, we settle all our political controversies by the peaceful exercise of the rights of freemen at the ballot-box. The great republican maxim so deeply engraven on the hearts of our people, that the will of the majority-constitutionally expressed-two countries which had been suspended have been shall prevail, is our sure safeguard against force happily restored, and are destined, I trust, to be and violence. It is a subject of just pride, that long preserved. The two Republics, both situated our fame and character as a nation continue rap-on this continent, and with conterminous territories, idly to advance in the estimation of the civilized have every motive of sympathy and of interest to world. To our wise and free institutions it is to be bind them together in perpetual amity. attributed, that while other nations have achieved glory at the price of the suffering, distress, and impoverishment of their people, we have won our honorable position in the midst of an uninterrupted prosperity, and of an increasing individual comfort and happiness. I am happy to inform you that our relations with all nations are friendly and pacific. Advantageous treaties of commerce have been concluded, within the last four years, with New Granada, Peru, the Two Sicilies, Belgium, Hanover, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Pursuing our example, the restrictive system of Great Britain, our principal foreign customer, has been relaxed; a more liberal commercial policy has been adopted by other enlightened nations, and our trade has been greatly enlarged and extended. Our country stands higher in the respect of the world than at any former period. To continue to occupy this proud position, it is only necessary to preserve peace, and faithfully adhere to the great and fundamental principle of our foreign policy of non-interference in the domestic concerns of other nations. We recognize in all nations the rights which we enjoy ourselves, to change and reform their political institutions, according to their own will and pleasure. Hence we do not look behind existing governments, capable of maintaining their own authority. We recognize all such actual governments, not only from the dictates of true policy, but from a sacred regard for the independence of nations.

While this is our settled policy, it does not follow that we can ever be indifferent spectators of the progress of liberal principles. The Government and people of the United States hailed with enthusiasm and delight the establishment of the French Republic, as we now hail the efforts in progress to unite the States of Germany in a confederation, similar in many respects to our own Federal Union. If the great and enlightened German States, occupying, as they do, a central and commanding position in Europe, shall succeed in establishing such a Confederated Government, securing at the same time to the citizens of each State, local governments adapted to the peculiar condition of each, with unrestricted trade and intercourse with each other, it will be an important era in the history of human events. Whilst it will

It has been my constant aim and desire to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations. Tranquillity at home, and peaceful relations abroad, constitute the true permanent policy of our country. War, the scourge of nations, sometimes becomes inevitable, but is always to be avoided when it can be done consistently with the rights and honor of the nation.

One of the most important results of the war into which we were recently forced with a neighboring nation, is the demonstration it has afforded of the military strength of our country. Before the late war with Mexico, European and other foreign powers entertained imperfect and erroneous views of our physical strength as a nation, and of our ability to prosecute war, and especially a war waged out of our own country. They saw that our standing army on the peace establishment did not exceed ten thousand men. Accustomed themselves to maintain in peace large standing armies for the protection of thrones against their own subjects, as well as against foreign enemies, they had not conceived that it was possible for a nation without such an army, well disciplined and of long service, to wage war successfully. They held in low repute our militia, and were far from regarding them as an effective force, unless it might be for temporary defensive operations when invaded on our own soil. The events of the late war with Mexico have not only undeceived them, but have removed erroneous impressions which prevailed to some extent even among a portion of our own countrymen. That war has demonstrated, that upon the breaking out of hostilities not anticipated, and for which no previous preparation had been made, a volunteer army of citizensoldiers equal to veteran troops, and in numbers equal to any emergency, can in a short period be brought into the field. Unlike what would have occurred in any other country, we were under no necessity of resorting to draughts or conscriptions. On the contrary, such was the number of volunteers who patriotically tendered their services, that the chief difficulty was in making selections, and determining who should be disappointed and com