Slavery Select Committee.

[31ST CONG. that slavery should be excluded north of that sectional strife be unassuaged? Will not the line, and left the country south of it as it found Senator, like myself, come down in this stage it, to continue slavery or to exclude it, as the of the question, and take less than his own people might judge best. I say that my doc-standard-take the Missouri compromise in trine for the whole territory is non-interven- terms adapted to these territories? tion.

Slavery-Select Committee.

slave-trade, to board our vessels, which would | same address, the publication of which I was have been followed by the imprisonment of then soliciting: our seamen, and other acts of aggression incident to her naval superiority. My friend, Mr. Stevenson, was then our representative in London. It is the first and great duty of an American minister abroad, when the rights of his country are assailed, to assert and defend them. Mr. Stevenson did so in an able and fearless manner, in a correspondence marked with signal ability. During the progress of the controversy, the public mind in England became much excited, and there was a strong effort made to connect the continuance of the slave-trade with the condition of slavery in our country, as though the former were essential to the latter. All the tirades against slavery we sometimes hear at home, were poured out there.

MARCH, 1850.]

merce.

manner of its use, provided they are not inconsistent with that entire equality which ought to be preserved. If the sovereign authority in a State or nation can do nothing which shall produce inequality in the enjoyment of the public domain or property, surely such authority is not possessed by the Federal Government, which has but a limited power. The attempt by Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territory of California, has caused this meeting. That territory is common property. There each citizen of the United States has equal ment of the territories. I am proud to say, that in acquiring it, Mississippians displayed as much valor as any other portion of their brethren in arms, and shed as much blood, in proportion to their num bers, as the citizens of any of the States. They were distinguished for their prowess in many a hardfought battle; but now they are to be told that restrictions must be imposed on their right to enjoy the conquest. Can we-should we-yield the fruits of our valor, and surrender with our constitutional right of equality? Congress cannot deprive us of it, and ought not, if it could--cannot say, that if we go, we must leave our property behind us. Property constitutes the means of enjoyment; and to exclude the property of the people of the southern States, is in effect to exclude the people, and appropriate the country to the northern States. Such a power is not possessed by a Government possessing sovereignty; it could not be rightfully exercised even by a monarchy. The property of the South consists mostly in slaves; and to interdict its use on our own soil, would not only be unjust, but an arbitrary violation of the constitution. It is vain to talk of our right to the territories, if we may be deprived of the means of enjoying those rights. The mere soil is nothing; it is the use that we may make of it, which renders it valuable. As well might Congress interdict the use of any other property there; if it can exclude a slave, it may exclude a horse or an ox.

giving Congress sufficient power to regulate comThese defects gave rise to our present constitution. In the Convention which formed it, the States met as equals in political power. The small States were unwilling to relinquish their equality of power-the slaveholding States were unwilling to confederate, unless their slaves should be made a basis of representation, and the owners secured in their right. These were exciting subjects. After great difficulty, they were compromised. The second section of the first article provides, that Representatives and direct taxes should be appor-rights--is entitled to equal freedom-in the enjoytioned according to numbers, to be ascertained by adding three-fifths of the slaves to the number of whites. The second section of the fourth article provides for recapturing slaves escaping into those States where slavery did not exist. In these provisions we have an acknowledgment of the existence of slavery, and a guarantee for its protection, as the basis of representation and as property. The constitution did not create property in slaves. Such right existed anterior to, and above, the constitution. As slaves were owned in many of the States, they would not, of course, have entered into the Confederacy on such terms as would weaken the right of the owner to his slave, or diminish the value. One of the great objects of the constitution was, that it should, in its consequences, protect property by giving protection and strength to the several States; but as the States were sovereign, they could not surrender to Congress the right to control, by legislation, the property of their citizens. Such a grant of power would have been a complete surrender of sovereignty. A great consolidated Government would have risen up, which was an evil, of all others, most dreaded, and most rigidly guarded against, by declaring that all power, not expressly granted to Congress, was reserved to the States or to the people. Hence no power can be exercised unless it has been granted by the constitution. The safety of the States and of the people is best preserved by holding Congress strictly within the limit of the delegated powers. No rule of construction can be safe which encroaches upon individual rights. The right to hold slaves as property became a fixed principle, inseparable from the other provisions of the constitution. Indeed, that description of property seems to have been thought worthy of specific and special protection. The constitution must exist and harmonize in all its parts. Every principle it contains is inseparably connected together. It is an entire thing-being the great frame-work of the Government-indissolubly united in all its parts. It would not have been formed without the insertion of every feature; it is an infraction to violate any of them; the symmetry is broken.

"Notwithstanding this unqualified recognition of property in slaves, and the protection provided for its enjoyment as such, it is still contended that Congress may prohibit and abolish it in the territories of the United States. The territories are common property, and cannot be appropriated by Congress to the use of one portion of the common owners, to the exclusion of another. Equality of right must, then, prevail; and any act which would destroy that equality, cannot be valid. It is a principle in the law of nations, that all the members of the community have an equal right to the use of their common property.' Rules may be prescribed by the sovereign power, regulating the

"But in the efforts to exclude our property from that territory, another false doctrine is promulgated, which is equally disastrous to us. We are told that, as slavery was prohibited by the laws of Mexico, we cannot take slaves there without the authority of a law permitting it. This is the doctrine of a class of politicians in our country who look no further than the surface of the law. If this error were confined to politicians, it might be passed over as harmless; but it is also the doctrine which has been unceremoniously promulgated by a member of the supreme bench. We could overlook the groundless fallacies of a few politicians; but when the sanctity of the bench is perverted, and its influence thrown as an element into the exciting cause of malcontent and strife, there is just ground of complaint. If this could be a judicial question in any shape, that was the tribunal before which it might come. With the decision, the American people would have rested satisfied-quiet would have been restored. It was a great constitutional question, and on such questions, the people of the United States have been taught to look to the decisions of the Supreme Court with veneration; but they have not been accustomed to having them promulgated in advance, and are startled at thus seeing them. The effect is almost as injurious to us as a decision regularly pronounced, because it has deterred the South from an equal participancy

1ST SESS.]

Slavery Select Committee.

[MARCH, 1850.

in the territories, while it has emboldened the | of a mere imaginary philanthropy? It would seem North to persist in its efforts. It has caused one so. The Wilmot proviso is but the entering wedge; party to believe that it was right, and the other to that accomplished, the rest will follow. Emancipafear that it was wrong. From position, it has made tion in the States is doubtless the ultimate object; the 'worse appear the better cause.' It is not true, and we have reason to fear that at no point short that slavery does not exist in California, although it of this will the effort cease. The Union must be may have been' prohibited by the laws of Mexico. dissolved, and the blessings which we enjoy under True, the conquering country may permit the muni- our Government must become a sacrifice on the cipal laws of the conquered country to remain in altar of fanaticism. We must become a degraded force; but this is only true of private or strictly people, or abandon our country to the African municipal laws. It is not true as regards political race. We would say to them, Beware! you but laws. By elementary writers, laws are divided into rush on to your own destruction. public and private, or political and municipal. Political laws are such as are organic, and confer power and form on the Government. They give it vitality as an organized body. These political laws are sometimes reduced to the form of a constitution, which becomes supreme and paramount to all other laws, either public or private. Our constitution is the law of our being-it is the essence of our Government-it is the combination of certain great principles, between each one of which, there is a connection and dependency, and the aggregate constitutes a unit. To withdraw or destroy any one of them, would break the entire fabric-it would lop off an essential part of our political power. When we acquired California, it became subject to our constitution our whole constitution-our constitution as an entire thing. The territory did not become subject to part of our Government only; but every principle of the constitution prevailed there as an active principle, and superseded, of necessity, whatever was repugnant to any one of them. No abridgment of the rights of the new-comers could be permitted. The vested rights of the citizens there, at the time we acquired it, may be protected by a principle not inconsistent with this position. The consequence is, that we have a right to take our slaves there, because they are our property, secured to us, as such, by the principles of our paramount political law. If it were true that slavery was then prohibited by the laws of Mexico, and could not be established there without positive law, then the constitution went there a mere cripplebut not so. Wherever the stars and stripes float over a territory, as an emblem of political dominion, they rest upon a perfect pedestal-formed by every principle in the constitution-indissolubly cemented together. As well may it be said, that our constitution must give place to the established religion of Mexico.

"How strange it is, that while Congress has no power over the subject of slavery, in consequence of an inhibition, it should be contended that the laws of the conquered country should secure a prohibition, and thus triumph over our constitutional rights!

"It is a subject of deep regret, that the powerful engine of prejudice is arrayed against us. Enormities are falsely ascribed to us, with a view to excite indignation; they add insult to injury. We are held out as destitute of common mercy-degraded at home and abroad. The means employed are calculated to excite our slave population, and endanger our lives. We hope and believe that there are still a few at the North, who value the Union, and do not engage in this unnatural warfare. Our Union should be social as well as political-amity should prevail between the different divisions. But the ties that bind us are being daily weakened, and the love of the Union diminished. We have remonstrated, but in vain. We yield to none, in a deep and abiding love for the Union. We wish not to sever it, but to re-cement it. We can vindicate it only by keeping it inviolate. We would preserve it in all its purity. We want it as our fathers gave it to us, and must defend it against infraction, as a sacred duty we owe to their memory. The South has borne with these encroachments, under a hope that a sense of justice would ultimately correct the evil; but of this there seems now to be but little hope. We must take our stand. Let us survey the ground well, and occupy that position on which we can stand within the pale of the constitution; and when taken, let us maintain it, like men who know their rights and are determined to protect them. We are not the aggressors; and if the result should prove disas. trous, let the blame rest on those who have provoked the quarrel."

It will readily be perceived, Mr. President, that Judge Sharkey contented himself with a bold, nervous, and irresistible vindication of the constitutional rights of the South, of the assailment of which he justly complained, and against further aggressions, upon which he most solemnly and earnestly protested. He confined himself, and wisely, too, as I conceive, to "the pale of the Constitution." He did not feel authorized to recommend any amendment of the constitution, as indispensable to the safety and honor of "Thus, as I conceive, stands the question of the South. He did not suggest the adoption by right; but if it were a question of expediency Congress of any act for amplifying, adding to, merely, how ungenerous the conduct of the North! or strengthening, the existing rights of the slave We are united as a family of nations. We may States of the Union in any part of our terrihave different local interests, but our obligations to torial domain. He regarded our rights, under each other, require an observance of good faith, the constitution, as full and complete-Mexican of good feeling, of mutual support, and forbear-laws to the contrary notwithstanding. He ocance. With them, it is a matter of feeling onlywith us, it is a question of interest. Are they not prepared to yield their feelings and prejudices, for the sake of protecting our interest? If not, they have forgotten the objects of the Union: mutual safety, prosperity, and happiness, dictated it. Are they willing to risk all these for the gratification

cupied strict non-intervention ground throughout this address, and demanded only that Congress should refrain from all legislation hostile to southern rights. He firmly and proudly relied upon an enlightened judiciary for the decision of all questions which might arise in regard

MARCH, 1850.]

Slavery Select Committee.

[31ST CONG.

to the legality of slavery in the territories. This | obtain from members of the two Houses of Conis precisely the ground which, for several ses- gress, I have been led to the conclusion, that sions past, southern members in Congress have such a territorial bill as I have described, will assumed, and maintained, as I think, with ar- unquestionably pass both the Senate and House guments of irresistible and conclusive force. of Representatives, if we can ever put it fairly Territorial government, without the Wilmot in progress. Other questions, I doubt not, may proviso, or any restriction on the subject of be also satisfactorily adjusted, whenever we slavery, is all that we have claimed. To be conclude to terminate angry and unprofitable sure, we have declared-and I understand every discussion, and enter in the proper spirit upon State of the South, including Mississippi, to de- the pathway of practical duty. clare that if the course of aggression, hereto- Mr. President, I had hoped that the Senate fore pursued, should be obstinately persisted in would have granted the motion, now under con-if tyranny and injustice should be practised, sideration, several days since. I entertained a which might be justly regarded as amounting very decided wish, that the special committee to intolerable oppression-then would the right that I have been so long endeavoring to raise, of secession arise as an extra-constitutional, or, might enter upon their important task under if you please, a revolutionary remedy-author- the auspicious influences awakened by the noble ity to resort to which, in such a case, no free- speech of the honorable Senator from Massaman, worthy of the name, will ever gainsay. chusetts, (Mr. WEBSTER,) whose attitude and poSuch, sir, do I understand to be the precise at- litical connections are such as to give him peeutitude of the State of Mississippi, upon whose liar efficiency as a pacificator at this period. suggestion the proposition to hold a Southern In this wish I have not been gratified. As I Convention, in Nashville, was first entertained anticipated and apprehended, other speeches by the southern States of the Union. This con- have been made less conciliatory in their charvention was recommended by the State of acter. The honorable Senator from New York Mississippi, as I have several times had occasion (Mr. SEWARD) has been especially active since to state here, not for disunion purposes-not in stirring up the embers of discord, and in for the purpose of adding to the unhappy ex- reawakening that fell spirit of contention which citement now existing-not for the purpose of has been already productive of so much misraising up insuperable obstacles of any kind, to chief. It is probable that no injury will now the ultimate adjustment of the pending questions result from a still longer postponement of final -but for the purpose of holding calm, frater-action upon my motion for a special committee; nal and patriotic counsel, and, by embodying the and as several gentlemen, who profess to be whole moral force of the South in favor of such willing to vote for the motion hereafter, when fair, reasonable, and constitutional measures of they shall have had an opportunity of addressredress and prevention, as the crisis might seem ing the Senate, have requested me not to urge to demand, to rescue the Union from impending immediate action, I acquiesce very willingly in jeopardy, effectually to shield the honor of the the motion of the honorable Senator from New South from menaced discredit, and secure to Jersey, (Mr. DAYTON,) and hope that the questhe slave States of the Republic that perfect tion under consideration may be made the order domestic security to which, by the constitution of the day for Wednesday next. itself, they are undeniably entitled. Such, according to my understanding of the matter, is the position of the State of Mississippi-such the objects of the Nashville Convention, the holding of which, I hope, may still be rendered unnecessary, by the adoption of certain healing measures here, which are beginning, as I think, to be generally regarded as more than likely to be ultimately matured and carried into effect.

And now, sir, before I conclude, I will say, that I have more confident hopes than several of my friends, who have spoken in the last day or two, of a satisfactory adjustment of all the questions growing out of slavery at the present session of Congress. My honorable colleague will allow me to suggest, that I do not concur with him in the rather despondent opinion he has just now expressed, that there is no prospect of passing a bill through both Houses of Congress for the establishment of territorial governments, without any restriction in regard to slavery. I will not positively predict future results; but I will venture to declare that, from the best information which I have been able to

Mr. BUTLER. My friend from Mississippi (Mr. FOOTE) has understood me as having endorsed the course that he says has been taken by my colleague. Now, sir, as to the course which my colleague may think proper to take, it is upon his own responsibility, and his speech has been deliberately prepared, and is fairly the subject of parliamentary criticism. I do not object to the remarks made upon it by the honorable Senator from Michigan; for the speech has been given to the public, with a claim to public attention, and it cannot lose any thing by public discussion; and, of course, public men have a right to comment freely on it. I am sorry my colleague is not here, to make such a reply as the assaults upon it would have demanded. He is not quite so well to-day as he was yesterday; but, absent or present, he must share the fate of all public men who have a historical reputation. The authority of his name is derived from his services to the Union for an eventful lifetime; and that authority is not to be destroyed by the ephemeral criticism of the moment, or the evanescent censure dictated under the influence of a confident majority. The