Brown, Butler, Cass, Clay, Cooper, Dawson, Dodge, of Iowa, Evans, Fitzpatrick, Geyer, Gwin, Johnson, Jones, of Iowa, Jones, of Tennessee, Mallory, Mason, Morton, Norris, Pearce, Pettit, Pratt, Rusk, Sebastian, Slidell, Stuart, Thompson, of Kentucky, Thomson, of New Jersey, Toombs, Toucey and Weller - 35.

NAYS

Messrs. Chase, Fessenden, Fish, Foot, Gillette, Rockwell, Seward, Sumner, Wade and Walker-10.

So the appeal was ordered to lie on the table. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question now is on granting leave to introduce the Bill.

Mr. SUMNER.

and nays.

On that question I ask for the yeas

Mr. STUART. I rise to a question of order; and I think if the Chair will consider it for the moment, he will, or, at least, I hope he will, agree with me. The parliamentary law is the law under which the Senate act. Whenever there is a motion made to lay on the table a subject connected with the main subject, and it prevails, it carries the whole question with it. It is different entirely from the rule in the House of Representatives. The rules in the House vary the parliamentary law, and you may there move to lay a matter on the table, because that is the final vote, and is equivalent to rejecting it, and a motion to take it up from the table is not in order.

But now the Presiding course be pursued, the

Officer will see that if this Senate may grant leave to introduce this Bill, they may go on and pass it, and yet next week it will be in order for the Senator from Massachusetts to move to take up the appeal which the Senate has just laid on the table; whereas the whole subject on which his appeal rested might have been passed and sent to the other House. That surely cannot be so. The ruling of the Chair in this respect, therefore, I suggest is

wrong, and the motion to lay on the table carries the whole subject with it. It is important to have the matter settled for the future practice of the Senate.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. At the first mooting of the proposition, the Chair was of that opinion; but he is perfectly satisfied now that it did not carry the whole question with it. The question was on the motion to lay the appeal on the table, and that motion was exhausted when it did lay the appeal on the table. It did not reach back to affect the question of granting leave. That is now the question before the Senate. On that the yeas and nays have been asked for by the Senator from Massachusetts.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

Mr. STUART. I will not take an appeal from the decision of the Chair, but I only wish to say that as I am satisfied I am right, I do not wish, by acquiescing in the decision of the Chair, to embarrass us when such occasions may arise again.

The question being taken by yeas and nays upon granting leave to introduce the Bill, resulted yeas 10, nays 35; as follows:

YEAS Messrs. Chase, Dodge, of Wisconsin, Fessenden, Foot, Gillette, Rockwell, Seward, Sumner, Wade and Walker-10.

NAYS Messrs. Adams, Atchison, Bell, Benjamin, Bright, Brodhead, Brown, Butler, Cass, Clay, Cooper, Dawson, Evans, Fitzpatrick, Geyer, Gwin, Johnson, Jones, of Iowa, Jones, of Tennessee, Mallory, Mason, Morton, Norris, Pearce, Pettit, Pratt, Rusk, Sebastian, Slidell, Stuart, Thompson, of Kentucky, Thomson, of New Jersey, Toombs, Toucey and Weller - 35.

So the Senate refused to grant leave to introduce the Bill.

THE DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS AT THE

PRESENT CRISIS.

SPEECH BEFORE THE REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION AT WOR

CESTER, 7TH SEPTEMBER, 1854.*

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS OF MASSACHUSETTS: After months of anxious, constant service in another place, away from Massachusetts, I am permitted again to stand among you, my fellow-citizens, and to draw satisfaction and strength from your generous presence. (Applause.) Life is full of changes and contrasts. From slave soil I have come to free soil. (Applause.) From the tainted breath of Slavery I have passed to this bracing air of Freedom. (Applause.) And the heated antagonism of debate, shooting forth its fiery cinders, is changed into this brimming, overflowing welcome, where I seem to lean on the great heart of our beloved Commonwealth, as it palpitates audibly in this crowded assembly. (Loud and long applause.)

Let me say at once, frankly and sincerely, that I have not come here to receive applause or to give occasion for any tokens of public regard; but simply

*This speech is copied from the newspapers of the day.

to unite with my fellow-citizens in new vows of duty. (Applause.) And yet I would not be thought insensible to the good will now swelling from so many honest bosoms. It touches me more than I can tell.

During the late session of Congress, an eminent supporter of the Nebraska Bill said to me, with great animation, in language which I give with some precision, that you may appreciate the style as well as the sentiment: "I would not go through all that you do on this nigger question, for all the offices and honors of the country." To which I naturally and promptly replied: "Nor would I for all the offices and honors of the country." (Laughter and long applause.) Not in such things can be found the true inducements to this warfare. For myself, if I have been able to do anything in any respect not unworthy of you, it is because I thought rather of those commanding duties which are above office and honor. (Cries of good, good, and loud applause.)

And now, on the eve of an important election in this State, we have assembled to take counsel together, in order to determine how best to perform those duties which we owe to our common country. We are to choose eleven Representatives in Congress; also, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and members of the Legislature, which last will choose a Senator of the United States, to uphold, for five years ensuing, the principles and honor of Massachusetts. If in these elections you were to be governed merely by partialities or prejudices, whether personal or political, or merely by the exactions of party, I should have nothing to say now, except to dismiss you to your

ignoble work. (That is it, good, good.) But I assume that you are ready to renounce these influences and press forward with a single regard to those duties which are now incumbent upon us in National affairs, and also in State affairs.

And here two questions occur which absorb all others. First, what are our political duties here in Massachusetts at the present time? and secondly, how, and by what agency shall they be performed? What, and how? These are the two questions of which I shall briefly speak, in their order, attempting no elaborate discussion, but simply aiming to state the case so that it may be intelligible to all who hear

me.

And first, what are our duties here in Massachusetts, at the present time? In unfolding these, I need not dwell on the wrong and shame of Slavery, or on the character of the Slave Power that Oligarchy of slaveholders which now rules the Republic. These you understand. And yet there are two outrages fresh in your recollection, which I must not fail to expose, as natural manifestations of Slavery and the Slave Power. One is the repeal of the Prohibition of Slavery in the vast Missouri Territory, now known as Kansas and Nebraska, contrary to time-honored compact and plighted faith. The other is the seizure of Anthony Burns, on the free soil of Massachusetts, and his surrender, without judge or jury, to a Slavehunter from Virginia, to be thrust back into perpetual bondage. (Shame! shame!) These outrages cry aloud to Heaven, and to the people of Massachusetts. (Sen