I

thus to a dishonorable termination of the war. think no dispassionate observer at the seat of Government can doubt this result.

4. If, however, in this I am under a misapprehension, I am under none in the practical operation of this restriction, if adopted by Congress, upon a treaty of peace, making any acquisition of Mexican territory. Such a treaty would be rejected as certainly as presented to the Senate. More than one-third of that body would vote against it, viewing such a principle as an exclusion of the citizens of the slaveholding States from a participation in the benefits acquired by the treasure and exertions of all, and which | should be common to all. I am repeatingneither advancing nor defending these views, That branch of the subject does not lie in my way, and I shall not turn aside to seek it.

In this aspect of the matter, the people of the United States must choose between this restriction and the extension of their territorial limits. They cannot have both; and which they will surrender must depend upon their representatives first, and then, if these fail them, upon themselves.

our efforts seem at present directed, unite in representing those countries as agricultural regions, similar in their products to our Middle States, and generally unfit for the production of the great staples which can alone render Slave labor valuable. If we are not grossly deceived-and it is difficult to conceive how we can be the inhabitants of those regions, whether they depend upon their plows or their herds, cannot be slaveholders. Involuntary labor, requiring the investment of large capital, can only be profitable when employed in the production of a few favored articles confined by nature to special districts, and paying larger returns than the usual agricultural products spread over more considerable portions of the earth.

In the able letter of Mr. Buchanan upon this subject, not long since given to the public, he presents similar considerations with great force.

Neither," says the distinguished writer, "the soil, the climate, nor the productions of California south of 36° 30, nor indeed of any portion of it, North or South, is adapted to Slave labor; and beside every facility would be there afforded for the slave to escape from his master. Such property would be entirely insecure in any part of California. It is morally impossible, therefore, that a majority of the emigrants to that portion of the territory south of 36° 304, which will be chiefly composed of our citizens, will ever reestablish Slavery within its limits.

"In regard to New-Mexico, east of the Rio Grande, the question has already been settled by the admission of Texas into the Union.

"Should we acquire territory beyond the Rio Grande and east of the Rocky Mountains, it is still more impossible that a majority of the people would consent to re-establish Slavery. They are themselves a colored population, and among them the negro does not belong socially to a degraded race."

5. But after all, it seems to be generally conceded that this restriction, if carried into effect, could not operate upon any State to be formed from newly-acquired territory. The well-known attributes of sovereignty, recognized by us as belonging to the State Governments, would sweep before them any such barrier, and would leave the people to express and exert their will at pleasure. Is the object, then, of temporary exclusion for so short a period as the duration of the Territorial Governments, worth the price at which it it would be purchased?--worth the discord it would engender, the trial to which it would expose our Union, and the evils that would be the certain consequence, let the trial result as it might? As to the course, which has been intimated, rather than proposed, of engrafting such a restriction With this last remark, Mr. Walker fully coinupon any treaty of acquisition, I persuade myself cides in his letter written in 1844, upon the annexit would find but little favor in any portion of this ation of Texas, and which everywhere produced country. Such an arrangement would render so favorable an impression upon the public mind, Mexico a party, having a right to interfere in our as to have conduced very materially to the acinternal institutions in questions left by the Con-complishment of that great measure. "Beyond stitution to the State Governments, and would inflict a serious blow upon our fundamental principles. Few, indeed, I trust, there are among us who would thus grant to a foreign power the right to inquire into the constitution and conduct of the sovereign States of this Union; and if there are any, I am not among them, nor never shall be. To the people of this country, under God, now and hereafter, are its destinies committed; and we want no foreign power to interrogate us, treaty in hand, and to say, Why have you done this, or why have you left that undone? Our own dignity and the principles of national independence unite to repel such a proposition.

the Del Norte," says Mr. Walker, "Slavery will not pass; not only because it is forbidden by law, but because the colored race there preponderates in the ratio of ten to one over the whites; and holding, as they do, the government and most of the offices in their possession, they will not permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which makes and executes the laws of the country."

The question, it will be therefore seen on examination, does not regard the exclusion of Slavery from a region where it now exists, but a prohibition against its introduction where it does not exist, and where, from the feelings of the inhabitants and the laws of nature, "it is morally impossible," as Mr. Buchanan says, that it can ever re-establish itself.

But there is another important consideration, which ought not to be lost sight of, in the investigation of this subject. The question that presents itself is not a question of the increase, It augurs well for the permanence of our conbut of the diffusion of Slavery. Whether its federation, that during more than half a century, 3phere be stationary or progressive, its amount which has elapsed since the establishment of this will be the same. The rejection of this restriction Government, many serious questions, and some will not add one to the class of servitude, nor will of the highest importance, have agitated the pubits adoption give freedom to a single being who lis mind, and more than once threatened the is now placed therein. The same numbers will be gravest consequences; but that they have all in spread over greater territory; and, so far as com- succession passed away, leaving our institutions pression, with less abundance of the necessaries unscathed, and our country advancing in num of life, is an evil, so far will that evil be mitigated bers, power, and wealth, and in all the other ele by transporting slaves to a new country, and giv-ments of national prosperity, with a rapidity uning them a larger space to occupy. known in ancient or in modern days. In times of political excitement, when difficult and delicate questions present themselves for solution, there is one ark of safety for us; and that is, an honest appeal to the fundamental principles of our Union, and a stern determination to abide their dictates

I say this in the event of the extension of Slavery over any new acquisition. But can it go there? This may well be doubted. All the descriptions which reach us of the condition of the Californias and of New-Mexico, to the acquisition of which

The Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation bill having passed the House in the usual form, came up to the Senate, where it was debated several days.

Feb. 21st.-Mr. Walker of Wise. moved an amendment, extending all the laws of the United States, so far as applicable, to the Territories acquired from Mexico.

Mr. Bell of Tenn. moved to add further

sections organizing the State of California, to be admitted into the Union on the 1st of October next. This was rejected: Yeas 4 (Bell, Dodge of Iowa, Douglas, Davis); Nays 39.

Feb. 26th.-Mr. Dayton of N. J. moved that the President be vested with power to provide a suitable temporary government for the Territories. Rejected; Yeas 8; Nays 47.

The question recurred on Mr. Walker's amendment, modified so as to read as follows:

J

The bill being returned to the House, thus amended, this amendment was (March 2d) down-Yeas 101; Nays 115-as fol

voted

lows:

Yeas, all the members from the Slave
States, with the following from the Free
States, viz.:

MAINE-Hezekiah Williams-1.
NEW YORK-Ausburn Birdsall-1.
PENNSYLVANIA-Samuel A. Bridges, Richard
Brodhead, Charles Brown, Charles J. Ingersoll,
Lewis C. Levin—5.

OHIO-William Kennon, jr., William Sawyer

-2.

ILLINOIS-Orlando B. Ficklin, John A. Mc-
Clernand, William A. Richardson-3.
Iowa Shepherd Leffler-1.

Total, thirteen from Free States; eightyeight from Slave States. (Only two from Slave States absent or silent.)

"Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the Constitution of the United States, in so far as the provisions of the same be applicable to the condition of a Territory of the United States, and all and singular the several acts of Congress respect ing the registering, recording, enrolling, or licensing ships, or vessels, and the entry and clearance thereof, and the foreign and coasting trade and fisheries, and all the acts respecting the imposing and collecting the duties on imports, and all the acts respecting trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and all the acts respecting the public lands, or the survey or sale thereof, and all and | singular the other acts of Congress of a public and general character, and the provisions whereof are suitable and proper to be applied to the territory West of the Rio del Norte, acquired from Mexico by the treaty of the second day of February, 1848, be, and the same are hereby, extended over, and given full force and efficiency in all said territory; and the President of the United States is hereby authorized to prescribe and establish all proper and needful rules and regulations (in conformity with the Constitution of the United States) for the enforcement of the provisions of the Constitution hereinbefore referred to, of said laws in said territory, and for the preservation of order and tranquillity, and the establishment of justice therein, and from time to time to modify or change the said rules and regulations in such manner as may seem to him The Senate resolved to insist on its discreet and proper; and to establish, temporarily, amendment, and ask a conference, which was such divisions, districts, ports, offices, and all ar rangements proper for the execution of said laws, granted, but resulted in nothing. Messrs. and appoint and commission such officers as may Atherton of N. H., Dickinson of N. Y., be necessary to administer such laws in said ter- and Berrien of Ga., were managers on the ritory, for such term or terms as he may prescribe, part of the Senate, and insisted on its whose authority shall continue' until otherwise provided by Congress; said officers to receive amendment, organizing the Territories withsuch compensation as the President may prescribe, out restriction as to Slavery. Messrs. Vinnot exceeding double the compensation heretofore ton of Ohio, Nicoll of N. Y., and Morehead paid to similar officers of the United States or its of Ky., were appointed on the part of the territories, for like services; and to enable the House. These, after a long sitting, reported their inability to agree, and were discharged.

same to be done, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars be appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.”

YEAS-For Mr. Walker's proposition : Messrs. Atchison, Houston,

Bell,

Hunter,
Jolinson of La
Johnson of Ga.
King,

Nays, all the Whigs from Free States, and all the Democrats from Free States, except those named above.

So the House refused to concur in this amendment, and the bill was returned to the Senate accordingly.

The bill being now returned to the House, Mr. McClernand of Ill. moved that the House do recede from its disagreement; Carried: Yeas 111; Nays 106.

Mr. Morehead of Ky. moved to amend so as to provide that nothing in this section

The question being reached on amending the Senate's proposition as proposed by Mr.north of thirty six degrees thirty minutes north "Inasmuch as the whole of said Territory lies Thompson, it was carried: Yeas 111; Nays latitude, known as the line of the Missouri Compromise."

The bill continued to be discussed, and finally (Aug. 1st) was got out of Committee; when Mr. C. B. Smith moved the Previous Question thereon, which was ordered.

August 2d.—The House came to a vote on an amendment made in Committee, whereby the following provision of the original bill was stricken out :

29th.-Said bill, on motion of Mr. Westcott, was recommitted to the Judiciary Com-northwest of the river Ohio, by the articles of

"That the inhabitants of said Territory shall be entitled to enjoy, all and singular, the rights, privileges, and advantages granted and secured to the people of the Territory of the United States compact contained in the ordinance for the gov ernment of said Territory, passed the 13th day of July, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven; and shall be subject to all the conditions, and restrictions, and prohibitions in said articles of compact imposed upon the people of said territory

Dec. 6th, 1847.—The XXXth Congress assembled; Robert C. Winthrop (Whig) of Aug. 3rd.-This bill reached the Senate, Mass. was chosen Speaker of the House. when Mr. Badger of N. C. moved its indePresident Polk, in his Annual Message, re-finite postponement: negatived, 47 to 1, gretted that Oregon had not already been organized, and urged the necessity of action (Yulee). It was then sent to the Committee on the subject.