Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

FEB. 26, 1836.]

Cumberland Road.

[SENATE.

stone was a serious matter.. He could not consent to true, as has been stated, that no bridge was built over vote for such large appropriations at once, as they could the Muskingum at Zanesville. Here the Government not be disbursed economically and advantageously. He found a bridge in the hands of a company. It was wished to know from the department the probable cost adopted for the road, and for aught he knew this might of the road. Gentlemen say they have practical engi- be the case elsewhere, though he recollected no other neers concerned. He was glad of it; and he would sug such case. At Indianapolis a bridge had been built over gest that the laborers should be proportioned to the offi- White river. This, although the engineer had, in the cers, and the officers to the laborers. If there was more location of the road, made estimates for, yet the departlabor employed than was necessary, he would lessen it, ment would not proceed in its construction without an and employ only a due proportion of officers. It was expression in the appropriation law respecting it, similar not necessary to keep extra labor employed. The ob- to that contained in this bill for the bridge over the ject of his motion was to restrain Indiana and Ohio with- Wabash. The law passed containing this direction, and in the limits of last year's expenditure, and to confine the bridge had been built. This proposition, said Mr. that in Illinois to graduation alone. The road in that || H., for a bridge across the Wabash, had been called a State was not yet located. There were the rival claims new proposition. But this was not the fact. It would of Alton and St. Louis to be settled before any location be recollected that, on a previous occasion, this same would be made. In consequence of the conformation of proposition had been inserted by the Committee on the country, there need not be any great expense in- Roads and Canals of the Senate, in a Cumberland road curred. It was an elongated plane from Columbus to appropriation bill. Objections were then made, elsethe Mississippi. The cost would not be in the gradua- where, not here, on the suggestion that this bridge tion of the road, but in the transportation of the stone would or might injure the navigation of the river. This for its construction, as it would have to be brought from fear prevailed, and the clause was stricken out of the a considerable distance. If gentlemen were not satisfied bill. Since then the Senate have directed, by resoluto have the same appropriation as last year, he hoped tion, that the United States engineer superintending the the bill would be laid on the table, until an estimate of road should examine and report on that subject; and the cost could be obtained. the report is, that a bridge, such as is recommended, will not in any degree injure the navigation. The fact of previous objections having existed to this bridge makes it the more necessary now that the bill should direct the

Mr. HENDRICKS remarked that it had so often been his duty, from the position he occupied in relation to the business of the Senate, to present the claims of this road, and the claims of the Northwestern States in connexion with it, that it had become irksome and unpleasant to him to make any further remarks on the subject; but that duty, as well as the expectations of the Senate, seemed to require him to make a statement on the present occasion, which should be as brief as possible. He would endeavor to answer some of the objections of the Senator from Kentucky; and, in the first place, that to the Wabash bridge, contemplated by the bill. The Senator from Kentucky supposes that it has never been the intention of the Government to construct bridges over rivers of this magnitude, and mentions the fact that the Monongahela river at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio river at Wheeling, had not been bridged, although the necessity for bridging these streams was much greater than that of bridging the Wabash. But a simple fact seemed to have escaped his recollection, which would no doubt explain to him the reason why those rivers, and especially the Monongahela, had not been bridged, and convince him of the fact that it had always been the intention of the Government to bridge all other streams between Cumberland and the Mississippi. The propriety of bridging the Ohio river at Wheeling has, on account of its navigation, always been questioned. In relation to the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, no law ever existed authorizing them to be bridged. In all other cases on the road, bridging has been authorized by law. He referred to the appropriation bills, which at one time directed the Cumberland road to be constructed to the Monongahela river, at Brownsville. The appropriation afterwards made for the road from that river to Wheeling directed the construction to commence on the western bank of the river; and its width, the bed of the river, was left unprovided for. So was it in Ohio. When Congress authorized the construction of the road westwardly of Wheeling, the law directed the work to commence on the western bank of the Ohio river, leaving out the width and bed of the river. For bridging these rivers there never was any provision made by law. No estimates of engineers. Further west this was not the case. For bridging all the streams between the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, on that road, there are estimates, and the streams are included in the measurement of distances. It is no doubt

construction.

He

Other objections have been made to this bill. It is said that, while large sums of money have for the last ten years been expended on this road through the Northwestern States, the other side of the river is left destitute. It is said that the southern side of the valley of the Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and other portions of the great Southwest, are, in point of commerce and importance, as ten to one in comparison with the States north of the Ohio river, and that no appropriations for a similar work can be obtained from the federal Government on the south side of that river. Mr. H. said that he was unable to perceive by what premises the conclusion of ten to one in favor of the south side of the river had been arrived at. He had arrived at a conclusion very different. He undertook to say that, from the eastern line of the State of Ohio to the Mississippi river, the States on the north side of the Ohio river would compare with the southern side of equal geographical extent, much more favorably than ten to one. believed that the population was, at the present moment, very nearly, if not quite, equal on the north side to that on the south; and it was hazarding little to say that, in a short time, it would be double. But is there, said Mr. H., no consideration on the north side inducing appropriations, which does not exist on the south? Is the six millions and a half of dollars, which, during the year 1835, has been paid into the treasury of the United States, through the medium of the land offices in the four Northwestern States, nothing? Is the consideration that not one dollar has been paid into the treasury by the southern section of the country referred to, nothing? The States south of the river, to the western boundary of Tennessee, own the lands within their limits. North of the river the whole of the public domain is owned by the United States, unshackled by taxation. Is this nothing? Is there not equitable obligation on the owners of the soil to aid in the construction of public roads in every country? And is there any other country in which this obligation is not enforced by law? None, said Mr. H., that I know of, or ever heard of. The lands of this Government in the hands of the new States are not taxed for roads or any other purpose; and while these States are expending millions in roads and canals, and increas

[blocks in formation]

The

ing the value of adjacent public lands as five to one, or ten to one, we, the representatives of those States, are continually hearing murmurs and regrets that the fostering hand of this Government is, in the dispensing of its favors, leading the new.States in the path of unparalleled prosperity; lavishing millions upon them, whilst many of the old States are wholly destitute of its benefits and favors. Is the prosperity of the new States so mysterious that it can be accounted for in no other way than in the gifts and grants and two per cents. of the federal Government? They are blind, or poorly informed, who cannot see other causes for the prosperity of the new States of the Northwest than the benefits derived from this Government. Sir, said Mr. H., the great prosperity of the Northwest may be traced to various causes. population that have emigrated to those States are the bone and sinew of the old States. They possess more energy, enterprise, and industry, than the men left behind them. They are generally men early in life, who go to the new States for the purpose of bettering their condition, and who, being well aware that, in entering upon an untried scene, great exertions will be necessary, are prepared to make these exertions. For the prosperity of the West we are also indebted to the great fertility of our soil; the navigation of our majestic rivers; the salubrity of our climate; the susceptibility of our country for works of internal improvement, as well as the enterprise of our people in making them; the pro ductiveness of the country in all the necessaries of life, being, perhaps, as fine a grain-growing country as is on the face of the globe. These, sir, are the causes of the great prosperity of our country. It is said that this Government has raised that country up! Rather might it be said that this Government could not have kept it down. It would have grown and prospered, to a much less extent, indeed, under the most grinding despotism that ever a people endured. Is it said that the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, repelled the savages and opened the country for settlement? This is true, in a certain degree, but it might, with almost equal certainty, be affirmed that the armies of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, had they been combined with the savages for that purpose, could not wholly have prevented the settlement of that country. Such a country on our borders could not have been withheld from such a people as that of the United States, inured to war as they were, and just having emerged from the conflicts of a glorious revolution.

The importance of this road, Mr. President, it seems to me, has been greatly undervalued. It is said not to be a commercial road, because it runs parallel with the river Ohio, which floats the whole commerce of the country. This not a commercial road! And what, Mr. President, is a commercial road? It is true that it is not a highway of foreign commerce; but, for all the purposes of domestic commerce, it is certainly more emphatically a commercial road than any other of like extent west of the mountains. It is the principal tho roughfare of emigration from the Eastern States to the central parts of the three Northwestern States. Formerly the Ohio river was almost the only line of approach for the stream of population continually pouring in upon that country from the Atlantic States. The country bordering on the Ohio river was in this way first brought into market, sold, and settled; but for the central region of those States, for a wide belt of country extending from the eastern boundary of the State of Ohio to the Mississippi river, it is almost exclusively the channel of emigration and of commerce. It is the great stem, as the Senator from South Carolina has denominated the Charleston and Cincinnati railroad, with which almost every important road of the Northwest is united. It has been the means of settling a country of greater extent

[FEB. 26, 1836.

and fertility than any other road of the United States. The emigration to the northern portion of those States has had facilities of water transportation as well as that to the southern portion of them; but this central and by far the most fertile region of these States has been chiefly indebted to this road for its first settlement, as well as for its subsequent prosperity and improvement. And, sir, if an account had been or could be opened between this road and the federal Government, giving it credit, as it is fairly entitled to, for a large share of the present prosperous condition of the country, as well as for the millions rolled into the treasury by it, how far on the back ground would be placed the small and inconsiderable sums which you have appropriated for its construction? But the sums which were at first injudiciously expended on this road upon the mountains and east of Wheeling, as well as the sums which have more recently been expended on the same eastern road for repairs, made necessary by your refusal to put tollgates upon it, or to transfer it to the States, have also been mentioned as fairly chargeable against the road, and the fund set apart for making it. Well, sir, take this all into the service against this road, and still the amount will be a pitiful sum, compared with its great advantages to the Northwestern States and to the treasury of the Union.!

But is it fair (said Mr. H.) to charge all the sums expended upon this road, east of the Ohio, against the fund, and against the States which ask that this road be made to the Mississippi? Surely not; for this road, east of Wheeling, has been more valuable to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Western Virginia, than it has been to the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; because more people have been profited by it from the south side of the Ohio river than from the north side of it. And it is hazarding very little to say that, but for the accommodation of Kentucky, which has used the road, agreeably to the language of the Senator from that State, as ten is to one in comparison of the people of the other side of the river, the road would not have been commenced or finished to Wheeling as soon as it was. Is it fair, then, to charge all this upon the two per cent. fund, undertaken as it was chiefly for the benefit of others, who have to this day enjoyed most of its benefits? By the compact, however, you were only authorized to expend the fund of Ohio east of the river; and if you expended more, you cannot fairly charge it upon the road funds of the States further west. You are bound, with the fund accruing from the land sales in Indiana, to make a road or roads to that State; and you are bound, in like manner, with the Illinois road fund, to make a road to that State. The Indiana fund is to be expended in Ohio, and the Illinois fund is to be expended in Indiana.

Frequently has it been remarked that the two per cent. fund is wholly exhausted. I admit, sir, (said Mr. H.,) that the fund accrued is more than exhausted; but the fund accruing is not. I have not entered into any minute calculation in this matter, but a paper has been put into my hand, based on a calculation of the whole two per cent. fund to arise from all the public lands in the parallel of latitude of this road, and including a territory west of the Missouri about as large as it is proposed to make the Territory of Wisconsin. The aggre gate is about seven millions and a half of dollars. This, it will be admitted, would go far towards making a good road to the base of the Rocky Mountains, should that ever be the pleasure of Congress.

The Senator from Kentucky (said Mr. H.) has complained of the largeness of the appropriation asked for by the bill, and has proposed its reduction to the sums appropriated last year. But he would mention a fact, that the amounts appropriated last year were added to large balances of appropriations for the previous year remain

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

ing unexpended. This state of things was occasioned by the late period of the session at which the appropriation of that year was made, and by the late commencement of the work in the summer of 1834. This unexpended balance in Indiana was upwards of eighty thousand dollars, which, with the one hundred thousand dollars granted last year, was expended before the working season had ended, and the stone which had been prepared for the bed of the road, and which would have preserved it from injury wherever applied, could not be spread over it for want of funds. Should the motion prevail, it will be ominous to the speedy completion of the road. The largeness of the appropriation.-Mr. | President, if the Senate will permit me, (said Mr. H.,)I | will turn to the appropriation of 1819 for this road east of Wheeling. Then, on a road of 130 miles in extent, and much of it finished, $535,000 was appropriated, at a time, too, when we had a war debt upon us of about one hundred and fifty millions, and a large sum of this bearing an interest of seven per cent. Now, the line of this road under actual construction exceeds 350 miles. We have a surplus of about thirty millions in the treas ury, and yet it is proposed to diminish the appropriation contained in this bill. He hoped it would not be done, and that the Senator from Kentucky would yet withdraw his opposition, and lend us, as heretofore, his efficient helping hand.

[SENATE.

Sir, (said Mr. H.,) this road is the favorite measure of the States northwest of the river Ohio. If no appropriations are to be made to this road, and no distribution of the surplus revenue among the States, the interests of these States in the present session will be small and trifling indeed. The beneficent hand of the federal Government will not there be felt. Yes, sir, the great West, the new States, that have borne the burden and heat of the day, that have paid you millions into the treasury-fourteen millions last year, and will probably pay twenty or thirty millions during the present year, from the public lands-will be entirely overlooked. make these statements (said Mr. H.) on good and sufficient data. The sales in Indiana during the month of January last amounted to $300,000, or thereabouts; and in the State of Indiana alone, it is a reasonable calculation that you will receive more than $3,000,000 the present year. And are all these millions to be withdrawn from the interior, and expended on the seaboard? I too am for the military and naval defences of the country, but I shall give no vote here that will lose sight of my own section of the Union.

I

This road, Mr. President, was intended, originally, to subserve the interests of the treasury of the United States, as well as those of the West. And has it disap pointed the expectations of its friends in either respect? Compare the amounts expended on it with the millions Mr. H. said that he placed this bill, distinctly and em- it has aided in bringing into the treasury, and it will be phatically, on the ground of solemn compact with the extremely difficult to strike the balance against the road. federal Government, and on the ground of the CumberIt would be wrong, Mr. President, to ascribe the pros land road having been recognised as a settled public perity of the Northwestern States to any single cause, work, begun and to be finished by this Government. but it would be equally erroneous to deny that this road He said that this road was based on compacts of the Govhad largely contributed to that prosperity. The truth ernment with all the new States northwest of the Ohio is, that every dollar heretofore appropriated to the imand west of the Mississippi rivers. These compacts had provement of the country northwest of the Ohio river has their origin in the policy of settling the Western coun- returned into your treasury amounts more than double. try, and of uniting that country in interest and affection The grant of land to the Wabash and Erie canal looks with the Eastern States. They were based on the con- large on paper, and so it is in reality; and often do we sideration that the new States with whom they were hear of it on this floor. In every proposition for grants made should for ever abandon their right of taxing in the to the new States, this road, and that grant, with the hands of purchasers the lands sold by Congress, for five grant to Illinois, and some others, are continually years next ensuing the date of sale; a right clear and brought in review before us. And has not the Wabash indisputable, and acknowledged by Congress, in asking and Erie canal grant been the means of selling millions for the compact by which it should be abandoned. of acres, which, but for that grant, would to this day These compacts set apart a portion of the moneys rehave remained unsold? And has it not sold lands in its ceived from the sales of the public lands, to be expend- vicinity for ten dollars an acre, which would otherwise ed, under the direction of Congress, in making roads have remained unsold to this day, or, if sold at all, would leading to the new States; and this road was commenced have sold at $1 25 per acre? Sir, (said Mr. H.,) I well in 1806, during the administration of Mr. Jefferson, in remember telling the Senate, when that proposition was fulfilment of the then existing compact with Ohio. Ap- before this body in 1827, that every acre granted to the propriations, from year to year, have been made to this State for the construction of the Wabash and Erie canal object ever since. They have been sanctioned by every would be an acre well sold, and would swell the amounts administration, and it has long been considered a settled thereafter received in the treasury. I was then thought work of the country, for which estimates are continually to be sanguine and visionary. The bill struggled along, made, as for other public works. The present bill is as this bill is now struggling along. It got through, as I based on one of these estimates, and he supposed that hope this bill will get through. My most sanguine exno member of the Senate, not even those whose constitu- pectations have been doubly realized, and I verily betional scruples prevented them from voting for it, wish-lieve that every acre contained in that grant has brought

ed the work now to be wholly abandoned."

The road has been finished (said Mr. H.) as far as Hebron, in the State of Ohio, and given up to the States through which it passes, for the purposes of preservation and repair, and much work is done on it beyond that point. It has been retarded in the western part of Ohio by continued efforts to change the route by Dayton, but the road is graded and bridged through the greater portion of Indiana, and is in a condition to be very much injured by neglect and delay in its completion. The continual and almost unparalleled travel on this graded road, subjects it to much injury, and makes continual repairs necessary. To some extent stone is prepared for covering the bed of the road, which, for want of funds, has not yet been put upon it.

into the treasury five times as much as it would otherwise have sold for. Without that grant the canal would have been ten or fifteen years later in being commenced and completed. The Upper Wabash lands would have sold at the minimum price, and millions of acres now in the hands of purchasers would still have belonged to the

Government.

A proposition is now before the Committee on Commerce to appropriate $25,000 for a harbor at Michigan City. You have about one hundred townships of new lands in that section of the State not yet brought into market. Now, it is a calculation perfectly safe, that the making of this appropriation of $25,000 for a harbor at Michigan City, the only place, as is believed, where a harbor can be made within the State of Indiana, will

SENATE.]

Resignation of Mr. Tyler-Slavery in the District of Columbia.

make a difference of $100,000 at the land sales in that vicinity within the present year.

The bill before the Senate is based on estimates of the department; and if it be intended to complete this road, as it no doubt will be completed, then it is unquestionably good economy to appropriate the largest sum; for all the contingencies of the disbursements will be the same for the lesser sum as for the larger sum, and the road, if rapidly completed, will cost much less in repairs. As soon as completed it will pass into the hands of the States, as other portions of it farther east have done, and it will be a most valuable public work, of lasting duration, without further expense to the Gov

ernment.

Mr. BUCHANAN said it had been his fate to travel on this same Cumberland road very often. He should be very glad to obtain the vote of the Senator from Kentucky, but he thought the chance of it somewhat slender. As to completing the work upon the idea or principle of a compact, that was perfectly illusory. The two per cent. fund was long ago exhausted, and the balance in favor of the Government was at least five millions. Why, then, (said Mr. B.,) do I vote for this appropriation? Simply because the policy of constructing this road was long since established. Government must, at any rate, be at the expense, and the only question to be considered was one of time. Let it be finished and done with; and leave it not to be said hereafter that the work cost more because of our delay. This is the reason which will govern my vote; as to any compact, bargain, or obligation, I assent to no such doctrine.

I voted originally for the Lexington and Maysville road. I afterwards, whatever I might have thought at the time, approved the consequences of the veto; because I believe, of all bodies, we are the most inefficient to undertake works of internal improvement. The result would be different, indeed, if the work were national; but there is very great difficulty in determining what is and what is not a national work. Congress should not undertake to distribute the public money; for, in so doing, they only squander it. As to Kentucky, if she has not participated in these public benefits, she is, at least, no worse off than Pennsylvania.

A great many years ago, sir, more than I mean to tell, I travelled in Kentucky, and I returned with a most vivid impression of the hospitable kindness of her people, and of the miserable situation of her roads. I wished then, sir, that she might have had the benefit of a set of excellent and able men, by whose labors Pennsylvania has profited so much; but who, I am sorry to add, have been all swept away by the besom of reform.

Mr. NILES said a few words in favor of the bill, which, from the position of the reporter, could not be distinctly heard.

Mr. BENTON demanded the yeas and nays in every stage of the question; and they were ordered.

Mr. CRITTENDEN said that, when he had the honor, sixteen or seventeen years ago, to hold a seat in this body, this three or two per cent. fund was thrown into the market. Gentlemen then said, give it to us now: it will prove a very prolific sum. My humble aid was given; and I now see it as prolific and teeming as ever, in the opinion of some of the honorable gentlemen. They are not satisfied, and they never will be: this very fund will be just as valid in their eyes when one hundred millions are expended as now. Gentlemen are utterly unjust in charging any breach of faith upon the Government. The very words of their bargain will show them to be so. I have observed, too, sir, that they avoid general principles, as grounds upon which they cannot proceed. One argument used by those in

[FEB. 29, 1836.

favor of this appropriation is, that you increase the value of the public lands: why, sir, the Senator from Indiana, when his State pride is roused, tells us that the population is dense along the road-the lands, therefore, are sold. Kentucky has never been endowed in this way by Government. She has not sprung up under its patronage; nor ought she to be called on to vote an appropriation in which she is not to participate. Gen. tlemen go too far when they ask us to do so. We cannot get a dollar for our own State, and yet we are continually solicited to do something for others. The idea of any compact is entirely futile. The grant of this fund was a gift of the Government-a mere bounty. If gentlemen would view it in this light, he would do much more for them than at present he was inclined to do.

Mr. DAVIS said that if the preposition to postpone were put, he should vote for it, not from any feeling of hostility to the bill, but because the chairman of the committee had not laid on the table the proper estimates. It had been said that this information was laid before the Senate last year. He was not in the Senate at that time, and he had not had an opportunity of seeing these estimates; and he thought it could not be viewed as an unreasonable request if he asked for some little time to examine them. A good deal had been said on the subject, which was an interesting one to all; but he certainly must desire a further opportunity of obtaining information on the subject, and for that reason he would now move an adjournment.

The motion was agreed to,
And the Senate adjourned to Monday.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29.

RESIGNATION OF MR. TYLER. The following letter was received, and laid before the Senate, by the Chair:

WASHINGTON, February 29, 1836.

SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the Senate that I have, on this day, resigned into the hands of the General Assembly of Virginia, for reasons fully made known to it, my seat in the Senate of the United States, as a Senator from that State. This annunciation is now made, so as to enable the Senate, at its earliest pleasure, to fill such vacancies in the several committees as may be created by my resignation.

In taking leave of the body over which you preside, I should be faithless to the feelings of my heart if I did not frankly confess that I do so with no ordinary emo. tions. I look to the body itself as the representative of those federative principles of our system, to preserve which unimpaired has been the unceasing object of my public life. I separate from many with whom I have been associated for years, and part with friends whose recollection I shall cherish to the close of my life. These are sacrifices which it gives me pain to make. Be pleased to assure the Senate that I carry with me, into retirement, sentiments of respect towards its members; and that, in bidding them adieu, I extend to eacli and all my best wishes for their health, happiness, and long life.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient ser. vant, JOHN TYLER. Hon. Mr. VAN BUREN.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. The Senate proceeded to consider the petition of the Friends assembled at Philadelphia, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

Mr. BLACK, who was entitled to the floor, being unprepared to speak on the subject to-day, it was sug

[blocks in formation]

gested by Mr. WEBSTER that the subject should lie over until to-morrow; but the sense of the Senate being in favor of proceeding with the discussion,

Mr. WALL rose and said: Mr. President, I had hoped that the community of object so strongly and decidedly professed by all who have mingled in this debate would have resulted in some measure acceptable to all, to disarm this question of its excitability, and to relieve the business of the public from its paralyzing ef fects. I had hoped that some measure, conceived in that noble and fearless spirit of patriotism which in another place, that I am not permitted to mention, has added new honors to a name so illustrious for all that can adorn the chivalry of the soldier and the patriotism of the citizen-a name connected with the most trying and the most glorious periods of our common history, and of the State which gave him birth-would have conducted the dangerous electricity, with which the dark and threatening cloud of abolition incendiarism is supposed to be charged, harmless to the earth.

I have been disappointed. The honorable Senator who made the motion to reject the petition presented by the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania has avowed that he feels it his duty not only to persist in that motion, but should feel it to be his high and imperious duty to demand the question of admission on the reception of every other petition of a similar character; and I feel that my duty will not permit me longer to remain silent. Sir, the question raised by that motion is a constitutional question of deep and abiding interest, which comes home to the sensibilities of the whole American people, and, like all constitutional questions, ought to be approached free from all adventitious excitement.

[SENATE.

Mr. President, these petitioners are not only attached to the Union, but to the principles of our constitution. And well they may be, for their own system of discipline, which dates back long anterior to that constitution, not only contains the same general principles of civil and religious liberty, but in the most remarkable degree shadows forth the same system of government, afterwards so admirably developed and expanded in the State and federal relations of that instrument.

And what is it that these petitioners have done, which should bring down upon them the fiery indignation of the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, and exclude them from the right of being heard in this hall? They have prayed Congress to exercise what they conceive to be their constitutional right over the territory of the District of Columbia, in respect to the abolition of slavery and the selling of slaves in that District. Admit that they are mistaken; admit that Congress have no constitutional right over slavery in this District, or the exercise of the right of slavery in this District; admit that they understand the constitution differently from the honorable Senator from South Carolina, or even from this Senate; yet I believe it is not a crime in any but one man to construe the constitution as he understands it. If they are mistaken in their views, it belongs to us to determine, and our rights and our duties begin where those of the petitioners ends. Speak to them in the language of courtesy and of reason, and they will submit, although they might think themselves bound in conscience to bear testimony against the evils of slavery, as they do against the evils of war, and many other things which the laws of society recognise. Speak to them as citizens of a common country; satisfy them that it is inexpedient to grant their petition; that it would endanger the integrity of the Union, the peace, the lives, and the liberties of our fellow-citizens; that it would scatter rapine, murder, and desolation, over the fairest portion of the Union, and they would forbear. They are for peace and happiness, not blood and rapine. They would leave it to the providence of God in his own good time to work out the remedy for evils which would be aggravated by the rash and inconsiderate and officious movements of human actions. Tell them, sir, that one of the pillars of the most glorious temple of liberty which human wisdom has ever erected is based upon slavery; that you cannot remove that foundation without destroyAlthough not my immediate constituents, I have the ing the whole edifice, and they will be satisfied. Their pleasure of knowing some of the very respectable citi-humanity is not of that reckless character that it will zens who compose that quarter; and I feel bound, from that knowledge, to say that they are neither fanatics in religion nor politics; and that they seek not to destroy the constitution, or endanger the peace and permanency of the Union. They are what they profess, members of the religious Society of Friends. A society adopting the pure and simple doctrines of the gospel proclaim. ed by the angel herald of the advent of our Saviour, "peace on earth and good will to man," have emphatically taken as their rule of conduct the doctrines which he taught—“Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," and "love your neighbor as yourself." These, as well as the other fundamental principles which characterize them, they maintain, not by contention or force, but by bearing what they call their testimony against such acts as they, in their conscience, believe subversive of their golden rules of action.

Let me premise, Mr. President, that the petition which you are now called upon to reject does not come from the great laboratory of abolition incendiarism. It does not spring from the heated atmosphere produced by the contention of men struggling for political power; nor does it come from men who, under pretence of conscience, cloak worldly, selfish, or unholy designs. But, sir, it comes from a source which, on this floor, and every where else where the doctrines of the civil and religious liberties of man are maintained, cherished, and supported, is entitled to be heard with respect. It comes from the Caln Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends.

Theirs is no pharisaical faith, which impiously invokes the judgment of Heaven upon the sins of others, while vaunting their own superior goodness and virtue. They address not the passions or the feelings of interest or avarice, but the common sense, the wisdom, and justice of man. Their only weapons are the calm, mild, and dispassionate voice of reason, and they conquer, if they conquer at all, by submission and endurance.

wade to its object through rivers of blood, and amid the fallen fragments of an empire.

Mr. President, I must be allowed to say that I was surprised when I heard the honorable Senator from South Carolina make his motion to reject this petition. I had heard this body called the last refuge of liberty-the defenders of the constitution--the champions of the liberties of the people against the attacks and assaults of power. Is it wise, then, if they are engaged in such a holy struggle against executive power, in defence of the constitution, to separate themselves from the sympathies of the people? Is the liberty for which we are contending the liberty of letting the people hear our voices?

Mr. President, there are other liberties belonging to the people, which they at least value as dearly as the liberty of hearing our voices. Among these, not the least is the liberty of making themselves heard within these walls--of making us hear their voices. There are but two modes of doing this: one is by petition, which comes to us in the mild and gentle voice of supplication; the other by instruction, which grates upon our ears in the harsh and imperative accents of command. Sir, whether obedience to the latter is to be expunged from the list of senatorial duties, may hereafter be determin

« AnteriorContinua »