The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-08-14
CoNGREs SIGNAL.
SPEECH OF MR.. ALLEN,
OF OHIO.

Nn
relations with England-being the opening speech
pending the Oregon notice. ...
The Joint resolution for giving the notice to ter
inmate the cow ention between the United States
and Great Britain, relative TO the Oregon terrific
w. being under consideration
Mr.. ALLEN said;
Mr.. PsEsIpEar. Ii is now sxty-nine years since
these States declared themselves to be ''absoyed
from all allegiance to the British crown" and TO be
"free and independent States.n 1t is now sixty
three wears since Great Britain, by solemn treaty,
acknow lodged these States ''to be free, sovereign
and independent States" And yet, sir, at this very
hour over a square of eight hundred miles OF our
soil British law still preyaIls-Bniish tribunals are
10 session. British Judgments are rendered-Brit-
ish executions are eHforced-British penalties are in
Acted. Throughout the last twenty-elght years
our government has sought, by unlntermlttsd efforts
Of argument and negotiation by almost hunilllating
concessions, to induce Great Britain peaceably
TO withdraw her law from our soil-to withdraw
her baseess pretensons 10 territory and thus TO
remove this great cause OF impending difficulties
These efforts have all ended Ia the communication
of the fact, by the President TO Congress, at the
opening Of our session, that "all attempts at com
promise having failed, Il becomes the duty or Con-
gress to consider what measures may be proper to
adopt for the security and protection OF our cit-
zsns, now inhabiung, or who may hereafter nhabit
Oregon, and for the maintenance OF our just title to
that territory"
Thus is this matter turned over by the Execu-
tive to Congress. IL is now here-t is IN our
hands. We cannot, therefore, If we would, evade
the responsibility Of action. Ii we adopt the meas
ures recommended by the President, we shall secure
the territory, and may hold forth to the world an
indisputable title in vndicaton Of acts IL
we refuse to adopt them, we shall have deeply per-
lied rights, and incurred the worlds suspicion
of having refused TO act, because we dared not.
For, sir, when all the arguments urged for delay
H,,l, ha II va
themselves into the single question, Whether
this government has the nerve, the energy
Of purpose, to enforce its rights against Great Brit
aim As TO the fact of title, II is now too late to
treat that as an open question. The business be-
fore is the business Of action. The time for the
discussion Of the title is past when we have begun
TO advance towards the possession of the object
Upon the question of title, as government, and as
a nation, we stand committed before the world.
We have, to all mankind, proclaimed our title
To this position, We stand committed, by a series
Of State papers, stretching through the fourth OF
century We stand committed, by a solemn treaty
with Russn, Of the seventeenth Of April, eighteen
hundred and twenty.four by, which we assumed
exclusive ownership over the whole territory IN
question. We stand committed, by a vote OF this
body, at former session, upon the passage OF o
bill which carried our title up TO $40 40. We stand
committed, by the vote of the House of Representa-
uyes at the very last session, upon the passage OF
a bill asserting our tide>up to the same point We
stand committed by the voice of the nation, ex-
pressed in the election of the present Chief Magis-
trate, upon the issue made and proclaimed by the
Baltimore convention. We stand committed by
the declaration of the President, made from the
eastern portco of the Capitol with the oath Of Of
fee fresh upon his lips. We stand committed by
his annual message at the opening of our present
session. We stand committed by vote OF three To
one and one over in the House Of Representatives
within the last twenty-four hours. BY all these
acts, in all these FORMS have we proclaimed the
deep-seated conviction Of every American mind as
to the strict justice of claim, and the absolute
frivoity Of the pretensons of England Thus d"
we sland in the presence Of all nations, asserting an
indisputable right to contiguous territory. And
now, sir, it remains to be whether this govern
ment possesses the force Of will-the 6rmness o.
resoluuon--to maintain that claim This is really
the great the only question before u.s. II is the en-
ergy Of our instltutIonsti is their inherent power
OF rising up to great emergency, that we are about
to put the test Should our counses be found too
timd our system 10 languid to offer efficient resist
ance 10 foreign aggression, to what danger may not
this fatal secret expose us' Ii is in this view that
our controversy with England becomes so vitality
important. It's in this view, therefore, that shall
proceed to consider it, in connexlon with the re-
lations which the two political systems of Europe
and America bear to each other
Sir the great fact which gives character to
the politics Of this age, the conspiracy of FIVE
/,
have concentrated in their hands Alone, the power
of giving law to the whole Of Europe; whilst,
by their arms and inrigues, they are now exert
ing an influence over the rest Of the world, which
threatens bring all its parts in subsection to them.
Politically, and independent sovereignties, all the
ancient subdivisions Of Eurnpe--a the secondary
States which formerly balanced each other, and by
their union, checked the ambition of the greater
powers-have erased TO exist. From the confedera-
ted thrones Of England, France, Austria, Russia
and Prussia the mandate now goes forth which reg
ulates the whole European system.
This, sir, is new thing in the world. The pres
ent century has brought it about. The attempt,
and the failure, of single monarch to establish
universal dominion, is a spectacle often Witnessed
before. But the coalition of five thrones to effect
that otject-the conspiracy of FIVE powerful mon
archs, to enforce by their united arms, not only des
age upon the rest Of mankind, is IN experiment
hitherto untried 1t is an experiment, however,
which recent and current show to be, not less
formidable than new to the world So far as Eu-
rope is concerned, the experiment is already
full. The dominion Of the five ter-monarchs is
there undsturbed either by vassal princes or suf
fering subjects. Two millions of bayoncts enforce
passive obedience to their will over the whole oil
that continent, whilst another million is extending
their sway over the other quarters Of the globe
1t was the French revolution, the offspring of oul
own, that first aroused the European masses from
tne slient tOrpOT OF Centurles' IL WIS III FRANCE
that the human mind first began to realize its owr
debasement, under a social organization which had
80 long treated nations as the mere property o.
kings. That powerful agent, called public opinion
began there to embody itself, and to apply its nigh
ty energies to the work Of political reform. Mon
archs and princes throughout the continent, taking
the alarm, conspired together, and Immediately arm
ed, to crush in It's beginning this newborn power
which seemed likely to become the master element
In new organization.
There and then il was that the strife began be-
tween liberty and privege-between the people and
the kings; and the French nation, as being the first
in Europe to speak aloud in behalf Of freedom was
therefore, the first assailed by the confederaed min.
listers of desposm. In justification of their efforts
TO place, by force, king over France against the
will Of the nation, the allied monarchs openly pro
claimed the principle, that no people whatever had
the right even to impose restraints upon their sove
reign, much less to displace him, however essentla
To the public happiness such restraints might be
This terrible dogma--the basis Of that system which
has now given TO the five soveregns Of England
France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia the dictator.
ship Of Europe--was first announced by the Their
Emperor of Germany and the King Of Prussia, in