The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-06-09

trary--that Mr.. Calhoun lived with his iam-
lily at that time, session OF '20-'2l in ID
street, and Mr.. Lowndes in a boarding
house. II is also questionable whether Mr.,
Lowndes did much toward passing the joint
resolution under which the State was admit
ted He was in declining health at that time;
and although he spoke once, in favor Of the
admission after the constitution was Re-
scented, and spoke with the manly sense and
patriotic feeling which belonged to him, yet
he soon ceased to attend, and went abroad
for his health, and died II was Mr.. Clay
who consulted me about the joint resolution,
and with whom agreed that il would an
swer the purpose, and gave my opinion that
the State would agree to it Immediately,
which she did. By that joint resolution the
question Of admission was not to come before
Congress again, and did not, and was pur-
posely framed to avoid second appearance
Of the state at the bar of Congress so that
all this story Of Mr.. Caboun's about the
manner in which the compromise was seized,
to avoid disgrace, after the rejection Of the
constitution, is mere fgment Of the BRAN,
coined for the purpose Of getting out oil the
cabinet council of March 9th, 1920. t'al
better to have confessed what was proper
to have admitted the truth of Mr.. Monroe
and Mr.. Adams's disinterested testimony
and to have taken the ground Of a change Of
opinion since that time. That would have
been the discreetest course. But, oh, the
disease Of consistency! that malady of his
mind and the hard fate Of leader, almost
affecting the prophet, and bound under al
circumstances, to maintain his availability
in the eyes Of his followers, under the awful
penalty Of losing dominion over them
Some search has been made in the De-
partment of State for the written opinions Of
the cabinet, without finding them: but thai
weighs nothing against the positive testimo,
ny that they were put there, The wonder
would be to find them after q years, and sc
many changes Of clerks and it is to be re-
membered that no one of Mr.. Monroe's
cabinet has been Secretary Of State since
that time but Mr.. Calhoun.
The fact is established established by
the rules Of evidence which convince the
human mind, even the most unwilling that
Mr.. Calhoun, as cabinet minister under
Mr., Monroe, supported the constitutionality
Of the Missouri compromise act. This fact
being established, let US see what that act
was; and that will be shown by the title to
the act-by the act itseli-a by the ach-
al condition of the territory in which il was
to operate. This is the title:
"An act to authorize the people of the
Missouri territory to form constitution and
State government, and for the admission Of
such State into the Union on an equal foot
ing with the original States, and to prohibit
slavery in certain territories. "
A very Ineligible title this, especially in
the concluding clause, and enoug Oh to have
startled Mr.. Calhoun, if he had held the
same doctrines on the powers Of Congress
then which he processes now The act it
self was in these words:
"SEc. 8. That in all that territory ceded
by France TO the United States, under the
name Of Louisiana, which lies north of sc
degrees 80 minutes north latitude, not in
cuded within the limits OF the State con-
templated by this act, slavery and involun-
tary servitude, otherwise than in the punish
ment Of the crimes whereof the parties shall
have been convicted, shall be, and hereby
is, forever prohibited
Such are the words Of the act---the very
words Of the Wilmot Proviso, and il any
modern copyist is to supersede Mr.. Jefferson
in the paternity of that provlso it should be
John G. Calhoun, and not Davy Wilmot !
1t should be called the Calhoun Proviso
and that for many and cogent reasons. In
the first place, he was nearly thirty years
ahead Of Davy in the support OF this pro-
viso. In the second place, his position was
higher, being Cabinet Minister, and his
voice more potential, being Southern man.
In the third place, he was part Of the re,o
power where three voices were majority
Davy only a member of the legislative
power, where it requires majority of both
houses to do anything. In the fourth place,
Calhoun was successful, Davy is not FL
nally, Davy's proviso is a weak contriyance
to prevent slavery from being where it is
not, and where il never will be- Calhoun's
proviso was a manly blow to kill slavery,
where it then existed, by law, and where it
would now exist in point Of fact, il that blow
had not been struck The proviso Of Mr..
Calhoun actually abolished slavery where it
existed by lawn all the upper half Of
Louisiana--lrom 800 to 40, and from
the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains--,
over a territory nearly a thousand miles
square--nearly million square miles
enough to make twenty States of 700
square miles cach--more in fact than all
California, New Mexico and Oregon put
together. Over all this vast territory the
proviso, supported by Calhoun, abolished
slavery--abolished then existing by law
and shut it up from the slave emigration Of
the South And now what becomes Of the
dogma, in his mouth, and that Of his follow
ers, 50 recently invented, Of no power in
Congress to legislate upon the subject of
slavery in territories What becomes, in
their mouths, Of the new-langled point of
honor, Just felt for the first time in thirty
years, of insult to slave States in their ex-