The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-07-18
ll6
[ooNrrNUED FROM FIRST PAeEl

You may STAY the Wilmot Proviso in the Senate
chamber, and bury it beneath the Capitol to-day,
the dead corse In complete steel, will haunt your
legislative halls tomorrow.
When the strife is ended in the Territories you
now possess it will be renewed on new fields,
North as we'll as South, to fortify advantages
gained or to retrieve losses incurred for both Of
the parties well know that there is Yet in that
word Hereafter
Senators have referred us to the promise of
peace which heralded in the Missouri Compro-
mise. Sir, that prophecy is but half its journey
yet. The annexation Of Texas, the invasion Of
Mexico, this prolonged struggle over California,
this desperate contest for the SHOWS and sands of
New Mexico and Deseret, are all within the
scope and limits Of the prediction; and 80 are the
strifes yet TO come over ice bound regions be-
yond the st. Lawrence and sun-burnt plains be-
meath the tropics
But while this Compromise will fail Of all its
purposes, it will work out serious aud lasting
evils. All such compromises are changes of the
Constitution, made in derogstion of the Constitu-
ton. They render it uncertain in its meaning
and impair its vigor, well as its sanctions This
Compromise finds the Senate in wide divergence
from the House of Representatives, by reason OF
the undue multiplication of feeble, consumptivC
States, effected by former compromises Of the
same sort You will increase that evil until tbs
conduct the business Of the country, by reason Of
chronic disagreement between this and the uouu
- ~s'-~s-S-, 49, aOuptsou
Of one branch or Of the other; the abolition Of
either would YsSb&Siy be fatal TO liberty
This compromise is rendered doubly dangerou;
by the circumstance that it is concession to alarm
Of dsorganization and faction. Such concessions
once begun, follow each other with fearful rapid
ty, and always increasing magnitude. IL is time
high time, that panics about the UuOn should
cease; that it should be known and felt that TIL
Constitution and the Union, within the limits o
human security, are safe, firm, and perpetual
Settle what you can settle; confde in that old ar
bitter, Time, for his favoring aid in settling To-
the future what belongs to the future and 20,
viii hereafter be relieved of two classes of patriot
whose labors can well be spared-those who clam
or for disunion either to abolish slavery or to pre-
vent emancipation, and those who surrender prin
ciples or sound policy to clamors so idle.
Sir, the agitations which alarm US are not sign
Of evils to come, but mild efforts of the Common
wealth for relief from mschiefs past.
There is way, and one way only, to put then
at rest Let us 60 back to the ground where oul
forefathers stood While we leave slavery TO thu
care OF the States where it exists let infexibly
direct the policy of the Federal Government &c
circumscribe its limits, and favor its ultimate ex
eiN0"'~l-ent Let those who have this misfortune
maintain an equilibrium that never had existence
consider carG6p)lE hoy % soDs tiR9s--it may bt
ten or twenty, or even fifty ,rs hence-by som,
means, by all means Of their own, and without oul
aid, without sudden change violent action, they
may bring about the emancipation of labor, and il
restoration to its just dignity and power in tn
State Let them take hope to themselves, Civ
hope to the free States, awaken hope throughou
the world. They will thus anticipate only wha
must happen at some time, and what they them
selves must desire, if it can come safely, and a
soon as it can come without danger. Let them
only this, and every cause of disagreement will
cease Immediately and forever. We shall thel
not merely endure each other, but we shall b
reeonciled together, and shall realize once NOR
the concord which results from mutual league
united councils, and equal hopes and hazards, il
the most sublime and benefcent enterprise tn,
earth has witnessed. The fingers of the Power
above would tune the harmony of such peace.