The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-08-14
The Compromise Defeated.

The Compromise Defeated.
This we'll -matured, and almost universally ap-
proved measure of Cancellation and adjustment,
has been shattered and defeated in the Senate of
the United States.
1t is useless now to speculate on the causes
which led to and produced result SO different
from what the will of the people desired, and the
wants of the Union demanded; but Legislative
acts, SO antagonstic to the welfare of the State,
and the happiness of the people, should not be
allowed to transpire and infuse their deleterious
effects into the body polite, without comment
and reprobation. 49,.
The compromise bill was nothing more MOI
less than settlement of complicated and inter
woven difficulties, which could not, and cannot
be acted upon separately, on account of the con.
1icting interests which each separate measure
brings for or against some other measure in the
series.
The bill was, in it's character, very much ana
lagous to treaty of peace and friendship about
to be concluded by several nations, who, having
separate and independent interests to be secured
required them all to be embraced in one treaty
so as to secure their adjustment the more effect.
ually by allowing to each, all that it could
without infringing the rights Of others) con.
sistently demand
1t was analogous to such treaty in another re.
spect, viz 1t could not be entered into or com.
10 4
parties.
Those who opposed it most strenuously and
efectually, had no stronger objection to urge a.
gainst its passage, than the incongruity of the
measures embraced in it's provisions. They
professed to be not only friendly to the enact
ment of each of its measures separately, but they
proclaimed that it was the solemn duty of Con
gress to give peace, security and happiness &c
the distant Territories, by putting those meas
ures into the binding force of law.
What sophistry for such statesmen as Ben.
ton and his coadutors.
The measures embraced by the Compromise
bill were all and each we'll enough in them
selves, and should all be passed-but bundled
together-passed together,-no cpithets seemed
comprehensive enough to characterize their de.
formity.
Many have been carried away by this shallow
reasoning, and have imagined that some mystic
rious and unperccived effect would result from
the passage of the compromise bill as a whole
bat taken apart and acted upon separately, and
passed, even in the same form which it assum-
ed when combined-the mystery is unravelled-
the obscurity is dispelled--and 10 the same eff
feet identically is produced.
But can it be, that, torn assunder as it is, and
deprived of that unity which rallied around it
the support of conflicting interests that either of
its provisions taken singly will pass into law,
without some security that the interests embra-
ced by the whole united, will receive the same
sanction as the first one proposed to be adopt
ed? We cannot believe that any result of this
character can be attained without compromise
of principle and an inconsistency of action un-
precedented in the annals of our legislation
The very incongruity of this bill was its grea-
test strength, as each separate interest was car
ed for, and should have ensured for it the sup
port of all interested parties.
But the bill is lost, lost too, by the votes OF
those who should have been the most Jealous in
its advocacy, as they were certainly most inter-
ested in its effects upon their future welfare
the bill is lost, and with it's defeat, the last ray
of glimmering hope on the horison Of concilia-
ton has been obscured mayhap never to shine
again.
Without this genial ray to inspire the future
efforts of those who may feel themselves ag-
grieved by the loss of this adjustment compro-
mise, they may seek another light to guide their
footsteps in that way which security for their
rights and interests, will make it an imperative
duty for them to follow.
For that light, they will not look beyond them
selves, it burns within each ones own breast,
md while it lights up the path Of duty, it impels
ZACH one forward to occupy that position in
which his services to his country and his breth-
en- will be of the most effect in the accomplish
nent of the great object which circumstances
lave made it necessary to attain.
That such will be the effect of the loss of the
Compromise Bill, unless adopted in parts so as
o have the same effect as if adopted as whole,
We cannot for a moment doubt.
The ri ghts of millions of freemen cannot be
egislated away with impunity, nor will neg
ect to legslate for the protection of ackowledg-
I'd rights be regarded with more favor than a
positive enactment conflicting with the compro-
misses and pledges of the constitution and inter-
national treaties.
We had hoped for better things even from the
present Congress, which we regard with no feel
ngs of complacency. Many of its members
seem to have forgotten that they had duties to
perform, rights to protect or constituencies to
represent.
Their votes and speeches have been actuated
by some extraneous motives apart from the in
terests of their constituents and the welfare of
the Union, and the result has been the loss of
the only measure of Dub1ic utiity acted ,,nor -,