The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1850-03-20
Speech of MIR. Webster.
OF NAssAcsusEITs,
On the Compromise Questions,

l. OA tkAl k-S~~<Se<@f
Delivered In the Senate Of The United States,
March z, 1850.
Mr.. WEBSTER. beg to express
my obligations to my friend from Wis
consin. (Mr. Walker.) as well as to my
friend from New York, (Mr. Seward, :
for their courtesy in allowing me to adj
dress the Senate this morning.
Mr.. President, 1 wish to speak to-
day, not as Massachusetts, man, nor
as northern man, but as an American,
and member of the Senate Of the
United States. Ii is fortunate that there :
is Senate of the United States-a
body not vet moved from its propriety
not lost to a Just sense Of its own dig
nifty, and its own high responsibilities,
and body to which the country looks
with confidence for wise, moderate,
patriotic, and healing doctrine. 1t is
not to be denied that we live in the
midst Of strong agitations, and in the
midst Of very considerable dangers TO
our Institutions of government. The
imprisoned are let loose. The East, the
West, the North and the stormy South,
! all combine TO throw the whole ocean
!, into commotion, and to toss its pillows
to the skies, and to disclose its pro-
foundest depths. do not expect. Mr..
: President, to hold, or to be fit to hold,
the helm in this combat Of the political
elements; but have a duty to per-
: form, and | mean to perform it with
; fidelity--not without a sense of the
e surrounding dangers, but not without
G hope. | have part to act, not for
n nv own security or safety, for I am
looking out for no fragment upon which
3 to float away from the wreck, ifwreck
there must be, but for the good of the
e whole, and the preservation of the
Is whole; and there is that which will keep
.. me to my duty during this struggle,
ID whether the sun and the stars shall
is appear or shall notappear formany days,
le speak to-day for the preservation Of
rs the Union. Here me for my cause"
u, / speak to-day, out of a solicitous and
Of anxious heart, for the restoration to the
III country of that quiet and that harmony
~ which makes the blessings of this Union
h. so rich and so dear to us all. These
&c are the topics that | propose to myselftc
OF discuss; these are the motives, and the
be sole motives, that influence me In the
n wish to communicate my opinions to the
IN Senate and the country; and if | can d,
e anything, however little, for the pro
IN motion Of these ends, l shall have ac.
n complished all that desire.
ol Mr.. President, il may no, be amiss Il
he recur very briefly TO the events which
:" equally sudden and extraordinary, hav,
%, brought the political condition Of ih,
r. country 10 what il now is. In May
rs 1916, the United States declared wa
o. against Mexico. Her armies, then on th,
,g frontiers, entered The provinces of tina
es Republic; met aud defeated all her troops
pc penetrated her mountain, passes. and oc
rs cupied her capital. The marine force o
- the-United States took possession of he
forts and her towns on the Atlantic and OF
y, the Pacific. In less than two years ;
re treaty was negotiated by which Mexict
u ceded to the United States vast territory
~ extending seven or eight hundred mile:
u along The shores of The Pacific; reaching
e. back over the mountains, and across the
e. desert, until il joined the frontier Of the
le state Of Texas. II so happened that. in
IN The distracted and feeble state ofthe Mexi-
% can. Government, before The declaration ol
al war BY The United States against Mexico
=, had become known in California, that The
% people Of California. under the lead oI
3 American officers, perhaps generally, over.
threw the existing provincial Government
. Of Calfornia--,he Mexican aulhorllcs--
ir run up an Independent feg. When the
CT news arrived at San Franciso that war had
le been declared BY the United States against
of Mexico, this independent flag was pulled
N down and the stars and stripes of this
" Union hoisted in its stead. So, sir, before
ID the war was over, The powers oflhe United
m States, military and naval, had possession
n Of San Francisco and Upper California,
n and great rush ofemigrants from various
ID parts Of the world took place in California
70 in lS46 and 1917. But now, behold
III another wonder.
- III Jdnudiy iofOs uit MOTiIlUus, ~ 70
l. said, or some Of them, made discovery
h of an extraordinary rich mine Of gold-or,
er rather, Of very great quantity, of gold,
10 hardly fit 10 be called a mine, Tor it was
Is spread so near the surface-on the lower
le part Of the sonth orsAmerican. branch OF
m the Sacramento. They seem to-have at
le tempted TO conceal their discovery for
Of some time; but soon another discovery.
III perhaps Of greater importance, was made
10 of gold, in another part of the American
e, branch ofthe Sacramento. andnear Suffers S
re fort, as il is called. The fame Of these
" discoveries spread far and wide. They
ID excited more aud more the spirit of emf
er grafton towards California, which had
already taken place; and persons crowded
v. in hundreds, and focked towards the bay
of San Francisco. This. as have said