The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1850-05-28
SPEECH OF MR.. JAMES MEACHAM

IN he House If Representatives, May II, !
1850, in Committee Of the Whole on the |
state OF the Uhion,on Mr.. McCLERNAND's |
Bill relating to California.
Mr.. MEACuAM said =
Mr.. CuA1RMAN: The bill before us
proposes to admit California, TO erect terrific
rial governments for Utah and New Mexico,
and, by the purchase of the claims Of Texas,
to settle the boundaries between that State
and New Mexico. Ipropose to discuss that
bill. 1t is practical subject. Whoever
consents to take part in the present discus
sion, and scorns 10 repeat the arguments Of
others, must be content with the critics rep>
tation of having been at feast of learning
and stolen the scraps.
l. is surprising TO see the efforts on the 9th
er side of the House TO make political capi-
tai out of the pending controversy. The
gentleman who las just closed MIR. Savage
is the most jealous Of the number. They
seize the floor, and rush forward as if to an.
nounce a new discovery. With all the ear
nestness of the philosopher rushing from the
bath, they cry " Eureka Eureka ~ haze
tound IT, hare .tound IT, Found what
sir? Why, have found, that in the last
presidential canvass the fiends of General
Taylor used different motives in different
sections of the Union, to aid his election II
granted, is there anything new in that Has
not the same been true in every election
since the time of President Monroe? Was
not that true of the friends of Adams and
Clay, Crawford and jackson, and the success
sor Of jackson Take any subject that had
been prominent before the country, and
turn it any side up, or either end up-turn
it inside out, or outside in, and on every face
you would find either vote or speech Of Mr.
Van Buren,. Sectional motives were piled
in the election of Gen. Harrison. The
friends of Mr. Polk had more than Two
they had Texas the tariff, aud the North
western boundary. They had motive fol
the lorrid, the temperate, and the frigid zone
up to "a > 40. We can come nearer Lom,
to those WHO are wasing this war for poltica
gain. Go up to the gallery of the Paten
Office, and in a case hard by the camp-chcs
Of Washington you will sec a form having
two hea1s-one looking north and the Other
south. | will not vouch for the chrorolog,
which asserts that il camo into life on Tia,
night of the last Baltimore Convention
showing that nature, even in her loves
works, sympathized with the sublime pro
duction Of the day, that came forth upon tn,
stage with one life written for the face tha
looked northward, and another for the fac,
that looked southwark l did not bring for
ward these things as charges against the dis
tinguished men TO whom they refer. Sucl
motives may be used by the friends Of
candidate without any just accusation of du
plicity against the candidate himself. But
do bring them for purpose they serve, Il
show the gentleman, that if he courts
contest of this kind, there may be blows t.
take, as well as blows to give.
These things are not to my purpose or m,
taste. | have regretted to see men shower
ing down upon this House the relics of ol,
parlizan sectional stump speeches, only tha
they might trickle back TO the great ocean
and be taken up and poured out on SOM
after Congress in more furious deluee.
is for our shame that we have wasted so mucl
time in squabbling over party politics an'
hurting provoking sectional taunts while th,
subimest spectacle in the history Of the worl'
is passing before US.
This discussion has often recalled de
scrption given by Livy of Roman battle
field, where the combaiants surrounded in
temporary mist, were SO holly engaged il
the contest that they needed not voen
earthquake which was shaking their cities
changing The course of their rivers, and up
heaying the foundation Of the mountains
Tho Spaniard was on the shores of the Pa
cifc an hundred years before Smith Landed
at jamestown, or the Pilgrims trod the rocl
of Plymouth. Since that time, the Saxor
race has crossed and conquered continent
They have reached The shore, and in three
wears done more for mankind than the Span
lard had done in three centuries. The,
have not, like Cortez and Pzarro, seized the
golden stores, and fled from the country
leaving the marks of their desolaton il
smouldering villages and slaughtered peo'
pie. They have settled down in that coun
try as their home. They have shown theil
purpose and their wisdom, in framing and
adopting as their own, one of the nobles
State constitutions ever formed by human
hands. With that constitution they appear
I before us, and ask for admission. Relying
on the practice of this Government, on the
pHghted faith Of treaty, and ON promise:
made before the conquest, they demand Q
place in this Union Why are they not ad
mitted Their proceedings are charged as
irregular Congress has given them no pow
cr to form u State goyernment-they have
had no census Grant il; but it is shown
that they are in the line Of safe precedenis
by acting as a majority Of the seventeen rev
States have acted 1t was proved, beyond
controversy, in the Senate yesterday, by Mr..
Clay, that they have population emitting
them to Two Representatives. II is charged
iha, foreigners voted in their elections.
Grant that, too How was it in Michigan