Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1850-08-26
Admission of California.
PROTEST OF SOUTHERN SENATORS.

| The following Is the protest OF the Southern 4
Senator'S, fwhose names are attached,) against
admitting California into the Union:
Mr.. HUNTER. | rise to address motion
to the courtesy of the Senate--a motion which
| am aware we have no right TO make as mat
ter of right or parliamentary privilege. 1t is
to ask that protest, prepared and signed by
ten members of this body, against the passage
of the bill for the admission of California, which
was passed yesterday, may be spread upon the
journal of the Senate We ask it, because we
deem this one Of the most, if not the most i'm
portant measures that has passed curing our
stay here; and we wish to give whatever en-
phasis we legtimatey can to our opposition
We wish, as far as we can, to weaken the force
of the precedent which has been established
against us by recording, in the most solemn and
impershable form known to lis, our dissent from
the measure.
ask that this protest may be read and enter
ed upon the journal of the Senate.
| The paper was read as follows:
| eve, the undersigned senator's deeply i'm
pressed with the importance of the occasion, and
with solemn sense of the responsibility under
which we are acting, respectfully submit the
following protest against the bill admitting
California as a State into this Union, and request
that il may be entered upon the journal of the
Senate. We feel that it is not enough to have
resisted in debate alone bill so iraueht with
mischief to the Union, and the States which we
| REPRESENT with ali the resources OF argument
which we possessed but that it is also due to
ourselves, the people:whose interests have been
entrusted to our care5 and TO posterity, which,
even in the most distant generations may feel
| its consequences, to leave, in whatever form
may be most solemn and enduring, memorial
of the opposition which we have made to this
measure, and Of the reasons by which we have
been governed. Upon the ages of journal
which the Constitution requires to be kept SO long
as the Senate may have an existence, we desire
10 place the reasons, upon which we are willing
to be judged by generations living and yet to
come, for our opposition to bill whose conse-
quences may be so durable and portentous as to
make il an object of deep interest to all who
may come after US.
awe have dssented from this bill because it
gives the sanction of law and thus mparts validi-
| ty to the unauthorized action of portion of the
inhabitants of California, by which an odious
discrimination is made against the property of
the fifteen Savehodng States of the Union,
who are thus deprived Of that position Of equal
ity which the constitution so manifestly designs,
and which constitutes the only sure and stable
foundation on which the Union can ropose.
Because the right of the saveholding States
to common and equal enjoyment of the terri
tory of the Union has been defeated by a sys-
tenn of measures which, without the authority Of
precedent of law or of the constitution, was
manifestly contrived for that purpose, and which
Congress must sanction and adopt, should this
bill become law. In sanctioning this system
of measures. this government will admit that
the inhabitants of its territories, whether perma-
nent or transient, whether lawfully or unlawful
ly occupying the same may form State with
out the previous authority of law, without even
| the partial security ola territorial organization
formed by Congress, without any legal census
or other efficient evidence of their possessing
the number of citizens necessary to authorize
the representation which they may claim, and
without any of those safeguards about the ballot
box which can only be provided for by law, and
which are necessary to ascertain the true sense
Of the people. 1t will admit too, that Congress
having refused to provide government except
upon the condition Of excluding slavery by law,
the executive branch of this government may,
at its own discretion, invite such inhabitants to
meet in convention, under such rules as it or its
agents may prescribe. and 10 form constitution
affecting not only their own rights, but those
also of fifteen States of the coniederacy, by in
Guiding territory with the purpose Of excluding
those States from IFS enjoyment, and without
regard 10 the natural fitness of boundary, or any
of the considerations which should properly de
termine the limits Of State. 1t will also admit
that the convention thus called into existence
by the executive may be paid by him out of the
funds of the United States, without the sanction
of Congress, in violation NOT only OF the plain
provision of the constitution, bat of those princi
pies of obvious propriety which would forbid
any act calculated to make that convention de-
pendent upon it. And last. but not least in the
series of measures which this government must
adopt and sanction in passing this BILL is the re-
lease of the authority Of the United States by the
Executive alone to a government thus formed.
and rot presenting even sufficient evidence of
Eel fb,o %of of bo, la
f for whom it was designed. With view of all
these considerations, the undersigned are con-
strained to believe that this government could
never be brought to admit State presenting it.
self under such circumstances, if it were not
for the purpose of excluding the people of the
slaveholding States from all opportunity of set
, ting with their property in that territory
'Because to vote for bill passed under such
circumstances would be to agree to principle
which may exclude forever hereafter, as ii does
!, now, the Stale which we represent from all en-
joyment OF the common territory OF the Union
!, principle which destroys the equal rights Of
their constituents, the equality of their States in
the confederacy, the equal dignity of those
whom they represent as men and as citizens in
y the eye of the law, and their equal title to the
. protection OF the government and the constitu-
ton.
"Because all the propositions have been re-
jected which have been made 10 obtain either a
recognition of the right of the slaveholding
!, States to common enjoyment of all the terrific.
ry of the United States, TO fair division OF
> that territory between the slaveholding and non
;, slaveholding States Of the Union-every effort
having failed which has been made to obtain a
: fair division of the territory proposed to be
! brought in as the State of California. -
HBut, lastly, we dissent from this bill, anG
). solemnly against its passage, because in sane
u tioning measures so contrary to former prece-
j dent to obvious policy, to the spirit and inten
q of the constitution of the United States, for thu
. =. purpose of excluding the slaveholding States
q this government in effect declares that the ex
n cusion of slavery from the territory of the United
; States is an object SO high and important as Il
!, Justify disregard not only of all the principles
!, of sound policy but also of the constitution it
III