The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-08
know my statement will not be disputed, and
Il III ELI. h..xa

/
will fully prove it hereafter
will state, further, that went to Southern
senator after Southern senator, and to very
considerable extent approached all those whom
thought in the least degree inclined to coricili-
alton and adjustment, and stated my conviction
Of this fact, and begged OF them earnestly to
come to the rescue of the country. visited
| you, Mr. President, in formal manner, and laid
these facts before you and | am gratiied to
have it in my power to say that was met IN
that spirit of pure patriotism that expected, and
that you with your colleague, were prepaid to
accede to the proposition. So too, with the sena-
tor from Arkansas, Mr. SEBASTIAN, the only one
now here. did not succeed to the extent of
my wishes but hoped, up to the last moment,
before the occurrence which lead to the defeat
of the Adjustment bill, that there might be found
at least four senators from the South who
would engage with the tried friends of the bill
to incorporate this amendment into it, in order
to secure its final passage as thus amended, with
the line Of 35 deg 80 min. The senator from
| Virginia, now here, well knows that | proposed
this thing to him, and that he declined it. The
senator from Louisiana Mr.. SoULE] knows, also,
that ] made the statement to him; and he de-
elined the arrangement proposed, must say,
| with something less than his usual complasance
of manner-certainly with courtesy, aud mani
Testing proper kindness for myself-yet he did
most decidedly decline it.
! Mr.. DOUGLAS. rise to point of order
/ Mr.. FOOTE. have done. My object was
merely to state facts and furnish true history,
which hereafter | will sustain by irrefutable
evidence.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair has stated
out Of order.
Mr.. SOULE / hope shall be allowed a few
words of personal explanation.
The PRESIDENT. Certainly, for "A personal
explanation.
: Mr.. SOULE The senator from Mississippi
: did speak to me about his hopes of carrying
the line of So deg 80 min but the amendment
which he had proposed in order to accomplish
that object could not accept, for very plain
and obvious reason 1t left it optional with
California either to accept orrepudiatei it. True
it is, sir that, upon finding out this difficulty, the
express terms by which California was left with
the choice of repudiating or accepting that line
were stricken out of the amendment; but that
could not change its bearing and import, for it
was insisted upon that her senators should be
admitted on this floor, and her representatives
on the floor of the other House. And such
being the case, with the argument had urged
before the Senate, would have been wanting
: osition California once admitted, it WINS no
longer in the power of any set of men to get
her out of the Union She would have been a
State to all intents and purposes, and the restrc
ton of her limits would have been left entirely
with her She might, indeed, have consented to
Lit, but she might not; and was unwilling to
leave the question to the chances of her concur
renee But there was another reason why /
could place no reliance upon the hopes protested
by the honorable senator of the success Of his
amendment here. Upon like proposition by
the senator who now occupies the chair, Mr..
KING, we of the South voted in the affirmative,
and yet it was defeated. Defeated by whom!
| want to know, sir, whether honorable senators,
acting upon principles, can Justify themselves
in the eyes of the country, for voting against an
amendment to-day for which they would have
voted on Yesterday. If there was any good
reason to defeat that amendment when it was
proposed by the senator from Alabama, we were
bound to presume that the same reasons would
exist to defeat it when it should be proposed
again. Let not the country, therefore, be de-
uded by assertions that have no meaning. We
tried the question; we lost it; we Were defeated
Defeated by whom? The country will not be
at loss for an answer. ,-
SIR FOOTE. trust the Senate will bear with
me, as this is a matter of history which am anx-
: ious should be understood. The senator from
Louisiana has said-and he clearly admitted that
in the statement which made did not err in
any particular-that my statement was Of my
!. hopes, on which he did not rely. Very well; 1t
, was for him to Judge of that stated to him
a senator in my place, as a personal friend, as a
neghbor in the Union, and as one he was bound
to rely on as to any matter of fact, that 1t was an
ascertained fact with me, that if could get the
aid of some four or five Southern senator's, so
to compensate us for the possible loss of those
friends Of the bill from the North, who might be
driven from the support of it by the incorporation
of that amendment we could so incorporate it and
pass the BILL The senator said then, as now--for
| he is perfectly consistent with himself on that
i point-that he could not consent to vote for the
bill with the amendment offered included in it,
for the reasons that he now states the chief rea-
son being that the effect would be that the repre-
sentatves and senator's from California would be
1 admitted on the floor OF Congress; to which my
/ reply was, as he will recollect, that that my
precise object. wished such an amendment to
the third section Of the bill, which, while it would
have the necessary effect Of limiting the bounda-
ries of California, it proposed to do, would still
not have the effect of excluding the senator's and
Representatives of the State from the two houses
Of Congress believed, as | said to all whom |
approached, that it quite important to us,
whilst we limited the boundaries of California, as
was proposed in that amendment, that we should
do needless offence to the sensblllties Of the peo
pie of California They had important local inter
ests to be attended to in Congress, and wished
most sincerely that her senators and representatives
should act with us in attending to them. The
senator acknowledges that he refused that propo-
| sition.
/ stated the grounds upon which made the
statement to him, and urged the amendment on
him, as did, sir, to you, and to which you ac-
coded at once. And did not the senator from
Kentucky say was authorized thus to declare,
and that he would have voted for the amendment
also? Did he not in his place the precise con-
diton Of facts to which have referred and does
any man doubt now that there would have been a
sufficiently large number of the original friends of
the bill, who would have aided YOURSELF sir, and
others from the South, who objected to the boun-
daries of California, in voting in this amendment,
and afterwards in carrying the bla This is the
state of facts, and no man can dispute It, Hereaf-
ter at more suitable period, under circumstances
more suspicious than the present, l will state
them in detail, over my own signature, and give
names if necessary. will pile up the testimony
on the subject mountain high, if need be SO as to
fix the responsibility in the right quarter, of bring