Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-03-30
9rlrctions.
WIN. H. scward's Speech.
L X T n A c T S.

No Compromise.
But It is insisted that the admission of Cal
ilornia shall be attended by n COMPROMISE of
questions which have arisen out of SLAVERY !!
j AM OPPOSED TO ANY SUCH COMPROMISE,
IN ANY AND ALL THE FORMS IN WHICH 1T HAS
nEKN PROPOSED. Because, while admitting
The purity and the patriotism of all from
whom it is my misfortune to differ, i think
all legislative compromises radically wrong
and essentially vicious They involve the
surrender of the exercise of judgment and
conscience on distinct and separate ques-
tons, at distinct and separate times, with the
indispensable advantages it affords for ascer-
tanning truth. They involve a relnquish-
inent of the right TO reconsider in future the
decisions of the present, on questions prema-
turely anticipated Aud they are a usurpa-
ton as to future questions OF the province of
future Legislators.
Sir, il seems to me, as if slavery had laid
its paralyzing hand upon myself, and the
blood were coursing less freely than its wont
through my veins, when | endeavor TO sup
pose that such a compromise has been effect
ed, and my utterance forever is arrested upon
oil the great questions, social, moral, and po-
liticnl, arising out of a subject so important,
and as yet so incomprehensible. What am
i TO receive in this compromise? Freedom
in California. Ii is well; it is a noble acqui-
sition il is worth sacrifice. But what am
| to give us an equivalent? A recognition of
the claim to perpeuaie slavery i'll the Dis
trict of Columbia; iorbenrance towards more
stringent laws concering the arrest of per-
sons suspected of being slaves found in the
free States forbearance from the Propiso OF
freedom in the charters of new Territories.
None of the plans of compromise offered de-
mand less than two, and most of them in
sst on all of these conditions. The equiva-
lent then is, some portion Of liberty, some
portion of human rights in one region for lib
erty IN another region. But California brings
gold and commerce as well as freedom.
am, then, TO surrender some portion of hu-
man freedom in the District of Columbia,
and in East California and New Mexico, for
the mixed consideration of liberty, gold, and
power, on the Pacifc coast.
This view of legislative compromises is
not nelc. 1t has widely prevailed, and many
ofthe State Constitutions interdict the intro
duetion of more than one subject into one
bill submitted for Legislative action.
II was of such compromises that Burke
said, in one fthc loltiest bursts Of even his
majestic parliamentary eloquence:
"Far, far from the Commons Of Great Britain
times further from them, as far as from pole to
pole, be the whole tribe of spurious, affected,
counterfeit and hypocritical virtues These are
the things which are ten thousand times more at
war with real virtue these arc the things which
are ton thousand times more at war with real
duty, than any vice known by its name and dis
tingushed by its proper character.
" Far, far from US be that false and affected
candor that is eternally in treaty with crime
that half virtue which, like the ambiguous an
imal that flies about in the twilight Of oompro-
mise between day and night, is, to jusf mans
eye, and odious and disgusting thing. There is
no middle point, my Lords, in which the Com
mons of Great Britain can meet tyranny and
oppression"
But, sir, if could overcome my repug-
nance TO compromises in general, l should
object TO this one, on the ground OF the me
qualify and incoRgruiiy of the interests to be
compromised. Why, sir, according to the
view have submitted, California ought TO
come in, and must come in, whether sla-
very stands or falls in the District OF Co
lumbia; whether slavery stands or falls in
New Mexico and Eastern California and
even whether slavery stands or falls in the
slave States. ...
Reclamation Of S!avcs.
Nor tcould success attend any Of the details
of Lle compromise. Aud, first, advert to the
proposed alteration OF the law concerning fiji
gitives from service or labor. ! shall speak
on this as ON all subjects, with due respect,
but yet frankly and without reservation. The
Constitution contains only a compact, which
rests for its execution on the States. Not
content With this, the slave States induced
legislation by Congress; and the Supreme
Court of the United States have virtually de-
cided that the whole subject is within the
province OF Congress; and exclusive OF State
authority. Nay, they have decided that slaves
are to be regarded not merely as persons to
be claimed, but as property aud ehattels, to
be seized without any legal authority or