The Woodville Republican., 1850-09-03
CONGRESSIONAL.

M. HHifF ral4 AIal uf IAaa " So tNe
10 submit a motion, which be we. knew be
bad u5 night 70 demand, bot which be de.
sired 20 ask OF he courtesy OF the senate
Il was that protest, sgued by ten Senaior
against the passage OF The bili 10 admit Cal
ilornia. be received. read. aud spread upon
the jOuma.
/ NJ Hale asked that the paper might be
read
. The paper was read by the Secretary, as
follows:
/ We. the undersigned Senators deeply im.
pressed with the importance Of the occasion
aad with q solemn sense Of the responsibility
under which we are acting, respectfully sub
NIT the following protest against the bill
admitting California as State into the
Union. and request that lt may be entered
upon the journal Of the Senate. We feel
Z that il Is not enough 10 have resisted IN dc.
/ bate alone. a bill so fTaught with mischief to
/ the Union and the States whlcn We repre-
/ sent, with all the resources OF argumenc
which we possessed, but that 1t is also due
/ TO ourselves, the people whose interests have
been entrusted 10 our care, and to posterity,
which even IN its most distant generations
| may feel its consequences, to leave, in what
ever form may be most solemn and endur'
/ ing, q memorial OF the opposition 10y which
we have been governed. Upon the pages
/ of a journal which he Constitution requires
to be kept 50 long as the Senate may have
an existence, we desire to place the reasons
upon which we are willing TO be judged by
generations living and yet to come for our
opposition to a bill whose consequences may
be so durable and porcntious as to make it
an object Of deep interest to all who may
come after US
We have dissented from this bill because
it gives the sanction OF law, and thus im-
parts validity to the Unauthorized action of
portion of the nhabitants of California, by
which on odious discrimination is made
against the property of the fifteen sIavehol-
ding States of the Union, who are thus de-
pryed of that position of equality which the
Constitution so manilestiy designs, and
which constitutes the only sure and stable
foundation on which this Union can repose.
Because the right of the slave States 10 a
common and equal enjoyment OF the terrific
ry OF the Union has been defeated by a systl m
of measures which, without the authority
of precedent, OF law, or Of the Constitution,
were manifestly contrlyed for that purpose
and which Congress must sanction and adopt
should this bill become law. In sanction !
ing this system of measures, this Govern |
ment will admit that the inhabitants of its |
territories, whether permanent or transient |
whether lawfully or uuawfniy occupying |
the same, may form State without the pre-
vious authority of law, without even the
partial security OF a territorial or organza-
ton 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 safe.
guards about the baIlot-box which can only
be provided by law, and which are necessary
to ascertain the true sense OF people. 1t
will admit, too, that Congress having re-
fused to provide government, except up
on the condition of excluding slavery by
law, the Executive branch of this Govern
ment may, at its own discretion, invite such
inhabitants to meet i'll convention, under
such nles as it or its agents may prescribe,
and to form constitution affecting not on
Iy their own rights, but those also Of fifteen
States of the Cpnfederacy, by including ter
rtory with the purpose of excluding those
States from its enjoyment, and without re-
| gard to the natural fitness of boundary or
any of the considerations which should pro-
perly determine 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 Uni
ted States, without the sanction OF Congress,
in violation not only pain provisions OF
the Constitution, but of those principles u
Obvious proprlety which would forbid any
act calculated to make that convention de.
pendent uponi it, and last, but not least in the
series of measures which this Government
must adopt and sanction in passing this bill
is the release OF the authority of the UuiteC
States by the Executive alone, to govern
ment thus formed, and not presenting even
sufficient evidence ofits having the assent o
a majority of the people for whom it was
designed. With a view of all these consid
, erat0ns, the undersigned are constrained t
a believe that this Government could never b,
+. brought to admit a State presenting itsel
under such circumstances, ifit were not 70
tne purpose of excluding the people OF tn
Z sIavehodlng States from all opportunity @
n settling with their property in that territory
Because TO vote for bill passed unde
such circumstances would be to agree to
: principle which may exclude forever herea
ter as il does now, the States which we re
: present. from all enjoyment OF the commo
:, territory Of the Unien; principle which Dc
| Fstroys the equal rights Of their constituent,
u the equality OF their States in the confeferac
: the equal dignity of those whom they reprt
= sent as men and as citizens in the eve of tn
. law, and their equal title to the prolectio
of the Government and the Constitution.
# Because all the propositions have been r,
f lected which have been made to obtain e
\ ther a recognition of the right of the slav,