The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-08-22

TooNrrNuKD FROM FrRsr PAer.l

olce OF vast majority OF the freemen from whom |
re profess to speak aud act.
What Mr.. Chairman, is the spectacle present
d herel After having acquired all the slave
errtory upon the continent-afGer having annex |
d Texas in hot haste, and at the hazard Of the
var which followed that act; now, sir, the free
State of California, with voting population larger
han that Of one half Of the slave States--larger
han Florida, larger than Arkansas, larger than
Texas, larger, in my judgment, than either Mis-
5issippi or Louisiapa-this free State is denied
admission into the Union only because she is free.
ga, sir, her only offence is that she has prohb-
tied slavery within her borders Those who now
ask that action shall be had upon this subject
denounced as men who desire to keep up a "mis-
cradle excitement" in the public mind. The
gentleman from Illinois MIR. McCLERNAsD may,
in his conception Of things, regard it as msera-
bic vocation for to contend earnestly serious
ly, manfully, for the advance Of Freedom, for the
triumph Of truth. The gentleman may regard
these-sp'Fc-'" oPly 81 9SNNe and praiseworthv,
-. =. K : !, = : - = - --@sL
sS4P3isP ss2A rgbinh rswArdad With the smiles
----. 49, -. --..--- IA
miserable agitation " indeed! to stand up here
and battle against the sefshness of the day, to
utter unwelcome truths in the ears of lordly mas
tiers, to expose the schemes of unchsstened am
bitten to labor earnestly to bring back this Gov
ernment to the policy Of its founders, TO insist
that the policy Of Jefferson and the fathers of the
Republic, should be applied to the Territories of
this Union.
He (Mr w could tell the gentleman from ILL.,
nois Mr.. McCLERNAND how this agitation, which
he so much deprecates, might have been avoided
Had Representatives faithfully carried ont the will
OF their constituents, the question Of slavery in
our Territories would have been settled three
years ago by the extension TO them Of that pro-
vision of the Ordinance Of 1887 which prohibits
slavery except for crime. OF this there can be no
doubt
He (Mr W. has said before, and he repeated
now, that when the ProvisO was irst introduced
there were but two Northern votes against it in this
House. One was that OF the gentleman from ILL
nOis and the other that Of his then colleague now
q member of the Senate IMr. DoUGLAs That
provision, which the gentleman has learned from
his Southern allies TO denounce as most Infamous,
not only received the approval of the Representa-
tives from the free States, bat the unanimous and
spontaneous approval Of the people throughout
every free State in this Union. The people by
every form of expression endorsed it. Legisla-
lures by unanimous resolutions endorsed it. Had
the public voice then been faithfully obeyed In
this and the other wing Of the Capitol, all that
excitement and agitation about which the gentle
man declaims with such genuine Southern feeling,
would have been avoided. The question would
have been settled without agitation, without ex-
element and, in my judgment, without leaving
behind any very serious heart burnipgs upon the
feelings of our Southern friends True, sir, they
might have been ignorant Of the merits of their
distinguished champion, the gentleman from Hill
nois. The country might have never known that
il held within its bosom one of such broad, such
comprehensive, such exalted patriotism. This, he
(Mr W. confessed, would have been serious
loss to the country, and great personal sacrifice
to the gentleman from Illinois; but one which, he
trusted would have been cheerfully made, to avoid
that agitation which 30 alarms and disturbs the
gentleman.
Mr. Chairman, 1t has become quite common for
certain gentlemen, distinguished alike for their
patriotism and modesty, to claim for themselves
that they stand upon broad and national plat
form; and to denounce all who do not take posi-
ton with them, as narrow minded, sectional, and
fanatioal Is slavery national, and freedom sec
tional2 He MIR WI had been taught by the
fathers of the republican school, that freedom was
broad and national and slavery local and section
al For this great doctrine he had struggled
here, and for this be should continue to struggle,
with all the feeble powers God had given him.
This great doctrine of the universally of free
dom, as one the inalienable rights of man, and Of
the local character OF slavery, as State and sec
tional institution constituted, in the early days of
lican creed Hence, the efforts Of Jefferson TO
oircumscribe the limits Of slavery-efforts glo-
rioasly successful in the establishment Of the Or
dinance of 17S7-by which freedom was secured
TO the State which the gentleman from Illinois
IMr McCLERNAND in part represents. But for
this Ordinance, which the gentleman now denoun-
ces as Infamous the curse of slavery would have
rested like an incubus upon his own State. IL
would have gone there in defiance of the Ordi-
nance, had Illinois, at the time Of the adOp-
ton of the Constitution been blessed, or cursed,
(her people will Judge which,) with a supersbun-
dance of that broad and comprehensive patriotism
of which the gentleman boasts. Instead of that
free labor which is fast giving to Illinois pros
perity and greatness the negro slave would have
loitered in ideness upon her fertile fields, or
been driven by the lash to his thriftless and I'M
willing toll.
He (Mr. W. had followed in the footsteps of
Jefferson he had travelled in the beaten tracks of
the fathers of the republican party. His efforts
had been to crcumscribe slavery within State lin
its-not to interfere with it there but to resist its
spread over the free Territories Of the nation-to
relieve the General Government from all respon-
sibility for its existence support leaving it TO
rest, where alone it should rest, upon State SOW
ereingty and State laws
This question of slavery extension is a great
money. The immense capital invested in slaves
as effectually controls this Government as does
the capital invested in the funded debt of Great
Britain control that. The old proverb, that
money rules the world" is as true in political
as In social affairs. The money invested in slaves
Yields the destinies Of this boosted free Republic.
Ii shapes its policy to Its own ends II elects its
Presidents, and dispenses it's vast patronage it
proscribes its enemies, and exalts its friends So
far as legislation and all the machinery of Gov
eminent is concerned, it in truth and fact con-
stitutes the Republic itself Well-informed
Southern men in this and in the other branch OF
Congress have estimated the amount of money
invested in slaves at sixteen hundred millions of
dollars. He thought the estimate a large one,
but that the sum is large almost beyond computa-
ton, is certain. This vast money power, extend.
ing over half Of the Confederacy, and binding
together in the bonds of common pecuniary
interest half the States dictates law TO this Re-
public, and rules with a despotism unrelen,ing
death. Asa Democrat, he had ever been opposed
to great moneyed interests The instincts Of money
are the same the world over-she same here rs in
the most grinding despotism Of Europe. Money
Is cold selfish, heartless. IL has no pulse of hu-
manity, no feelings of pity or of love. Interest,
gain, accumulation, are the sole instincts Of its
nature and il is the same, whether invested in
manufacturing stock, bank stock, or the black
stock of the South. Intent on its own interest
il is utterly regardless of the rights of humanity
IL would coin dividends out of the destruction
of souls Here, then, sir, we have sirteen hundred
millions Of capi'al-heartless, uufeeling capital,
intent on its own pecuniary advancement. II Is
here, sir, in these halls, in desperate conflict with
the rights of humanity and of free labor 1t is
struggling to clutch in its iron grasp the soil of
the country-that soil which is mans inherit
ance, and which of right shOnld belong to him
who labors upon IT, Sirteen hundred millions Of
dollars demands the soil of our territories in per-