The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-05-23
MIR. Mason said

and from high quarters, and repeated on al
hsnds-repeated here again to-day by the hon
orable Senator from Illinois, MIR Shields tina
there is q law Of nature which excludes tn
Southern people from every portion Of the Stat
Of California. know of no such law Of nature
none whatever; but do know the ntrary, tina
If California had been organized with a terrific
rial form of government only, and for which, a
the last two sessions of Congress she has obtained
the entire Southern vote, the people Of thu
Southern States would have gone there freely
and have taken their slaves there in great numbers
| They would have done 80 because the value o.
the labor of that class would have been aug
mented TO them many hundred fold Why, in
the debates which took place in the convention in
| California which formed the Constitution, and
] Which cry Senator SCI now read for himself, az
ter the provision excluding slavery was agreed
upon, it was proposed to prohibit the African
race altogether, free as well as bond. A debate
arose upon it and the ground was distinctly Ia
ken, as shown In those debates that if the entire
| African race was not excluded their labor would
be found so valuable that the owners Of slaves
would bring them there, even though slavery
were prohibited, under contract 10 manumt
| them in two or three years And it required
very little reasoning, on the part of those OPP
posed to this class of population, TO show that the
| productiveness of their labor would be such as
| TO cause that result An estimate was gone into
with reference to the value Of the labor of this
class of people, showing that it would be in
creased 10 such an extent in the mines Of Cali
fornia, that they could not be kept out. 1t was
agreed that the labor of slave in any one Of the
States from which they would be taken, was not
worth more than one hundred or one hundred and
| fifty dollars a year, and that in California it
would be worth from four to six thousand dollars
They would work themselves free in one or two
years, and thus the country would be filled by
class Of free blacks, aud their former owners
have an excellent bargain in taking them there"
Yet Mr.W ebster stands up before all this array,
and sage! Gentlemen, you are beside yourselves
You have eaten hellebore, You would look more
in character should you put on the cap and bells'
In sober sense in seeing hisph clearly and in
| pursuing it directly, Don Qmxore was Doctor
| Franklin, compared with you The dog in the
fable, who dropped his meat to snap at it's shadow,
Is no allegory in your case. | see two classes
around me-wise men and fools you do not be-
long to the former. The Chancellor who keeps
the kings idiots should have custody of you y
Such is faithful abstract of what Mr. Webster
said to Southern Senators, and, through them, to
all the South.
Here certainly was o reflection upon the under
standing and intelligence Of the South such as
never was cast upon them before. But the balm
went with the sting. They bore the affront to
their judgments, because it was grateful to
their politics and pockets think it no injustice
| to those Senators to say, that they would have
nearly torn Mr. Webster in pieces for such
collective insult, if it had not promised to add
fifty per cent to their individual property and to
secure and perpetuate their political ascendency
To help our conceptions in regard to Mr.Web-
ster's course on this subject, let us imagine par
| allel case-or, rather, an approximate one, for
there can be no parallel Suppose contest be-
tween the North and the South, on the subject of
the Tariff to have been raging for years. The
sober blood Of the North is heated to the fever
point The newspapers treat Of nothing else.
Public meetings and private conversations discuss
no other theme Hundreds of delegates wait upon
Congress to add, il It be but feathers weight to
the scale which holds their interests Petitions
flow in in thousands and tens Of thousands. IL is
announced that Mr.. Calhoun will pour out his
great mind on the subject Expectation is on
tiptoe. All eyes, from all sides Of the country
are turned towards Washington, as the Muezzin's
TO Mecca The Senate chamber is packed, and
the illustrious Senator rises After an historic
sketch of existing difficulties after reading from
the speeches which he made in 1892 and in 1916
he proceeds to say that he withdraws all opposi
tion to a tarif-to any tariff! He will not offend
the delicate nerves of Northern manufacturers by
I further hostility Were bill then before hin,
he would not oppose It, "Take the schedules, y
says he, scornfully, TO Northern Senator's and
fill up the blanks from A to u with what per.
centages you please. For ad paiornm rates, put
ia minimums and maximums at your pleasure
will 'taunt' you no longer. ] am for peace and
the glorious Union. have discovered an ire
pealablc and irreversble law Of nature, which
overrules all the devices Of men. You cannot
make one yard of woollens or oottons in New Eng
land. There water has no gravity, steam has no
| force, and wheels will not revolve. In Vermont
and New York, wool will not grow on sleeps
backs. have penetrated the geology of Pennsyl-
vania and through all its qualifications, there is
not a thimbe-full Of coal, nor an ounce of iron
ore; and il there were, combustion would not
help to forge it for oxygen and carbon are d.
vorced. As Massachusetts contributed one-third
of the men and one-thrd Of the money, to carry
on the Revolutionary War, ! am willing to com
pensate her for her lost blood and treasure to the
amount of hundreds of millions of dollars, with
which she may fertilze the bsrrenness Of her
genius, and indulge her insane love for churches
and schools" Had the great Southern Senator
spoken thus ! think that even ilolatrous man
worshppng South Carolina State which Mr.
Calhoun has ruled and moved for the last twenty
five years, as puppet-showman plays Punch and
Judy-would have sent forth, through all her
organs, a voice Of unanimous dissent.
As much as Freedom is higher than Tariff, so
much stronger thrn their dissent should be ours.
Mr.. Webster's averment that he would not
"re-aiIirm an ordinance Of Nature, nor resnact
the will of God,n Ip. A, has been commented on
more pungently than am able or willing to do.
IL has been said that gil law and all voliton must
be in harmony with the will Of the Good Spirit
or with that of the Evil One; and II we will not
re6nact the will Of the former, then, either all
legislation ceases or we must register the DEGREES
of the latter. But one important and pertinent
consideration belongs to this subject which have
nowhere seen developed. IL Is this Endless
doubts and contradictions exist among men, as to
what is the will Of God and on no subject Is
there a wider diversity Of opinion than on this
very subject ofsavery. Whose law was rednacted
by the Ordinance OF 1871 whose, when the Afri-
can slave trade was prohibited whose, when II
was declared piracy True, it Is useless TO put
upon our statute books an astronomical law reg
ulating sunrise, or high tides but that Is phys-
Cal and beyond the jurisdiction Of man. while sla-
very belongs to morals, and 10 within the jursdic
ton of man. Cease TO transcrbe upon the statute
book what our wisest and best men believe TO be
the will Of God In regard to our worldly affairs,
and the passions which we think appropriate to
devils will soon take possession Of society. In re-
gard to slavery, piracy, and 20 forth, there are
multitudes Of men, whose fear Of the penal sane
tions Of another life Is very much aided by little
salutary fine and imprisonment Ia this. Look at
that noble array Of principles which 10 contained
Ia the Declaration Of Rights 10 the Constitution
Of Massachusetts,. Is II not a most grand and
beautiful exposition Of "the will Of God pa
transcript, on II were, from the Book OF Life7 So
Of the amendments to the Constitution Of the
United States. Yet our fathers thought 1t no
tampering with holy things to enact them; and,
In times Of struggle and peril, they have been to
many tempted man as an anchor to the soul,
sure and steadfast
| approach Mr. Wcbster's treatment Of the
Texas question with no ordinary anxiety. IIav-
ing been accustomed from my very boyhood TO
regard him az the almost nfallible eIpounder Of
constitutional law, 1t Is impossible TO describe the