Washington telegraph., 1850-03-06

1t susceptible OF improvement, let tnem
improve it, and restore peace, harmony
and happiness to the country.
In forming this plan, he had thought it
should embrace all the subjects upon
which there was difficulty, thinking that
there could be no use in settling one part
and leaving others open, but that all
should be settled at one time. He also
thought that he should prepare scheme
that both classes of States-free States
and slave States-could adopt without
any sacrifice of principle. These series
of resolutions propose plan whereby all
this is done.
He saw one section of the States of
the country pushing their measure to an
alarming and dangerous extreme; he saw
the other section preparing to extend their
measures to another and equally danger
Gus extremity; and he thought s4hat he
should prepare a plan that would stop
this peril, and afford ground OH which
both sections could unite without the sac
rifice of any principle, but at the sacrifice
of little feeling only. He believed that
his resolutions accomplished this end
He believed that, in all concessions, by
one sect)n, they should receive COM
pensation; and by careful and calm con-
sideration of the resolutions this would
! appear to be carried out
! In the first resolution it was said that
| California should be admitted into the
Union without any provision either pro-
hibiting or admitting slavery. But gen.
tlemen from the South say, that in this
the North get all they want-that slavery
is already prohibited there. aud that the
ends and purposes of the free States have
been accomplished. This is true. But
by whom has it been done? Has it been
done by Congress or any act of the Gcv-
ernment? No, but by the people of Cal
iforna themselves; and is it not the doc
trine of all parties that the people of eve
ry State should be left free either to
admit or prohibit slavery, as they should
deem proper? The question involved in
the admission of Missouri was whether,
after State had formed a constitution,
and was organized as State the Union,
Congress had the power to control tie
action of that State on the subject of sla-
very? Those of the South who favored
her admission into the Union hold tho
doctrine that once State, she stood
among her peers equal i'll all respects to
them, and that her rights and powers
over that subject were as clear and un-
questionable as those of any one Of the
thirteen original States, and that Con-
gress had no authority or power to control
her action in the least respect.
He thought the friends of the Wilmot
proviso ought to be well satisfied with
this declaration, and with what had taken
place in California. They should remem-
Der, that if the Wilmot proviso was en-
acted, its operation would cease when
the State was formed There was now
no one who would contend for moment
that if the States formed out of the North
west Territory, and to whom had been
applied the ordnance Of 17S7-lllinois,
Ohio, Indiana and Others-chose to alter
their constitutions, and permitted slavery
to exist within their limits, they had as
much right and power to do SO as hal
Virginia within her limits.
No one would contend that the exclu-
sion of slavery by the people of California
was the act of Congress. or of the Gov
ernment of the United States but it was
a decision of the question by the people
of California herself, who alone had the
right to decide it.
The second resolution of the series
was an important one, and he begged
gentlemen to look at it calmly He was
aware when he prepared it, of the pre-
servance with which the Wilmot proviso
was pressed by the North; he was aware
that every free State had expressed an
opinion in its favor, and had instructed
its representatives in Congress to secure
its adoption; he was aware that the nor
thern people considered it as a favorite
measure, and had set their hearts on it
He was aware that, by asking them to
vote for this resolution he called upon
them to abandon the Wilmot proviso, to
give it up; to open their eyes to the
danger to the country III pressing 1t when
there was no necessity whatever for 1t.
In thus calling upon them to abandon
their favOrite measure, he offered them
the assertion, in his resolution, OF two
clear and indisputable truths. They
were: First. That slavery does not exist
in any part of the territories acquired from
Mexico; and secondly, that in our opinion,
slavery never will exist in any portion of
it.
He had heard it stated that the asser-
ton of these truths by Congress was
equal to the enactment of the Wilmot
proviso He did not think it was. If
the Wilmot proviso be passed 10y Con-
gress, there is solemn enactment, and
it is a positive interdiction of slavery there;
but, by this assertion, we say nothing
more than that at the present time it
does not exist there, and that, in our opin-
ion, it never will.
He hoped that the free States would