Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1850-08-29
Southern Protest,

[Presuming few of our readers would ever
see this document without our aid, and suppos.
ing it to present what the South consider their
strongest ground Tor slavery extension we give
it entire.
We, the undersigned, Senator's deeply i'm
pressed with the Importance of the occasion, &,
with solemn sense of responsibility under
winch we are acting, respectfully submit the
following protest against the bill admitting Cali
tornla as Safe into the Union, and request
that 1t may be entered upon the journal of the
Senate. We feel that it is not enough 10 have
resist in debate alone, bill 50 traught with
mischief to the Union and the State which we
represent, with all the resources of argument
which we possessed but that it is also due to
ourselves, the people whose interests have been
ntrusted to our care, and to postcrily, which,
even in It's most distant generation, may feel it's
consequences, to leave, in whatever form NAV
be most solemn and enduring, a memorial of
the opposition which we have made to this meas
ure and OF the reasons by which we have been
governed, upon the pages Of a Journal which
the constitution requires to be kept so long as
the Senate have an existence. We desire TO
place the reasons upon which we are willing TO
-
come, tor our opposition to a bill, whose conse-
quences may be so durable and po,entous, 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 imparts val
idity to the unauthorized action of portion of
the inhabitants of California, by which an obi.
Gus discrimination is made against the propertv
of the fifteen slavehodng States of the Union,
who are thus deprived Of that portion of equal
ity which the constitution so manifesty DESIGNS.
and which constitutes the only sure and stable
foundation on which the Union can repose be-
cause the right of the slaveholding States to a
common aud equal enjoyment Of the territory of
the Union has been defeated by S, stem of
measures, which, without the authority of pre-
cedent Of law or of the constitution, which
were manlestly contlavened for that purpose,
and which Congress must sanction and adopt
should that bill become law. In sanctioning
this system Of measures, this government will
admit that the inhabitants of the territories.
whether permanent or Observation-Disclosures, law
fully or uulawully occupying the same, nav
form State without the previous au,horitv of
law, without even the rtial security of terri
torlal organization formed by Congress with
! Vut any ltSdl CeIlSuS OF Otnet eulcleut 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 ballot box which can only be
provided by law, and which are necessary to as
certain the true sense Of people, 1t will adj
nit, too, that Congress having refused to pro-
vide government, except upon the condition
of excluding Slavery by law, the executive
branch oil this government may, at its own
discretion, invite such inhabitants to meet in
convention under such rules as it, or it's agents
nav prescribe and to form constitution Affect
ing not only their own rights but those also of
fifteen of the confederacy, by including terrific
ry with the purpose of excluding those States
from Its enjoyment, and without regard to the
natural fitness Of boundaries, or any of the con-
sderatlons which should properly determine the
limits of State.
1t will also admit that the Convention thus
called into existence by the Executive, NAV be
paid by him of the funds of the United States,
without the sanction of Congress, in violation
not only Of the plain provision of the Constitu-
ton, but of those principles of obvious propricty
which would forbid any act calculated to make
that Convention depend upon 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
United Suites, BY the Executive alone, to