Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-06-15

gress anu 'he purse OF the nation; and to suppress
the slave-trade in this District as concession for
abstalnng from the abolition of slavery in this
District, as expressed in the report, page IT, is to
make concession of something valuable for an
abstinence which we have had for sixty years
without concession, and are still to have on the
same terms
This is the end of the committees labor-6ye
old bills gathered up from our table, tackled toge-
Their, and christened a compromise Now COM
promise is pretty phrase at all tines and is a good
thing in ITSELF when there happens to be any par
ties to make it, any authority to enforce it, any
penalties for breaking it, or any thing to be com
promised The compromises of the constitution
are of that kind; and they stand Compromises
made in court,land entered of record, are of that
kind and they stand. Compromises made by in
dvlduals on claims to property are likewise of
that character, and they stand. Irespect all such
compromises. But where there happens to be
nothing to be compromised, no parties to make
compromise, no power to enforce it, no penalty for
Its BREACH no obligation on any one-not even its
makers-to observe it, and when no two human
beings can agree about its meaning, then COM
promise becomes ridiculous and pestiferous. |
have no respect for it, and eschew it. 1t cannot
stand, and will fall; and in its fall will ra'se up
more ills than it was intended to cure. And of
this characterI deem the farrago of incongruous
NATTER which has been gathered up and stuck to-
gether and offered to us call or none," like
htty-four forty to be. 1t has none of the re-
qulsltes of compromise, and the name cannot
make it so.
In the first place, there are no parties to make
a compromise We are not in Convention, but in
Congress; and / do not admit geographical divi-
| sion of parties in this chamber, although the Com
| mittee of Thirteen was formed upon that prnci-
ple-six from the South, half dozen from the
North and one from the borders of both re-
cognise no such parties. L know no North and
| know no South; and repulse and repudiate as
thing to be forever condemned, this first attempt
to establish geographical parties in this chamber
by creating committee formed upon that princi-
pie. In the next place, there is no sanction for
any such compronise-no authority to enforce it
hone to punish its violation. In the third place,
there is nothing to be compromised. A compro-
mise is concession, mutual concession of con-
tested rights between two parties. | know of
nothing to be conceded on the part of the slave
holding States in regard to their slave property
Their rights are independent of the Federal Gov
eminent, and admitted in the CONSTITUTIONS right
to hold their slaves as property, right to pursue
and recover them as property right to 1t as po-
hticaI element in the weight of these States, by
making five count three in the national represent
tatlon. These are our rights by an instrument
which we are bound to respect, and will concede
none of them, nor purchase any of them / never
purchase as a concession what hold to be right,
nor accept an inferior title when already hold the
highest. Even if this congeries of bills was
compromise, in fact, should be opposed to it, for
the reasons stated. But the fact itself is to me
apocryphal. What is the case of five old bills
introduced by different members common legis-
latlve measures these five are caught up by the
Senator from Kentucky, and his committee,
bundled together, and then called a compromise
Now, this mystiies me. The same bills were or
binary legislation in the hands of their authors
they become sacred compromise in the hands of
their new possessors. They seemed to be of no
account as laws they become national panacea
as compromise. The difference seems to be in
the change of name. The poet tells US that rose
Will smell as sweet by any other name. That
may be true OF roses, but not of compromises. In
the case OF the compromise, the whole smell is in
the name, and here is the proof The Senator from
Illinois (Mr. Douglass brought in three of these
bills they emitted no smell. The Senator from
Virginia Mr.. Mason) brought in another of them
no smell in that. The Senator from Missouri,
who now speaks to the Senate, brought in the fifth
ditto, no smell about it. The olfactory nerve of
the nation never scented their existence. But no
sooner are they jumbed together, and called a
compromise, than the nation is filled with their
perfume. People smell it all over the land and,
like the inhalers of certain drugs, become frantic
for the thing. This mystfes me, and the nearest
that can come to solution of the mystery is in
the case of the two DR.. Townsends and their sar-
saparllla root. They both extract from the same
root, but the extract is totally different article
in the hands of the two Doctors produced by one,
a universal panacea the other, little less than
poison. Here is what the Old Doctor says of this
strange difference
"We wish it understood, because it is the absolute
truth. that S. P. Townsends article and Old Dr. ia
coo Iownsend's sarsaparilla are heapen apart,
ana anfnitely diSsimilar; that they unlike in
ny particular, having not single thing in
And accounts for tae difference thus:
"The Sarsaparilla root it is we'll known to medical
men, contains many medicinal properties, and some
properties which are inert useless, and Others which,
If retained in preparing for use produces fermentation
and acid which is injurious TO the system Some of
the properties OF sasaparla volatile that they
entirely evaporate and lost in the preparation if
they are not preserved by scientific process, known
only to the experienced in its manufacture Moreover
those volatile principles, which fly off in vapor or as
and exhalation under heat, are the very essential
medical properties of the root, which give to it all its
value"
Now, all this is perfectly Ineligible to me. |
understand it exactly. 1t shows me precisely
how the same root is either to be poison or a
medicine, as it happens to be in the hands of the
old or young DOCTOR This may be the case with
these bills. To me it looks like clue to the mys-
terry; but decide nothing, and wait patiently for
the solution which the Senator from Kentucky
may give when he comes to answer this part of my
speech. The Old Doctor winds up in requiring
particular attention to his name labelled on the
bottle, to wit, cold Doctor Jacob Townsend" and
not Young Doctor Samuel Townsend, This shows
that there is virtue in aname when applied to the
extract of sarsaparilla root; and there may be
equal virtue in it when applied to compromise
Dill. If so, it may show ow these self same
bills are of no force or virtue in the hands of the
young Senator from Illinois, (Ir. Douglas,) and
become omnipotenty etficacious in the hands of
the old Senator from Kentucky.
This is the end of the grand committees work
five old bills tackled together, and presented as
a remedy for evils which have 10 existence, and