The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-06-20
THIRTY-rIRsT CONGRESS.
ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA.
SPEECH OF JOHN MCQUEEN,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
In THE House or REPaEsESrArIvEs
SATURDAY, june 8, 1850.
FIRST SESSION.

The House being IN Committee of the Whole
on the state of the Union, anl resoming the con-
sideration Of the California question, the Presi-
dents Message in rotation To that subject being
before the Committee
Mr.. MCQUEEN SAID:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: / think it more than likely that
nothing 1 may submit will change the views of
members Of this body, or stay the aggression
which, for some time. have too plainly seen rap
idly advancing from the northern portion of this
Confederacy upon that part Of it from whence !
come; yet feel il my duty to employ one hour,
the first l have attempted TO consume in this
House, or in any other Legislative body, in por-
uaying some OF the most prominent facts and IN
dica,ons which threaten not only the ruin and
degradation OF the South, but, in my judgment the
downfall at no very distant day of this once happy
Confederacy That we nave arrived at a period,
when il becomes every honest man TO reflect, and
gravey reflect, upon the true condition of the
country. none can doubt and to view that condition
properly, the various causes which have produced
Il should be most carefully examined.
II is useless disguise the fact, that system of
aggression, regular aud unabuting, is gong on
against the South; which if persisted in by the
North, and submitted To by the South, must end
in nothing less than our utter degradation. Sir,
do not speak without a meaning, when say our
utter degradation and ruin; nor can any artifce
howeveringe nous, or any device however cunning
" shaped SO up the truth as TO hide il from
the most ordinary capacity.
What, then, is the great and moving cause which
has brought US to this unhappy and dangerous con-
ditionl In my judgment Il proceeds from more
causes than one. Itprocceds from misconception
or Of the true principles upon which
this Confederacy was entered into by ancestors,
and sickiy, fanatical sentiment, entertained now
too generally by the inhabitants of what they please
TO call the free States, in relation to institution
Of which they really know but little, and with
which they have no more right to interfere, than
they have TO dictate the inhabitants of the south
ern States in what churches and al what affairs they
shall worship that God who gave them being. Sir,
if this Government were union of underlined pow
ers, concentrated in one common head here, the
rights which the North claim IN relation to
slavery might, with some degree of pausibility, be
asserted And tainted as they are by an education
founded in falsehood, Islander, and misrepresenta-
ton, there would be some apologize the claim.
But, fortunately for US, the Government never was
constituted, or intended to be, grand consoda-
ted engine Of powers, that m,ght to-day be welded
bv an unrestrained majority To the destruction OF
any one section of the Confederacy, while to-mor-
row, that section getting the ascendency might, in
turn, convert it into an engine OF revengeiM de-
strnction, until its devastating powers should ami
hiIate the whole. No, sir; no. The trainers Of
our Constitution were too recently relieved from a
struggle in which the question OF equal rights and
lust powers were deeply involved, TO allow them
to have forgotten the rights of the several colo
MES, who in one common cause had waged a
war OF seven years against expressions. Each
colony was TOO jealous Of its own sovereignty ever
TO have merged it in one common sovereignty,
which, by bare plurality Of numbers, might be
perverted 10 any purpose that fanaticsm and mad
ness might suggest.
When the frumers of the Constitution came TO-
geiher to adopt plan of for their COM
mon defence, il did not enter into the mind Of any
one that they were other than delegates from thir-
teen independent yereignties--independen Of
each other and independent of the world. Ii never
entered their brain that they were authorized to
transfer that high and exclusive sovereignty inner
ent in the people of each State, 10 any power on
earth, to be welded by mere majority against one
half Of The States even to their destruction. Nor
would those who sent them ever have recognized
their acts, had they attempted to do SO. We see
the prudent jealousy manifested In the express
reservation OF all powers not expressly granted to
the general agency. Who for moment can sup
pose that Rhode Island would ever have consented
TO commit her fate TO the hands of New York and
Massachusetts, upon the mOnstrous principle that
her internal affairs were to be regulated by an I'M
restrained majority? She did refuse for two years
to give her sanction, as it was; and venture the
assertion that no three States in the Union ever
would have ratified the Constitution, had the
northern. sentiment of the present day even been
suspected, by which the right Of esislation Is here
claimed from tho establishment of a flower garden
to the degradation and destruction Of one-haif the
States. Had those who formed the Constitution
returned to those who sent them, and said We have
entered into compact by which for your general
welfare and happiness we have mingled your SOW
eregnty with that Of the other States, TO be regu-
lated by the opinion of a majority of all the peo-
pie of the States, unrestrained by%ny other check
than their opinion and wil,-they would have
been burned in efgy sooner than received TO the
L. -. IA, Tkoir hav 20
been consigned to the and indignation of all,
rather than perpetuated in history as band of
sages who had erected beacon to guide the civil
lied world in the way of freedom and the highest
enjoy of human happiness. But, sir, II would
be n libel upon their wisdom, their sagacity, and
patriotism, give such construction to their acts.
They never contemplated the present state Of
things under their Constitution. They never sup
posed that sickly fanaticism would profess to
move under its letter or spirit, until agrarianism
and desoaton shall pervade the land.
IL is well known that it is 10 the North We are
mainly indebted for that unlimited construction OF
the Constitution of which have spoken. She, from
her very nature and climate, is denied the produc
ton of many Of the staples necessary for the food
and raiment Of the human family, and conse-
quenty must live upon the products of other
places; her inhabitants must live by their genius
and wits, rather than the first service allotted to
man by his Creator This necessity early estab-
lished in their Judgment The right TO tax the agri-
culture of the South with tribute to their mechanic
pursuits; and, as matter of course, construe the
compact Of Government to answer that purpose.
This principle established, the door has been
thrown open to any other heresy that may have
its lime until, under the broad mgis of general
welfare constitution, nothing that majority, how
ever mad, may design, will not be accomplished.
But have not time 10 dwell longer on this
branch of my subject and will come now to what
consider the immediate cause Of the serious diff
cutes in which we find ourselves. And no one
need be told it is the actual war, (though not yet
of the sword, carried on by one-half of the States
of this Confederacy against the other, emanating
from a sickly fanaticism among those who, if II
were an evil, should be most lenient toward those
who now have amongst them African slavery.
They claim that they are too holy and pure to
allow slavery to exist within this Confederacy-
that they themselves, though once contaminated
with it, have, from motives Of philanthropy and
benevoence, long since abolished it; but not con-
tent with their own holiness and sanc;Ity, have
duty devolvng on them of wiping il of the face
of this continent, as thing too abominabc for
their federation. And yet, who does not know
that it was northern capital and northern seamen
mainly who brought from Africa the thousands