The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1851-04-03
MIR. BUCKALEw,s SPEECH.

On Wednesday oflast week the bill to repeal
the kidnapping act Of ls47, came ut in the
Senate, and was debated at length by Sena-
tons Guernsey and Walker against and Buck.
alew and Hugus for the repeal. Mr.. Guern.
sey was willing TO go for so much of the bill
as should give the prisons Of the state 10 the
use Of the national government officers TO
hold fugitive slaves, and in this shape {re-
p'aii " the 9th section of the act Of is47,) the
bill finally passed by a vote of IS yeas to Z
nays. After Senator Walker had spoken
against the bill, MI. Buchalew addressed the
Senate, and we give the following note of
his speech from the Harrisburgh corsesp on.
dence of the Pennsyiuanian:
Mr.. Buckalew then obtained the floor, and
made q noble and powerful speech in favor
OF the bill, Astounding in passages of the
most moving and patriotic ~eloquence.
he said that the speech of the Senate,
from Erie had reminded him of that truthful
line:
"Oh Liberty what crimes are committed
in thy name" That he had often thought,
That no public man could be engaged in a;,v.
hing more Injurious and destructive to the
"eiafe Of the nation, than in this excite.
ment of discord and enmity between the
different States, which should be bound TO
each other in a spirit Of kind regard, and of
friendship-thai the Senators who acted in
favor OF the bill before them were not in
ducet or driven to do so by any d~iciation
from any quarter,--that he knew the feeling
OF his constituents, TO be in favor of the re.
peal OF the odious act, which never was the
product of Pennsylvania brain, policy, or
design, but which had been imported from
Massachusetts,, and placed upon our statute
books as an insult 10 the southern portion of
the Urion, and which ought now to be swept
from our code, and blotted ont from thu
statute books, as a matter which had already
been a disgrace TO us. He said that the PEG.
pie of his district of both polltic'i parties,
were in favor Of this repeal, and had instruct.
ed their Senator, and their members OF tho
other House, 10 vote for it-.nat they were q
german population, bat intelligent upon this
subject, and that D. was no part Of their ma
ture or their Democracy to be driven or die.
tated to by a,Ly interest or any power except
what wa, emphatically their y They
were Opposed 10 the policy which drew from
The slave States their pauperism, and scat.
F.red it around the commonwealth of Penn
s~ylvania in the outskirts of every city and
town within it, and the policy which went
to swell the catalogue of crime committed
amongs, it's population and fill its prisons
with negro convic,s. That they were also
anxious 10 live with their Southern neighbors
on terms of f~raternal relationship, and dis
charge TO them and the Constitution which
binds us all together in a glorious Unien, all
their obligations in good faith and fidelity.
That the friends of the bill, like their fathers
in the days of franklin, were actuated and
impelled in their efforts, by a spirit of wisdom
and justice, and that no charges of bending
the supple knee Of subservioncy TO the
South could drive them from their positions.
That they did not ask Senators to be infu.
enced in amy such way nor 10 bow 10 the
dark spirit which unfortunately brooded over
a part of our land but that they could only
ask them TO 60 back and drink at those cor.
sti,utional founts which were familiar TO our
forefa,hsrs, and which, in their time, gave
to the Legislation Of Pennsylvania a very
different character from some Of that which
The records of later dates contained. That as
long as he should occupy a seat in the Leg
~islature, and as long as he could lift his
voice IN its Halls, or elsewhere, he desired
that Pennsylvania should maintain a loyal
attitude, and occupy that position, which her
greatness, her location, and the loyalty and
patriotism of her population justly deserve in
our great and glorious confederacy.
Mr.. Buckalew rehearsed SOM of the
early and pleasing history Of the old Key
stone State, and showed that the spirit in
which the friends Of the repeal of this OBJ
n~oxious law were acting, was the same as
that in which the UEion was established, and
that spirit in which it must be maintained.