The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-06-04

OF hiIe mefcehary r1eep that ne might say what
mercenary ap0state from liberty Daniel Webster
has become. Laughter and cheers] He knows
himself to be hypocrite and falsifer. But, gen.
tlemen, was in public life when the proposition /
to annex Texas to the United States was brought |
forward. You know the revolution in Texas, |
the year 1885 and 1886. 1 saw then, and | don't |
know that it required any particular foresight that
it would be the very next thing to bring Texas,
which was designed to be a slavehoding State, |
into this Union. ! did not wait. sought an oc-
casion to proclaim my utter aversion to any such
measure, and determined to resist it with all my
strength to the last. Now, gentlemen, it is not |
for your edifcation, l am sure, that now revive
what have before spoken in the presence Of this |
assembly. was in this city in the year 1887 and
long before left New York on that excursion, in |
the course of which | went to the South and
returned here, my friends in New York were kind |
enough to offer me public dinner as testimony |
Of their public regard for me. | went out of my
way, on that OCCASION for the purpose of showing
what anticipated in the attempt to annex Texas
as slave territory, and said it should be opposed
by me to the last extremity. And in Niblo's
Garden, in March, 1887, I made speech. We'll,
there was the press all around me. The whg
press and the democratic press. Some spoke com
mendatory enough of my speech, but all agreed
that took pains to step out OF my way to de-
nounce, in advance, the annexation of Texas, as
slave territory, to the United States. / said on
that occasion:
"Gentlemen, we all see that by whomsoever
possessed, Texas is likely to be slavehoding
country; and frankly ayow my entire unwilling.
ness to do any thing that sha! extend the slavery
of the African on this Continent, or add other
slaveholding States to the Union. When said
that regarded slavery as great moral and politi-
cal evil only used language that has been adopted
by distinguished men, themselves citizens of slave.
holding States. l shall do nothing, therefore to
extend or encour ge its further extension. We
have slavery already amongst us. The Constitu-
tion found it amongst 1t recognized it, and gave
it solemn guarantees. To the full extent Of these
guarantees, all bound in honor, in Justice.
and by the Constitution. All the stipulatons con-
tanned in the Constitution, in favor OF sa, eholdng
States which are already in the Union, ought to be
fulfilled, and, so far depends me, shall be full
filled, in the uness Of their spirit and to the exact
ness oil their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the
States, is beyond the reach OF Congress. 1t is the
concern OF the States themselves. They have
never submitted it to Congress, and Congress has
no right or power over il. | shall concur, there
fore, in no act, no measure, no menace no indca-
tion OF purpose, which shall interfere or threaten
to interfere, with the exclusive authority of the
several States over the subject Of slavery, as it
exists within their respective limits. All this ap-
pears to me to be matter of plain and imperative
duty. But when we come to speak of admitting
new States, the subject assumes a and entirely
different aspect. Our rights, and our duties, are
then both different. The free States, and all the
States, are then at liberty to accept reject When
it IS proposed to bring new members into this po-
itical partnership, the old members have right to
say on what terms such partners to come in,
and what they are to bring along with them. In
my opinion, the people of the United States will
not consent to bring in a new, vastly extensive,
and saveholding country, large enough for half
dozen or dozen States, into the Union. In my
opinion they ought not to consent to it."
Gentlemen, was mistaken Congress did con-
L IN fha hrinu nnfT
| sent, and was a false prophet Your own State
consented and the majority of the Representatives
| OF New York consented l went into Congress
before the final consummation of the deed and
there ious ht holding up both my hands, and pro
| claiming, with voice stronger than it now is
| against the whole of it. But you will have it so
| and you did have is .ns My, sentIernen. L will
tell the truth, whether it shames the devil not
| Laughter Persons who have aspired high as
| lovers of liberty-as eminent lovers of the WImot
| Provlso-as eminent free soil men, and who have
mounted over our heads, and trodden down, as il
we were mere slaves-they the men that brought
Texas into this country. That is the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth and
declare it before you, and in the presence of my
God, that it was Look to the journals With
out the consent of New York, Texas would moi
| have come into the Union, under either of the
| original resolutions or afterwards. But New York
i voted for the measure. The two Senators from
New York voted for it, and turned the question: and
the happiness of having five six slave States
added to the Union. Great sensation.] Dom
| blame me for it. Let them answer who did the
deed, and who are now proclaimng liberty, ant
using it for humbug and trading purposes.
Gentlemen, who aided in bringing in Texas
1t was all fairly told to you. You had Moses ant
the prophets, taughter, but if one had risen from
the dead, such was your devotion to that policy, a
that time, that you would not have heard him, OF
listened to him for moment. Well, all that
complain of is, that, with the blessing of God
will not now or hereafter, before the country or tn
| world, consent to be numbered among those VIII
introduced new slave power into the Union. | d
| all In my power to prevent 1t. lApplause
And again, gentlemen, the Mexican war brok
out. This vast territory was acquired, and tn
peace was made and, much as dislked the wal
| l disiked the peace more, because it brought i
these territories. That territory was unknown.
| did not know what it mig ht be. The plan cam
from the South. l knew that certain Souther
gentlemen wished the acquisition Of California an
| New Mexico, and Utah, means Of extendin
slave authority and slave population. did not ia
into their idea much, but seeing quarrel, as cor
ceived seeing how much it would distract tn
Union, voted against the peace with Mexico.
voted against the acquisition. | ed none
. her territory, California, New Mexico, nor Ual
: ! They were rather ultra American. They were IA
from us, and | saw that they might lead to polit
cal disturbance, and | voted against them all
| dSdlHSt tue treaty anu against tuc pcdcty anu dl
5 | glad OF 1t. Seeing that 1t would be an occasion
dispute that by the controversy the whole Unio
e would be agitated, Messrs. Berrien, Badger, an
d | other respectable and distinguished of tn
South, voted against the acquisition, and the trea
e which secured it and if the men of the North ha
r | voted the same way, we would have been spare
all the difficulties that have grown out of it, [A
n pause.1 Now, there is no sort OF doub gentleme
y that there were some persons in the South, wi
supposed that California, if it came in at all, wou
d come in slave State. You know the extrao
e dnary events that arose there. You know tn
5 California received rush from the Northern pc
= pie, and that an African slave could no Ii,
i there than he could on the top Of Mount Heel
IS OF necessity it became free State, and that
e doubt was source of much disappointment to Il
e South. And then there New Mexico al
= | Utah what was to be done with Them? VIII
gentlemen, from the best investigation have Civ,
e the subject and the reflection have devoted to
IS | was of the opinion that the mountains of Ne
|, | Mexico and Utah could no more sustain Americ;
n slavery than the SHOWS Of Canada. | saw it W
l. impossible. thought SO then, and think no.
e | Therefore, gentlemen, when it was proposed
l. Congress to apply the Wimot Proviso to Ne
~ | Mexico and Utah, it appeared to me Just
as absurd as to apply it here in Western New York
lie saw that the snow hills, the eternal mountains, a
to the climate Of those countries would never suppo
as slavery. No man could carry slave there W,
at any expectation of profit. 1t could not be don
j. and as the South thought it was irritating and d
In respectful, was not willing to do it; and, ther
n fore, saw no occasion for applying the Wilu
ed Proviso to New Mexico or Utah. | voted accor
he ingly, and who doubts it now? The law adm
to ting those territories passed without any prov,
cal Is there slave, or is it likely there will be
as there? Why, there is not a man in the Uni,
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