The southern press., 1851-10-27
.pam rhs oatssi0a Mvs. /.
Con. Houst0n'a speech nj Huntsville.

The Huntsville Prssbyieriqn gives an OUT
line of Gen. HousioA's speech delivered in that
place on the 22d nit The invitation given, and
signed by several citzens Of huntsville, particu
lary requested that he would address the people
Of Walker county on the permanency or stabl-
ity of the Union. According TO the synopsis OF
the Presbyterian, Gen. Houston confined him
self entirely TO vindic1ton of his own public
course, going back as far an the battle of San
Jacnto and his retreat from the Colorado, and
coming down 10 his vote on the lale eompro-
mise and on the Oregon bill, 10 which he and
MIR. Benton voted with the North and against
all other cenators from the South. He justfes
this vote, as he had done before, by asserting,
that although this bill excluded slavery from
Oregon, yet that il had been previously excu-
ded by the Missouri compromise in l820.-But,
If slavery hld been previously excluded from
Oregon by that compromise, why did the Free
soles Insist so strenouously upon another ex-
cluslon by an additional act of legislation! The
truth is, the Missouri compromise did not ex-
pressly, or by any necessary Inference, extend
bhe line OF SO deg 80 min. to the Pacific, and it
was matter of some considerable doubt with
the Free-soilcrs, whether the people of Oregon
might not adopt the institution If not restricted
by the Wilmot Proviso in this bill. But, be-
sides, ii was an important object to them to es-
"a
future purposes.
But if the Oregon bill only re.alli-med the
Mississippi compromise, as regards the exclusion
Of slavery north of 80 deg 80 min, why was it
not also re affirmed az regards the rights of the
South up to that lne The Missouri eompro-
mise established slavery to the south of that
lne as firmly as II excluded slavery to the north
of it, and all the Southern members were unani.
nous in their willingness, nay, in their earnest
desire, to incorporate The very same principles
into the Oregon bill, and to exclude slavery on
the north and establish it on the south of the
latitude of 364 degrees entirely to the Pacific.
But, the truth is, (and the history Of that bill
proves it beyond the possibility of doubt) that
the Free sellers in Congress were determined to
exclude slavery from the North of that line,
without recognizing or sanctioning its existence
to the south Of il, and they carried their meas
ures, by the aid of two Southern senator's vot
ing with them. 1t is an attempt to imp Sc upon
u.s. to say that the Oregon bin simply re-atlirmed
the Missouri compromise, for when an amend
ment was actually offered recognizing slavery to
the south of 36t degrees, it was voted down in
the lower house by large M jority of Northern
members. With that amendment il would have
been what Gen. Houston calls it, re enactment
Of that compromise, or ather an extension of the
line Of SO deg. 30 min. to the Pacific; but with
out it, it was merely naked enactment of the
Wilmo' Proviso, as it was understood to be by
the Northern members, and was consequently
opposed by all the Southern, excepting only
Thos. II. Benton ard Gen. Houston. What we
here state matters Of recent history, and
cannot be coniroverted. In all the balance Of
his speech, as reported, Gen. Houston conines
himself entirely to Justification of his public
acts; and We sec no ntimation that he even
touched upon any Of the great principles upon
which this confederacy is based, or any of ihe ele-
ments Of It's durability, the subject proposed for
his address by the committee who invited him