The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-13

Buren, accompanied them to the church where
the convention had been sitting, and wss pre-
sented to the multitude, TO whom he addressed
few remarks, and promised to meet them in the
evening, at any time and place they might de-
signats.
The depot ofthe railroad which is the largest
rooted receptacle in Burlington, was selected
for the purpose, and before seven o'clock the
crowd had begun to gather and fill that immense
building Mr.. Van Buren, soon appeared, and
spoke about an hour and a quarter.
THE SPEECH OF JOHN VAN buren,.
Fellow CIrizEss.-The Democratic State
central convention Of Vermont, invited me some
weeks aimee to attend here to-day and address
the State convention, which they had called Tor
the nomination ofa governor, lieutenant governor,
and treasurer, TO be supported at the ensuing
election by the Democrats OF Vermont. 1t gave
me great pleasure to accept this invitation, but
until yesterday afternoon feared that other
engagements would prevent my complying with
your wishes, as had promised to do. Finding
myself released from engagements in court yes
terday afternoon, took the cars to Springfield
thence to this place, arriving about an hour since
This a sufficient apology for the want of prepa-
ration which will necessarily be apparent in the
is some two years and half since | had the
pleasure Of addressing a portion of the electors
of this State, in reference to a subject that
largely engrossed their attention at that time;
and as their interest in this question is undimi-
nished now, deem this suitable occasion to
review the ground over which we have passed
in the intervening period, and to consider the
position in which we now stand The time to
which | refer was the fall of 1848, and the
occasion was the Presidential election of that
year. Large accessiOns of territory had then
recently been made by the United States, and
slavery had been abolished through those ter
ritories
The shareholders of the South avowed a de-
termination to transport slaves into those terri
tories, and hold them there as such. They
claimed the right 80 - do by virtue Of the Con-
stitution of the United States, which, as they
insisted, by its own force carried the relation of
slavery into every new acquisition which was
made by the arms and treasure of the people of
the United States that the flag of our Union
carried this evil in its folds. They insisted that
the uniform action Of the government, by which
slavery had been prohibited in the territories Of
the United States since the ordinance of 1887
was unconstitutional that they could not be
from Transporting slaves into free
territory; and that no man should, under any
political necessity whatever, be elected Presi-
dent or Vice President of the United States. ]
who believed they could be thus prevented, or
who denied the right they thus claimed. The
of the two great political parties of
the country were made to conform to these pre-
tensions, and those who resisted them presented
4 third candidate for the suffrages of the people.
This resistance to unjust demands was, as we
suppose, natural and inevitable, and it will be
instructive now to review the results to which
t has led. The territory to which this doctrine
was particularly applicable, is known rs New
Mexico and California. Those who adhered to
he uniform course Of the government, also
claimed the right to prohibit slavery in the act
organizing territorial government for Oregon
md the law by which it was proposed to effect
his, which was known as the Jefiersonian ordi-
lance, had come to be called the Wilmot Pro-
,iso. The Southern States insisted that this
prohibition of slavery should not be inserted in
his act organizing territorial government for
Oregon. They declared thatsuch a prohibition
would be 80 unconstitutional in itself, and so
insulting to them, that they would overturn the
government in case it was effected. This act
was under consideration when the Buffalo con-
sention assembled, and passed into a law, with
he Jeffersonian ordinance inserted in it, shortly
,fter that convention adjourned. This has been
we'll described as victory which followed the
irst blast of the Buffalo horn.
While the Presidential election was conducted
With the greatest animation, the discovery of
yold mines in California attracted large popu-
alton to that territory. They went there with
he light that public discussion had shed upon
The evils of slavery, upon its miserable econo-
my its insecurity in peace, and its hazards in
war, upon its inhumanity and its siniulness.
They went there with their minds deeply i'm
pressed by these great truths and they formed
a State constitution VIII CHI prohibited slavery. Ii
may safely be assumed that the earnest contest
of lS4S thus led to the prohibition Of slavery in
that State. The rapid pusations of the great
heart of liberty injected the blood of freedom
into the veins of California, and she came thus
into the Union, free State. She came in as
the thirty. first State She came in alone, with.
out slavehoding State attached to her to neu-
lralize her strength, as Maine had in Missouri,
and Iowa had in Texas, and as the South claim
should always be done when a free State was
created The majority of the States of this con-
federacy thus became free. The entire Pacific
coast of the United States was dedicated to free
dom by the prohibition of slavery in Oregon
and California. The slave traffic has also been
prohibited in the District of Columbia, and
power has thus been exercised over that subject,
which the South have denied and zealously re-
sisted. The same power exists to abolish slavery
itself in the District, and its eventual exercise is
thus rendered a mere question Of time. The
ground assumed by the Buffalo convention was,
that slavery within the United States should be
exclusively controlled by the States themselves
but that the general government should relieve
itself from all responsibility for the evil, by
lbolishing it where Congress had the power
md prohibiting its introduction where it did not
then exist This brief statement shows the ex
tent to which the doctrines of that convention
have thus far been carried into the action of the
government, and, il seems to me, furnishes just
ground Of exultation to TIE advocates of those
doctrines. The results of the election of I84S,
upon the persons who we're candidates, are not
less significant We opposed equally and i'm
partially both General Taylor and General Cass.
The latter had been "A somewhat intimate ac-
luaintance of my own, with whom and with
whose family had enjoyed for twenty years, so
FAR as ! know, unbrokcn relations of friendship
but ! could not fail to see that when he resi-
dent Of n free State, had once avowed the jus-