The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-29

sressh ef Msn. II, ssais, Of IL ulsjana,
On Non later ~ tion@.- Delivered Il, ths Ncnat
on Monday March 22d 1864.
Mr.. CLARKES resolutions, and the amend
ments to the sane moved by Senators SEwARl
Of New York, and Cans Of Michigan, being un
der confederation
Mr.. SOULE, OF Louisiana, who had previ
Ously obtained possession Of the floor, rose ap'
said:
am appalled,, MI. President, by the vast ant
imposing assemblage which see congregatet
in this hall. fear much, sir, that the announce
ment 30 tlstteringly made by some newspapers
Of the part which it was presumed would tax,
in this contest, has raised expectations which i
will not be in my power to crafty; and thu
anxiety, the distrust, and torment, which sucl
an apprehension il 80 we'll calculated to engen
dor, are not little augmented by the awfu
magnitude and the difficulties of the subject
before NO. However, sir, cannot wish to avoit
the task 1t were too late for me now to dis
own its claims or to repudiate its exigencies.
shall therefore proceed with it, trembingly nc
doubt, yet with some faint hope that may still
be- able to bear its burden in manner not alto
gether unbecoming the dignity of an American
senator.
Whatever be the fate of the resolutions upon
your table, Mr.. President, the debate which has
grown out Of them will have its influence and
bear its fruits. rejoice that it has afforded us
a fit opportunity for proclaining to the world
our abiding faith in the rectitude and ultimate
triumph of those great principles on which rest
the hopes and the destinies Of mankind; for
sir, we are heard ut great distance when we
speak from the high places which we occupy
here. What of hope and encouragement, what
Of interest and sympathy, we express for down
trodden and oppressed nations, is re-echoed
throughout the remotest regions OF tho world
and while we give utterance to the thought, it
runs swiftly on the magic wire, until it moves to
congenial and harmonious vibrations every fibre
of the human heart.
| Sir, conceive not that there is any essential
discrepancy in the sentiments entertained by
those senators who first moved in this debate.
Indeed, what of disagreement have been able
to discern among them, would seem to arise
rather from misconstruction OF the object
aimed at by each respectively, than from any
real antipathy in their opinions as to what prn-
ciples we should assert and vindicate here.
Though the original resolutions may have been
intended (and have no doubt but that they
were) az a sort of political breakwater, thrown
up to compress and still those surges Of the
popular sentiment to which | took occasion
some time ago to allude-though they may
seem to advocate impassiveness, absolute i'm
passveness, as the only policy under which we
can grow and prosper--yet dicerning eye will
not fail to detect that feversh and restless
anxiety, the offspring of a keen and unerring
foresight, which betrays itself through the du-
bious, mystic, tmid had almost said bashfu
admission contained in the last of them, Of a
possible contingency on the occasion of which
ga just regard to our own safety ,oiN require us
TO adpance 10 The conflict rather than aioail the
approach of the foes Of constitutional freedom and
Of human liberty"
Thus, sir, is the policy so solemnly commend
ed, and so skilfully developed in tho rcmarka-
bic speech by which the Senator from Rhode
Island Mr.. CLARkEl opened this debate, held
under check by the express reservation and pro-
test that IL may come to its last day, and be
superseded by another that ,oiN require as TO
aduance-mark the word 10 aduance to the con-
| RicL, and to fight for constitutional freedom and
for human liberty.
But, much to my wonder, and still more to
my deep concern, that contingency, so striking
ly pointed at in the resolutions, was entirely
overlooked in the speech, where it is not even
: alluded to. Sir, | had determined that it
should not remain UNDECIDED and | now plead
its implied concessions in vindc alton OF the
views which propose to lay before the Senate.
am decidedly against this country being pent
up within the narrow circle drawn around it by
the advocates of impassiveness. Escorted though
it comes to us by the authority and imposing
names under which it shelters itself, that policy
has no claims to my sympathies--t is set forth
in antagonism to the policy by which the states
men of the progressive school attempt to initiate,
as it is said, system Of interference with the
affairs Of other nations; the first finds security
in inertness the second, in action. One, under
that nfatuation which long series of successes
is so apt to produce points to the past, and
credits them all to the policy which but prefaced
their history; the other invokes the very state
y of things which those successes have brought
about and, obeying the dictates OF new exigen.
cies, strives to turn to profit the solemn warning
:" non aisdem artibuS, retnentur quibus compa
rantur." am for the last and, while vindi
eating its expediency, shall attempt to show
that the opposed policy cannot claim the support
which it so freely borrows from the doctrines
, and teaching of the immortal sage and hero
whose name awakens such deep emotions o.
, gratitude and respect. Sir, the policy of Wash
ington, as elucidated by his own acts, was by
} no means that unimpassoned, phlegmatc, eau
, tious, and inactive policy which our opponents
would induce us to believe; but, on the contrary
a watchful, sharp, and active policy, ready to in
terpose wherever and whenever a great interest
or great principlewas at stake, and disdaining
that submissive wisdom which could abide the
most revolving assumptions on the part of for
eign powers, from the moment that they did not
affect too ostensiby the immediate concerns Of
the republic.
i Through most strange confusion, the pre-.
sumed principles invoked in the proclamation
of neutrality of 1893, are made the ground
work-indeed the very foundation-of those
proclaimed in the Farewell Address of the rev
cred patriot hero; yet who knows not that the
neutrality adopted in 1893 was BIT an essentially
transient measure, looking solely to the then
situation of the country, and to the demands
which that situation, with its surrounding perils
made upon it ?--that it was considered in nc
other light by General Washington himself is
most unequvocally exhibited from the fact that
abiding to this very subject in his Farewell
Il Address, he speaks of it thus "The period is
not far off when we may take such attitude
as will cause The neutrality WE MAY AT ANY
TIME RESOLVE UPON TO BE RESPECTED" DC
And this is not the only evidence of the mean