Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-06-29
GREAT DEBATE IN THE SENATE.
Senate, Monday June %, 1854.
The Boston petition being up,

The Boston petition being up,
Mr. JONES' Of Tennessee, said that he had
no design to call in question the motives OF the
Senator who had presented the petition. He
had no fault to find with the exercise OF the
right of petition II was the undoubted right
Of every citizen, and one to which he would
give every latitude. He would 90 30 Tar as to
say that he believed it was the right of his Sa-
tanic Majesty, even, to send up petition 70
that Court which he had iDsulted, and from
which he had been hurled But it was by mo-
tives and objects that petitions were to be
judged So, If, in sending up that petition, be
was actuated by purpose Of mischief or was
hypocritical in his prayer, he deserved deeper
infamy than than that to which he had already
been consigned IL this petition now befre the
Senate bcscnt thither from proper motives and
FIR proper purposes it is entitled to all respect
II it be sent hithcr for the purpose OF mischief,
and to produce strife, then it deserved the con-
tempt t every good man. This was not the
first petition OF this character sent here and,
had this come unattended with striking cir
cumstances, giving it the color Of treason, he
would not have noticed it, But it came here
with all the circumstances tending to show
that it is part Of the plan of operations OF those
with whom agitation and repeal are watch
words He had seen, already, one attempt
made to give practical effect to the prayer Of
this petition, and it had only found four Sena-
tors who would give the sanction OF their names
to its unhoy purpose. 1t was said that these
petitions were the result of the passage OF the
Nebraska bill and the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise. He did not believe it. IL was
the result of q combination of those willing to
take part in any scheme to break down the
Constitution of the United States, and place
the South under degradation and humiliation
1t came from CITY where the laws were openly
set at Defiance where the temple OF justice
was surrounded by an armed mob, to prevent
the execution of constitutional duty: where
treason stalked broadly through the streets at
MONDAY, and where the officers Of the law
were butchered. The petition came from such
q people and from such place, following i'm
mediately upon these events. Was he not right
in supposing this petition, got up at such
time, had in view no consideration Of public
interest 1t came from Boston, where the dust
of the first and the last martyrs in the coun-
mingled together.
The orator then called attention to an Adj
dress, published in the Intelligenesr Of the 22d
instant, said to have been adopted at meet.
ing of the members of Congress opposed to the
Nebraska bill. The simultaneous appearance
of this document with this petition might in
duce the belief that, like birds of omen and
perturbed spirits, they desired c0mpanionsbip
in publicity as well as in sentiment The meet
ing which adopted this extraordinary Address
was most irregular No man save the three
whose names were attached to the Address
had been bold enough to avow his connection
with it. He would rejoice if they had the man.
illness to come forward and let the country
know who they were who had given sanction
to this paper. 1t was to be expected they
would do 80, and that no man would be das-
tard enough to screen himself from RESPONSE
bility by avoiding any publicity of his connec-
ton with the meeting. II was most carefully
prepared paper. 1t did not say the members
of Congress opposed to the Nebraska bill, nor
did it say part of them, but it said meeting
composed of members of Congress Who were
they? How many were they? The Address
was signed by three persons. 1t may be said
that these were all who were there. He had
known meetings heralded to the country as
large and respectable, composed only Of a
chairman and secretaries, and whose only
claim to largeness consisted in the physical
proportions Of the chairman So far as the
chairman of this meeting was considered, it
might be considered large meeting. He could
not believe that any one member from the
South would give tho sanction Of his name to
the statements contained in that Address
The orator then read the Address and its
arguments upon the encroachments by the
slave power; by its acquisitions and the de-
signed extension Of its area upon the adoption
OF the Missouri Compromise and the Compro-
mise of 1850, and the repeal of the former, &C.,
SO. He commented upon the same with great
severity Of language, He said he was happy
in the belief that not ono Southern man at
tended the meeting. After reading the AID
dress, he suggested to its unknown author to
abandon the barren field of political htera.
ture, and turn his thoughts to the richer field
of the works of fiction. The author Of this Ad-
dress bids fair to rival the writer Of the Ara
bian Nights Entertainments, Eugene Sue.
Paul de Rock, and many others, who were 30
prolific in works Of fiction. He had never seen
production which contained in 30 few words
30 much fiction and pure imagination as this
Address. The Address charged the South with
passing the Nebraska bill, with covered de
sign of making the Territories slave States
with annexing half dozen States Of Mexico
and making them slave with planting slavery
on the Amazon with augmenting its power
by the acquisition of Cuba and Dominica, and
in time reducing the North to sbject submis-
sion. He called for the author Of this accusa-
ton. IL was serious one, and which no gen
tleman should make behind the masked bat.
terry of a secret meeting The author Of il
knew very we'll, that had every Southern Sena-
tor been in his grave, the Nebraska bill could
have passed II would have passed il no South
ern Senator had voted for it, The whole charge
was falsehood. 1t was wickedly, malicious
ly false. Ho could see no difference between
the petition for the repeal Of the Fugitive Slave
Law and the DISSOLUTION OF the Union. There
was no man that believed the Union could be
preserved one day after the repeal Of the Fugi.
tive Slave Law. The South asked to do no
wrong TO the North. All il asked was TO pre-
serve the Constitution, and give us our equality
Of rights. He had been Wing all his life
he was told now, by the Northern wing OF that
party, that hereafter the test to be applied ~
all Wings was the repeal Of the Nebraska
act-repcal of guarantees and equality to all
States given by tho Constitution II this was
to be the test Of orthodoxy in the Wing party,
then he avowed himself hereto, aud suggest
Oh that AGAINST him Dow at onan n,ight ha nrc