Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-03-28
DAILY EVENING STAR.
BREcKINRIDGE ON CUTTING.

Hon. j. c. Breckenridge, delivered in The
House of Representatives ON the 23d
instant +- .a -7e-ss4 .df g. ..-. va,
"The other day, when the gentleman
from New York Mr.. Cuttingl moved
that the Nebraska bill from the Scnat.
should be referred to the Committee o
the Whole ON the state of the Union-fol.
lowed it UP with speech, and closed by
demanding the previous question, many
gentlemen, and myself among the mum.
Der, requested him to withdraw it, in
order that we might have an opportunity
to disclose to the House the effect of his
motion. The gentleman refused TO do it.
| wish now to make few observations
which / would have made then if [ could
have obtained the floor. simply wished
to warn the friends of this bill who. from
the previous course of the gentleman from
New York, may have regarded him as
one of its staunchest and most reliable
supporters, that if they are controlled bv
his movements in regard to it they will
be made the instrument of its destruc.
ton.
With the motives of the gentleman from
New York, of course l have nothing to
do. Gentlemen will form their own con-
cluslons about them. But the movement
the other day was movement to kill the
bill, and stab aimed at it by pro-
fessed friend. Does not the gentleman
from New York know, that when the bill
went to the Committee of the Whole on
the state of the Union, it went to its
grave! In other words, that by putting
it at the foot of the Calendar, it can no
more be reached at this session, i'm the
regular course of legislation, than you can
take something from under a mountain
that is piled upon it +! .....
What were the pretexts offered by the
gentleman for the course he pursued !
One was, that it would insure full dis
cussion and amendment of the bill i'm
Committee of the Whole. Insure the
full discussion and amendment of a bill
that every man in this House who has
been here week knows never can be
reached. He knew perfectly well that
it never was intended to smother discus
sion in the House. He knew, also, that
the bill on the same subject from our
own Territorial Committee had been re
felred to- the Committee of the Whole.
where it could be fully discussed and
matured according to the sense of the
majority, so that the friends of Nebraska
(if the Senate bill had been kept before
the House) would have had a double
chance, under our complicated rules
But it vas necessary to give some color
to the movement. 1t was dextrous
enough, and might be considered credita.
ble on certain theatres, but it cannot
escape observation and exposure on the
floor of Congress. -. a. --- t-'
But what, sir. was the other pretext I!
Why the gentleman was apprehensive
that the g Badger proviso," as he stig.
matized it, would be injurious to the
South. The gentleman from a non slave
holding State, holding the language OF
friendship to the bill, arrayed himself in
opposition to the almost united votes of
those more particularly interested, on the
ground that there is feature in the bill
that does not do justice to the South.
can give a better explanation than that
| IL iloy l1oFS OSSkl W uSlcdl ILLS dIueIlu.
ment, and thus array northern votes
against the bill. No matter what may
have been the motives of the gentleman
from New York, the whole tenor of the
movement was to kill the bill. Now that
movement from an open and avowed enc
my is to be respected, but when gentle.
man within our own lines makes an as
sault of that sort, it is due to the friends
Of the measure to observe and expose it.
All this has been done under the guise of
friendship to the bill. This indirection
was practised by the gentleman while
preaching direction. 1t was the act of a
man who throws his arm in apparently
friendly embrace around another, saying,
"How is it with thee, brother 2" and at
the same time coyertly stabs him to the
heart.
The gentleman, in the early part of the
session, male series of brilliant speeches
toprove his intense nationality and sincere
devotion to the constitutional rights of
the South, to which we listened with de-
light. In one of those speeches he ap-
piled to his then Abolition enemies but
now allies) some moral drawn from the
scriptural story of Jacob cheating Esau
out of his inheritance, by deceiving blind
old Isaac. l apply to him his own illus
tration. In this case it may be the hand
of Esau, but it is the voice of Jacob. The
heart of the gentleman may be for the
bill, but his tongue is the tongue of an
enemy; and am much temple to be-
lieve that other passage of Scripture,
which says: "Out of the abundance OF
the heart the mouth speaketh." The
difference, however, is, that we are not
blind as the patriarch was, and hence the
political Jacob from New York will fail
of his purpose. @ ea
The gentleman was in odd association
when he made his speech the other day.
You saw the radiant countenances of the
political AbolitiOnists. You saw the con-
ferences, telegraphic communications and
signals, between the gentleman from New
York and those who had been the objects
of his denunciations in the carly part of
the session, and you saw how he re-
ceived the congratulations of the bitterest
enemies Of the bill upon the successful
result Of his manouver. A score of open
enemies are better than one professed
friend who acts the part Of an enemy. a.
Whatever NAV be the'courSe of the e1r.