Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-03-21
Washingtnn gentinel.
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS.
SPEECH OF HON. p. $. BROOKS
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,, HaTch ID, 1904,
On the oil prociding Territorial governments
for Nebraska and Kansas.
Mr.. BROOKS said:
Mr. CHAIRMAN: ! desire to express my
views upon the bill which is engrossing the
thoughts Of every member on this floor, and
wish to do so before the ground is altogether
covered by the army of speakers who are hold
ing themselves in reserve. Should aught Of
intemperance of language escape me in the re,
marks l am about to make, ! trust that it may
be regarded as directed towards principles and
positions, and not the persons from whom they
proceed.
have lived long enough to learn that to do
justice to the opinions and even prejudices OF
others is the surest way to secure just con,
sideration Of my own.
Nor, sir, does it Jump with my humor or my
appreciation Of honor to assail those who, in
obedience to a local sentiment, are averse to q
resort but too common in warmer latitude.
1t is cheap display of chivalry to insult when
no risk, is incurred: and, for my own part
would prefer the condition of him who bears
the wound than of him by whom it is, under
such circumstances, needlessy inflicted.
| am frank to avow my belief that it would
have been wiser, and in better keeping with
the general interests Of the country, had the
bill providing territorial governments for Ne
braska and Kansas been delayed until the press
sing wants of the people of those territories
mad caused them to apply to Congress for re-
lief
The friends of the bill maintain that the So
called Missouri compromise line has been su-
perseded by subsequent acts of legislation
which are inconsistent with it. and that it is
therefore virtually annulled. / would have
preferred to continue in this altitude 1t would
have given US the advantage Of defensive
position.
But, sir, the bill is before US, and it becomes
us the south to avail ourselves of the oppor-
tune occasion to bring back congressional le-
gislation within constitutional restrants-to
reassert the great constitutional principle, that
as the people are the source OF all political
power, they have, in the capacity of sovereign
States the inherent right of selfgovernment,
and to regain our constitutional right to go
with our property of every description upon
any part of the public domain.
We rejoice to unite with our brethren of the
west in SO patriotic an enterprise; and we re-
joice that the stars of the Constitution and of
empire are mingling their rays together in the
west We rejoice upon this coincidence Of
opinion between the people Of two great sec
tioas, which are destined to grow together in
prosperity and wealth, and which God has
united in common interest by that great
highway of commerce which brings the treas
urcs of the west into the lap of the south. Was
the Wilmot proviso incorporated into the bill,
apprehend that no obstacle would be inter
posed to its passage By those who now oppose
it. But, sir, certain fraternity, who with
humble pretensons have assumed to be the
only reliable expounders of the Constitution
the discoveries Of a higher law than the law of
God, In. obedience TO the peculiar tenets of
which they are required to love their brethren
ia black more than those Of the same color as
themselyes-tell us, in sanctimonious tones of
senatorial dignity, to maintain plighted faith.
They object to the bill
lst. Because of the assumption that it was
the original policy of the country to exclude
slavery from the Territories held in common
By the States.
I'd. Because Of an act Of legislation in 1920,
the consideration of which has been enjoyed
by the slave States, and the benefits Of which
have not ret accrued to the free States.
3D. Because of the assumed antagonism Of
the free and slave labor, and that the admis
sion of slaves into these Territories will result
in the exclusion of foreign emigrants. And
4th. Because of the immortality and the in
expediency of slavery.
/ propose to reply to the objections in the
order which they are stated and | invite your
attention first to that which is based upon
what is assumed to have been the original
policy of the country. 1t is not surprising that
among people who have just emerged from a
wasting and protracted war. waged in defence
of their own liberty that, in the first enjoyment
of that liberty, many should have been precipi-
tated into extravagances of opinion and of act.
There was an exultant feeling Of triumph, nat
ural yet dangerous, which pervaded every rank
of society and the prosperity Of the American
States was never more critically perilled than
at that period Of time which intervenes between
the termination Of the arof independence and
the adoption of the federal constitution.
While the States were employed in com
mon resistance to a common enemy, they were
secure against rivalries and jealouses amongst
themselves. But with the reaxations of peace
came the INVESTIGATIONS of liberty. We were
then in tthe infancy of the science of constitu-
tions and of coniederaces;; and never was our
victory complete until the liberty we had
achieved had been regulated by law, and the
rights of the States in their relations to each
other and to the general government, then
about to be established, had been defined and
guaranteed BY written constitution.
That the light of liberty during this interval
should have been reflected from the white to
the black man is but natural; and that men
high in fame for wisdom and patriotism, have
uttered sentiments adverse to the extension of
slavery, it would be unfair and untrue to deny
Mr.. Mason OF Virginia, in the federal con-
rention, avowed the opinion that slaves "bring
the judgment OF heaven on country AS ma
lions cannot be rewarded or punished in the
nsxt world, they must be i!tthis. By an inev-
stable chain of causes and effects, Providence
Furnishes national sins by national calamites
lie lamented, however, that some of our east
ern brethren had, from lust Of gain embark
ed in this nefarious traffic .@.
Mr. Ellsworth, Of Connecticut, saids
"Let us not intermeddie. AS population in.
creases poor iaborers will be so plenty as to rem.
der slaves useless. Slavery, in time, will not be
a speck in the country
Authority may be adduced in support of q
thousand exploded theories. Authority; ant
high authority, may be brought for converting
this government into a consolidated despotism-