Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-04-26

T5rIoPS-
ltion Of Slavery ID the District Of eounbia during
the first session Of that Congress Fiat was all we
could get BY way Of concession from them Ihey.
would not vote for the aboli of IN the
District Of Counb the session. but they would
/ make no such promises the second sess aHe
lsthon stood ready vote for the proviso ScveraI
Eprominent gentlcnen from Massachusetts, 0ho,and
other States declared that the doctrine upon when
they had been elected was that of hostility to slave
and that they should vote for polishing it where
ever Congress had over the subject, ana
also to exclude il from al the Unleeu
States To this doctrine there WAS no dissent from:
that section of the Union, though it was earnestly
sought by Southern Wings in the hope that they
might find some ground for united actionas party
Such was the condition of things at the beginning
of that Congress The country was IN a state of
extreme peril The whole northern Wing party, IN
great force and asnumber OF Democrats, also upon
the Free-Sol platform, were ready to act and many
of the Cass mentor by that name the non-inter-.
yentions men were designated disposed to get
ont of the ,yay and let the bills pass and then see
what Gem Taylor would do with them. mere was
large majority of the Congress thus piedsea 70
push through these measures. -
II do not propose to take up the time OF the COM
mittee with rehearsal of the events of that memoir
able session of 1910 30. The majority were pledg-
ed to line of policy that they dared not then carry
do not hesitate to say boldly that IT that
policy had been carried out in practice, your Goy-s
ernment would not exist to-day and ought not to
have lived an hour. es 1855
They saw what the effect WAS likely to be, and
men who were pledged to certain course of conduct
which they said would be destructive, and who were
begging others to keep the question out OF the way
and save them from the effect of their own prncl-
ples Gen Taylors administration and Cabinet, it
is well known could not get along at all with these
questions, and were obliged to fall back upon their
do-nothing policy. Why, even at the close OF that
session after there had been change of the Admin
Standardization Mr.. Fillmore, who was favorable to
a more liberal policy came into power-after the
admission of California free State, with the
whole Pacific, for thousand miles embraced IN 1t
after the passage of that series OF measures when
Mr. Webster himself said to the territory gave
the North everything, and the South nothing but
the fugitive slave LAYOUT of more than eighty
members we found only three northern Wings to
vote for that act and of those three, only my friend
from Ohio, MIR. Taylori has been returned by his
party. Even after the bill was passed there was an
attempt to get up the cry of repeal under the lead
of Senator Seward, and great agitation made all
through the North, and large majority of these
who had refused to vote for the law concurred
in the clamor, and there fierce struggle
struggle to catch the ant-slavery feeling there and
acquire party strength. l may add even after that,
it is we'll known that in the selection of candidates
for the Presidency they endeavored to throw out OF
the way and set the seal of popular condemnation
on Mr. Webster and Mr.. Fillmore, because of their
connection with these measures These things have
been we'll discussed, and are generally understood
by the country.
Why, sir, we forced them with extreme difficulty
in the convention to come up and adopt platform
to carry out these measures About half of the
thern men voted against it. and great many of the
party organs denounced and rcpudiaed the platform,
and thereby, as was proven in the end, materially
contributed to the overwhelming defeat OF the candl-
date.
have made this review, and stated these things,
Mr. Chairman, to show that these Wing gentlemen
from the North, party, have stood all the time
on extreme antslavery ground; that they have all
the while made efforts to acquire party strength by
appealing to the antslavcry feeling OF the North,
and to Abolition sympathies. Now, what would you
expect of them on this question? And what do you
suppose they are going to do? Exactly what they
have been doing for the last seven or eight years
These gentlemen not opposing this measure be-
cause it intcrferes with the Missouri compromise.
Why there is not one of them, probably, who ever
alluded to that compromise, except in terms OF de-
until the beginning of the present ses
sion. might show you that the gentleman from
Vermont Mr. Meacham who led off, some time since,
against the Nebraska bIil in September, $780, voted
against the recognition of the Missouri line when |
moved by myself l mis- ht have shown, and if had !
obtained the floor when the gentleman took his seat
would have shown, that the State of Vermont has,
through her representatives repudiated every single
compromise made; not only null
yng the fugitive slave law of 1850, well as the
act of 1898, but all previous compromises.
In 1888 when South Carolina had taken steps to |
ru!ify the revenue laws Mr.. Clays compromise bill !
mas passed, bringing down the duties to twenty per
centum. Afterwards, to strengthen the measure |
when the land distribution passed. on motion OF
Senator Bcrren of Georgia, twas provided that this
distribution should stop if the duties should be ras-
ed above twenty per centum and yet this measure |
Of compromise, thus fortified, was, against the vote |
Of the whole South, both Wing and Democrat, re- |
peaed and the land distribution also stopped by the
vote of the members from Vermont and other north
ern States. Why, sir, Immediately after the passage
Of this very act of 1920 prohi; iting slavery north
Of SO deg 80 min., and providing for the admission
Of Missouri slave State, resolution IN the
strongest terms adopted by the Vermont Legis-
ature, instructng their Representatives not to let
Missouri into the Union unless she abolished slavery
rom within her limits. If it a compromise
lct, he alleged, then his own State violated it;
ind so did New York, and number of other States;
md so did large majority of the northern members
If Congress- by refusing Missouri admission No,
SIR these gentlemen are now doing exactly what
hey have been doing for many years past, viz: af
iiating with Freesoilers and Abolitionsts and max
ng great effort to obtain party strength in the
North by assailing the Democrats, who are more lib
,ral to US these questions
Now, do not desire to this agitation kept up,
or reasons which will presently advert to; and
Sil submit the question to these gentlemen candid
y, what have they gained by all this agitation, and
III their denunciaton of slavery Of course they
must have expected to lose the South The wonder
S that they have anybody there at all friendly to
hem That it is otherwise only shows great force
If party ties and attachments In my own State,
originally one OF the most decided Wing States in
he Union, they have placed themselves in the mi
lority.5 Kentucky, with her twenty five thousand
majority is brought down, believe, to about noth-
ng at all. Tennessee likewise, and indeed the whole
SOUTH has been pretty much thrown against them +
What did they gain in the North Ohio used to be
Wing State; and believe, at the last election,
hey were beaten sixty thousand votes. They were
Dental canvass, except in Massachusetts, and YER
than