The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-03-29

5.raA
who acted with hi',, iron wiping them Oh The
statue book, nor Congress, even down as late
as 1910, from refundingto the heirs of Matthew
Lyon the money ontitutionally and unjustly
wrung from their ancestry under those laws
Mr.. President, as illustrative of the nature
Of the act of 1920, interdicting slavery north of
So 80 M, and to shov TN, il was passed un-
der the panic of an abolition Stampede. oot nm
by statesmen and Senators whosespantle have
fallen upon the Senators from New f>rh, Mas
sachuselts, and Ohio, [Messrs. Seward, Sum.
ner, and Chase,] ask your particular atten-
ton TO the testimony of two of the greatest Iv.
ing statesmen, who were contemporary with
that event, lCol Benton and Gen Cass The
former in speech of extraordinary ability and
research, delivered in this body February Dad.
1880, upon what was called Foots resolution
said:
81 come now to the admission of Missouri
but do not mean to d&eil upon it The even,
is too recent, the facts connected with it too no.
torious, to require proof, or even TO admit recta
here The struggle upon that9ueston divided it
self into two parts: the 6rst to prevent, The exist
ence ofslavery in Missouri; the second to secure
the entrance of free blacks and mula,toes into
It Each part OF the struggle divided the Union
into two parts, the Potamac and the Onio, the
dividing line, with slight exceptions; the
South in favor Of the rights of Missouri. the
North against them. In the ranks of the latte,
were seen all the survivors of the ancient advo.
Gates for the surrender of Mississippi--au the
survivors Of those who, in the Congress of the
Confederation, opposed the protection OF the
West; all the opponents to the acquisition Of
Louisiana, all the power of the Federal party.
and all the gentlemen oft Northeast who are
now paying their addresses to the West The
n r CT
and the rights Of free negroes and mulattoes, in
its heart, it was a question Of political power.
and so declared upon this floor BY Mr.. King, OF
New York."
"The Slate Of Missouri (said Mr.. By was
kept out OF the Union one whole year for the
clause in her constitution which prohibited the
future entry and settlement OF free people Of col
or. And what have we seen since The actual
expulsion of great body Of free colored peo-
pie from the State of Ohio, and not one word
of objection, not one note Of grief, from those
who did all in their power to tear up the consti
tuition and break the Union to pieces, because at
some future day, it might happen that some
free blacks might wish to emigrate 10 Missouri;
and could not do il for this clause in her con,ti.
tuition The papers state the compulsory ex-
patration from Cincinnati at two thousand souls.
the whole number that may be compelled TO ex.
patriate from the State of Ohio at ten thousand.
This is remarkable event, paralleled only by
the expulsion OF the Moors from Spain, and the
Huguenots from France. Let me not be Ills
understood: am not complaining of Ohio. |
admit her right to do what she did. We are
informed that this severe measure was the con.
sequence OF enforcing an old law made for the
benefit OF the slave holding States, and now
found to be as necessary to Ohio as to them and
by which she has relieved herself. in thir,v
days, OF the accumulated evils OF thirty wears
complain not Of this. NV present business is
with those who kept me out of nv seat rem,
my State out of the Union, and did all in their
power +, break up this Confederacy. because
free people of color were prohibited from COM
ing to live in Missouri"
''Mr King of New York, when member of
the American Senate, declared, upon this floor.
that slave.y in these United States, in point Of
law and right, did not exist, urder the nature of
our tree form OF Government, and he Supreme
Court ofthe United States would so declare il.
THIS declaration was made about ten years ago,
and the crisis and highest paroxysm of the Mis-
souri, agitation. Since then we have seen this
declaration repeated and enforced, in eyery va.
rety Of form and shape, by an organized party
in all the non-slavehodng States. Since then,
we have seen the principles of the same dec
larations developed in legislative proceedings,
in the shape Of committee reports and public
debates in the Halls of Congress. Since then.
we had the ID 'Anterve case, and seen pe,i
ton presented from the Chair of The House of
Representatives. by Mr.. John w. Taylor, its
Speaker, in which The total destruction O: all the
States that would not abandon slavery
was expressly represented as a sublime act
With these facts before us, and myriads Of 9th.
ers, which cannot repeat, but which are seen
by all, the probability of Federal legislative
act against slavery rises in the scale, and as
sumes the character Of moral certainty, in the
event Of the success Of certain designs now on
foot. have just referred to the declaration of
an ex-senator, Mr.. King of New York / of all
others the best acquainted with the arcana of his
party, who was to that party, for full quarter
of century the law and the prophets.
When the compromise measures were under
debate, in January 1850, Gen. Cass said:
al shall content myself with few general
remarks on the subject of this Missouri compr,
mise. The action of Congress which followed
and closed the contest was not legislative pre-
cedent, which settled doubtful construction,
but political expedient, which adjusted lear
ful controversy. II wanted the elements Of au-