The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-07-06

| ed, what good is to be accomplished BY a re-
| port OF q committee If they report that the
law ought not to be repealed, that will not
saIsIy any person who demands its repeal He
was surprised to hear the other Senator Mr.
sumner indulge in such rhetorical displays
AnO paa taste doing no credit to his own or
tnag OF the senate. His speech was unworthy
! OF the Senate and of scholar. re he had kept
1t While longer, and dressed it up a little. il
might have answered fer q Fourth of Julv ora
| ton IN some localities He would remind the
Senator, when Otis spoke in Faneuil Hall. when
Hancock acted and when Adams wrote thew
did go az the Representatives of a slayeholding
State. The appeals made in those DAYS of
Boston and Massachusetts were addressed to
slayeholdlng States. The men of Massachu-
setts OF that day were shareholders and gentle
men. lie regretted much the character of the
Senator'S speech. There was n great differ
ence between it and that of his colleague. One
was calm, honest, sincere expression of be-
het and opinion; the other was false rhetoric,
deciamative, and an incentive to rouse the
worst passions of the infatuated people Of GER
tain localities If the issue was to come. as was
indicated, and the contest was 10 be between
the North and the South, let il come and be
divided at once. Let it be considered, argued.
end disposed Of calmly, and without exciting
appeals, dressed and rhetorical display, such
as was made by the Senator to-day He would
like to ask the Senator, if Congress repealed
the Fugitive Slave Law, would Massachusetts,
execute the constitutional requirements. and
send back to the South the absconding slaves
MIR. SUMNER. Do you ask if would send
back slave?
Mr.. BUTLER. Why, yes.
Mr.. 81 MINER. dis thy servant dog that
he should 90 this thins?"
Mr.. BU TIER. There he is again. with a
quotation all ready prepared. He gets I'D here
aud shouts 1t out with as he doubtless supuoses.
moro than DemOsthenean elouuence and
beauty; but he is mistaken Laughter What
| nave dog5 to do with the Constitution
Laughter The Senator declares that he
would not execute the Constitution, which he
has sworn to support. The Senator openIv de.
clares that it is dogs duty to obey and eye
cute the Constitution. The Senator has sworn
to support it, and declares to do so is a dogs
duty
MIR. SUMNER. recognise 70 such obliga-
tons upon me
Mr.. BUTLER. Wei, | suppose it makes
but little difference what you consider obliga-
tory upon you
Mr.. MASON followed, defending the Fugi-
tive Slave Law. He denied that it suspended
the habea9 corpus Get, as asserted either ig-
norantly or cOrruptly by the Senator from
Massachusetts He said that it was Massa-
chusetts and the other New England States
which had forced into the Constitution the pro-
hibltion upon Congress repeating the slave
trade for twenty years. This was done, that in
that time these States might do tho carrying
trade in that traffic.
Mr.. PETIT said that he had lived TO hear.
upon tho iioOr OF the Senate, an avowal which
he never expected to have heard anywhere
that Senator sworn to support the Constitu-
ton owed no obligation to that instrument He
believed in the right of petition. He would
vote to receive any that was respectful in its
character, and to refer it. Should a petition
come here from Massachusetts,, or elsewhere.
asking the Senate to expel any Senator who
should disavow any obligation to the Consti-
tuition, he would vote to receive and refer it,
though he would not at present say how he
would vote upon it finally The Senator had
sworn openly to support the Constitution in all
Its parts. He made no reservation. He could
not take his seat If he had, aud be ought MOI
to hold his seat after making it. He again
referred to that part Of the Declaration of IN
dependence which says all men are created
equal, and held that if these words were used
IN the sense placed upon them by the Adolf
tionists, they were a selfevident lie. He dis
cussed this matter for half an hour He de-
MED that men were created equal, either phys
lOdiJi HOIhliys pO4ltiCaIly OF intellectually. he
denied that the Senator who had sworn to SUP
port the Constitution, and who to-day spit
upon that oath, was equal to his revolutionary
ancestors
Mr.. SUMNER. Never, sir never.
Mr.. PEITlT. You denied that the Const-
tuition placed any obligation upon you which
you were bound by. Was such O Senator
equal to Webster? The one had earned the
title of the Ezpounder of the Constitution the
other deserved that Of the eontemner and de-
spiser Of that instrument. If the Almighty in
tended to have created tho Senator equal 10
Webster, then that great power had created
great blunder and failure He did not think
the searcher after an equality of morals could
find any one more degraded than the Senator,
who after having called God to witness his
declaration to support the Constitution, had,
with that fact fresh in the minds Of his fellow
Senator'S openly avowed that he recognised no
obligation imposed by that same oath.