Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-06-26

SPEECH OF G. W. CHASE. OF NEW YORK
In House Of Representatives. Nay %, 1854.


elsewhere, aud to deeply disturb the harmony
and repose promised to the country in 1850 by the
then I" Union Savers, through the healing OF the
five bleeding wounds of Slavery. After the Com
promise of 1850, agitation was considered at an
end by short-sighted men, The South gave up
notification for a time, and the North kept not
back the fugitive slaves that fled to her borders
The two great political parties embraced each
other, and wed in their devotion to Slavery in
the construction of their platforms on which
they proposed to elect their President, and OBJ
tain the spoils of the Federal Government Nay
the truce lasted until no longer ago than the 4th
of March, 1853. What was ever so much ap-
plauded as the inaugural address Of President
Pierce, declaring the finality of the Compromise
of 1902 Why, Mr.. Chairman, at the time of
my election to a seat in this House, the repeal Of
the Missouri Compromise was not question be-
fore the people, and, in fact, | never heard it
spoken Of until since my arrival in this city.
The people represent are eminently a demo-.
cratic people. They are firmly opposed to the ex-
tension of Slavery, and so they were unwilling to
believe that any one in their own party would seek
to extend it, and thus break the truce of 1885,
They were then very naturally surprised when a
prominent member of their own political party
thrust the subject upon Congress, in q worse form
and for q worse purpose than was ever before
known. | am sure, sir, that an intelligent and
democratic people, like that which ] represent,
will hold those accountable upon whom the re-
sponsibility rests.
Sir, this bill is too glaring in its faults and its
crimes to need or deserve discussion. Just think
of the main proposition itself--the repeal of the
9Th section Of the Missouri Compromise Did
you ever hear OF anything so wantonly wicked,
in any country that pretended to good faith in its
transactions of society," Think, them of that other
crime-the prohibiting of class of emigrants who
are opposed to Slavery, for that reason alone from
participating in the elections or the government of
the Territory And all this to ayorthe stakeholder
and to curtail the rights and privileges of those
who have ever regarded the Democracy as the
peculiar guardians Of their rights We are told
that all this is done to establish the principle Of
self-government! A beautiful form of self-gov-
eminent this where shareholders exclude freemen
from the polls and slaves crowd free laborers out
of the fields and forests Shame on such sham
Democracy! Why make this exception in the
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska ask the
friends of this bill to give their reasons for this
distinction in the organization of these Terrific
ries, by prohibiting the honest German and Irish
man from the right of suffrage enjoyed by the
same class of persons in all other Territories.
Let us examine, for moment, how this ter
ritory was acquired by our Government and
why the Missouri Compromise Act was adopted,
and how it has been treated and considered by
the American people until the present time.
The Mississippi river was first discovered, both
at the north and south, by the French and all
the lands east and west, which poured their wa
tiers into it, were claimed as theirs. All east Of
the Mississippi, and the Canadas, passed. by the
fortune of war, to Great Britain, in l763. Our
title from Great Britain extends no further west
than the centre of the Mississippi river south
of 80 north latitude; all south of 81 north lat
itude was coded to us by Spain. All west of the
Mississippi was claimed by France, to the borders
of Mexico, which, as we all know, was a province
of Spain. Near the close of the eighteenth CEN
tury, France coded all her territory to Spain but
in 1900, Spain re-ceded this same territory to
France and in 1903, in consideration of the sum
of $l5 900, France transferred it to the United
States.
In all these transactions, this vast country
passed under the name of " Louisiana Territory"
In 1903, Congress divided it, upon the line of go
north latitude, into two parts. The southern
part was called the Territory of Orleans; this is
now the State of Louisiana.) The northern part
was called the District of Louisiana. In this
District Territorial Government was established,
and it was called the Territory of Louisiana In
1912, its name was again changed, and the State
of Louisiana assuming that name, it was called
the Territory of Missouri. In 1919, that portion
Of Missouri Territory lying south of 36o 30
north latitude was erected into the Territory of
Arkansas, and that Territory Is now the State Of
Arkansas.
In 1920 Congress gave permission to the in
habitants of Missouri Territory TO form Consti-
tuition, and to apply for admission into the Union
as sovereign State. In this enactment, which
embodies the Missouri Compromise, an act passed
with so much difficulty, we find the following
statement of the boundaries Of the new State
"SRcTIoS 2. Thence west, on the parallel of
( LA - n 1ot.t ID a,nt
where said parallel is ntersected by meridian
line passing through the middle Of the mouth of
the Kansas river where the same empties into
the Missouri river; thence from the point afore-
said north, along the said meridian line, TO the
intersection of the parallel of latitude which
passes through the rapids of the river Des
Mones, making the said line TO correspond with
the Indian boundary line thence east" &c.
Before the admission of Missouri, there had
arisen "A fierce alteration between the North and
South, because free blacks of the North, what
ever their character or business, were mprison-
ed on entering the slave States. The dissatisfac-
ton high, and the North declared that IL cit
Of the United States were to be shut out of
slave States, or imprisoned within them, that no
more slave territory should be admitted to the
Union. Slavery had been, by authority, forever
abolished in the Territory north of the Ohio river
and east of the Mississippi but nothing had been
done concerning the country west OF the Missis-
spp The State of Louisiana had been erected
as a slave State, the Territories of Arkansas and
Missouri had started in the same manner. So,
When Missouri applied for admission ms a State
at this particular crisis, opposition revived and
presented itself anew, and twas determined that
she should come in free, or not Mt all
The dissolution of the Union was threatened
by the South. But disunion was then, as always,
an unwelcome thought to the North. The great
men, however, stood firm, and the people follow
cd them. Henry Clay prepared and submitted
the Missouri Compromise, as II is generally call
ed.
That Compromise gives the State Of Missouri
the privilege of erecting State Government, &C.,
&c but upon this condition--that all the re-
mainder of the old Louisiana Territory above
800 30t, should never have a slave upon IL. II
also added restriction TO the Constitution Of
the State when it should be formed, which was,
that any citizen of the United States, recognised
as a citizen in any State, was free to come and
90 through Missouri as he might please, without