Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-03-15
Washington Sentinel,
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS.
SPEECH OF HON. ROBERT TooMBs.

OF GEORGIA,
In THE UNITED STATES SENATE, Feb. %, 1854,
On the bill 10 organize the Territories Of Ne
Jraska and Kansas.
Mr.. ToOMBS said
Mr.. PRESIDENT and SENATOR'S Being some
what indisposed, it may be difficult for me to
enter upon the discussion of the question now
before you to-day; but being desirous that it
shall not be delayed, shall proceed to offer
some considerations in favor of the bill upon
your table.
I come to the consideration of this bill with
heart filled with gratitude to the Dsposer of
human events, that, after the conflicts of more
than the third Of a century, this great question
has found its solution, not in temporary expe-
dients for allaying sectional discord, but in the
true principles of the Constitution, and upon
the broad foundation of justice and right, which
form the only true basis of fraternity and of ma
tional concord. In the argument which pro-
pose to submit, would initiate the great Athe
nian orator, who never addressed an assembly
of his countrymen without praying to the gods
Of his country that he should utter no word
that might bring discredit upon the cause of
truth, or injury to the interests of his country.
| There has been marked difference in the
mode of discussing this great question exhib-
| tied by its advocates and its friends. have
heard no argument that would stand the test
of nationality, or which could be addressed to
mixed assembly of my countrymen, from the
opponents of the bill; and / have heard none
| from its friends that might not be addressed to
American citizens everywhere, north and south,
except to freesoilers and abolitionists, who
I" live and move and have their being" and po
ltical hopes in sectional antagonism. The
friends of the measure place theirosupport OF it
upon its conformity to the Constitution, to the
great American principle of popular sover-
| eighty, and upon the absolute requirements
of political justice and equality. 1t is not de-
manded as measure Of justice to the south,
though such is its effect; but it is demanded
| as an act Of obedience to these sound catholic
national principles.
| This quality of nationality is deeply felt by
the abolitionsts and freesoilers, and lndicrous-
" exhibited in their frantic rawlings against the
| friends of the measure north and south. Writh-
ing under this great fact, the senator from Mas
| sachusetts and his confederates not only tra-
| ducethe men ofthe south and their institutions,
| but pours forth the bitterest streams of their
| troubled eloquence against those senators and
other citizens from the non-slaveholding States
who dare to exercise the rights of American
| freemen, and differ from them on this question.
| Il appears from the speech of the senator from
| Massachusetts, that all such are white slaves
whose manhood has been debased and ener.
waited by the irresistible attractions of the "slave
| power" Others who have joined him on the
same side Of the subject, have declared that
executive patronage, and other ignoble mo-
tives, and not the great question itself, controls
these northern gentlemen. That, in my judg.
ment, is libel upon the north. But, if it were
true, is this the argument which they offer to
US to change our institutions, and to bring us
to the adoption of theirs in their stead? But,
sir, have said that it is libel upon the north
and recent events have furnished the most con-
elusive proof that it is libel upon them.
| What, sir, have we seen within the last twelve
months? A large body of American freemen
in the State Of New York, belonging to the
dominant party, some of them holding Office
under the administration, refusing to unite with
freesoilers and aboltionists as the enemies Of
the country, and surrendering Office rather than
surrendering their principles. This sublime
act of national patriotism, Of disinterested de-
votion to truth for its own sake, we have all
seen pass before our ewes within the last twelve
months, and we have seen it backed by one
hundred thousand freemen of New York. !
say, then, that lam justified in saying that the
senator in this charge is a libeller Of his own
| fellow-citizens of the north Sir, neither the
north nor the south can truthfully make the
boast of Ireland, tha she never produced a
reptile Under the exuberance of our institu.
tons even reptiles will spring up, and may be
safely allowed to crawl on till smothered in
| their own slime.
Senators, you may disguise this question as
| you will; you may cover it up with sophistry;
you may give plausible excuses for your oppo-
sition to it, but it is precisely the old naked
question, of whether it is right and expedient
| or not for Congress to restrict slavery in the
| Territories and the States applying for admis-
| sion into the Union. That is the question.
| It is the sole question. Gentlemen have talked
about compacts, sacred compacts, inviolable
compacts, binding upon the national honor. |
| shall advert to and comment upon this point
| in its order; but will now stop to inquire who
ore those who would now teach rs lessons of
personal or of national honor? Sir, they are
men whom no oaths can bind, no covenants
can restrain-men who despise and trample
under foot the Constitution when it comes into
conflict with their personal objects-men who
have stood in moral completely with treason,
| arson. and murder, from the day that the fugi.
tive slave law became the law of the land even
! to this hour.
These are our teachers of honor. One of
them the honorable senator from New York,
| [Mr. SEWARD, who, as governor of that State,
sworn to support the solemn compact, the Con-
stitution of the United States, failed to perform
that duty, upon the ground, or rather pretense,
| that slave could not be the subject-matter OF
felonious deportation" Compacts, constitu.
| tional compacts, cannot bind them. These are
| our teachers of honor and of the invioability
of sacred compacts. What do they understand
| &c oomnocts2 / think in some of the northern
States of this Union, against the popular will,
against the American sentiment which begins
to widen and spread and deepen throughout
all our borders, ignominious compacts have
been made-acoalitions "Ithinktheycall them
bv which the officers of great Commonwealth
were bartered and sold for the sake of sending
;, man to this floor who does not represent Mas
| sachusetts sentiment--a compact so odious and
\ Aagitious as to be justly amenable to the low
morality of the common law. These are the
| gentlemen who talk about sacred compacts.
But again the honorable senators from New
York, [Mr. SEWARD from Massachusetts,, Mr.
. | r mr. I -. IL