Plymouth advertiser. [volume] (Plymouth, Ohio) 1853-1988, 1854-05-06
Bent0n's Speech,

Olu DuilloH uellVereo MS iong'eXpec!eo
speech on the Nebraska bill last Tuesday
We regret that its extreme length pre-
cludes our publishing it, for it should be
read extensively. 1t is a splendid etfor
such speech as no living man but Ben
ton could have delivered. The thirty
years he has been in Congress gives hir
perfect knowledge Of the subject, ant
he used !, n1astorIy manner. Il will
have its effect too. upon the question, ex
posing as it does, clearly, the vllainy OIL
the bill, and showing up its absurdity, its
glariDg inconsis ency, in that strong
clear, forcible style peculiar to Benton
We give few extracts. Speaking o.
the Missouri Compromise, and the pres
ent attempt TO destroy It, he says:
The question before US is to get rid ol
the Missouri Compromise line and 10 u
lawyer that is an easy question. TO a
statesman it is something different, and
refers the question of its repeal, not 10
law books, but 10 reasons OF State poll.
cy, 10 the circumstances under which it
was enacted, and the consequences which
are 10 flow from its abroga.ion. This
compromise of 1920 is not mere statute,
to last for day it was intended for per.
peluily, and so declared itself. 1t is an
enactment 10 settle controversy, and
did settle it, and cannot be abrogated with.
out reviving that controversy.
1t has given the country peace for
above thirty years. How many years Of
disturbance will its abrogation bring
That is the stalesman's question and
without assuming to be much of a states
man, | claim to be enough so, to consider
the consequences of breaking settle.
ment which pacitied a continent. re.
member the Missouri controversy, anc
how it destroyed all social feeling and al
capacity for beneficial legislation, and
merged all political principle in an angry
contest about slavery-dlviding the I'm
ion into two parts, and drawing up the
two halves into opposite and confron.in,
, lines like enemies on the field of battle.
do not wish TO see suck times again there
fore am against reviving them by break
, ing up the settlement which quieted them
after demonstrating clearly the right c
Congress to legslate for the Territore.
and demolishing that mass of moonshin
D yclept "squatter sovereignty" he says
: reference to the birth of the Nebrasl
bill:
Five times in the beginning of tn
century did Congress refuse to impair III
/. slavery compromises of '87; and nov
q in the middle of the century, and aft.
' thirty years of peace under the Nilsson
e Compromise, the offspring and con,inua
e tion of 'e7, we are called upon, not mer
$ ly 10 impai: for season, but to desiro
IS forever far greater compromise, extene
Is ing ITO far more territory, and growing O,
IS of necessities far more pressing. Ar
II how called upon? Not by the inhab
tan's, no! by any one human being livin
or expecting to live in the territory TO /
H. affected, but upon motion in Conpres
y "a silent, secret. limping, halting, creel
er ing, squirting, impsh motion--conceives
IN in the dark, midwifed in commi,te
ie room, and sprung upon Congress and III
Of country in the yle in which Guy Fawke
> intended TO blow up the Parliament Hous
II, with his Eve hundred barrels of gunpov
dcr hid in the cellar under the wood.