Washington sentinel., 1854-04-07
masbington gentinel,
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS.
SPEECH OF HON. L. M. KEITT.
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,

\ VI 5otlh SAhOLlNAJ s..
In HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,, March 80, 1854.
The House being in the Committee of the
Whole on the state OF the Union
Mr.. KEITT said:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: Four years ago, Mr.. Clay, in
yonder hall, upon the passage Of the compro-
mise measures, proclaimed the tidings Of a
general paciGcation. BY his side, his mighty
compeer, Mr.. Webster, annouced the reunion
and re-welding of the party links of the chain
which binds together the different States Of
this confederacy. How fallacious the procla-
nation and the announcement!
More than thirty years ago, Mr.. Jefferson, in
patriotic agony, declared that the Missouri
restriction fell upon his ears like fre-bell at
night. awakening and filing him with terror"
His prophetic eye flashed along the chain of its
momentus results, and, quickened with dread,
he clothed his mighty fears in language of ter.
ror and warning. How true the foreboding
Sectional strife, bitter feud and angry alterca
ton have been the leprous offspring Of this un-
natural union between principle and policy, so
antagonistic to the Constitution. The genius
of peace and constitutional freedom stopped
moi. down to bless and fertilize it but the de-
mon of discord, with the nuptial torch, relumed
the quenched brand Of hate, and perfdy, and
warfare.
Sir, the Missouri compromise has been to us
the source of unnumbered woes. 1t has pam
pered usurpation, and instigated dominant
majority to trample upon the rights of a weaker
section, until absolute resistance there was fast
becoming law of selfpreservation.
Again are we in the crisis of decisive con-
fict; but now, high above raging elements
and gathering gloom, rises in the west star
of political promise, auspicious and bright.
Yes, sir, the west, alive with the throbbings of
empire and dominion, and quickening with as
pirations of her great mission, steps forward to
throw her arms around the Constitution, and, in
a returning spirit of justice, to restore to the
south 1.-THE of her. rights. Well, too, comes
the effort into this hall under the sanction Of
my gallant friend from Illinois, Mr.. RIcHARp-
SON. He bore onward the flag of the country
when the tide of battle was rolling swiftly
against it, and fearfully beating il back; and,
amid the perils and sacrifices of the conflict, he
ssked not if the comrades who pressed onward
with him were from the north or from the south,
or whether the soldiers who fell on his right
hand or his left hand were shareholders or non
shareholders. No, in the hour of battle, in its
awful "baptism Fire and blood" there was
bond of equality and now, in the hour of tri-
umph and peace, well may he make plea for
the same equality so sacredly guaranteed by
the Constitution.
Sir, / regret that any member from the south
should distrust the motives of the gentlemen
who introduced this bill. IF stern sense of
duty should compel me to vote against it,
would do so without arraigning their motives.
Sir, while the surcharged cloud Of fanaticsm is
gathering in the north, to burst in desolation
upon us, l would raise in the south a still fercer
storm of patriotism and constitutional right ;
but would not mingle with its thunders the
curlew notes of taunt against those men in the
free States who, amid tanaticsm at home, are
bravely battling for the Constitution.
desire, Mr.. Chairman, as part of my ar
gument, to disencumber this question of some
historical errors which have been thrown
around it. wish to rescue the ordinance Of
1887 from historical Misrepresentation and
perversion
l affirm the ordinance of 1877 to be an un.
constitutional usurpation and most graceless
act / will show it to be unconstitutional.
The committee will remember that it was passed
by the Congress which existed under the old
articles of confederation. In those articles /
find the following, (ARr. XI)
"Canada, accedng 10 this confederation, and
Joining in the measures Of the United States,
Shall be admitted into and entitled TO all the advan-
tages of this Union; but no other colony shall be
admitted into the same, uaalsss sach admission be
agreed to BY NINE STATES"
Now, if it required the concurrence of nine
States to admit new colony into the Union,
would it not require the concurrence of as
many to provide territorial government, es-
tablish bills of right, and equip Territory
with all that civil and social machinery which
is to shape its life and regulate its vital interior
relations? After its admission, the new State
would affect the old ones; and, as this was
guarded by requiring the assent of nine States
to the admission, is it not triAing to say that it
required less than nine States to breathe politi-
cal breath into the nostrils of Territory, to
clothe it with those fundamental relations
which would constitute an essential portion Of
its life as State? If it required nine States
to admit new one, did it not require the same
number to arrange or organize governmental
machinery for such a one? The denial is
illogical, if not absurd Now, there were only
eight States in the Congress which adopted the
ordinance of 1881 Therefore, pronounced
it an act of unconstitutional usurpation.
/ said it was an ungrateful and graceless
act; and so it was. Virginia ceded to the
Union the territory lying northwest of the Ohio
river, to which this ordinance applied and yet
Virgnians, with their property, were excluded
by It from emigrating there. Yes, sir, the
citizens of Virginia, which State had given to
the Union region more magnificent than the
Roman empire, were forbidden from going
there with their property by the very creature
to whom, with lavish hand, she had given it in
trust Was it not an ungrateful act?.
Sir, the act was graceless too. 1t was passed
while the old articles of confederation, effetc
and palsied, were dissolving into wreck, and
floating away in fragments and by Congress
which had decayed into imbecility, and had
only strength enough to invite the agonies of
death.
Sir, the exigencies of the time had demanded
convention to frame new Constitution, and
organize government in suppression of the
old confederation. The convention had been
three months in session; "it was universally
known that the essentials of new constitution
were agreed upon, and that new form Of gov
ernment for the Union would soon be promul-
gated. 1t was at this moment that this ordi-
nance was passed by a Congress which had
dwindled into insignifcance, and which con-
sisted Of but eighteen men, for its ablest mem
4 L tn1 tla