The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1854-03-07

'ne creation and organization of free States
J within our ocean-bound domain? What terri
tories on this continent will remain unappro
prlafed and unoccupied, for us TO annex?-
What territories, even II we are able to bu,
or conquer them from Great Britain or Rus
sia, will tho sl'veholdng States suffer much
aid. us to annex, to restore the equilibrium
winch by this unnecessary measure we shal
have so unwisely, so hurriedly, so suicdally
subvertod?
Nor am to be told that only a few slave,
VIII enter into this vast region. One slavehol
der in new territory, with access 10 the Exec
utive ear at Washington, exercises more
political influence than five hundred freemen
IL is not necessary that all or a majority of the
citizens OF State shall be Shareholders. to con
slitntc slaveholdine State. Delaware has
only 1000 slaves against 81 900 freemen: and
yet Delaware is slavehoding State. The pro.
portion is no; substantially different in Mary.
land and Missouri; and yet they are slavehold-
ing States. These, sir arc the stakes in this
Legislative game in which lament 10 see. that
while the representatives Of the slaveholdine
States are unanimously playing 10 win. so ma
ny OF the representatives of the non-slavehold-
ing States are with o.en greater and diligence
playing TO lose.
| Mr.. President the Committee who have rec.
ommerd these twin bills for the organization
OF the Territories of Nebraska ond Kansas hold
the Affirmative in the argument upon their pass
age.
What is the case they present TO the Senate
and the countryi
They have submitted a report; but that re
port, brought in before they had introduced or
oven conceived this bold and daring measure of
abrogating the Missouri Compromise, directs
all its arguments against it.
The Committee say in their report:
Such being the character ofthe controversy in re-
spect TO the Territory acquir d from Mexico simi-
lar has arisen in regard to the right to hold
slaves IN the proposed Territory of Nebraska when
the Indian laws shall be withdrawn and the country
thrown open to emigration and settlement By the
oth section OF an act to authorize the people of the
Missouri territory to form Constitution and state
Government, and for the admission of such State into
the Union on an equal footing with the original States
and to prohibit Slavery in certain Territories appro
we'd Mach 8, 1920, It was provided That in ali that
Territory ceded by France the United States under
the name of Louisiana which lies north of thirty.s
degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not incu
ded within the limits of the State contemplated by
this act, Slavery and involuntary servitude
than involuntary servtude others than in the punish
ment OF crimes whereof the parties shall have been
9niy convicted shall be, and is hereby forever pro-
hibited: Provided always That any person escaping
into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully
claimed in any State erritory Of the United States
such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and convey
as Aforesaid
Under this section as in this case of the Mexican
Law in New Mexico and Utah, it is disputed point
whether Slavery is prohibited in the Nebraska
Try by uahd enactment The decision of this question
the constitutional power of Congress to pass
laws prescribing and regulating the domestic instu-
tons OF the various Territories of the Union. la the
opinion OF those eminent statesmen, who hold that
Congress is inv ested with rghtul authority to leg
isa'e upon the subject of Slavery in tho Territories
me 4th section OF he preparatory to the admission
OF Missouri is null and void while tho prevailing sem
tment in large portions of the Union the doc
Urine that the Constitution of the United States Sc
cures TO every citizen an inaienabe right to move
INTO any OF the Territories with his property, of what
ever kind and description, and hold and enjoy the
same under sanction OF the law. Your committee do
not feel themselves called upon TO enter into the dis
cussion OF these conroyered questions. They invo-
We the same grave issues which produced the ao;to
lion, the sectional STRIFE and the fearful struggle of
i85O. As Congress deemed il wise and prudent to
refrain from deciding the matters in controversy then
eitherhy affirming or repeating the Mexican laws or
Dy an act declaratory of the true of the Consti-
ution and the extent OF the protection afforded by il
TO slave property in the Territories so your Commit
Tee are not prepared now TO recommend departure
from the course pursued that memorable occasion
either by affirming repeating the 9th section of the
missouri act, by any act declaratory of the mean
ing OF the Constitution in respect to the legal points
in dispute.
This report gives us the deliberate Judgment
OF the Committee on two important points. -
First that the Compr'mise of 1850 did not. by
It's letter or by sp r, repeal, or render necessa-
ry, or ever propose, the abrogation Of the Mis-
souri compromise; secondly, that the Missouri
compromise ought not now 10 bo abrogated -
And now, sir, what do VIC next hear from this |
Committee! First, two similar and kindred |
bills, actually abrogatng the Missouri Compro-
misc, which, in their report, thoy had t,d us
ought not to be abrogated at all Secondly, |
these bills declare on their face, in substance. |
that that Compromise was already abrogated by
The spirit OF that very compromise of 1850. |
which, in their report they had just shown us,
left the compromise of $50 absolutely unaffec-
ted and unimpaired Thirdly, the Committee
favor us. by the r chairman, with an oral expla-
naton that the amended bills sbrogatng tho
Missouri Compromise are identical with their
previous bill. which did not abrogate it, and
ire only made to differ phrasoology, to the end
mat tho provisions contained in their previous,
Ind now discarded, bill, shall be absolutely clear
and certain.
entertain great respect for the committee
tself, but must take leave to say, that the in
,onsistcncies and sef-contradictions contained
n the papers It has given us, have destroyed
III claims, on the part of those documents, to
espect here or elsewhere.
The recital of The effect Of the compromise
Vt 1850 upon tho compromise OF 1920: as fin
My revised, corrected, and amended, here in
he face of the Senate, means after all substan-
ially what that recital meant as il stood before
was perfected or else it means nothing tan.
,ible or worthy of consideration at ALL What
the spirit, or even, the letter, of the Compro-
Mise laws of 1850 did conflict with the oom-
promise of 1920? The compromise of 1920
vas, by its very nature, a compromise irrepea-
able and unchancable, without violation of /
'onor. justice and good faith. The comprom-
SO OF 1850, it impaired the previous compro-
nise to the extent of the loss to free labor of {
ne acre of the Territory Of Nebraska, was eli
her absolutely void, or ought, in all subsequ- {
mt legislation, to be deemed and held void. $
What II the spirit of the letter of the COM q
romise was violation Of the compromise Of Z
800! Then, inasmuch as the compromise of q
$50 was inviolable, the attempted violation of {
shows that the so-called compromise Of 1850 {
'as 20 that extent not compromise al ALL but $
Fictitious, spurious and pretended compro- 4
Use. What IL the letter or the spirit Of the f
ompromise of 1850 did superscdo or impair or |