Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-08-30

Sir, Is not that the reason? / do not ask gen.
tlemen to tell me whether it is adequate reason
do not ask gentlemen to say ifthe North is
BILE in her anger. simply ask gentlemen upon their
candor and honor if that s the reason of the exist
ing condition of things? There is no gentlemen here
whose breast does not echo that it is. And ven-
ture little when say there is scarcely one of my
Democratic friends who can appreciate the posi-
ton in which it has placed them, who does not
from the bottom of bis heart, curse the day on
which he was so misled. If they adhere still
to the Kansas-Nebraska act, it is from neces-
sity, and not from choice, that my honorable
friends, finding themselves at the bottom of The
water, have, like Cooper's sailor in the western
lade, seized a root to keep themselves there.
1t is from necessity, and not from choice, that
with a mill stone round their necks, they march
down to the water for a swimming match with
| light men having floats on. M
Why, sir, what are the spologies-their Gpol
ogies to the North, their apologies to their Dem
ocratie friends Uhoa they hare slain, murdered,
and sent to the land of ghosts, for whose ab-
sence my friend from Georgia weeps? The Mis-
souri, Compromise--say they-was unconstitution-
al But since when? say the North to them. That
does not rest well, gentlemen, in your months for
it a Democratic majority that passedit. 1t was
the great men of the Democratic party, and more
than all Others the great Marylander, VIM Pinck-
ney who proposed and advocated and carried that
great measure of healing in that day The great
argument which he addressed to vindicate the sou
ereiqnty of a State from the binding control Of
conditions imposed by Congress, is the argument
misunderstood broken into small fragments suit
able to the strength and stature ct those who use
them, and misapplisd now by gentlemen to dsprove
the power of Congress pass the very Missouri re-
stIiction on Territory which he all along advoca-
ted at the very tire Of that great argument and in
corporated into the very act which is his triumpha
monument to the peace which he conquered and
perpetuated by it. And Mr.. Monroe, thsir Presi-
dent, signed it-sigued il not hastily-but after
consulting his cabinet, in which was Mr.. Calhoun
on the precise question of constitutionaity.
Is that long ago? has wisdom arisen in later
generation? Have new lights been discovered in
the constitution? Have Judicial decisions cleared
away the difficulty? 1t was in lS45 when that great
Democratic measure asas passedby which Texas
annexed to this Union, and my honorable friends
or their predecessors, then majority in both
branches of Congress, passed the Texas resolution
which enacted that Verg thing against which Pinck-
, ney directed the argument which they now make
the arsenal for weapons to assail what he advoca-
ted. They cast their votes for it, and President
| Tyler, on the third of March, signed il. Oh, but
| Tyler not Democrat Yes, but he acas, by
conversion perversion, or treachery and deser-
! ton; he was by acceptance and adoption; he
by his cabinet and his administration; he was dou-
bly, so by the presence and counsel of Calhoun the
incarnation of the very idea of Southern strict
construction; and it is understood that the resolu
tons came down from the Secretary of State, who
was Mr. Calhoun; that it his influence which
despatched the resolutions TO Texas for accept
ance on the last day Of President Tyler's term
and Mr.. Polk. though on the spot, did not
! call them.
That resolution declares that all the territory
south of SO deg. 80 min, whenever Texas should
! be divided, shall come into the Union with or
! without slavery, as the States may determine and
that an such State or Stdtes-(I ask gentlemen TO
bear the word State in mind i'm those States which
shall be formed out of so much of the Texan ter
ritory as lies north of SO deg. 80 min.-in those
| StateS-G wish the word to burn itself into their
scared conscieDces. 1t the thing which in
issue in the Missouri struggle 1t the only thing
which was there disputed. 1t is the thing which was
decided in the Missouri controversy in favor of the
! South 10 be an unconstitutional limitation on the
sovereign equality of the States. i'm those States
which shall be formed out of the territory north of
that line, slavery and involuntary servtudc shall
! be prohibited And James Buchanan was one Of
the Democratic majority who advocated and
! passed it ...
| Time rolled on, and another Territory was to be
organized. Again, with that remarkable luck
which has foowned them-which has mSled them
| to their deep undoing-they had the majority in
| this Hall, they had majority in both branches of
the councils of the nation, when the Territory Of
Oregon was 10 be organized; ard again that ma.
! jority adopted that restriction-word for word
the Ordinance of 1887. Again a Democratic Pres
ident Mr.. Polk, signed It and not merely so 81 gned
but with further declaration, not that he expect
ed this 10 be the last Of it-not merely that slavery
was there impossible or improbable-but upon the
expectation that il Uo,ld be again passed bg that
or another Congress, adopted and Incorporated
into the acts for the settlement of the Nerican
coRqWestSi ~.
neither affirm the correctness nor the incor-
rectness of this view simply urge the fact which
Northern Democrats pleaded against Southern
Democrats.
But, said nv honorable friends upon the Demo-
cratic side of this hail. 10 their Democratic friends
from the North-for there is where the detection
arose there is where the strength Of the Republi-
can party comes from-out Of their own side came
that portentOus creation whence comes this sin
and all into our happy world-we say
that we have reversed all that and those laws and
compromises are void, by reason of being iaeon-
siste,t Nth the Compromise measures of 1850.
Those measures have repealed il. All but said
their Northern Democratic friends continuing
their remOnstrance, the law which organized the
Territory of New Mexico, in dealing with the boun-
dairy of Texas, declared in so many words that
nothing therein contained should be construed
to repeal modify anything contained in that very
clause of the Texas resolution.
These Northern Democrats still further merci-
lessly press their Democratic brethren, as if to
leave my honorable friends on my left no escape
from the most awkward Of dilemmas. Ifit be true
that the principle of popular sovereignty was set
tied by the Compromise measures of 1850, how
came it to be omitted in the legislation Of 1853
since the acts Of 1880 were enacted? The Con-
gress in 1883, with great Democratic majority,
organized the Territory Of Washington out Of ter
ioh tba n-d of haH haap
BY them, in ls4s, extended and that Congress, in
the wear OF grace 1858, and Of the of the new
dispensatiOn the Sd, not merely failed to remove
that restriction, but declared that the laws Of Ore
gon should be in force ia the Territory OF Wash
ington which lars excllded Sldrery by special el-
detDient in fragrant conflict with the principle
which they now declare to have been the very vital
principle embodied in and pervading the acts Of
1850. You know as well as We do that these
Compromise measures Of 1880 have always been
regarded and treated fndiity-thc end Of
controversy-that this last compromise this great
Compromise OF 1850, was settled upon the basis
Of aH the preceding eonpToBsises-on the assump-
ton and the concession, stated by Mr.. Webster,
that every foot Of territory Ia the United States
was finally settled by laws irrepcalable, and that
it was only that suppositon that the laws Of
1880 became laws at ALL Only last session you
passed bill creating government over all the
Territory now embraced in the Kansas and Ne
brask. act, without opposition, merely by common
consent; and no man OF any party had discovered,
or II he had discovered revealed still less attempt
ed to declare, the novel dogma Of latent princi-
pie not even expressed in act being eifectual 20
annul another Law eracted on a different princ-
pie From argument they passed to entreaiy and
pathetic appeal These thirty years We have lived
under shis law. II has injured no man. No South
err State protested against is enactment-none
in 1850 demanded It's repeal many Southern men
pressed its extension 70 the Pacific. No Southern
State now demands il 10 tempest agitates the
popular mind which its repeal can quiet; no great
national necessity eompes the statesman 10 the high