The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-13

pRfsSEsRN AIlON, ThOT fiOA$. NV f<AN-
prTTATIoN OF SLAVERY, THE VITAL AND
.IINATTNG SPIRIT OF THE NATIONAL Gov
rRNNENT"-JoHS QurScY ADAMS
No. 7.
The accession of the Wing party to power,
Nth General Taylor and Mr.. Fillmore for its
-.,-asentatives in the two highest National off,
"a. was simultaneous with the termination of
,ba Tbirtieth Congress. While out of office,
thst party had retained hold on the favor OF
crast numbers of patriotic citizens at the North,
y, lavish ntiSlave Power professions. The
sincerity of those professions, on the part OF Its
leaders. was now to be brought to the test. All
,be world knows how it came out of that trial.
Tho year which followed the Inauguration of
Wb;g rule. reckoning from the commencement
or the Thirty.Grst Congress, witnessed not only
.se complete pros.ration of the organized resist
sncs to the despotic Oligarchy, bat an emulous
submission to it, altogether without precedent,
and-coud unquestionable facts be forgotten-
altogether beyond belief.
The overture of the drama OF that Congress
WAS performed by the Wing Mr.. Clingman, of
North Carolina, and the Democratic Mr.. Foote,
Of Mississippi, in a correspondence published
in the National Lntelligencer, two weeks before,
wherein, in view of expected further action re-
s,ecting the Wilmot Proviso, Mr.. Clingman in
formed his friend that, in his judgment, the
slave States ought to resist any act of Congress
for the exclusion of Slavery from the Terrific
tories; and that this sentiment, as he was au-
thorized to say, had the concurrence of the
Wing Mr. Mangum, Senator from his own State.
Here was a frank manifesto of basis of joint
action for both parties among the shareholders;
part of the machinery for embodening the we'll
affected, and overpowering the obstinate, among
their respective fellow.partisans at the North.
Sixty-two votes were taken, before the House
chose its Speaker. The candidates for that
high place were Mr.. Winthrop, of Massachu-
sets, and Mr.. Cobb, of Georgia There were
ten or twelve members, hostile to the Slave
Power, who could support neither, and whose
scattered votes prevented choice. Great pains
we're taken to persuade them that the election
Of Mr. Winthrop would be the less of two evils.
Bat his past course, especially that in the two
last Congresses, had rendered any confidence in
him on their part impossible; and they may
have thought that, on the whole, the most re-
lance for any opposition to the Slave Power,
from the two great parties, was to be placed on
the rank and file of the Wings, and that they
would be less likely to be firm if ProSlavery
Wing held those means for corrupting them,
which the Speakers hands distribute, than if
the posts of honor and other favors were at the
disposal Of Democratic presiding officer. At
all events their course was fully indicated,
when Mr.. Cobb, chosen Speaker, at length, I'M
der a plurality rule, appointed Committees
more favorable on the whole, to Freedom, than
hsd been those of Mr. Winthrop in the previous
Congress; and when the latter gentleman, al
ter a few weeks, proceeded openly to abandon
the Ant-Slavery ordinance for the newly-ac-
Qured Territories, at that moment, more than
ever before, the great question of American pol
tics
General Taylor's policy in respect to the Ter
ritOries, as disclosed in his annual message,
turned out TO be no other than that policy of
E9a-iaterrention which had been set forth in
the Convention of his opponents at Baltimore,
in May, and which, with abundant disgust, his
Northern supporters had denounced during the
canvass as the objectionable heresy of MIR. Cass.
Mr.. Root, of Ohio, one of those members who
had always meant what they said, and whose
views had undergone no change in the altered
condition of the Wing party, took the first OPP
portunity, after the organization of the House,
10 take its sense on the ordinance, by offering
the following resolve, DecepSer 3lst:
"Resolred That the committee on Terri
tories be instructed 20 report to the House,
with as little DELAY IS practicable bill or bills
providny for p territorial Government or Gov
ernments for II that part of the territory ceded
TO the Un;ed States by Mexico, by the treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, lying eastward of the
Sierra levada mountains, and prohibiting Sla-
very tn in."
Mr. Sephens, a Wing member from Georgia.
moved lay the resolve on the table-a dis
possl I paper which, under the rules of the
HOUSES practically equivalent to its rejection.
TheiotioR was defeated, by a vote of IOl to
S3put further action on the resolve, at the
IL was STAYED off by an adjournment, moved
kIhe Wing Mr.. Houston, of Delaware.
"hen 1t came up again for action, February
M
L inns time 1t prevailed, by vote of los to IS.
lie arrangements of five weeks had resulted
~ tne expansion of a minority of SO into ma
JorI'y oil lO5, and in the shrinking of body of
ioi supporters to 10. The House consisted.
At the time, of two hundred and thirty-one
members, htty-one more than voted on the
question. Ihirty-two Northern msmbers voted
70 70, iay on the table. Others, though present.
0"' not answer to their names; it was unneces.
S5@'y sufhcient majority being known to have
y. %eeH secured. The recent Wing candidate for
,He Speakership was of the latter number. lint
ne TOOK occasion, in a speech soon after. (Feb-
.uary III to allude to the final vote for lavinp
'ue resolve on the table, in contrast with the
p,e'ions vote against that disposal of it, as
'he late which it then merited, and which it
Las since received"
s,n Mr.. Giddings, on the same day, offered the
following resolves:
-, heSotced, That we hold these truths to be
icy that all men are created equal
; siar ney are endowed by their Creator with the
C 4alenaoie rights of life and liberty, and that
rights. W --'"'N'o'n 'ne'e
. fesotred, That, in constituting government
d a. any territory of the United States, it is the
~ uy Oh Congress to secure to all the people
Of GFeIeoi, OF whatever complexion, the enjoyment
o. the rights aforesaid"
,oa nnls might seem harder, if possible, to dis
a?'e OF without wincing than the other. But,
,.h ~ LOT penny, in for pound" is a well-es
@'nsned maxim; and the resolves were thrown
~ Inc table by a vote of l04 20 go. Some II
members, 1t seems, silent before, thought it
. ~?s' now to fortify themselves with their con-
sS %'uen's by lifting up their valiant voices to
NC extent OF saying nay to denial of the doc
Ta; OF the Declaration of Independence.
sro-l as Gays work put, if not a new, at all
re- decisive face upon affairs. The Pro
s~S' installed with such promise three years