Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-02-09

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justice of that measure have not changed
What was wrong when enacted never ceases
with me to be wrong. . ... .-
| @ SATURDAY, January 49, 1856.
Mr.. QUITMAN. | intended Yesterday tc
take the floor for the purpose of making few
remarks in reply to those which fell from the
gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr.. GRow,
who last spoke upon the subject of the respon
sbiiity of the several parties for the failure OF
this House to organize ; but refraiued from
doing so in the hope that some other gentle
man would have done it. But. there were
some expressions that fell from the gentleman
from Pennsylvania, in the few eloquent remarks
that he made to the House, which | think il
my duty to animadvert upon. He traces the
cause of the failure of this House to effect an
organization, not to what has occurred during
the present session, but he goes back to the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill as the
cause of the hostile feeling between the differ
ent sections Of the Union which to-day produ-
ceS the disorganization Of this House.
The gentleman does not go far enough back.
Is it, sir, the passage of that bill which has
given to all portions of this country Their equal
rights in this Confederacy-is it the passage of
! that bill which has produced this state of feel
ing between the different sections of the coun-
try! If it is, then the gentlemen who concur
with him have taken the bold position that
they will deny to large portion of this coun-
try their common, equal, constitutional rights
If this is the position gentlemen occupy, we
from the minority section of the Union would
be glad to know it. But. sir. what is the Kan
Sas-NebraSka bin What is it but a recogni-
ton of the principles which underlie the Con-
stitution of the United States the right of
all the States in their Federal capacity. and
the rights of the citizens of the respective
States TO an equal participation in a country
which was acquired by their common blood and
treaSure-not less by that of the people of
the South than that of the people of the
North.
But gentlemen are mistaken They do not
travel back to the sources Of that angry feel
ing which exists between the different sections
of the Union, when they stop at the passage of
the Nebraska bill by the last Congress. That
was not the cause of that hostility of feeling
which now prevents the organization of this
House. That was not the original cause why,
at the present time, We find the two sections
OF the country arrayed against one another /
Will tell gentlemen what the cause is. The
cause has operated for more than a year. 1t
made It's appearance on this floor in 1919, and
was only guieted for a time by the compromise
or 1920. 1t broke out afresh in 1885. 1t is
70 he found in that spirit of aggression upon
the institutions of the South which comes from
portion of that section of the country which
the gentleman Mr.. GRow represents. The
South has ever stood by the guarantees of the
Constitution she has adhered faithfully to
the system OF government under which We live
She has never undertaken TO make any encroach-
ment upon any State rights or upon any indi-
vidual rights of the citizens of the North Not
so with the North. Upon the application of
Missouri for admission into the Union in 1919.
she eFinced her disposition 20 exercise her DO
ftical powers to prevent the increase of slave
holding States, and to deprive the South of
her just rights to participation in all the bene-
fits of the Union. The political strife which
grew out Of that controversy threatened the
dissolution of The Union. 1t resulted in a com
promise unjust 20 the South. but which she was
compelled TO accept Tue result of that strug-
gle, thus terminated, quelied agitation for
time 1t soon rose again with fearful violence.
and has been continued ever since.
But the gentleman traces back the cause of
this sectional hostility one year only Let me
tell him that, twenty Years ago, when | had
the hoaor 10 send in an executive message to
the Legislature of Mississippi, deemed in pro
per 10 call the attention Of the Legislature Of
that State to the aggressive movements in the
northern States Could have procured that
document, | would read extracts froA it TO
show the truth of nv remarks The South
has eTer since complained of this intcrmelidling
of the North with her Institutions Yet it has
continued without nterniSSion il is the asita-
ton which that gentleman, and those who CO.
operate with him, has raised that has produced
this feeling between the different sections of
this country, and not the passage of the Kan
Sas-NebTaSka bill that was the result not the
cauSe- 1t is not because the Kansas NebraS-
ks bill has taken awsv a single right from the
North, but it is because il has performed a
constitutional duty te~she South because it
has given to the SouthSshe same rights which
we Acknowledge are possessed by the people of
the North. Let the gentleman, then, when he
attempts 10 trace causes, go back TO the sources
of this state of feeling, and he viii end that it
is upon you, northern men, the responsibility
OF this state Of things lies-upOn you who have
stirred up this sectional agitation, You who
seek 70 deprive sovereign States Of their feder-
al aud constitutional rights, When you attempt,
then. to trace it back, so 10 its true source
In the future Of our eountry. II il should hap
pen that the glOrioas system which our fathers
have transmitted 10 Us shoald fall and tumble
into ruin, the verdict of Posterity and history
viii be to condemn the agitAtOrs OF the slave
~ question as traitors to the Constitution and
TO the equal constitutional rights Of portion
Of this Union. There, 3r, / trace il. and
there posterity viii trace il, and viii not impute
it to the action OF the last Congress in doing
what was nothing bat Haere justice to the
Soath
GeRilemen tell us here, graaciously, that
they are not disposed to inraae our rights OF
property within the States | do not thank