The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1856-08-23

dered. and sent 10 the land Of ghosts. for
whose ahscncc my friend from Georgia wccrs
The Missouri Comp omiSr-say they-was
unconstitutional. But since when say the
North to thcm. That does not rest well
gentlemen, in yonr mouths. for it was Dem
ocratc majority that passed it. It was the
great men Of the Democratic party. and more
than all others, the great MaiNantler VIM
Pincknev, who proposed and advocated and
carried that great measure of healing in that
| day. The great argument which he addressed
to vindcaic ne Sovereignty Of a SiGic from the
binding control Of conditions imposed by Con
grcSS, is The argument misunderstood. broken
into small fragments suitable 10 the strength
and stature of those who use them and mis-
applied now by gentlemen TO disorovc the
power of Congress to pass the very Missouri
restriction OaG TERRITORY, which he all along
advocated at The very time of that great argu-
mcnt, and Incorporated into the very act
which is his tIiumphal monument to the
peace which he conquered and pcrpctuated by
it. And Mr.. Monroe, their Pre%drnt, signed
it-signcd it not hastil y-bnt after consulting
his cabinet. in which. was Mr.. Calhoun on
the precise question of constilutiolality.
Is that long ago! Has wisdom arisen in
a later generation! Have new lights been
discovered in the constitution Have judi
cal decisions cleared away the difficulty ! 1t
was in 1915 when that great Democratic
measure ,ras passed by which Texas was an
ncXcd to this Union, and my honorable
friends, or their predecessors, then in a ma
jiority in both branches of Congress, passed
the Texas resolution which enacted MM re,lJ
Thing against which pinckncy directed the
argument which they now make the arsenal
for weapons to assail what he advocated.
They cast their votes for it, and President
Tyler, on the third Of March. signed it. Oh,
but Tyler was not Democrat! Yes but he
,rds, by conversion or perversion, or trcachery
and assertion; he was by acceptance and
adoption; he was by his abinct and his adj
ministratisn he was doubly so by the pre-
scncc and counsel Of Calhoun, the incarnation
of the very idea of Southern strict consruc-
ton: and it is understood that the resolutions
came down from the Secretary of State, who
was Mr.. Calhoun ; that it was his influence
which despatched the resolutions to Texas
for acceptance on the last day of President
Tylcr's term; and Mr.. Polk, though on the
spot, dld not recall them.
That resolution declares that all the terri
tory south of3G deg. 50 min, whenever Texas
should DC divided. shall come into the Union
with or without slavery, as the States may de-
termnc: ard that, in such State or SMicS-n
ask gentlemen to bear the word state in mind J
in those States which shall be formed out of
so much of the Texan territory as lies north
of 81 deg. 80 min.-in those Shucs--U wish
the word to burn itself into their scared con-
sciences. 1t is The thing which was in issue
in the Missouri struggle. 1t was the onty
thing which was there disputed. 1t is Tie
thing which was decided in the Missouri con-
troversy in favor of the South to he an uncon-
stitutional limitation on the sovereign cquaity
Of The States lin those States which shall be
formed out Of the territory north Of that line,
slavery and involuntary scrvilude shalt be pro-
hibHed. 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 rcmarka-
bic luck which has followed them--whch has
mislcd them to their deep undoing-they had
the ma jority in this Hail. they had ma jority
in both branches of the councils Of the nation
when the Territory Of Oregon was to he or
ganZcd: and again that ma joliy adopted that
rcstriction-word for word--thc Ordinance of
l1S1 Again Il Democratic President, Mr..
Polk, signed it and not merely so signed but
|
cl MtS 10 be me last Of t--not merely that
slavery was there impossible or improbable
but upon the crpcci0iion HW i uond he d.oin
PrSscd by t,m or anothcr Congress, mIopint and
incorporated into Tie acts for the settlement Of
The .HGricnn cohgnc$tS!
lnrithcr affirm the correctness nor the in
correctness of this view: simply urge the
| jGGi which Northern Democrats pleaded
against Southern Democrats.
But, said my honorable friends npon the
Democratic side Of this hall, to their Demo-
cratic friends from the North-for there is
where the detection arose, there is where the
strength of The Republican party comes from
out of their own side came that portciitouS
creation whence comes this sin and all our
woe into our happy world-wc say that we
have reversed all that, and those laws and
compromises are void. by reason of being in
consistent rnh hc Compromise measures Of
1850. Those measures have repealed it. All !
| but, said their Northern Democratic friends
continuing their renonstranre, the law which
organized the Territory of New Mexico in
dealing with the boundary of Texas, dcclai cd
i'll so many words that nothing therein con-
tanned should be construed to repeal or modi-
fy anything contained in that very clause of
the Texas resolution.
These Northern Democrats still mcrclessly
press their Democratic brethren. as if to leave
my honorable friends on my left no escape
from the most awkward of dicmlnas. If it
be true that the principle Of popular sover-
eighty was settled by thc Compromise inca
surcs of 1850, how came it to be omitted in
the legislation Of 1858 since the acts of $50
were enacted! The Congress in 1858, with
a great Democratic majority, organized the
Territory Of Washington out of territory over
which the Ordinance of 1877 had been by
them, in 1913, extended: and that Congress,
in the year of grace 1858, and of the era Of
the new dispensation the Sd, not merely fail
ed to remove that restriction, but declared
that the laws of Oregon should be in force in
| the Territory Of Washington; rhich tasrs CT
clmicd slarery by special enactment, 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 Com
promise measures of 1850 have always been
regarded and treated as a fnM'iy- end Of
controversy that this last compromise, this
great Compromise of 1850, was settled upOa
The bases Of ali the preceding compromises -on
the assumption and the concession, as stated
by Mr.. Webster, that every foot of territory
/