The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1856-06-21

dents, stand on any other platform than the
one made at CincinnatiP Our opponents
have been in the habit of saying that they
have made Douglas platform and then put
Buchanan on it. ask you to examine this
matter for moment, and you will find thai
James Buchanan ard myself occupy ident
cally the same position, and have done foi
years, on this slavery question, in all it.
phases In 1876, when Mr.. Wi!mot, o.
Pennsylvania, proposed the .Wilmot provi-
so, then, in the House of Representatives,
! proposed, as a substitute, to extend the
| Missouri line to the Pacific Ocean. Iou all
remember that in October, lS47, James Bu-
chansn wrote his celebrated "llarvcst Home
| Letter." Of Berks county, and in that pro-
| posed to extend that line to the Pacific
Ocean, as the dividing line between slavery
and freedom. lie did not maintain then that
! the Missouri compromise was founded on
sound or wise principles but finding It on
the statute book, rather than hazard the
peace AID harmony Of the country, lie was
| willing to close the controversy forever by
extending it to the Pacific rather than to
"a sc sectional strife, even to carry out a
sound principle. Acting on that same theo-
~ in August, 194e, I proposed in the Sc
nate Of the United States a law to extend the
! Missouri line to the Pacific ocean, in the
same sense and with the same understanding
! with which it was originally adopted. That
/ proposition passed the Senate, and was
/ voted down in the Hohse Of Representatives
! by Northern men with free soil and abolition
! proclivities. Had the policy of Mr. Bucha-
/ nan, as proposed in his ''Harvest Home Let
ter then prevailed the same policy which
| advocated in the law Of 1913, there would
have been an end OF this sectional controver-
sy forever. Who is responsible for the de-
feat Of the proposition TO extend that line to
! the Pacific: Certainly not James Buchanan
certainly not yself-certan'y not the
I Dcmocrrtjc party. The men who were re-
/ sponsible for that were the abo,itionists and
I the Soilcrs-the pretext anti-Nebraska
/ men OF the country. They ihen told US
/ that the Missouri line was an infamous mea-
sure-thcy said that if slavery was right on
/ the south side of the line, it was right on
/ the north side-they said if it was right to
/ leave the people TO do as they pleased on the
/ south side Of SO deg. 80 min. it was right
/ to grant them the same privilege north Of 3G
! deg 80 min.-they said they would agree to
/ anv measure bat that infamous measure the
Missouri compromise. By the defeat of the
/ extension Of the Missouri Compromise line
/ in l84S, as proposed by Mr.. Buchanan in
his Harvest Home letter and as proposed
I bv myself in the Senate Of the United
States, the country was plunged into that
great whirlpool OF dangers, OF sectional ag-
. tatiOn and sectional controversy, which last
/ ed from 1913 to 1850. That controversy
was the result of the defeat of the PROPOSE
ton 70 extend the Missouri Compromise line
as proposed by Mr.. Buchanan and int O.
duced by myself in 1850. The contest had
RACED to such fearful extent that the best
men in the land trembed for The fate of the
republic Even the immortal Clay, who,
after a long life of patriotic public service,
. had retired to the shades Of Ashland to pre-
pare himself for another and a happier state
( Of existence, there in his retirement heard
the mutterings .ot the approaching storm
heard the angry voices Of discOrd, breathing
sectional hatred and sectional strife. until he
feit bound to come out from his retir. N ut
into the Senate OF the United States-the
scene of his greatest :riumphs and proudest
services-to see if he, by his age, his expc-
renee ana bis CU.Hs-l, odd ..Vt do some
thing to calm the troubled waters and re-
store peace and quiet to distracted coun-
try. From the moment when NJ. CLAW an
pearc9 in the Senate, all party strife was
hushed. Patriotic feelings subIued factious
resistance. NJ. Clay became the leader of
ali the Union men of the country H had
the great. 'he ifn"onrtal .Cass, whom YOU
have heard tonight, for his rIs iI.-l.e-I 49,,
and codlike Webster for the left, and then
there ranged round him all the patriotic
Union men, Wings and Democrats. united
by common object animated by common
spirit, and that was 10 restore peace 10 the
country-to 9uel the sectional strife that
Abo}itoaism and Freesoiiisln Lad produced,
in consequence of defeating the proposition
Of Mr. Buchanan to extend the Missouri line
to the Pacific Ocean. For tive long months.
we assembled in the council room each
morning, to plan the operations for the day,
70 head of faction and to suppress the com
binationS against the institutions Of the
country-and there we arranged, step by
step, the propositions, until they resulted in
the adoption Of the measures known as the
compromise measures of 1850. You all re-
member with what shouts and rejoicings the
passage Of these measures We're received
throughout the country. You all recollect
the great meeting you then held at PM ladel-
phia. composed OF Wings and Democrats,
and Union men Of all parties, who approved
of the settlement which was made by these
measures OF that vexcd question. And now
let me remind you, my friends, that among
the proudest productions Of that meeting
meeting-is the letter of James Buchanan to
the meeting, congratulating the country up
on the restoration Of peace by the establish
ment of the great principles of the compro-
mise measures of 1850. Thus we find that
Mr.. Buchanan was among the first to ap-
prove Of these measures. He had been for
the Missouri line; so had !. We tried to
carry it out and were voted down. Failing
in that we took the next best measure,
and, fortunately for the country, that mca-
sure was a return 10 the true principles Of
the Constitution of the United States, as the
great Washington, and Madison, and Ha-
milton, and Franklin, and other sages
framed it in that hall From 1S30-having
abandoned all these patchwork compromises
which were outside Of the Constitution
James Buchanan has stood firm and unmOv-
able by these principles. In 1854 it became
my duty TO report bills to organize Kansas
and Nebraska on the principles laid down in
1850, endorsed by the Wings and endorsed
by the Democracy-and sanctioned by Mr..
Buchanan in his letter 20 the Philadelphia
ratification mcetng-and | brought in the
Nebraska bill in the form that it now stands
upon the statute book. (Cheers.) That
bill passed the Senate by a majority OF the
Wing party then in that body; also by
majority OF the Democratic oehatoiS re-
ceiving the votes of majority of the South
ern Senators, and also Of majority of al
the Northern Senators and yet are told
that the country was betrayed in the passage
of that bill.
A Voice-No such thing.
Mr.. Douglas resuming- Betrayed by
whom? Betrayed by minority of the
North--betraycd by a majority of the South
betrayed by the demOcracy-betrayed by
y majority of the whigs-and that too in
carving out n principle to which every whig
and every democrat two years previously
had pledged his honor to carry out in good
faith. The fact is, that these old line demo
Gratis who stood immoveable by the princi-