The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-10

How can an honorable man. a patriot and lover of
iusrous by the noble devotion and patriotism of her
IN the OF Liberty converted grand menagere
where men TO be reared for market ike oxen in the
shambes?"
There would have been no escape for him.
The "old apostle of Democracy must have
indoctrinated him with some of his fanatical
notions. His language sounds like that uttered
by Black Republican-only it is little btacker
than any of us use. Laughter.
Hear what other fanatics of "the Old Do
minion" uttered on the same occasion. Mr..
Rives, of Campbell, said:
"On the multiplied and desolaing evils of Slavery hs
not disposed say much The and deterora-
of the members the House and the people of Viz
gnia and cid to him that there could not be TWO
opinions about itn
Mr.. Powell said:
al can scarcely persuade myself that there Is a solitary
gentleman this House who will not readily admit that
Slavery ia evil and that its removal practicable, is
contamination most devoutly 10 be wished I have not
heard nor do expect TO hear raised III this HAL
TO the contrary"
Mr.. Preston said:
Sir, Mr. Jefferson whose hand drew the preamble to
The bii OF nights has eio9uenty remarked maj we hau
had denied He and felt that slaves, as
| men, were embraced within this principle
Mr.. Summers, of Kanawha, said:
But sir the evils 81 stem be enumerated.
Il unnecessary attempt H. They glare upon al
every step When the owner looks TO his wasted estate,
he knows and feels them"
Mr. Chandler, Of Norfolk, said:
Z" Ii is admitted by all who have addressed this House,
has been destructive to the lives of citizens history
with unerring truth will record That its future increase
will create commotion, cannot be doubled
Mr.. Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier, said:
"Wherefore, then, object Slavery, Because it is
ranous to the whites retards Improvement roots out an
industrious population banishes The yeomanry deprives
the spinner the weaver the smith, the shoemaker, the
carpenter, of Ell poyment and support" &c-
Mr.. James Mcdowell, jr, of Rockbridge, said:
"Who, sir that looks this property legislator
and marks ATS effects upon national advance, but
veeps il the worst of patrimonies Who that
looks to this unhappy bondage OF our unhappy people, in
the society thinks of its and its
issues but weeps over il a upon him who inhcts
upon HIM who suffers"
Suppose the Legislature of Virginia should
have passed an act similar to that of Kansas
Is there a noble Virginian-and they cannot
be other than noble, descended from such noble
ancestors, who uttered such thrilling sentiments
of truth--who would not have exerted the ener-
gies which God has given him for the purpose
of ejecting such apostates from the faith of their
fathers from the Old Dominion? Certainly
there are none such among the living. Yet, if
the sentiments expressed by these men were
uttered in Kansas, thay would send their unfor-
tunate authors to the cells of criminals. All,
Mr. Speaker, can it be that any man is so stulti-
fed as to presume, for one moment, that such
infamous Legislation is in accordance with the
fundamental principle the leading idea," of the
Kansas Nebraska act--that men are to be, not
free only, but perfectly free, to regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way?
l will not consume the time of the House
with further quotations from the sayings of the
distinguished dead and honored living. Every
Al. 81 L.
as was used by the noble men of our Republic
in every section of our Confederacy twenty
years ago; yet, in Kansas, this day, all those
men, for the utterance Of such sentiments,
would be branded with infamyl And, can it
be that the National Legislature will tolerate
men who thus tarnish the fair fame of their
fathers, and violate the spirit and letter of our
charter of rights? Will the North submit to it
Never. With the poet, we can fervently say !:
Is this the land our father, loved,
The freedom which they fought TO win,
l. this the soil they trod upon!
Are these the graves they sumber in,
Are we the sons by whom are borne
The mantles which the dead have worn,
And shall we crouch above their graves
With craven soul and fetered hip.
Goked in with marked and branded slaves
And remble At the masters whip?
No, by their enlarging souls, which burst
The bands and letters round them set;
BY the Tree pigrim-sprlt nursed
Within our utmost bosoms-yet
BY all above around below,
BE ours the indignant answer-No,
Never will this free American people, who
have drawn their lifeblood and the essence of
their glorious institutions from the noblest men
| God ever made-never can they submit to such
tyranny in this nineteenth century, Mr.. Speak.
er, if this organic act of the Territory was vio-
lated by the Territorial Legislature-if that
| Assembly was debauched by invasion and fraud,
perpetrated on the day of the election, or by
subsequent illegal acts--what is the RENE
! dy? The remedy is obvious.
| What has been the uniform practice of our
| Government in regard to the Territories? In
every other Territorial act prior to the Kansas
| Nebraska act, there was contained the provision
that the laws of the Territory should be submit.
ted to Congress, and if disapproved, be declared
null and void. That asserted power embraced
the remedy. If that salutary provision was I'M
Intentionally or designedy omitted in the Kan
sas act, does that omission diminish the power
of Congress, or change the settled practice and
! law of the country? Will any one contend that
Congress had no power Of this kind until each
Territorial organic law was enacted; and that
the power was newborn with the birth of each
act2 No man can stultify himself by adopting
such an absurdity. The remedial power yet
remains where the trainers of the Constitution
placed tit is in Congress-it exists to a Ger.
tain extent, in this House.
We cannot, by our separate action, reach the
root of this wide-spreading tree of wrong and
iniquity in Kansas but we can lop off branch
of that same tree, protruding into this House in
the person of General Whitfield. If we canno
strike the axe at the root of the tree, we car
withhold the nutritive sap, without which it
vigor will decline, and thus at least PARTIAL,
teach the wrong-doers in Kansas that the wa,
of the transgressor is hard" and that justice
although it may linger, will yet have free course
ORDER.