The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-01-01
CONGRESSIONAL.
DEFERRED DEBATE.
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
X srsArE, Decsmber 10, ls6e.

THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
In SENATE, December 49, 1856. st
The Senate having under consideration the motion of
Mr. Risk to refer much of the Presidents message
relates to foreign affairs TO the Committee Foreign Rela-
tions- ~
Mr. WILSON said Mr. President, in the memorable de-
bate of 1880 on Foote'S resolution Mr. Webster in that
magnificent speech which for him the proud tile of
the ablest defender OF the constitution spoke OF the od
nance OF 1871 of great foresight and wisdom
which had laid the nterdct against personal serviude
the region northwest of the Ohio while it yet
wilderness deeper than all local laws or local consI-
tions We accustomed" said he TO praise the law
gvers OF antiquity bep to perpetuate the fame Of So
lon and Lycurgus but doubt whether single law of
any lawgver modern has produced effects Of
more distinct Marked and lasting character than the ord
Of 1882 This tribute the crowning work of the
old Congress of the confederation brought upon him and
upon his section of the Union the accusation of making
onset upon the South; OF interfering with their domestic
instituons of epdangering the relation of master and
slave. General Hayne his distinguished oppohen who
fought then the FIRST great battle of notification under the
eye of his great leader Mr. Calhoun who then presided
over the Senate brought these accusations into the Senate
and hurled them against Mr. Webster aud against the peo
pie of the North Mr. Webster these accusations these
unjust reproaches, with prompt and emphatic denial
After expressing his surprise that these charges should be
brought into the Senate, be said
al know full well that it is and has been the settled policy
persons in the South for years. to the
pie of the North disposed to interfere with them in their
exclusive and peculiar When IL became
cessary, thought by political persons find
unVarying srond for the exclusion of northern from
confidence from lead In the affairs of the republic then
and not till then the cry raised and the feeling indus
triousy excited that the influence Of northern in the
public councils would endanger the relation of master and
slave. This is delicate and sensitive point in southern feel
ing and OF late has always been touched and
orally with effect whenever the has been to unite the
South against northern northern This
feeling always carefully kept alive and maintained Mt too
of great power in political machine. 1t
bodies and gives to them and the direction But
without adequate cause and the suspicion which exists
ia yVha 1lv ia audpe haRh
disposition in the North to interfere with these interests
the South Such interference has been supposed be
within the of the has it been in
way attempted The slavery Of the South has always been
regarded matter of domestic policy left with the States
themselves and with which the federal government had
nothing to do"
The motive Mr. President for these unjust accusations
"of persons in the South" against the people of the
North here clearly stated by Mr. Webster. That
tive has continued to animate this class persons this
day 1t is eve stronger than when prompted the
arragnment Of Mr. Webster for his eulogum upon the
dnance of 787 The Sensitive point in southern feeling"
has been "caefuy kept alive" up to this hour and main
tained at too intense heat to admit discrimination
lection Nor were there wanting in 1880 northern men
echo the words and join in the cry against the people of
the North. Ii Mr.. Webster, for simple and beautiful
tribute to the benecent effects of the ordinance of 1884,
arragned this floor in 1890 by of the
compshed statesmen of the South if there were then
found northern ready to echo his words surely the
who vote to apply the principle of that great
dnance to the vast territorial possessions of the republic
cannot hope escape Misrepresentation censure
freedom the signs of their waning power of that class
of northern who ~
" In the dust are cropping
For the largess, base and small,
Which the hand Of power is scattering;
Crumbs which from Its table fall"
But sir can stand, we stand here to-day and say,
the great New England orator then sad that cir
cusaons and suspicious are wholly groundless that no
attempt has been made since Washington took the
oath of Office the 30th of April 1885, to this hour
interfere with the legal and constitutional rights of the
people of the southern States in their domestic
On the 9TH of November last than million three
hundred thousand men, intelligent patriotic, liberty
loving, law-abidng citizens of New England the great
central States and of the Northwest holding with our
republican fathers that all created equal and
have inaeDabe right to liberty that the copstu-
on of the United States ordained and established to
that iuaenabe right everywhere under its excu
sive authority denying "the authority of Congress- OF
territorial legislature, of any individual assoca-
tion of individuals to give legl existence to slavery
in any Territory of the United States while the present
constitution shall be maintained" pronounced through
the ballobox that the constitution confers upon Con-
gess sovereign power the Territories of the Uni
ted States and that in the exercise of this power is both
the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Ter
ritores those twin relics of barbarismpoygamy and a-
very" Believing with Franklin, that slavery is afro
cious debasement of human nature'-with Adams that
"consenng to slavery sacrilegious breach of trust
with Jefferson that "one hour OF Aperican slavery
raugh with misery than ages Of that which
in rebellion oppose-wh Madison, that slavery is
dreadful calamity that "mbecility is attendant upon
country filed with slaves'wih Monroe that slavery
has preyed upon the vals of the community in all the
States where il has exisedwith Monesqueu that even
the very earth which with prosion under the cul
vatng hand of the reeborn aborer shrnks into barren
from the communicating sweat of slave'they pro-
nounced their purpose to be to Kansas in peril
and all the Territories Of the republic for the free aborng
of the North and the South their children and their
chdrens children forever
Accepting the Declaration Of Independence and the
stituon OF the United States their political charts
avowng their purposes to be maintain the consultation
the federal Union and the rights of the Sates-proclam-
ing everywhere their purpose not to make upon the
South interfere with the legal and constitutional
rights of the people of any of the Sateshey gave their
charging the hties sanctioned by humanity, patriotism
and religion Youth with its high hopes and aspirations
manhood, in the yigor and maturity of its powers-age
with its rich and ripe experence5nspred with the spirit
of Washington when ho announced to Robert Morris that
his suffrage should not be wanting to effect "he abolition
of slavery in his native Virginia "n the only proper and
eectna mode in which could DO mplishedthat is
by legislative authority severed the tics which had bound
them other organizations and united to prohibit slavery
outside the States where IL exists under
these million three hundred thousand of the free
NORTH upon whom the upkenneed hounds of the slave
propagsndists have been unlcashed.
Sir the President of the United States, in this bis last
will and testament has araigned these million three
hundred thousand intelligent and patriotic feemen of the
country His accusations have gone forth the land
Steam and SAIL wind and bearing these
tous all over the Christian and civilized world Wherever
our country IS known, these accusations made by the
Chief Magistrate of the republic will meet the eye reach
the ear Of indulge the hope however that the
republicans of the Old World who have been and are
churches and herarchies, will remember that the
pubcans of the New World who battle for the liberty Of
man against the dominion of man. doomed, like them
selves share the connmely and reproaches of power