Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-03-27

all was shDsiulng into submission anu hcqui-
essence, when, TO obtain greater degree OF
peace and secure us for the future against all
agitation, this bill of 1854 repeating the Missouri
compromise was passed. What has it produceds
Has il localized the question of slavery Has It
given us peace? All answer that question.
Ii has given us pnything but cessation of agita-
tion IL has given us trouble, nothing but trouble
That has been the consequence of it so far.
nm as anxious now as any man here to close
up this scepe. j would vote for the admission OF
Kansas upon almost any terms that would give
peace and quiet. II thought this bill would do
SO, should vote for 1t. would suppress all scru-
Piles for the sake Of that peace. II | was sure
such would be its result would vote for 1t, think
ing myself justified by The price that was to be
pail--the peace of my country and the restora.
ton Of good will among my fellow citizens. !
do not hope for it. fear further trouble. We
are again told that this will have the effect Of
localizing the question of slavery, and that we
shall be no more troubled with ir = that the mis-
chief and clamor and agitation will all be confined
to the limits Of Kansas. This is tho same hope
that was disappointed when the Kansas-Nebraska
bill was passed. The same hope was INDUCED In
then, and since then there has been nothing here
but agitation on the subject increasing with every
day.
Again, we have the idea of localizing it pre-
scented. Now, Sir, lift is TO be debated anywhere,
be debated anywhere, it is best that it should be
debated here because we might hope, Mr.. Presi-
dent that in this body it would be debated with
spirit of moderation and Cancellation that would
deprive II of many miscbieyous consequences 1t it
were agitated and debated among men without our
years, without our responsibilities, aud without
the restraints which our condition and our know
ledge impose upon us. Even here we do not de-
bate IL in the right way. We allow ourselves to
\ nh .;t al II To orpat
country, what is Kansas and this Kansas question,
and the two or three hundred slaves who are there,
that you and and all the American Senate should
be here day and night, and using such language OF
vituperation and invective on this subject as we
often dor Look at our great country, and the
great subjects which claim our attention as her
legislators look at them all in their majesty and
their magnitude and then say, how little ptiiul in
comparison, is the question about which we are
making so much strife and contention
On this subject, and on many Others, 1t seems to
me that it becomes US, of all the citizens Of this
great Republic 10 set to our felow-ctzcns ex-
amples of moderation and Cancellation. What
good does the mutual charge Of aggression, often
fercely re. Gated? What good do these nvec-
tives? Especially let me say to my friends of
the North, why indulge in inyectives O. the most
reproacbful character, upon those who, in four
teen or fifteen States Of this great country, are
shareholders? Does that give you any cause to
traduce them? Can you not live content with
the institutions which please you better, and leave
these fellow citizens who have just the same right
to adopt slavery that you have your institutions,
TO enjoy their liberty in peace also? Is there any
thing in the difference of our institutions which
ought to make US inimical to one another? How
was it with our fathers Did not they live to.
gcther in peace and harmony Did not they fight
togetherY Did not they legislate together? Did
they ever abuse and reproach each other about the
question of slavery Never, that have read Of
Why is it that we cannot do as they did? Have
we degenerated from those fathers or have we
grown so much better and purer than they were
| / doubt whether we are any better; and do not
believe, Notwithstanding all that is said about
progress, that are at all more sensible than
those fathers who made the Constitution of the
United States, and laid the foundation of this
great Government. They gave us an example of
brotherhood; and when we look at oil that con-
meets us, all that unites and makes us one people,
how much more powerful would its influence seem
to be to connect us together than the question of
slavery and anti slavery to divide us? We are
united by circumstances Of which we cannot divest
ourselves. We are united in language, in blood,
in country, in all the memories of the past, in all
the hopes of the future. This is our connection,
leading and pointing to the brightest destiny that
ever awaited any people. ALI the unnumbered
blessings Of the future are in full prospect; but
there is this ttle this comparatively small matter
of contention that seem disposed TO nurse up
into continual occasion for philippics and for re-
proaches. This is not the right temper with which
to regard the subject elimination and recrimi-
nation is not the way to strengthen our Union
that Union OF brotherhood, of good WILL of CO.
operation for all great national purposes, which
our fathers formed.
i was gratifed TO hear comparisons made OF the
mighty resources Of the different sections Of this
country. II was proud exhibition. The homer
able Senator from South Carolina Mr.. HAMMOND
gave us, in a very interesting aud eloquent manner
the mighty resources Of the South. They are be-
yond estimate-beyond calculation. This is re-
piled 10 by gentleman from the North, who gives
us the mighty resources and the mighty power Of
New England and the nonslaveholding States.
Well, sir, If the conclusion which might be drawn
from il true, that each Of those sections would
by itself make a mighty country and a country
that any one of us might be proud Of, what a
magnificent country is made when We put it all
togetherl What a magnificent abode for man,
such as the Almighty never gave TO any other peo-
pie and never placed the surface of this earthl
II seems to me the most natural union in the
world-the South, with her great and her rich
productions, while the North abonnds with inge-
nuity, labor, mechanical skill navigation, and CON-
merce The very diversity Of our resources is the
natural cause Of union between us. 10 would not
do fer us all to make cotton nor would il do for us
all TO work in your manufactures. Nature seems
TO have organized here this country adapted to
union Of people North and South. Nature has
given her sanction TO the Union. Nature has
traced that Union, and you alone disturb il. Gen.
temen, you alone disturb IL by making this subject
Of slavery the cause Of dissension. The dissen-
sion has been kept up, though we but seldom come
to any practical question that calls upon us to
act on the subject. Now, IL we we're through with
this petty Kansas affair, what a summer sea Of
boundless expanse lies before us, where there Is
nothing but repose. There is no other territory
that you can dispute about in my lifetime or the
lifetime Of any man here. This Is the last point
on which controversy can probably be made.
We have gone through many difficulties on this
subject Now we have reached the lat Of IL,
the least Of il. Let us settle this matter in
peace; let us settle il in good temper; and /
see nothing before US but long period Of repose,
and, hope, Of mutual cancellation. OF one thing
am certain, that criminaten and rectimination
between the North and the South, the getting up
end maintaining Of sectional feeling, sectional pas
sion, sectional prejudices, can do no good to any
section; and there is not one Senator here who
does not recognize aud feel all this as much as
do. am certain Of it.
Ny vote on this subject sir, has nothing sec
tional in Il. The only difficulty have in voting
is, that this Is regarded by some as a sectional
question and am on one side Of that section,
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