Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-24
SPEECH or
HON. SHERRARD CLEMENS,
- r,r,Iz DnnGAG NTTrETTNJ
ON THE KANSAS QUESTION.

| TIE hAH5AS SO6S44OIN.
| Nh. CLEMENS. Mr. Chairman, the evening
before the battle of Talavera, in Spain, the ar
mics of England and France encamped on the
opposite banks of river which, guiltless OF hui
man blood still flowed between them; and the
soldiers ofeach, as the shades ofevening hasten
cd on, came quietly down to the brink OF the
water and filled their canteens in preparation
/ for the CORY work of the morrow. Sir, we who
have hoped there was to be, and-would be, some
cessation of fratracidal strife; that had reach
| ed at last the palm tree and the fountain in the
great Sahara of political life; and that, in the
| great principles of the Government as establish
ed by law, Patriotism would entrench itself so
strongly that we might well bid defiance to
world IN arms, now find ourselves, as crewhile,
ranged along each side of belligerent line of
opposing camps, marked cut as distinctly as that
cleaning river in Spain which divided the con-
Querers and the conquered. While the white
flag of Peace still flaps in the breeze, let us 90
down to the limped stream and quietly drink to-
gether, whatever may be the fate of the country.
Sir, am not here to indulge in any sentiment
Of objurgation of reproach. The Representa-
tive of larger white population than any MEM
Der from Virginia, coming, as do, from part
of the State jammed up like wedge between
Ohio and Pennsylvania-my people having ma
ny precious connections with both-hnding
amongst MY immediate constituents large
mass of northern men, who have built up man
ufactufing establishments, and devoted their
enterprise, energy, and capital to the develop
ment of the resources of my native city and
State-I profess to speak on all questions here
which apparently wear sectional phase, with
out one particle of acrimOny, but ut the same
time with the emphasis which is due to the time
and the occasion.
Sir, n venerable man, weary with the cares of
State; who has been for forty years in the
vice of his country, at home and abroad; who
has illustrated her history in every political de-
partnent by the high cmprise of his statesman
ship; with no child to inherit his well-earncd
fame, but giving to still united people all his
love; with ambition before him, except to
discharge honestly the high functions pertaining
to the most majestic position on earth-is now
upon his political trial. On the steps of yonder
porticc, but few fleeting months ago, in the
presence of assembled thousands of his coun-
trymen, he took solemn oath to support the
Constitution of the United States; under which
it was his imperative duty 10 take that the
laws shall be faithfully executed. At the very
outset of his administration the difficulties which
surrounded him seemed almost insuperable.-
Poison, in the covered dish; internecine war;
civil strife; geographical prejudice; treason,
with its bold, braZen, and defiant front; aIhbi-
ton, with its cool, plotting, inscriptions
schemes; bankruptcy, with the hands Of Briar-
Gus, throwing curses i'll his path; sedition, with
its earkiSsing arguments; sharp-toothed I'M
Kindness tied as a vulture to his heart, untIl,
like Lar, deserted by his own kin in the midst
of the pitiless storm, he might well say
"close pent.up quilts,
These dreadful summon"rs grace. aW man,
More sinn'd against, than SHINING"
Sir, am not here IS his unreasoning advo-
cate. / am not here to pirate of blind loyalty
to him, or to any other man; but as one of the
humblest of those who stood by him in ticrcer
trial than this, shall not submit, come what
may, to see him wounded in the house Of his
friends.
Pass with me, then, sir, from the petty con-
sideration of who shall be Earl of Durham, or
who shall be Vicar of Bray-from the heated
arena, where mingc the exacerbations and pre-
JUDGES and passions of the hour-back to the
earlier and better days of the Republic and let
US see how far the President can be sustained,
either by precedent or by existing law, which
he would have been recreant to himself if lie
had not faithfully enforced.
Fret, then, Of the and the law. On the
3Oth day of May, 1854, the Congress of the Uni
ted States organized the Territories of Nebraska
and Kansas, both of which did not then contain,
| exclusive of the aboriginal inhabitants two hun
drcd human souls. 1t was provided, that the
State or States created swithin the same, should
be received into the Union, with or without
! slavery us their constitutions may prescribe at
| the time ftheir ndRiSsiOn;;' and to that end it
was expressly stipulated, THAT nothing in the
act contained should he construed to legslate
slavery into any Territory or State, nor to ex-
clude it therefrOm; but the people thereofshould
domestic institutions in their own way, subject
only TO the Federal Constitution and all OF us
know that the only requirement by that instru-
ments, that the State constitution shall be re.
publican. That no obstacle might be cnterpo-
sed by Federal authority, and that these ends
might be completely attained, the Congress of
the United Stotes ahnegated the power of ma
/ king laws for said Territories by al ,lnalously
STIMULATING chat the legislative pc IT of the
| Territory shall extend TO all rightiui bects of
| legislation, consistent with the FEEDER Consti.
tuition, and the provisions of the orga ic act
Congress even went further than thi>; for while
the right ofsutrage conferred on very act
ual resident white male inhabitant above the age
Of twenty years, it still further anomalous.
~ stipulated that "the qualification of voters at
all subsequent elections shall be prescribed by
the Territorial Assembly"
Up to this period, the practise of this Gov
eminent, without beng uniform, had been, in
majority OF cases, first, to create a territorial
government; then, to authorize census Of the
inhabitants, by Federal authority and finally,
to empower the inhabitants, by what was gen
orally termed an enabling acr, to hold cor ven
ton for the purpose of forming constitution
preparatory to admission into the Union; and
J 81, 81, I. y.