The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1858-04-03
})olitiGol.
EXTRACT FROM 4 SPEECH
O i
HON !. !. CRITTENDON
L. s. SeaGior from Kcatpctg


Mr.. President, | am, according to the
denominations now usually cnllovcd BIZ
parties in this country. sontll,rn man. =
| have lived all my life in southern State
have been accustomed from my childhood
to that frame Of society Of w"ich slavery
forms part. | aims so far as regards the
necessary defense Of the rights Of the South
as prompt and as ready to defend them as
any man the wide South can hold but in
The same rcSolute and determined spirit in
which | would defend any invasion of IFS
rights, and for which | would rnt my foot
as far as lie who went furlheSt, WILL con-
code to Others their tights, and will main
tain and defend them. With the same feeling
with which know | would defend my own
rights, | win respect theirs. l. never expect
Kansas to be a slave State ] believed that
those at the South who expected it would be
druded There was some vague hope that
when the Missouri compromise hue was taken
away and abolished. slavery fright be ex-
tended in that objection, but did not believe
it. | believed that the Missouri compromise
line fixed in 1920, was about that Territorial
lin,, north Of which slavery, If it could exist
would not be pyotitably employed and our
experience since has shown that the W Use
mon who made that compromise Judged
rightly. We have found no instance in which
it has been found profitable anywhere there
| believed that the idea Of making Kansas
slave State was dcluSion to the South
that their hopes would never he realized, if
she entertained such a hope as that.
Thought, Therefore, it would have been better
without examining ScrupnlouSly into its
constitutionaliiy, to let the Missouri compro-
mise stand. | regretted its repeal. | did
not believe the South would gain ANYTHING by
it, or that the North would gain by it.
That compromise was bond and assur-
ancc of peace. | would not have disturbed
it. 1t was halowcd in my estimation by the
men who had maize it. 1t was followed in
my apprehension by the beneficial consequent
ceS that resulted from it. 1t was hailed, at
the time it was made, by the South II
| produced good, and nothing but good, from
| that time. Often have you, sir, undressing
Mr.. Toomts.) and |, and all OF the old Wing
parry, triumphed III that set as one of the
great achievements Of our leader, Henry Clay.
II was from that, among other things, that
he derived the pioudost of all his titles - that
Of the paciIicator and pcact-maktr Of his
country. We ascribcd to him great instru-
mentality in the passage Of that law, and
over and over again have | claimed credit and
honor for him for this act. This, for thirty
yeas, had been my sieadfaSt opinion. |
have been growing, perhaps, during that
time, htte older, and am a hide less
| susceptible Of new impressions and navel
opinions. ! cannot lay aside the idea that
the law which made that line Of division was
a constitutional one. believed so then
All the people believed it. must be per
ratted to retain that opinion still TO 90 on,
at any rate, to my end with the bopc that
have not beer praSing, and Lave not been
claiming credit for others for violating the
Constitution Of their country
| Sir, the men who passed that measure
were great men; they were far-seeing men,
| Without argument now am content to rest
my faith upon the authority Of those great
men -pinchney, Clay, howndes, old preSi
dent Monroe, the last Of the patrlarch> of the
| Revolution, with his learned and able Cabinet
and then, what is more than all, thrty-iive
years of aequiescguce IN it, and peace under
it in these States. Whatever Quarrels you
may have had about it in Congress, there
was always enough to uphold and sustain
that law ; and never, until lSj4 was it
repealed, or its conotitntonaly questioned,
that | know Of | regretted its repeal
because feared that it would lead TO new
aeitations and new dangers. Has it not e
What has been our experience
The authors OF the measure which repealed
:. that mpromsc-hvnorsblc and patriotic
know them to be, many of them my person
al friends promised themselves from it
! greater pace and greater repose by