The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-08-12
KANsAs-LEcOhPToN Coz TIrUTION.
SEECH or HON. JAMES ! ; HAMMOND
OF SOUTH cARolt A,
ON THE ADMISSION 0 KANSAS. !
Iivered in The Senate of the Us IS, March 4, 1858

ON THE ADMISSION 0 KANSAS. /
Isvered in the Senate of the u As, March 4, 1858.
CONCLUDED
s. AS | am disposed to Sc his question
settled as soon as possible, md am per-
festly willing to have f al and corv
elusive settlement noar, al er what the
Senator from New York has said, |
tank it not improper thai | should at
<5npt to bring the Mort and South
f;-re to face, and see WI resources
e.. of us might have in tb contingency
o. separate organizations.
If we never acquire ari Their foot of
te.ritory for the South, ,ok at her.
Essyht hundred and fifty tho sand square
es. AS large as Gil at Britain,
Vince, Austria, Prussia, and Spain.
Is pot that territory enoug to make an
empire that shall rule the cid? With
tbs finest soil, the most ) 3ightful eli
n, te, whose staple produc IONS none of
tl-se great countries can ,t-,w, we have
tL,ee thousand miles of col .%lental shore
liz :, so indented with bays ind crowded
wrh islands, that, when their shore
Ines are added, we have welve thou
81 d miles. Through the leart Of our
country runs the great M sissippi, the
Ia ner OF waters, into who , bosom are
pc llred thirty-six thousand tiles of trib-
ut ry streams and beyi d we have
tn desert prairie wastes, protect US
in our rear. Can you he in such a
ter ritory as that! You to of putting
up wall of fire around q ht hundred
an fifty thousand square les so stu
at1 How absurd.
But, in this territory J. the great
valley of the Mississippi, " the real,
apg soon to be the ackno psdged, seat
of she empire of the world The sway
of sshat valley will be as gseat as ever
tn. Nile knew in the ca 5ier ages of
mst,kind. We own the mo.E of it. The
most valuable part of it longs to us
noS.; and, although those vi 0 have set
tie, above US are now opposed to us,
ant her generation will tie different
talS.. They are ours by a | Che laws of
nat~lre slave labor will q over every
fooE of this great valley Were it will
be found profitable to use - and some
Of those WHO may not use 5 are soon
to be united with us b. sue lies as will
make ns one and inseparabP The iron
horse will soon be clatterj over the
sunny plains of the South, bear the
products of it's upper tribut, les to our
Atlantic ports, as it now & s through
the ice bound North. T.. re is the
great MISSISSIPPI, bond oe nion made
by Nature herself. She v(l{ maintain
it forever.
On this fine territory, we have pop
ulation four times as large ) that with
which these colonies separa eJ from the
mother country, and hunG red, ] might
say thousand fold stronger Our pop
ulation is now sixty per mt. greater
than that of the whole U 0ted States
when we entered into the 81 C nd war of
independence. 1t is us Err e as the
whole population of the Uii4ed States
was, ten years after $he e)r ,lusion of
that war, and our export ire three
times as great as those ff he whole
United States then. Upono muster
rolls we have a million of n n. In a
defensive war, upon an emery ICY, every
one of them would be avcS bic. At
any time, the South can lie e, equip.
and maintain in the field, a. ger army
than any Power of the earl can send
against her, and an army q oldiers-
men brought up on <horsib ok, with
guns in their hands.
If we take the Nor h, ever when the
two large States of K, nsas ard Mime
sofa shall be admittt d, her territory
will be one hundred thousand square
miles less than ours. / do not speak
of California and OREGON; there is no
antagonism between tn, South and those
countries, and never will be. The pop
ulation Of the North 5 fifty per cent.
greater than ours. Ihave nothing to
say IN dlsparagement either o. the soil
OF the North, or the pee pie % sae North,
who are brave and energetic race. full
of intellect. But they prodqo. no great
staple that the South Goes 10 produce;
while we produce tvs or re. and
those the very greatest, tdf She can
never produce. AS to herN IN | NAV
be allowed to say, they I We never
proved themselves to, be i pc rior to
those, of the South, eitfer il ie field or
in the Senate. Qz
But the strength of ! ma. 4 epends
IN a great measure upon i fealth
and the wealth of ms ton; Se that of
man, is to be estimats ed be Is surplus
production. You may go toy u trashy
census books, full of fs lseh,oz a i'd non
sense they tell you, FIR e3az p. ?, that,
IN the State of Tennessee, Oh whole
number of house-servi nts IS nc; equal
to one-half those in mt ow Cor Sc, and
such things as that. You aas estimate
] what is made tbrouoEo,,4 ~ .