The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-01-27


But, sir | desire to call attention to tho
extraordinary speech of the Senator from Geor-
gia GMr. IvERsoN,l delivered yesterday =
speech, winding up with proposition to recon-
NIT this bill, with its various amendments, for
the purpose Of having bill reported for the con-
struction of two railroads. Northern and a
Southern road-because he looked to a separa-
ton of the Confederacy, and was unwilling to &c
for one road lest in the future division of the
Republic it should fall to the North the very
last reason on Gods earth which would induce
me to vote for two roads. Sir, trust the day is
far distant, when our legislation will be shaped
with reference TO a separation of the States OF
this Union. Has it come to this, that the basis
| of our legislation is 10 be a division2 If so,
apprehend it will not be long before we have it.
But, sir, | am glad that the Senator from Geor-
gia has spoken out so boldly He has but
| avowed what have long understood to be the
sentiment of the leaders Of the party in power.
| believe he is a fair exponent of their views
| and that distinguished Senator, occupying a
| prominent position in the country and in this
body, possessing the confidence of the Admins
tration and the party in power
Mr.. IVERS0N Will the Senator allow me a
momentl -
Mr.. TRUMBULL. Certainly.
Mr.. IVERSON. The Senator is greatly mis-
taken when he says | am in the confdelce OF
the Administration. | did not speak the ssnt-
ments Of the Administration So far as ] under-
stand them, do not believe the Administration
maintain the sentiments which uttered yester-
| day. / certainly have official personal
| connection with the Administration, or any men,
Der of 1t, although must state that approve OF
the conduct and the general measures of the
Administration
| Mr.. TRUMBULL. did not suppose, or mean
to be understood as intimating, that the elabo-
rately-prepared and carefully-written speech OF
| the Senator had received the appreciation of the
! Administration in advance but he being asso-
ciated with the Administration, possessing its
confidence and that of the party in power, did
regard his views as fair exposition of the views
of the leaders of the sO-called Democratic party
Of the present day I have understood, before
they were so openly and frankly avowed here,
that such were their views supposed that they
! looked, as the Senator told u.s. to the control Of
this great Government in all its departments,
executive Legislative, and judicial, by the slave
holding interests of the country or to a dissolu-
| ton of the Union.
| Sir, how can it be that his views are not in
harmony with the views of the party, maintain
ing the relation he does to it2 | understand by
the action of the party, and | have sought to
show this to the country before, that they do en-
dorse the very doctrines which he has so frankly
| and plainly avowed here in the Senate, and that
| 1t amounts simply to this: " We Will control the
| Government we will disburse its revenue and
dispense its patronage, and govern the North ;
and when we cannot do it, we will dissolve
! connection with you; will unite with you for
the purpose merely of ruling and controlling
you for our benefit and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT but
when the time that we do so ceases, the
Republic ceases to exist" and when a practi-
cal measure is pending before this body, mo-
ton IS made to recommit it, for thevery purpose
of establishing two roads across the continent
lO0r inrr IN 80 FL,
Senator said yesterday:
When the present Republican party, or its
legitimate successors in some other name, shall
get possession Of the Government; when it has
the President both Houses of Congress- and
the Judiciary, what will stay its hand 1t can
not stand still if it does, it dies. To live and
reign, it must go on"
Sir, believe that 1t cannot stand still. It
is party of progress, of power. 1t is going on
and | coincide with the statements uttered by
that Senator yesterday, that the time will come
when it will take possession of the Government
IL has but to pursue the even tenor of its way
standing up for the rights of free labor and free
white men against the domination of the slave
power, standing by the Constitution, standing by
the Union, encroaching upon the rights of no
section of the country but carving out and
maintaining the principles of the Constitution
as our fathers made it. / say, it has but to 90
on ia that course to attain power and possession
oil the Government, and make our Union perpet-
ual. Further, the Senator said:
" Step by step it will be driven onward in its
mad career, until Slavery is abolished or the
Union dissolved. One of these two things is
as inevitable as death"
j; is by statements of this kind, as TO the aims
and objects of the Republican party, that the
public mind of the South has been misled and
although accord to the Senator from Georgia a
fair exposition of the designs of the leaders of his
party, | trust he is not fair exponent of the
public sentiment Of the South, when it shall uu-
derstand the position of the Republican party.
Does it propose to interfere with your institution
of Slavery? Where? When2 When, in any
OF its recognised public conventions, has it ever
avowed such principle2 Never. But it has
placed itself on the Constitution, and on the
doctrines of jefferson. and Washington and
Monroe, and Madison, and Jackson in regard to
the Slavery question, ay sir, and of Polk too
Ii proposes to let Slavery alone, wherever it ex-
lists under State authority. Ii proposes to pre-
vent It's expansion into countries that are free,
and where Slavery has not existed Is that a
new doctrine in this country Why, sir if the
Senator from Georgia had occupied a seat on the
floor of the Senate in 1889, when the Govern
ment was organized, and when Washington was
President, and when the law passed excluding
Slavery from the great Northwest, according tor
the creed he now avows, he must have become
an advocate for disunion at once.
But sir, the Senator made an allusion to IlIi-
nois politics, upon which | would say word.
He declared that
g In all the late elections, conservative and
sound Democracy, the only element sympath-
zing with the South, has not carried single
free State DO not consider the triumph Of sle
distinguished Senator from Illinois mr. DoUG-
LAS as victory of sound Democracy twas
victory of Free-Soil Democracy over Abolition
Whiggery, and no more
Now, sir if the Senator from Georgia is labor
ing under any such misapprehension as that the
great Republican party of Illinois, which has not
been triumphed over is an Abolition Wing party,
he is very much mistaken. If he is under the
impression that the party sustaining nv colleague
Is free-Soil Democracy, he is very much mis-
taken Need | go back to the history of this
country to show that parties were disrupted in
ls94-the Democratic party as much as the Wing
party? In 1854 was inaugurated n measure never
before IN issue between parties in this country,
never before party test Immediately preceding
that period, in 1882 both the then great political
parties had agreed upon the Slavery question
In their National Conventions, each party had
passed resolutions pledging itself to the country
10 ABIDE by the settlement of the Slavery oues-
ton as made in 1850, and denouncinc any man
as an agitator, who under any pretence what
ever, should again raise that question in CONGRESS-
or out OF Congress. But, sir what occurred with
in two years afterwards? Notwithstanding this
pledge to the country to abide by the compro-
mise measure of 1850, proposition was intro
duced into this very body, in 1854, opening up
again the whole excitement-a proposition to
unsettle, not only the policy of 1850, but the
policy of 1890 under which the country had ac-
CURED peace. When that new proposition was
introduced to repeal the Missouri Compromise
which excluded Slavery from what now consti-
tutes Kansas and Nebraska, persons took their
positions upon that question, irrespective of for