The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-22
THIRTY-SIXTH CON RESS,
First Session.
Tuesday, December 13, 1859.
SENATE


Tuesday, December Is, 1859.
SENATE.
Mr.. King presented petition from Daniel f.
Tiemann, mayor of New York, and very large
number of the most influential citizens of that
city and State, urging upon Congress the pas
sage of a law to prevent all further traffic in
and monopoly of the public lands, and that they
be laid out in small farms, for the free and ex-
elusive use of actual settlers.
The resolution of Mr.. Mason, in relation to
the Harper's Ferry affair, came up as unfn-
ished business, the question pending being the
amendment of Mr.. Trumbull, to extend the
inquiry to the capture of the public armories,
&C., at Liberty in the State of Missouri, in the
year 1855.
Mr.. Clay, of Alabama, addressed the Senate
in speech designed to show that the outbreak
was the legitimate result of the doctrines incul-
Gated by the Republican party. 1t did not be-
come him to predict what Alabama would do in
case a Republican President should be chosen
at the next election; but he would say that,
unless lost to every principle of civil duty and
political integrity, she would withdraw from
Confederacy thus perverted from its original
conception into a badge of disgrace and an
engine of oppression to the South.
Mr.. Gwin thought, in view of the solemn
declarations made by Mr.. Clay, it behooved
Republican Senators to pause in their career.
He thought there was great delusion prevail
ing at the North, in regard both to the proba-
bility and practicability Of dissolution of the
Union. 1t was more probable than many sup
posed, and its practicability was capable of
easy demonstration; and disunion, whenever
made necessary to the South, would be as safe
as it was practicable, for she had no foes to
fear from abroad or within. The people of
California were unanimous in their allegiance
TO the Constitution and the Union and it was
because of this sentiment that he invoked
Northern Senators not to disregard the intima-
tons of Southern sentiment with regard to the
consequences of a Republican triumph in 1860.
lie hoped that love of party might not prove
superior to love of country.
Mr. Hale said such declarations were well
calculated to disturb political illusion which
the Northern States had hitherto cherished, in
supposing themselves equal to their sister States
of the South. They were now plainly told that
if they pursued a certain line of policy, marked
out for them in advance by kind guardians, all
would be well; but if, consulting their own
views of political duty, they should elect, in q
perfectly constitutional way, the man of their
own choice for the next Presidency, it would
be followed by dissolution of this Union
On what pretence did the people Of the South
thus assume to deny to the people of the North
the same privilege which they claimed for
themselves in exercising the elective franchise
Had it come to this, that the North was 'ex-
pected to go through the farce of an election
merely for the purpose of ratifying the edicts
of the South? Was it expected that Northern
men would falsify their honest political and
constitutional convictions in subservience to a
craven fear? If so, he ventured to predict
that the next election would sufficiently demon
strate the fallacy of any such expectations. If
the freemen of the North had really become so
abject, they were unworthy the political compan-
ionship of men claiming to be high-minded and
chivalrous; and if he thought as meanly of
the South as the authors of such threats seemed
10 think of the North, he would not wish to
live in political fellowship with them one hour.
Mr.. Gwin briefly reafirmed his positions,
and hoped that the spirit of party might not
drive men to pursue any line of action which it
was foreseen would be fraught with danger to
the Republic.
Mr.. Wilson denied that the Republican party,
in its opposition to the spread Of Slavery, in
cited by any hostility to shareholders. That class
ofcitizens were everywhere received by the North
with all the courtesy attaching to their private
worth or official position. The Senator from
Alabama might visit Boston, not only with safe
ty, but with assurance of a kind reception from
all classes. On the contrary, it was notorious
that the life of q Republican Senator would be
in jeopardy if he should venture within the
confines of some of the Southern States. AS
an index of Southern sentiment on this score,
1t was worthy of remark that price had been
set upon the head of Republican Senators and
Representatives by a public advertisement in
serted in Southern journals. The people of
the North could regard Slavery as a moral,
social, and political evil, without being prompt
ed by any feeling of hostility to Shareholders.
Mr.. Clay rejoined.
Mr.. Wade, of Ohio, obtained the floor, when
the Senate adjourned.
Wednesday, December IA, 1859.
SENATE.
Mr. Mason's resolution again coming up, Mr.
Wade, remarked on the injustice done to the
Republican party in imputing to it purposes
and objects hostile to Slavery in the States,
and expressed the opinion that, if there was
any danger at the South from the circulation OF
incendiary sentiments, nothing could be more
pernicious than the impression sedulousy in
culcated in that quarter to the effect that a
great party at the North was striving to effect
the forcible or unconstitutional emancipation
of the negro race. Equally unfounded was the
with the nefarious attack of old John Brown
on Harper's Ferry. He had not found a man,
woman, or child, at the North, who approved
that act, or who questioned the right of Vir-
ginia to punish it as she saw fit; but there was
sympathy for the man at the North, and for
reasons as irresistible as the instincts of hu-
mainly. He was honored for those traits of
bravery, honesty, and sincerity, awarded to him
by Governor Wise, in common with others.
Moreover, the people of the North saw in him
their former champion and defender at a time
when the feeble settlements of the Free-State
men of Kansas were devastated by fire and
sword, under an Eruption of rutianism from
Missouri. When three years ago cry came
up from that Territory, calling upon Congress
and the Federal Government for relief from
outrage and murder, it was met with derision,
and received no audience from that day to the
present time. Compelled to arm in self-defence,
the Free-State men found in John Brown a
daring leader, who drove back the invaders
and for this service he had a claim on the
gratitude Of the people of the North, who could
discriminate between what was good im the
man and what was evil When he Mr.. Wade
spoke of outrages and murders in Kansas, he
spoke of what he knew. Former constituents
Of his, residents in that Territory, had been
murdered in cold blood but, because these
crimes were committed in a remote region of
the country, they failed to attract attention at
the South. Now, when the evil was brought to
her own doors, she was instant to claim redress.
Mr.. Wade then proceeded to review the posi-
ton assumed by the Republican party in the
matter of Slavery. That party deplored and
abhorred Slavery in the same spirit with the
fathers of the Revolutionary era; but, like
them, il abstained from all interference with
the institution in the States. 1t was notorious
that the South had within the last FIVE or ten
vearS asnousad q new doctrine in regard to