The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-22


crime to deprive person of his liberty without
| justi6able or excusable cause 1t is always q
natural wrong, but it is not, in my judgment, q
| crime in every instance. / have never so re-
| garded it, This is my explanation of that part OF
| the Declaration of Independence which declares
/ that all men were created equal, and OF the
| enunciaton of the same principle in the platform
of the Republican party. If it means anything
else, do not understand it, and the people OF
| the State OF Illinois do not understand It, 1t Is
/ the doctrine we have proclaimed there always
and the people of the State of Illinois who be-
long to the Republican party, belong to it as a
party adopting the principles Of the old Repub-
| lican party; and as that old Republican party
kept Slavery out of the Territories, believing il
to be an evil, we desire to do the same thing
and for that purpose the present Republican
party was organized, because of the change OF
| the policy of the Government on the subject OF
| Slavery, in undertaking to extend it.
may omit to answer fully the Senator from
Florida / hope shall not, and certainly will
not omit answering frankly, so far as am able
| to do so, if | recollect the positions which be
has assumed, for in this debate it is no Interrupt
ton TO me that gentlemen ask questions. wish
| to deceive nobody. have no prepared speech
to make, and therefore it is no interruption to
me- If can afford information to any gentle
man from the South that shall disabuse his
mind as to the objects and views of the Northern
people, shall consider that | performing 8
! service to my country in giving the information
have not been able to get through with what
l designed to say in reply to the Senator from
Florida, the Senator from Alabama having in
| terposed some questions in the mean time, divert
! ing my attention from him. ] shall endeavor ia
answer him. The Republican party, as / under
stand, was organized with regard to the Terrific
rial question but if the Senator, when he says
it is confined altogether to that means to under
hot he
would not make itself efficient in preventing the
violation of the law in the revival of the African
| slave trade or anything of that kind, he misun-
derstands me. The Republican party, on this
subject of Slavery, would prevent its extension
and ii would enforce the laws equally in the
North and in the South. While it would not in
| terpose to prevent the owner of slave from re-
capturing him in free State, it would make it
self active in preventing violations of the law in
the Southern States by the introduction of ne
groes from the coast of Africa, and the revival Of
| the African slave trade. We would administer
this Government very differently from the man
ner in which it is now administered and if we
had control, the army and navy of the land would
be as ready to arrest your vessels loaded with
slaves when they landed upon the Southern
coast, as they are to arrest negro that may be
| found loose somewhere in the city of Boston.
The Senator asked the question distinctly
! Was Slavery abolished by the Constitution of the
| United States? No. sir.
Mr.. YULEE. No, sir; I did not ask that ques-
| ton. | asked the meaning of this clause in the
! Republican platform.
| Mr.. TRUMBULL. Perhaps shall be able tC
answer; if not, when l get through, the Senator
can repeat the question. He wanted to know i
the slaves in Tennessee and Louisiana are freed
by this platform. No, sir; the Senator certainly
understands that.
Mr.. YULEE. do.
Mr.. TRUMBULL. He wanted to know if the
slaves are free in the District of Columbia by this
platform. No, sir.
Mr.. PUGH. May ask the Senator whether
he is speaking for himself or for the party2
! Mr.. TRUMBULL. l am speaking for myself
and as l understand
Mr.. PUGH. thought you were interpreting
| the party.
Mr.. TRUMBULL. am giving my understand
ing of the Republican creed, and the way it i:
understood by the people Of the Northwest, who
| are a conservative, UDion-loving, Constitution
abiding people, loyal to the Constitution and tc
| the Union, and no ultraists in any sense o.
| the word.
Mr.. PUGH. Will the Senator permit me to ask
| him whether he considers Governor Chase, Of
| Ohio, an exponent of the principles of the Re-
| publican party2
| Mr.. TRUMBULL. Mr.. President, l consider
that 1.-THE platform) the exponent of the princi-
| pies of the Republican party, and not what any
| one man may say. 1t is the creed of one million
| three hundred thousand men, and Governor
| Chase may or may not precisely agree with me
in his Interpretation of every clause. l do not
believe it possible there can be as much differ
ence between as there is between the Senator
| from Ohio with his ENTHUSIASTICALLY dogma
and the great Democratic party. Laughter
Mr.. PUGH. That is just what l want to find
ont; how much difference there is between the
| Senator and the rest of his party.
| Mr.. TRUMBULL. / do not believe there is so
wide difference as that.
Mr.. YULEE. But the Senator wondered yes
terday evening that was unable to understand
his platform
| platform. 1t has no Northern and Southern face,
like your Cincinnati creed. We do not preach
popular sovereignty in the North, and scout it
as humbug in the South.
Mr.. PUGH. You do not preach it in the South
at ALL
Mr.. TRUMBULL. No, sir; we do not preach
it in the South at all and yet the men who do
not allow our principles to be proclaimed in the
South talk about sectionalism A sectionalism
so pure and unadulterated that it will not toll
crate the exposition of the principles of its oppo
nents at all where it is in power, talks to the
other party about sectionalsm
say that Slavery was not abolished in Ten
nessee and Louisiana by the Constitution. Why,
sir does not the Senator from Florida know that
we acquired Tennessee by deed of cession that
prohibited the extension to it of that portion of
the ordinance of 1897 which excluded Slavery
Slavery existed there, not by virtue of the Con-
stitution creating it, but by virtue of local law,
| and that is the authority which establishes Sa-
very everywhere. Slavery can exist nowhere
except by virtue of local law, and that is the
reason why the person who owns a slave in a
| State cannot hold him as slave, under the law
! of his State, in a Territory where Slavery has
| never been established. The Senator wants to
| know if Congress can confiscate his property.
| Surely not. That question cannot arise; he cam
not hold the property there; he does not own
| the man; he voluntarily goes into jurisdiction
| where there is no law to establish Slavery, and
when he goes there the shackles of the slave fall
off not by virtue of the Constitution of the Uni
ted States abolishing Slavery everywhere, but by
| the universal law of mankind, that this thing of
| Slavery is so odious that it can only be sus-
| tanned by positive law.
| Mr. YULEE. As | wish to understand the
Senator perfectly we proceed, l will ask him
| this question When he spoke of the existence
| of Slavery in Tennessee by virtue of the local
| law, did he mean the local law of the Territory,
| or the local law as established and recognised
by Congress by virtue of the compact with North
Carolna2
/ Mr.. TRUMBULL. / mean the local law exist
I ing in that Territory when it was coded, and
which Congress, in accepting, agreed not to in
| terfere with.
The local law in Tennessee authorizing Sla-
very was not law to which Congress gave ex-
| istence; it was a law in existence before Con-
| gress had any jurisdiction over the Territory.
| The Constitution did not intervene by its terms
| to exclude Slavery, there being local law in
existence, not made by Congress, authorizing it.