The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-02-09
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Territorial Slave Code.
SPEECH or HON. HENRY WILSON,
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY 25, 1860.

Inc Senate proceeded 10 consider the follow
ing resolutions, submitted by Mr.. BRowS on the
18th instant:
Resolved That the Territories are the common property
ali the States and that IL Is the privilege of the citizens Of al
the States into the Territories wth every kind de
ecrpton OF property recognised by the Constitution OF Tho
United States and held under the OF OF the States
and that Is the constitutional duty Of the law making pow
wherever lodged by whorsoever exercised whethes
by the Congress the Territorial LEGISLATURE enact sUcl
laws be found necessary for the adequate and sui
hcent protection OF such property.
Resoiped the Committee Territories be Instructed
10 nssrt anybiH they Tor the organization
new Territories clause declaring It 10 be the duty of the
Territorial Legislature adequate and Sufficient laws
for the protection OF all kinds Of property above descrb
ed within the limits OF the Territory and ths, upon its fail
refusal do the admitted duty OF Congress
interfere and pass such laws.
Mr.. WILSON. MIR. President, when the Re-
public entered the. family of nations, it pro-
claimed to kings and princes, to mobiles and
privileged classes, to toiling freemen and lowly
bondmen, the equality Of man. Passing now
through the eighty-fourth year of national life,
America presents to the gaze of nations the bu-
initiating and saddening spectacle of Republic
which began its independent existence by the
promulgstion of bill of rights as old as crea-
ton and as wide as humanity, distracted by
discordant and angry discussions upon issues
growing out of the bondage of four million men.
Slavery in Americs-our connections with it,
and relations to it, the obligations these connec-
tions and relations impose upon US men, as
make the issues of the age, the trauscendent
magnitude of which command the profoundest
attention of the country. In the crowded city and
the lonely dwelling, the public press and the
judicial tribunal, the hall of Legislation and the
temple of the living God-eyerywhere-goes on
the "irrepressible conflict between the sublime
creed of the charter of independence and the
aggressive spirit of slavery; between the insti-
tetions of freedom our fathers founded and the
g 49, AZ. oh IA
the land, casting its baleful shadows over the
Republic obscuriDg its lustre, and marring its
symmetry and beauty.
Within fifteen States Of this democratic Re-
public, which commenced its career by uttering
the ideas Of equality and liberty that live in the
throbbing hearts of the toiling masses, and nurse
even the wayering hopes of hapless bondmen
amid the thick gloom of ayless oppression, more
than four million human beings, made in the
image of God, are held in perpetual bondage
By memorable laws, sanctioned by the nerciless
force of pubic opinion, these millions are de-
MED the rights of manhood, and degraded TO the
AFFECT condition of chattelhood. To them, the
hallowed relations of husband and wife, parent
and child, are held not by the sacred rights of u
common humanity, but by the will of masters.
The laws, the customs, the public opinion, which
have sunk these millions from the dignity of
humanity down 10 the degradation of chattels
which now controls the slaveholding States
This class now rules these fifteen States abroga-
ting, in support Of its interests, the inborn, in
bred, constitutional right of freedom of speech
and freedom of the press. In these States, the
power of this class is oyershsdowing, resistless,
complete. t.r
Over the Federal Government this class, this
slave power, has achieved complete dominion.
The slave power this day holds the National
Government, in all its departments, in absolute
subjugation. la this Chamber, where sit the rep
resentatlves of sovereign Commonwealth, that
poger retains unbroken sway. That power bids
the Supreme Court utter It's DEGREES and that
high tribunal obeys its imperative commands.
That power holds the President in the hollow of
its hand, compelling him to declare that " sla-
very exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitu-
ton )" that " the master has the right to take
his slave into the Territories as property, and
have it protected there under the Federal Con-
stitution that neither Congress nor the Ter
rito-isl Legislature, nor any human power, has
any authority 10 annul or impair this vested
-Fieht,n- Thai power summoned The aspiring
Vice President to his own Kentucky, to give his
assurances " that this constitutional right ex-
ists;" that " we must hold to this principle We
must stand by it; and 81 if it cannot be enforced
for want of proper legislation to enforce it, suf-
fcient legislation must be passed, or our Gov
eminent is a failure" That power lays its iron
hand upon the representatives of free and proud
Common We alths in this Chamber and in the
other, compelling them TO disavow their own
recorded opinions, to accept the monstrous dog
ma, that neither Congress, nor Territorial
Legislature, nor any human power, has any au-
thority to annul or impair the vested right F" 20
the master to have his slave protected as prop
erty in the Territories under the Federal Con-
stitution. Well might the Vice President il
view of the recent triumphs and the imperia
sway of the slave power, proudly say to the mer
of his native Kentucky, " We stand in a gooC
positioni" awe have the Executive we hav,
the laws; We have the courts and that is
great advance from where we stood ten year.
agol"
The glowing pages of that history which re
cords the deeds of the heroic men who, in de
fence of the inherent and indefeasible rights o
humanity, accepted the bloody issues of civil wal
and dehed and bafiled the gigantic power of tn
British Empire, won national independence an,
framed a Constitution for united America bea
to as of this generation the amplest evidence
that they, with rare exceptions, believed slaverl
TO be local and temporary evil, which British
avarice planted and British power nurtured il
America, and which the advancing current of ,
humane and Christian civilization would sweeJ
from the land il stained and polluted But seven
~ years, Mr. President, have now passed ava,
since the Inauguration of the Government unde
the Federal Constitution. That six hundred
thousand bondmen, valued at less than fft,
million dollars, have increased to four million
valued at more than two thousand million. Tha
feeble system of African slavery, which seemed
TO the hopeful eyes Of our patriotic fathers smt
ten with the disease of original sin, has ex
banded into gigantic system which now cast
Its chilling influences the land, pollutini
the very sources of national life, perverting tn
moral sense OF the nation, corrupting the senti
ment of justice, humanity, and liberty, an
leaving the traces of its ruinous power upon til
institutions and upon the soil of the Republic
which IL turns to .barrenness and desolation
Sir, this expansion and growth of the SISTER
of African slavery, this development of the slay
power, during the past seventy years. hav
wrought wonderful change, a complete revo
luton, in the sentiments and opinions of tn
public men who control the councils of Anne,
lea. What contrast between slavery in Amer
lea in 1889, and slavery in America in 1850
Then, it was weak; now, it is strong. Then, il
influences over the nation were impotent; nov
1t holds the Government in its iron grasp. Their
the public men who dictated the policy of th
Government deemed it to be a moral, social, an
political evil, which humanity and religion dc
plored; now, ii isSregarded by the men VIII
control the Government as a positive good,
benefcent system, a great moral" in the word
of the Senator from Mississippi, mr. BRowS
"socisl, and political blessing; a blessing to til
master and a blessing to the slave Then. [,
prohibit it in the Territories was deemed aIik
the right and duty of the Government; now, III
avowed doctrine of the Administration of III
Government is, that the SHAREHOLDERS have III
right to carry their slaves as property into th
Territories, and hold them there as property b
virtue of the Constitution, and that neithe
Congress nor a Territorial Legislature, nor an
human power, has authority to annEl impaI
= -
faith, the creed that all men are created equal
to believe slavery to be an evil; to believe, wii