The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1860-10-04
DEMOCRACY IN 1850.

We have been looking over an old speech
of Thomas II. Benton, delivered in the United
States Senate, during the great debate on the
admission Of California, We subjoin few
extracts;
But my opposition to the extension Of sla-
t,y dates further back that lS44--forty years
c~r y beck and as this is a suitable time
conscis Ial declaration and a soft of general
si,ion to il dlivery, | will say that my oppo-
dat Of law from 1904, when l was astu-
subject of Africa spnessee, and studied the
II Virginia bookwT1Y in an American book
stones Gommentor;es Wis edition of Black
to the Constitution and laws %8s 8 ol relelehoe S,
Government of the United States e., reSeiai ,
common wealth of Virginia. " VI 'n'
And there | find the largest objections to
extension of slavery-to planting it in new
regions where it does not now exist-bestow-
ing it on those who have it not. The incura-
| bility of the evil is the greatest objection to
the extension of slavery. It's wrong for the
Legislature to inllct an evil which can be-
cured; how much more to inilict one that is
incurable, and against the will of the people
who are to endure it forever Iquarrel with
no one foi supposing slavery a blessing I
nor impose it on others. = -
In refusing to extend slavery into these sew
enty thousand square miles New Mexico,)I 1
act in conformity, not only to my own long
established principles, but also in conformity
to the long established practice of Congress.
Five times in four years did Congress refuse
the prayer of Indiana for a temporary sus.
pension of the anti slavery clause OF the ordi-
nance of '87. On the second of March 1903,
Mr.. Randolph of Roanoke, Chairman of the
committee TO which the memorial praying the
suspension was referred made report against
it, which was concurred in by the House,
This report of Mr. Randolph was in 1908; the
next year, March 1904, report on the same
prayer was made by committee of which
Mr.. Rodney of Delaware was Chairman it
recommended a suspension of the anti-slavery
clause for ten years; il was not concurred in
by the House Two years afterwards, Feb
ruary, 1906, a similar report recommending
suspensions for ten years, was made by a
committee, of which Mr.. Garnett of Virginia
was chairman ; it met the same fate-non-
concurrence. Next year, 1907, both Houses
were tried. In February of IL at year, q
committee of the House, Of which Mr.. Parke
was Chairman, reported in favor of the in
definite suspension of the clause the report
was not concurred in. And in November of
that year, Mr.. Franklin, of North Carolina as
Chairman, committee of the Senate made
report against the suspension, which was con-
Cured in by the Senate, and unanimously, as
it would seem, from the Journal there being
no division called for. Thus five times in four
years, the respective Houses of Congress re-
fused to admit even temporary extension or
rather re-extension of slavery into Indiana
territory, which had been bef re the ordinance
of 81 slave territory, holding many slaves
at Vincennes. These five refusals to suspend
the ordinance of '87 were so many con6rma-
tons Of it. All the rest of the acti, of Con-
gress on the subject was to the same effect or
stronger.
And here it does seem TO us that we of the
present day mistake the point of the true OBJ
lection to the extension of slavery. We work
at it as it concerns the rights or interests of
the Inhabitants of the States, and not as it
may concern the people to whom it is to be
given, and to whom it is to be an irrevocable
gift to them and prosperity
Thus it is seen that Benton was not only
opposed to the extension Of slavery, whether
by squatter sovereignty or any other mode.
but in favor ofts suppression by Congress. In
the sames peech from which we have quoted,
speaking Of the institution in connexion with
New NJ, xico, he asks, "Can climate be relied
upon to keep it away? think not" The
dogma that the Constitution carries slavery
into the territories was almost unknown, and
wholly disregarded then, and the possibility of
its extension over the Spanish Amirican ac-
QUESTIONS, was almost universally held to be
contingent on the action of Congress. Benton
would MS soon have agreed to let the yellow
fever or any other evil go wherever the laws
of climate might carry it, as slavery. We,
therefore, assert that the principles which he
voted upon and the policy which he pur sued
during his thirty years in the Senate are the
same principles which the Republican party
proclaims in the Chicago platform, and the
same policy with which it is identified by its
action in Congress and the declaration of all
Its leading men. No man who considered
himself democrat on principle in 1850, can
consistently refuse to vote for Lincoln and
Hamlin in 1880.
1t is stated on what seems to be good
authority that Douglas has seriously content
plated withdrawal from the canvass. When