The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-03-07
Congressional Proceedings.
FIRST SPEECH OF MR. SEWARD.

FIRST SPEECH OF MR. SEWARD.
In the Senate, on the 10Th, Mr.. Gwin, Q
California, reported the Military Academy
I5ill, without amendment.
Mr. Grimes offered a resolution that the
Secretary Of the Navy inform the Senate as
to the number Of marine hospitals, the number
| of patients, and the expenses Since 1901
adopted.
Mr.. poolttle presented petition that the
Post Office Department be made free.
Mr.. Trumbull offered a resolution that the
Secretary of the Treasury communicate a
statement of the revenue of each collection
district from 1851 to 1859.
Mr.. Wilson presented memorial from the
merchants and underwriters of Boston for a
steam mail twice mouth between Charleston
Key West and Cuba.
The rest of the session was occupied by Mr.
Seward, Of New York, who made his first
speech since his return from Europe, and the
floor and galleries were in consequence
crowded to their utmost capacity. As Mr.. S
IS supposed to speak for the Republi:an party
we append here the synopsis of his speech
Il; 4 iin L. e., G ssssl
Mr.. Seward opened By rGmarAlng the evils
OF slavery. Labor, either of his fellow men
or of slaves, was the cardinal necessity of So
ciety. Some States have one kind, and some
the other. The slave State strikes down and
affects to extingush the personality Of the la
borer, not only as member Of the political
body, but also as a parent, husband, child,
neighbor or friend. He thus becomes, in a
political view, merely property, without moral
capacity, and without domestic, moral or So
cial relations, duties, rights and remedies-a
chattel, an object of bargain, sale, gift, inher.
lance or theft. His earnings are compensated,
and his wrongs abused, not to himself but to
his owner
The State protects not the slave as a man,
but the capital of another man, which he rep
resents. In contrast, Mr.. Seward reviewed
the condition Of the free laborer and the free
States. He said, the State which rejects
slavery encourages the laborer by maintain-
ing and developing his rational personality in
all rights and faculties Of manhood, and with
the privilege of citizenship. He thought he
might not inaccuntely call slave States CAPT
tai States, and free States labor States.
In the opinion OF Mr.. Seward, the fathers
of the Republic adjusted the slavery question
so that it might have given us much less than
our present dsquiet, had not circumstances
afterward occurred, which they had not clearly
forescen.
He condemned the practice of slavery, and
hoped for its discontinuance.
They expressed this as fundamental prin-
ciple in the Declaration of independence, that
all men are created equal, &c. He thought
! the constitution recognized every human being
not as capital, but as person. After giving
a brief history of the settlement of Louisiana
Territory, the speaker referred to the question
of Congress legislating for Territories The
question of 1920 was identically the question
OF 1860. He alluded to the conflict going on
between freedom and slavery. The Demo
cratic party was generally found supporting
policy Of capital.
He quoted instances. Mr. Van Buren,
launched prospective veto against the anti
cipated measure Of removing slavery from the
District of Columbia. A Democratic Congress
brought Texas into the Union, STIMULATING
probabilities for its future organization into
four slave States.
Mr.. Seward referred briefly to the repeal Of
the Missouri Compromise, and its effects upon
the Territory of Kansas. Immediately after
that event the Wing party went down, never
to rise again, and the Republican party was
organized. He spoke of the efforts of Demo-
Gratis to make Kansas slave State, and to
force it into the Union as such, and denounced
that party's efforts to mask itself behind the
battery Of the Supreme Court.
The same party was itself responsible for
the act to subyert the free Republic of Mica
ragua and open it to slavery and the African
slave trade, Mr. Seward said the Republican
party embodies the popular protest and rcac-
ton against policy which has been fastened
upon nation by surprise, and which its reason
and conscience, concurring with the reason
and conscience Of mankind, condemn. He
spoke of the coming Presidential campaign,
and the Republicans holding to the principles
o: preventing the Territories, by constitutional
MEANS from becoming homes for slavery and
polygamy. He said the policy of the Repub-
lican party was to stand by the freedom of
speech and of the press, and the speedy i'm |
provement of the public domain by homestead |
laws, and it will encourage mining manuiac- |
lures and international commerce. He was
no assailant of States, all the States were par
,els of his own country.
He said it was we'll and wisely arranged
hat the States were sovereign on the subject
If slavery within their own borders. lie said
John Brown and his associates acted on earn
st though fatally erroneous convictions. He
the act an act Of sedition and
reason, and criminal in just the extent that
affected the public peace and was destructive
f human life He did not think any thing
erious would grow out of the repeated threats
o dissolve the Union