Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-02-01
-st'r-'ss' SfEKCH OF MIR. CLINGMAN,
OF N0RTH-CAROLNA,
De1scered in the Senate Of the United States,
5anSary 18th, 1860.
TERRITORIAL POLICY.
(G0ncluded.)

yaxsSry 10th, 1860.
TERRITORIAL POLICY.
(Concluded.)
Such, then, Mr.. President, are the views OF TINS
party as indicated alike by its declarations ana It's
| acts It's members arc moving on with an acceerar
| ted velocity. While the more moderate of them
| now occuny the ground of the Abolitionsts twenty
| wears ago most of them far in advance OF that
position. Ought we to stand still until all the States
| are as thoroughly abotiOnized Massachusetts
now is If not what can be done to arrest the
mischief? I propose, then, seriously, to consider
this question a.,
In nv judgment there are two modes in which
it can and ought to be met The first is under the
Constitution; the second may be outside OF IL
If abolitionism be popular deluslon can 1t not
| be dispelled BY proper efforts Truth can over
come error; but to enable it to do so it must be
| properly presented to the human mind. As the
| antislavery party have acquired their present as
tendency by vigorous and widely extended efforts.
fthey are to be overthrown it only by decided and
persevering exertions on the other side There are,
in my opinion, sufficient conservative elements IN
the free States for this purpose if they can only be
properly arrayed in opposition. 1t is necessary that
the discussion should be widely extended and also,
| directed to the merits of the question involved
The constitutional argument is sufficient for the in
tegent and honest but if it be said, for example
merely, that slavery as existing in the southern
States is great wrong and great evil, yet that I'M
der the Constitution the people OF the North nave
no right to interfere with it. the party so defending
will in the end lose ground because masses of men
when excited by real or imaginary wrongs will in
time break over legal restraints which they re-
gard as unjnst an criminal They hold that where
there is will, there is way" and will find some
mode of action. But in this case the real issue is
whether or not the negro is the equal of the white
man physically, intellectually, aid morally? Though
usually evaded in the discussion, this is the real
question which lies at tbs foundation of the contro
versy If the people of the northern States should
regard the negro as being the equal of the white
man. then they will continue to feel sympathy for
him in slavery, and can be excited to efforts for his
liberation If on the contrary, he be different in
material respects from the white man, and also in
feror then his case must be decided on its own
merits and not from any supposed analogy to that
of the white 1t is not, as the Abolitonists in
their Stiffness assert, question of color or
prejudice against black skin. If the negro were
in fact in all other respects like the white man, his
blackness would have been Of no more consequence
than the difference between black and red hair or
light and dark eyes. The feeling against him grows
out of the fact that he is in all respects different
from the white man and inferior. When I put the
question to any one that may meet here, the
chances are that he will at once agree with me- IN
used some time ago by the Senator from Illinois,
| [Mr. Trumbull, that Omnipotcncc has made diff
| ference between the white and the negro; and
yet it is this very opposite view in favor Of negro
equality which gives its main force and vitality to
the antislavery movement. When, sir, some twelve
years ago /, in discussion, threw out suggestions
about the difference of races, l was denounced as
one who attributed injustice to God Almighty in al
| leglng that He had made the negroes inferior. Will
any Senator on the other side of this Chamber tell
INC why it is that Providence brings half the chill
dren that are born in New England into the world
with constitutions so feeble that they cannot live
until they arc twenty-one years of age? Or will
they, upon their views Of His justice, explain why
it is that in the same family one brother is provided
with good constitution and strong intellect while
second has from his birth the seeds of debility and
ncurable disease, and third is mentally imbecile
or perhaps idotic? Would the injustice to the
feeble be greater if they were black men? Are we
to refuse to believe the facts which nature constant
ly presents to us, because they do not harmonic
with our ideas of the justice of the Creator? The
Bible itself does not explain to us why it is that
while ten talents given to one man, to another
but single talent is given For the inequality Of
the negro, Providence is responsible, as He is for
the entire creation which surrounds US. When hui
man laws are in accordance with the system Of ma
turc, they are WISE but if in opposition to it. they
are productive only of mischief The question is
significantly asked in the Scripture "Can the ETH,
opian change his skin Or the leopard his spots %
The ancients expressed their opinions on this sub
jcct in the fable which represented black man as
having been killed in an effort to wash him white.
There is no middle ground which can be main
tanned on this question If the negro be your equal
Why do you exclude him from your parlors If he
be unequal your whole argument has in fact lostits
foundation and fails. If it once be admitted thai
the negro is inferior then the entire edice of Ado
tionism falls to the ground, because it is intimate
y interviewer with, and owes its vitality to, the op
posite belief. When pressed boldly on this issue
the Abolitonists of late arc trying to evade it, Il
is singular and striking fact, that when this issue
has been made in the free States directly, and dis
cussed before the people, they have decided the pon
against the negro. Such was the case in Connect
cut and New York on the question of suffrage, anG
also in the States of Illinois and Indiana on the pro
position to exclude free negroes from those States
In the contest TOO, in Illinois, in the year 1858
which resulted in the triumph of the distinguished
Senntor from Illinois, mr. Douglas, this was tn
| leading issue. Had that Senator contented himsel
with simply saying that slavery was evil which
his constituents had no constitutional right to inter
fere with, do not believe he would have been sue
cessful. But he understood the question, went a
once into the merits of it. and carried the war int
the enemy's ranks And his opponent early in tn
contest began to cover and shrink from his blows
and tried in vain to evade the ISSUE The American
people understand the negro, and where q direct on
peal is made to them they truly respond. Thougl
the story of Dean Swift, in which, in certain coun
try, he represents the horse being greatly supc
rior to the man, is an ingenious one yet it mslead
nobody amongst us, because horses are so common
that their qualities are understood. So the romance
Of the Aboitionsts, in which they represent the
gro as being equal and even superior to the whit
man, deceive no one familiar with the negro Ii
southern Ohio, for example, where free negroes ar
quite common, there is little or no abolitionsm
while in the northern part, in which the negro
seldom seen, anti-savery carries everything befor
it. European writers know little or nothing of tn
negro and hence our professors, preachers, and 9th
er mere bookmen Of the North, are easily led astra
by European and American Abolitionists; but tn
people of the country who are accustomed to loo
at facts, are not SO readily imposed on A thoroug
Investigation Of the subject shows the negro to b
inferior, and hence the principles which apply t