The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-02-01


r asked at this point, if not audibly, certainly
"a silently, by some Of my brother Senators
V whether it is possible l am going to ask Con.
= gress to enact slave code. 1 reply with the
If utmost frankness that want code of laws
s which shall be adequate and sufficient for the
C protection of my property. II it pleases you
. to call it a slave code, why call it so. / cal
:. it simply laws for the protection of my prop
J., eTty, such as / am warranted in asking under
+ the guarantees of the Constitution, as ex.
pounded by the Supreme Court. | no more
/ ask slave code than you ask horse code,
or cow code, or dry-goods code. You ask
for your property adequate and sufficient pro-
, tection-laws adapted to its nature, its kind,
and its description-laws upon which you
, can stand before the courts and vindcate
rights guaranteed BY the Caastit iosss=sT ssk
q :, - ssao4e; and 50 Tong as ! have tongue to
speak, let that tongue be palsied if ever con-
sent to take less.
, / do not feel disposed, Mr. President to
; weary Senators with any extended remarks
/ on this subject. have only felt it due to my
own position to show wherein | differ with
the President of the United States, and why
| make known before the Senate and before
the country, in clear and distinct terms, what
t is we ask. We ask no more than you, no
more than Senators from any other part of the
Jonfederacy. Is there one among you all who
will consent to be deprived of your equal
rights in the common Territories Is there
Senator upon this floor who does not claim for
himself and for the people whom he repre-
sents, the right to go into the Territories, and
take with him, and that his people shall go
and take with them whatever is recognized as
property by the laws of the State from which
they go. That is all ask. You claim that
your live stock is property, that your dry
goods are property, that your machinery is
| property. These and thousand other things
owned by you are property, and because they
are so you claim the right not only to take
them into the Territories, but to take them
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Of Nicara-
| qua, of Panama, to other parts of the inhabi-
table globe, and you come to this Central
| Government saying to it ave demand of
you that you shall give us protection when
we have passed beyond the limits of the State
where we reside. Is not that a constant de-
mand? Is it not demand recognized by the
President in this very message with reference
to your property in Mexico, in the Central
| American, and South American States. If
your property is to be followed, not only to
every corner Of the Union, including the Ter
ritories, but beyond the limits of the Union,
upon the high seas, and into foreign countries,
and there protected by the military power of
the Government, aided by such laws as the
| President calls upon you to make, want to
know whether my property, that which the
Supreme Court has said is property, which the
President tells you is property, is not also to
be protected by laws, and whether it is not
mockery to turn me away and say $50 to
the courts; the Constitution says it is property;
the common law may admit that it is proper
tbo Fai ;Jo
all that is legal and right"
| But have shown you that they can supply
you with no remedies. They may supply you
with suits, but they will be suits in which
| you obtain judgments against insolyent debt
| Ors, and therefore pay costs. 1t is very idle
| to sue an offender when nothing can be gain
ed but bill of COSTS
do not know sir, that it would be profta- |
Die to pursue these remarks any further. My |
principal object was to disabuse the public
mind of a charge wholly unfounded that de-
signed to make an attack on the PresidenNs
The Senate will bear me witness that hass-s
not attacked him to-day / solemnly asseye-$
rate that | have not attacked him elsewhere, !
at any time, at any place, or under any Cir
cumstances. l have but dissented from his 4
opinions. That was my right, and but per-
formed solemn duty when | declared that
my opinions differed from his. Shall it be as
sumed that citizen dare not express his
opinions because they differ from the opinions
of the President? Shall be told that be-
cause am Democrat, and choose to differ
from the President, must merge the charac-
ter of Senator and patriot into the grovel-
ing character of petty politician; that must
not because l am Democrat and the Presi-
dent is Democrat, express opinions different
from his, lest disturb the harmony of the
party? SIR, there breathes not a man in all
this wide Republic that is more devoted to
Democratic principles than l; but / would
scatter the Democratic party to the remotest
corners Of the earth before | would hesitate a
moment to express the honest convictions of
my own heart. have no fear of disturbing
the Democratic party or its harmony; 10 fear
of endangering sound principles. 1t is by
honest, fair discussion that you eyiscerate
truth here and elsewhere.
/ have been asked elsewhere-and probably
there is whispering in the minds of some
one who hears me to the same effect now
why are you SO tenacious Of this principle of
protection to slavery in the Territories? What
do you expect to accomplish by it? With
that fankness which I trust is part of my
character, 1 will tell you why am SO tenacious.
| know that you can never plant slavery in
y
protection based on statutory law. With
out such protection, there never will be an
other slave Territory; and without slave Ter
ritories you can never have slave States. You
have, l believe, five Territories now. You
are already called on, during the present
session, to organize three more These Ter
ritories will rapidly populate, and as rapidly
come knocking at the door for admission into
the Union. You commenced with thirteen
States only little more than three quarters
Of a century age-dating from the birth Of
the Constitution, not SO long as that-and
now you have thirty three, five Territories
already organized, and three asking for organi-
zation. OF these thirty three States, fifteen
are slaveholding States, and eighteen are nom
slayeholding. Under your present policy, all
the Territories outstanding, organized and un-
organized, anS all the territory to be acquired
hereafter, will but add to the number of free !
States; and then, sir, the boast made on the !
other side of the Chamber-that when they |
getthe power they will so mold the Consti-
tuition, according to the forms of the Constitu- ]
ton ITSELF as to give them uncontrolled sway
will be carried out with all its force and all
its power. 1t cannot be long, under the
present order of things, before the nti-slave-
ry sentiment of this country will have brought
into the Union and added to the non-slaye-
holding States now in the Union, sufficient
number of States to give them the two-thirds
required to change the Constitution. That
being done, the ennunciation so vauntingly
made by the distinguished Senator from New
York, and followed up by others, that you
mean to crush out slavery under the forms of /:
the Constitution, will have been accomplished. !
l see that things are rapidly drifting in that L.
direction. / see that we can have no more ..
cio Gfafac cvynr Mo ell ~ !
the Territories; and see that that cannot be
done unless you protect the STAKEHOLDER in his
rights. If we can have no more slave States
then twenty years will not pass before a .
change Of the Constitution will enable the
anti slavery sentiments of the North, under !
the forms aud guarantees of the Constitution,
as amended, to overthrow slavery.
hope / am understood. am tenacious
upon this point, because want to multiply
the number of slave States. want to null ,
tiply the number of slave States because am, !
and always have been, genuine constitution
al Union man. love the Union of our
fathers, and yield to no man in Deep earnest, !
heartfelt devotion to 1t. They made slave
holding Union. Washington and Jefferson
and Madison, and other illustrious patriots,
who took prominent part in the formation
of this Union, were themselves shareholders,
ana they gave 10 slave property the guaran- .
tees which the Constitution contains, as ex-
pounded by the Supreme Court By the
Union which they made am ready to stand;
for it | am ready to fall; and / will never
stand idly by, and see, by your tirnid time I
serving policy, that Union undermined and T
forced to tumble into ruins.
Nor am willing to take the position which {
the President assigns me, of entrenchment
behind the courts sir. No man has high
er yeneration for courts of justice than have. ]
No man entertains deeper, more heartfelt
reverence for the judges Of that illustrious i
court. which to-day sits in this Capitol, than {
do. Sir, Ivenerate, revere, almost rever- t
ence these old judges; but when see them I
on their trembling limbs treading your streets, /
l cannot disguise from my own mind that all I
these old men. in the lapse of few years, not |
more than fifteen or twenty at most, must |
f.ax,. afava .,f arkiva ayiatanra The :