Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-05
clause, .perfnps. in the whole instrument

clause, perhaps in the whole instrument
III vipp excited icgs attention.
\ Il seems to have awakened as little feeling
in the State Oonyentions called 70 rhtify the
Oopstitutiou as It did ip the national body.
So far as we can discover, it was not mentions
ed in the debates Of any Of those assemblies
II dots not find a place in any of the numer-
Gus projects for the amendment OF that in
strument; and to all appearance, this great act
of compromise, conoiliation and concession,
whose birth is popularly thought to have
occasioned throes by which the peace of the
continent wss threatened, and the hopes of
liberty beclouded, came into existence by
universal consent, and with no suspicion on
the part of its authors of the magazine of ex-
pIosve materials with which it is endowed.
The Missouri Compromise as it is
called, is equally msnomer with the pre-
ceding. 1t had nothing to do with Missouri,
except that it was attached to bill to per-
init the people of that Territory to form a
State Government; and was in no sense a
compromise. II provided that there should
be no slavery in Territories west of Missouri
and north of latitude 360 3O,; it was sup
ported and opposed indifferently by North
ern and Southern members Of Congress,
without reference to local interests and
prejudices; 'the debates upon it'-says Mr..
Benton--"were brief and free from acerbity,
and the vote largely in its favor That it
was not intended as consideration
for the federation Of slavery in Missouri, is
! shown by the fact that at the next session OF
Congress after its passage, when the Con-
stitution of that State came up for accept
ance, the original question with respect to
slavery within its boundaries, came up with
all its old violence, so that it was thought
by very sagacious gentlemen-as it fire.
quently is now a. days--that the Union wa;
upon the point Of being dissolved. Mr.. Ben.
ton thinks that twas saved by the eloquencC
of Mr.. Lowndes. The name of compromise
and the fact that it was passed between two
periods of intense party excitement, has Ell
acted confusion of ideas, and led people tC
connect the provision alluded to with discord
with which it had no connection. There i
no appearance that it was at the time con
sidered by any body as an act of concession
or of Cancellation. 1a
The term Compromise" was applied by Mr.
Clay to his bill for the reduction of til
tariff, after the notification disturbance o
1882. The true compromise bill of that pc
riod, however, was that which was draw
up under the dictation of Gen. Jackson, ant
was known in Congress and throughout tn
country as Yerplancks bill. 1t will be re
membered that South Carolina protested
against the principle Of protection. The bill
of Mr.. Clay. conserved the principle, thougl
it provided for gradual recession from tn
practice while that of Mr.. Verplanck aban
doned the principle altogether. This wa
concession and conciliation; but it was nc
accepted. Mr.. Calhoun adhered to the nam
of compromise, and turned his back upo
the fact. He hated Gen. Jackson wors
than he did Mr.. Clay, and came in with al
his forces to support the bill of the latter
which, by his aid, was passed, with tn
odious home valuation clause in it, tn
thing, in the eyes of the South, most abomi
nable of all.