Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-01-23

adopted by vote of 50 to 81 in the Senate but re-
jected in the House of Representatives.. read
from the Journal, August 10, lS4S, page 563:
"On motion by Mr.. Douglas TO amend the BILL section
fourteen line by inserting after the word enacted
'.hat the line Of sc deg. 80 min Of north latitude
known as the Missouri Compromise line defined BY the
eighth section Of entitled An act authorize the
people Of the Missouri territory form constitution and
State government the admission of such State
the Union equal footing with the original States and
prohibit Slavery in certain Territories approved March
g. 1S20 be- and the is heLeby declared extend
the Pacific ocean; and the said eighth section together
with the compromise therein eedted is hereby revived
and declared TO be in full force and binding for the future
organization the Territories Of the United States
sense, and with the same understanding with whch
il originally adopted;
1T was determined in the afrmative-yeas 33 nays 2l
"On motion by Mr. Baldwin, the yeas and nays being
desired by onefth Of the Senators present. those who
voted in the Affirmative
'Messrs. Atchison Badger, Bell Benton Berrien Bor
land Bright Butler Calhoun, Cameron Davis Of Missis
sippi Dickinson Douglas Downs Fitzgerald Foote Ham
negan Houston Hunter johnson of Maryland johnson Of
Louisiana johnson of Georgia, King, Lewis Mangum Ma
son, Metcaf Pearce, Sebastian Spraance Sturgeon Tur
ney Underwood
" Messrs Allen. AtheTiOn Baldwin Bradbury, RTesse
Felch, Green, Hale Hamln, Miller Niles. Phelps, Upham
Walker Webster.
$50 the proposed amendment was agreed to-"
The bill, as amended, was then ordered to be
engrossed for third reading, by vote of 80 10
% and was read the third time, and passed on the
same dav By the classification of the votes for
my proposition to carry out the Missouri COmpro
mise, it will be seen that all the Southern Sena
tors, twenty-six in number, including Mr.. Cal
hcnn, voted in the affirmative; and of the North
ern Senators, seven voted in the affirmative and
twenty-one in the negative. The proposition was
rejected in the House of Representatives by almost
a sectional vote, the whole South voting for it,
and large majority of the North against it.
twas the rejection of that proposition-the re-
pudation of the policy of an equitable partition
of the territory between the two sections, the
line of36 deg. 80 min.-which re opened the food
gates of slavery agitation and deluged the whole
country with sectional strife and bitterness until
the Union was again brought to the verge of dis
ruption before the swelling tide of bitter waters
could be turned back, and passion and prejudice
could be made to give place to reason and pat
riotsm.
Had the Senate's proposition been concurrei in
by the House of Representatives; had the policy
of an equitable partition been adhered to; had
the Missouri Compromise been carried out in
good faith, through our newly acquired territory,
to the Pacific Ocean, there would have been
end to the slavery agitation forever. For the line
of partition between free and slave territory being
once firmly established and distinctly defined from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, all new acquisitions,
whether on the North or South, would have con
formed to that adjustment, without exciting the
passions, woundng the sensibilities, Or disturb
ing the harmony of our people. l do not think
it would have made any material difference in re-
spect to the condition of the new States to be
formed out of such territory, for | have always
believed, and often said, that the existence or
non-existence of African slavery depends more
upon the necessities of climate, health, and pro-
ductions than upon Congressional and Territorial
enactments. 1t in reference to this great
truth that Mr. Webster said that the condition of
all the territory acquired from Mexico, so far as
a. Il
vocably fixed and settled by an irrepealable law
the law of climate, and of physical geography,
and of the formation of the earth. You might
as well attempt by act of Congress to compel cot
ton to grow upon the tops of the Rocky Noun
tains and rice upon the SUBMITS of the Sierra
Nevada, as to compel slavery to exist, by Con-
gressonal enactment, where neither climate nor
health, nor productions, will render it necessary
and selfsustaining. Yet the desire, on the one
hand, for the extension of slavery into regions
where it is physically impossible to sustain it, and
on the other hand to abolish and exclude it from
those countries where the white not en-
dure the climate end cultivate the soil threatens
to keep the agitation of this question perpetually
in Congress, until the passions of the people shall
become so infamed that civil and disunion
shall become inevitable. 1t is the Territorial
/ question-whether slavery shall exist in those
vast regions, in utter disregard of the wishes and
necessities of the people inhabiting them-that is
CONFUSING and dissolving the Republic; ques
ton in which we have direct interest, about
which the people of those Territories must and
will eventually decide for themselves, no matter
what Congress may do. But for this Territorial
lqueston there would be very little difficulty in
settling the other matters in controversy. The
Abolitionists could never endanger the peace OF
the country or the existence OF the Union by the
agitation OF the slavery question in the District
of Columbia by ITSELF or in the dock yards forts
and arsenals in the slaveholding States or upon
the fugitive slave law, or upon any minor issue
} or upon them all together, if the Territorial ques
ton could be finally and irrevocably settled.
repeat, it was the Reputation of the policy OF
} the Missouri Compromise, the refusal to apply il
to the Territory acquired from Mexico, when of
fered by me, and supported by the whole South
: in August, ls4S, which reopened the agitation
t and revived the Missouri controversy. The com
/ promise of 1920 once repudiated, the policy o.
an equitable partition of the Territory abandoned
the proposition to extend it TO the Pacific being
rejected. and the original controversy reopene(
with increased bitterness, each party threw itsel
{ back ON its original extreme position-the on,
: demanding its exclusion everywhere, and tn,
other insisting upon its right to go everywhere il
: the Territories, regardless of the wishes of tn,
people inhabiting them. All the arguments, pr
e and con-, used in lsl9-20 were repeated il
{ 1880. The question was the same, and th
relative position of the two sections the same.
d Such was the condition of things at the open
5 ing of the session of 1880, when Mr.. Cla,
e resumed his seat in this BODY
The purest patriots in the land had becom
alarmed for the fate of the Republic. The i'm
e mortal Clay whose life had been devoted to tn
: rights interests and glory of the country had re
tired to the shades of Ashland to prepare for an
n other and a better world. When in his retire
v ment, hearing the harsh aud discorlant notes o
and bo IL IL,
; earnest solicitation of his countrymen to resum
I his seat in the Senate, the theater of his grca
c deeds, TO see If, by his experience his wisdom
II the renown OF his great name, and his strong hol
e upon the confidence and affections of the Amer
d can people, he could not do something to restor
!, peace to a distracted country. From the momen
l. of his arrival among he became, by commo
e consent, and as matter of course, the leader O
Y the Union men. His first idea was to revive an
IS extend to the Pacific ocean the Missouri Compro
% mise line, with the same understanding and lega
{, effect in which il had been adopted in 1920 an
y continued through Texas in lS45. was one Q
If his humble followers and trusted friends in en-
h deavorng to carry out that policy, and in conneC
e ton with others, at his special request CAREFUL
2 canvassed both Houses of Congress to ascertai
nj whether il was possible TO obtain majority vOt
At in each House for the measure We found no dill
10 hculty with the Southern Senators and Repre-
sentatives, and could secure the cooperation of
% minority from the North but not enough to civ
lie us a majority in both Houses. Hence the Mi:
ID souri, Compromise was abandoned by its friends
W NOT from choice, but from INABILITY 10 carrv
C. into sfect in good faith 1t was with extreme r,
ne luctance that Mr. Clay, and those or who acte
> with him and shared his confidence, were brougl
{, to the conclusion that we must abandon, from il
w ability to carry out the line of policy which ha
n saved the Union in 1920, and given peace to ii
county for many happy years.
)n flndlng ourselves unable to maintain that polio
we yielded TO a stern necessity, and turned our a
ar tention to the discovery of some other plan /
in which the existing difficulties could be settle
lis and future trouble avoided. | need not detail Il
ne circumstances under which Mr. Clay brought 70
y. ward his plan of adjustment, which received Il
of sanction of the two Houses of Congress and q
ne appreciation of the American people, and is
ed miiiarly known as the compromise measures
ty 1850. These measures were designed to accor
,it plish the same results the acts of 1890 but
he a different mode. The leading feature and chi
= merit of each was to Danish the slavery agitatiC
he from the Halls of Congress and the arena
in Federal politics The act of ls20 was intend,