Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-02-19
REMARKS OF
SENATOR BENJAMIN,
8 oFLoUIsIANA,


league. DeeIiES impressed, however, with the so
lemnity of the scasion, leannot remain insensibe
to the duty Of eording, amongst the authentic re-
ports of your &eceedings, the expression of my
conviction thar he State of Louisiana has Judged
and acted welt Nnd wisely in this crisis of her ies-
| tiny.
Sir. it has teA urged on more than one occasion
in the disc1sslsss here and elsewhere that Louis
Iana stands ~ 81 exceptional footing. 1t has been
said that whattsyer may be the rights of the States
that were ofsISal parties to the Consttution-eyen
granting Their SIGHT TO resume, for sufficient cause
those restrcted powers which they delegated to the
General Go. eyement in trust for their own and
beneft-still Snlsiana can have no such right be-
cause she tx acquired by purchase. Gentlemen
have not he5tged to speak of the sovereign Se.tes
formed out {le territory coded by France as pro
perty bough 18th the money of the United States
belonging to .A,m as purchasers and although they
have not caa their doctrine to its legitimate re
Suits must sncude that they also mean to assert
on the same 4Sincpe, The right of selling for price
that 1ukich ~ II price aoas bought.
shall nd pause to comment on this repulsive
dogma of a %rty which asserts the right of proper
ty in free-tTn white men, in order to reach its
cherished Act Of destroying the right of proper
ty in slave BIN black men-still less shall detan
the Senate ia bointng out how shadowy the dstinc-
ton betweepS the condition of the servile African
and that to WITCH the white freemen of my State
would be refced if it indeed be true that they are
bound to thi4 Government by ties that cannot be
legitimately discovered without the consent of that
very MAJORITY which Yields its powers for their
oppression. u simply deny the fact on which the
! argument is fsJunded. deny that the Province of
Louisiana, or the people of Louisiana, were ever
conveyed TO tle United States for price property
that could be:bought sold at will Without enter
ing into the details of the negotiation the archives
of our Stateidepartment show the fact to be, that
although the idomaIn, the public lands and other
property of France in the coded Province were con-
veyed by absolute title to the United States the Soue
Teigny 1odS not Conveyed otherloise than in trust
| hundred fold, sir, has the Government of the
United States been reimbursed BY the sales of pub
lie property, of public lands for the price of the
acquisition; but not with the fidelity of the honest
trustee has it discharged the obligations as regards
the sovereignty.
have said that the Government assumed to act
as trustee guardian of the people of the ceded
Province, and covenanted to transfer to them the
sovereignty thus held in trust for their use and ben
eft, soon as they were capable Of exercising it.
What is the express language Of the treaty?
| The inhabitants of the ceded Territory shall be
incorporated in the Union of the United States and
admitted as possible, according to the prin-
eiples of the Federal Constitution to the enjoyment
of all the rights, advantages and Immuntes of citi-
Of the United States; and the meantime they
shall be maintained and protected IN the enjoyment
of their liberty, property, and the religion which
they protest.
And, sir if to mark the true nature of the ces-
sion in manner too significant to admit of miscon-
strucon the treaty stipuates no price, and the sole
face, is the desire to afford strong proof of the
friendship of France for the United States By the
terms of separate convention STIMULATING the pay
ment Of sum OF money the precauton IS again OBJ
served of stating that the payment is to be made.
not a consideration or price or condition pre-
cedent of the cession but it is carefully distinguish
ed as being consequence CT the cession. 1t was
by words thus studiously chosen, sir, that James
Monroe and Thomas Jefferson marked their under
standing of a contract now misconstrued as being
bargain and sale of sovereignty over freemen
With what indignant scorn would those staunch ad
voeates of the inherent right of selfgovernment
have repudiated the savish doctrine deduced
from their action?
How were the obligations of this treaty fulfilled
That Louisiana at that date contained slaves held as
property BIZ her people through the whole length of
| the Mississippi Yalley-that those people had an
| unrestricted right of settlement with their slaves
under legal protection throughout the entire ceded
proyince-no man has yet had the hardihood
to deny. Here is treaty promise to protect that
property, that Stare property in that Territory before
| it should become State. That this promise was
openly violated, in the adjustment forced upon the
South the time of the admission of Missouri is
| matter of recorded history. The perspcuous and
unsnswerable exposition of Mr.. Justice Catr0n, in
the opinion delivered by him in the bred Scott case
| will remai2 through all time as an ample Vindca-
ton of this assertion.
| IT, then, sir, the people of Louisiana had right
| which Congress could not deny of the admission
into the Union, with all the rights of oil the citizens
of the United States it is in vain that the partssns
of the right of the majority to govern the minority
| with despotic CONTROL attempt to establish dis
tinetion, TO her prejudice, between her rights and
those of any other State. The only distinction
which really exists is this that she point to
breach of treaty stipulations expressly guarantee
| ing her rights as q wrong superadded to those
| which have impelled number of her sister States
| to the assertion of their independence
The rights Of Louisiana, as a sovereign State are
! those Of Virginia; no moreno less. Let those
| who deny her right to resume delegated powers.
successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the
right in spite of the express reservation made
and notified to her sister States VIXEN she consented
| to enter the Union. And, sir, permit me to say
that. of all the which justify the action Of
the Southern States, know none of greater gravi-
| ty and alarming magnitude than that now de-
veloped of the denial of the right of secession.
| pretenlion monstrous that which perverts a
restricted agency constituted by sovereign States
for common purposes, into the unlimited despOtism
Of the majority, and denies all legitimate escape
! from such despotlsm, when powers not delegated
| are usurped, converts the whole constitutional
fabric into the secure abode of awless tyranny and
degrades the sovereign States into provincial depen
| denotes.
1t is sa'd that the right of secession, if conceded
makes our Government mere rope of sand; that,
to assert its existence imputes to the trainers of
the Constitution the folly of planting the seeds of
death in that which was designed for perpetual ex
istence If this imputation were true, sir it would
merely prove that their offspring not exempt
from that mortality which is the common lot of all
that is not created by higher than human power.
But it is not so, sir. Let facts answer theory For
twothird sof cenurty this right has been known to
many of the States to be, at all times, within their
power. Yet up to the present period, when its
ercse has become indispensable to peopl menaced
| with absolute determination, there have been but
two instances in which it has been threatened
| eusly: the first when Massachusetts, led the New
England States in attempt to escape from thedan
gers of our last with Great Britain the second
when the same State proposed to secede on account
of the admission of Texas as a new State into the
| Union.
Sir. in the language of our declaration of seces-
sion from G. est Britain it is stated, establish
ed TRUTH the, all experience has shown that man
! kind mofE disposed to suffer while evils
suferabe, tiSEn to right themselves by abolishing
| the forms tg@which they have been accustomed"
| And nothing ian be more obvious to the calm and
candid obser Fer of passing events than that the
disruption 4 the COnfederacy has been due,
| in great tmeasure, not to the existence, but
| the denial Of. this right. Few candid men would
refuse to ismit that the Republicans of the
| North wuu'G have been checked in the mad ca
reer which hss brought destruction to the Union,
| had they hces convinced of the existence of this
right anc thu intention to assert it. The very knOw
edge of ~ Existence, by preventing occurrences
which alo. !opld prompt its exercise would have
rendered most efficient instrument in the pre-
seryaton i,:the onion. But, sir, if the fact were
otherwisos.S all the teachings of experience were
reversed SaTter thousand times better, rope of
sand, aye. Sc himslest gossamer that ever glttered
in the NOR Cog dew than chains of iron or shackes
of steel tier the widest anarchy, with the hope
the ohRnctf IF hours inspiration of the glorious
breath of 3Sedoul. than ages of the hopeless bond
| age and oppression to which our enemies would re-
| duce u.s.
we are Gid that the laws must be enforced, and
the reyenT collected that the South is in rebellion
and her cjEzens are traitors Rebellion! The very
word ia a-[copfession, ayowal, of tyranny, out
rage and oppression It is taken from the despots
code and gs no terror for other than saYish souls
! Where sirI did millions of people a single man.
rise in Organized, deliberate unimpassioned REBEL
| ion against Justice. truth and honor? Well did
great English statesman excaim on a similar occas
ion: "You might well tell me that they rebelled
against tbs light of Heaven; that they rejected the
fruits of tile EARTH that they refused to breath the
air" Men do nat var aGainst their bepefactOrs
They are not mad enough to repel the very instcts
of self-pre3ervation pronounce, fearlessly, that
no intelligent people rose, ever will RISE
AGAINST sincere rational and benevolent authority