Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1861-01-02

huehuDenI 10 tne amendment, TO allow !
the Mexican law, abolishing slavery, to |
continue in force.
Mr.. Green said, that Mr. Browns amend.
ment did not change any law, but only
proposed to continue existing law. DO
was in favor of leaving the people free to |
choose their own laws.
The special order, the bill providing for
the admission of Kansas, was here taken !
up and postponed till Monday next.
Dir Benjamin Of La. rose to address the
Senate.
He said he had supposed ere this he |
would have had official information of The
position of affairs in S Carolina, but in the
absence Of it he should presume that he
had such information. The South, he said,
had repeatedly warned the North that they
were driving them to point that would
result in separation, and for this they
had only been sneered at and maligned;
he wished to speak in no spirit of recrimi.
nation, but to perform his duty; he would
CdAi dtlCuthou " tno oPScCh NC iuo0C iOui
years ago predicting this result.
Mr. Benjamin here quoted from The speech
he made in 1856, in which he said the time
would come when the South would throw
the sword into the scale with all the tights
of the sword, because he did not believe
there could be peaceable secession; he said
that the words he had Their uttered had
proved true 10 day; he would to God that
the fears of civil war then exercised would
prove only fears, but from what he had
heard, it almost seemed as If the other side
the chamber desired to bring about civil
war. S Carolina had declared herself sep.
arated from the Union, while other States
stand ready to support her, or else to put
her down; that is the real issue, and there
is no use to disguise it. We are permitted
to ignore the fact that the determination
to secede is not confined to South Carolina
alone, for next week Mississippi, Alabama
and Florida will separate the Union; a
week after Georgia will follow, then lit
tie later Louisiana will secede, and soon
after her, Arkansas.
Now then. shall we recognize S Carolina
as free aud independent State, or shall
we cOerce by force? He argued that the
people of S Carolina had a right to declare
herself free, it was an inherent, unalienable
right; S Carolina had by the voice of her
people, when they met 10 Convention in
1860. renewed the ordinance made by her
people when they met in Convention in
I775.
Mr. Benjamin here quoted from speech
of Daniel Webster in the Rhode Island
case. to show that d Convention of the peo-
pie duly assembled had proper authority.
Webster had said that a compact was not
binding on one party unless the other party
to it lived up to it, and that compact
broken by one could be broken by all.
Mr. Benjamin here quoted from Mr Mad
ison to sustain his position. Mr. eaid no
one could find any article ia the Constitu-
ton requiring force to be used to coerce a
State; he referred to the old confederation
and said that nine States seeded from it
for the express reason that the compact be
tween them was not kept, and finally all
the States seeded but Rhode Island and
Carolina, leaving them as foreign States;
he claimed this as precedent in the for
nation of the present Constitution to show
the right of a State to secede.
Who was to be the Judge? If the COM
pact was broken in pecuniary matter the
Constitution provided way to settle the
matter. but il it was broken politically the
Constitution provided no way. He read
from the debates of the Convention which
formed the Constitution to show that the
members of that Convention refused to
make the Senate the judge of, or give the
President the power. to veto the action Of a
State; that they refused to give Congress
the power to negative State legislation,
and that they especially refused to give
any power to coerce States; yet when the
State Conventions caroe TO ratify the Con-
stitution, complaints were made that the
OldlcS WtTc uOb huiICiCUnJ SCCuAC.
1t must be admitted that certain poll I'll
cal rights are guaranteed the States, but
when these rights are denied, where is the
remedy Suppose that South Carolina
should send two Senators hero aud the
majority should refuse to receive but one,
what power can compel that majority to
repair the wrong2 Suppose that South
Carolina should then retire from the Union.
who could say it was violation Of the
Constitution Suppose again, that a
wrong is perpetrated, which does not APP
pear quite clear to the North, but does ap
pear clear to South Carolina Suppose
sh e is denied access to the Territories. Is
she without any remedy under the Consti-
tution2 If there is none, then she must be
the Judge of the wrong and the mode OF
redress.
He read an extract from an address de-
livered by John Quincy Adams In New
York in 1898, in which he said, "natiens
themselves must be the sole judge whether
compacts are broken, and also saying that
when all fraternal feeling was gone be- |
tween the States, then it was time to sep
arate in peace and return 10 their original
state"
He (Benjamin) said that sectionsl
President had been elected. who could,
with the aid of sectional Senate, grant
all the benefits, to appoint from one sec
ton, all the officers in the gift Of the gov
erpment and thus ruin the South. Sup
pose that South Carolina in believing that
rong has been done her, still that does
not alter the issue whether he shall per-
NIT her to withdraw or force her back.
In reply to the Senator from Wisconsin
(Doolittle) he tBspjamiu) claimed that a
citizen was bound to obey his State gov
ernment. The Republican Senators say
they will not coerce State, but enforce the
laws against Individuals; but how can