Litchfield enquirer., 1861-02-07

taxation; but cannot see that it follows there- from that should amend the Constitution so as te forbid such enactments. Is there no other subject of concern in this Republic but slavery Shall the organic law be liable to change in it's bearing upon the great commercial, manufactur- ing, and agricultural interests, upon matters of peace and war, upon the relations of Govern ment to the people and yet we now erect slavery into the one great, oyershadowing principle which we purpose to declare before God and man, shall be immutable and eternal? Slavery, which the fathers laid out of sight unholy thing, We drag from its decent concealment, and, plac- ing it upon the pediment of the Constitution, take mutual oaths that there it shall stand for ever. In doing this, we overthrow that equality of the States of which we have heard so much; ; for we deny to a majority of the members of the Union even the capacity of suggesting amend- mcnts upon 80 sacred subject.
 Sir, the Constitution of the United States needs no change in favor of slavery. will stand by it as it is; will accord to every interest all its rights and am amazed that the very parties who have been loudest in their lip-devotion to the fundamental law, should be the very first to l demand it's radical alteration. The existence in the Southern States of groundless fears engen- dered by willful falsehood, is no reason for . change in the Constitution Every precedent of change is dangerous doubly dangerous when occurring in times of high political excitement, or amid the turmoil of civil commotion, or offer ed to appease the wrath of armed rebels against all government and all social order. I sha.l not vote for the amendment.
 The next proposition is ' An act for the ad- mission of New Mexico into the United States of America" When the preparation of this bill was first suggested in the committee, some weeks ago, assented to it. When the bill itself was reported to the committee, withheld my assent. Nearly every Southern gentleman had repudia- ted it, and we were assured that, instead of be- ing measure of peace, it would add to the ex- sting irritation. I am therefore left to decide whether, as an act of ordinary legislation it ought to receive my support. 1 have, until very recently, believed that a fair convention of the people of that Territory would frame constitu- ton prohibiting the existence of slavery within the future State. But the report of the chair man of the committee proceeds entirely upon the supposition that New Mexico is of course to be slave State; and his remarkable speech in the House, the other day, is of the same tenor An extract from his report will exhibit my meaning: :" This Territory was organized in 1850. By it's
 organic law the Territorial Legislature was au-
 thorlzed to enact laws and report theu to Con-
 gress. It was provided in the same act that
 if Congress should disapprove the laws thus
 made they should be null and void.
 |" In the year 1859 the Territorial Legislature of
 New Mexico established slavery in that Terri
 tory. This law was disapproved at the last
 session of Congress by vote of the House,
 but the Senate have not yet acted on the bill,
 and so the law of the Territory, not having
 been annulled by both Houses of Congress, re-
 mains in full force, and slavery now exists by
 law in New Mexico
 " It is further provided by the act of 1850 that
 New Mexico, when she is admitted into the
 Union, shall be admitted with without sla-
 very, as her constitution may ordain. The
 committee now propose to admit New Mexico
 into the Union as State on an equal footing
 with the riginal States. By this course the
 faith of the nation pledged in the act of 1850
 will be preserved, and the Territory lying
 south of the parallel of 36o30/ will be disposed
 of, and the subjeet-matter of controversy re-
 moved from the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Thus all claimed by the South
 will be obtained, while the northern portion
 of our remaining Territory will be subject to
 such law as the Constitution and Congress may
 furnish for it's government.
 By this adjustment of the present territory of the Union, including the territory of all the States, it will be found that the area of the
 free States and Territories, including allnorth of the line 3Go30/ contains 1,648779 square miles, and population of 9,036, 739, making | a population of about eleven and five tenths [ to the square mile.
 '' The area of the slaveholding States including | New Mexico, is ,094, 504 square miles, with a
 federal population of about nine and scyen-
 tenths to the square mile. By this arrange
 ment of all the territory now possessed by the
 United States, when New Mexico is admitted.
 if admitted as a Slave State, that possessed by
 the slaveholding States will be greater in pro-
 portion to federal population than that occu- | pied by the non-slaveholding States and Ter ritorles. The committee are at loss to con- ceive what more than this can be demanded or desired by the South.''
 The import of this language is unnistakable, and 1t indicates purposes which are wholly for eign to my settled convictions of duty. Mir. Speaker, we acquired this territory from Mexico. That Republic, feeble and distracted though she was, had yet the wisdom to prohibit the exist ence of bondage throughout all her possessions. It would be great wrong and an undying dis grace for the Government of the United States, either by conquest or purchase, to obtain terri tory to be carved into slave States. The people intended, by the recent election, to be secure against the accomplishment of such purpose. The mode in which this measure is presented to us, seems calculated to frustrate the intention. It is true that in voting for the bill votes for the report but the report, nevertheless is justly received by the country as explaining the bill and foreshadowing its results. If those re- suits should fail of accomplishment; if the con- stitutional convention should, after all, prohibit the existence of slavery, may not the South, with 1 some reason, say that your scheme of concilia- tlon was Juggle and cheat, and ian the fires of revolution into still wider flame
 The objections to the bill, as measure of or dinary legislation, are insuperable. learn from very high authority that the people of New Mexi- co do not wish it's passage; that they are a sparse population, scattered over an immense | area, five times as large as the State of New York; that they are separated from communica- tion with each other by waterless deserts and vast mountain ranges that they are poor, and l unable to bear the expenses of State govern ment; and that they prefer, for the present, to remain under the fostering care of the Federal power. 1 learn, moreover, that the poplation of American rigin does not amount to thousand in numbers that of the remainder there are but l three or four thousand freemen of unmixcd Span ish descent, while the residueis made up of peons and Indians of more or less mixed blood To compel such people, so situated, to form a con- stitution and come into the Union, would be en- inently unwise. I shall vote against the bill The committee have reported an amendment to the present law for the rendition of fugtives from service. The President, in his message, had emphatically condemned the statutes known as personal liberty bills, and had even declared that, without their repeal, "no human power could save the Union. It was very plain that the President had never read the laws of which he was speaking; but, so far as my own Stateis concerned, I have always been willing to repeal the particular statute alluded to, whenever the Federal Government should take away the evil which that statute was wisely enacted to guard against. I an happy to say that the bill report ed blythe committee will, in my judgment, ac- complish that purpose. The act of 1850 was peculiarly liable to abuse of process of the worst