Year: 1861

1t is said that we are a confederation
OF equal States and that this equali-
ty must be maintained. Where arc
the States equal under this confcdcra-
tlon: Do they have an equal voice
IN the election of a President? Ger
tainly not. New York casting thirty.
five votes, and Iowa but four, and
Florida three. Are they equal in the
other branch of Congress Not at
all. You may say that they are equal
on this floor but in what sense are
they equal Do you vote by States
here ? Not at all each Senator has
one distinct vote, and the two Scna-
tors from each State are often divided !;
so that bill may pass this body with
the approval of but one Of the States
of the Union, if the Senator'S from the
other thirty-two States should chance
to be equally divided. Nor are States
represented in the Federal courts.


Then what becomes Of this claim of
the equality of the States under the
Constitution They are equal at
home that is, they are equal in the
enjoyment of a common right to regu-
late their own domestic affairs, sub
.iect to the Constitution and laws Of
the United States, and in no other
sense and it seems today that Sena-
tors on the other side of the Chamber
perceive the truth of the allegation,
as is manifested in the enlarged de-
mands made for changes in the Con-
stitutiOn to increase the power of mi
noritics.


But you say that you arc denied, by
the theory of the policy Of the Repub-
lican party, equality in the Territories.
But the States, as States, can never
appear in the Territories. They have
no means of setting up a jurisdiction
in the Territories. They cannot trans
fer their sovereignty outside of their
own limits. But you may say that
each State should have an equal right
to transmit its citizens to the Ternito-
ries. Why, sir, nothing can be more
fallacious. \ citizen of State, when
he becomes a citizen of a Territory,
loses his citizenship in the State from
which hc has migrated. \ resident
in Nebraska, or Kansas, or New Mex
leo, or Washington Territory, having
cmigratcd from any one Of the States
Of this COntcderacy. loses his citizen
ship by virtue of that transit; and So
completely is it lost that he no longer
has the power to maintain a suit in
the Federal courts against citizen of
a State. BY that residence and citi.
zcnship in the Territory he is barred
the right to assert his citizenship in
the State which hc has left. Nor can
the States appear in the Territories
by their laws. The laws of the scve-
raj States have no force outside of
their State limits.


If then, Mr.. President, the State
cannot appear in the Territories per Sc
nor by their citizens, nor by their
laws, inquire in what sense this de-
mand for equality is made. When
stripped Of sophistry, it means that
Congress shall enact laws for the Ter
rItorlcs authorizing one class of their
residents to hold another class in scrv-
itude or, at least, that no law shall
be enacted restraining men from hold
ing others as slaves. Unless this be
done, you complain that your people
in the slave States are deprived Of a
right Ot emigration 10 the common do
main. 1t would be virtually you say,
giving up all the public domain to the
people Of the North. Now, on exam
mation, it will appear that this is
equally untrue with the other assump-
tion. Of the ten million people that
were residing in the slave States in
1850, | inquire what one would be i'll
hlbitcd from emigration by the policy
Of the Republican party if carried out
by the Federal Government Not
one. Of the four million Africans,
not one would be inhibited. OF the
five and half million of non-slavc-
holders, none would be inhibited nor
of the half million Shareholders them
selves.


But we were told to-day that this
policy of inliibiting by indirect means
the emigration of negroes to the new
Territories, while the white population
would spontaneously emigratc, would
greatly diminish the relative number
OF white people i'll the slave States,
and increase the relative number of
the servilc population, until that pop
ulation would SO far prcdominatc as
to enable them to degrade the white
: people to the condition of the negro,
and would remit the negro to his orig
inal condition of barbarism Now,
sir, in connection with this allegation,
allow me to advert TO the fact which
was proclaimed on this Senate floor
but ten years since, by the great men
that then adorned this body-Mr Clay,
of Kentucky, and Mr.. Webster, Of
. Observation-Disclosures slavery was even
then barred from all the Territories
acquired from Mexico, by an irrepeal-
able enactment of the Almighty in
the formation of the soil and fixing
the climate Of those regions and you
admit its truth You admit that it
f would be but barren right that the
, migration Of slaves in any consider
able numbers to the Territory has al
ready been barred by higher law
than man is capable of enacting
Then, if the grievous consequences to
which the honorable Senator from
, Virginia referred would flow from the
policy Of the Republican party, they
are inevitable, and no change Of the
: Constitution of the United States can
avert this result. The sober, second
thought, however, of the people resid-
, ing in the slave States will convince
them of the incorrcctness Of the de-
duction of the Senator. You have
now, according to the recent census,
we were told to-day, twelve million
people, and a territory capable of sus-
tanning two hundred million at least.
Hence there would appear to be prac-
tically but little danger from the in
crease of the number of slaves, for
many years to come.


You say, however, when this fala,
cy is exposed, that you do not oppose