Year: 1860

De accomplished and the organization oi the House effected.

 hesotued, That the Governor be request ca to forward to our representatives in Congress copy of these resolutions"

 Mr. BARNETT. l wish to repeat that those resolutions were introduced into the legislature by Wyndam Robertson, former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and now one of the leading members of the southern opposition in the legislature, and they were passed unanimously by the House of dele gates and the Senate.

 | Mir. RUST. I listened with regret, a few days ago, to the remarks submitted by the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Sin territorial question, and I believe large majority of the members upon this side of the House participated in that feeling.- This, sir. is no time for members of the same political party, devoted to the same objects, protesting the same national and conservative sentiments upon the para mount question of the day, to quarrel among themselves upon unpracticable and imprac. ticable issues. l have for long time be- lleved that the great democratic party of this country must de generate into one as purely sectional as thatof which the gentleman from Ohio, upon the other side, (Mr Sherman IS the leader upon this floor, if we refuse to affiliate with those gentleman from the free States of the Union who maintain the doc Urine of popular sovereignty. I approach the subject with diffidence.

 l I chol 4l have been advanced upon the one side or the other of this question; but content my self with simply stating, without support ing by argument, my own views upon the subject, for which no one is responsible but myself. It is not, in my judgment, ques- ton of sufficient moment to produce discord among the different States of this confede- racy, or alienation and arrangement be- tween members of the same political party whether the people of territory, through their representatives, in legislature assem- bled, shall determine that slavery is not adapted to their wants, not conducive to thelr welfare, not congenial to their taste and feeling and prejudices, or whether the same people, through their representa- tlves, assembled at the same time, in another capacity, shall determine the same thing The only difficulty to overcome is to agree upon time when they shall exercise that | right. No statesman would contend that SIX out of eleven of American citizens. who had first settled upon one of the territories of the United States, should determine the character of its institutions, and deny the right of immi grafton within its limits to any property whatever which he might bring with him, recognized as such by the constitution of the United States

 It seems to me that all might consent that this right should be held in abeyance until the population of the territory should be sufficient to entitle 1t, under the then ex- lstlng ratio of representation, to member upon this floor, and then, sir, whether in legislature or convention, through their re- presentatives assembled, allow the people to exercise the rights of sovereignty which are enjoyed by the several State of the Union. All the federal laws and state laws that can be enacted will never establish an institution among a people repugnant to their moral and religious senses, and oppos- ed to their ideas ofsocial and political expe- dlency. In the despotisms of Europe odi- ous and oppressive laws may be forced upon unwilling and rebellious subjects at the point of the bayonet; but here, sir, where our whole theory and form of government are predicated upon the popular will, no law can ever be executed which is not born ot the wishes and interests and public senti- ment of the people over whom 1t is intend ed to extend, and upon whom it is intend ed to operate. A law, arbitrarily passed, in contempt of the will of the people affect ed by 1t, will always be dead letter upon the statute-book and only tend to weaken the force of all laws and impair the general respect for those which are most wise and salutary. l hope 1 shall never witness the enactment of such law, and would gladly see every one now in existence stricken from our statute books. A law by this Congress, by the territories of Kansas, Ne braska, Utah, and New Mexico, by all the States ot this confederacy, in favor of slave ry III these territories, would come in con- flict with laws older and more potent than all of them, and be vain and futile.

 Sir, no man can doubt my loyalty to the south; no man can call in question my fdeli- ty to the institutions in the midst of which was born and reared have thus far lived, and hope to die; and l declare here to-day in the presence of this House and the coun- try, that if, by an effort of my will, simply responding Gay" when my name was call ed at that desk, l could bring one of those territories as a slave State into the Union, 1 would not do it.

 l have already declared my utter abhor. renee of the re-opening of the African slave trade, and am satisfied that for a longer period of time than we of this generation are expected to provide, we have ample ter ritory to occupy all the slave labor, with its natural increase, now upon this conti- nent. Arkansas, sir, the State which 1 have the honor in part to represent, can herself supply more land of unexhaustble fertility than can be fully developed and cultivated by all the labor of that character now devoted to agriculture within the pre- sent slave States of this Union. Arkan- sas, sir can, with the requisite labor, SUD- ply the present demand of the whole world for cotton.

 Slavery IS not, and has never been a question of religion or morality. It was declared by MT. Webster in his time to be, but IS not now question of political power. But, sir, 1t is question of interest, of dol lars and cents, of social and political economy. Slavery will always go where it is most profitable, and where most profit. able 1t IS most secure. If, sir, 1t had proved more profitable upon Plymouth rock than upon the rice, sugar, and cotton fields of the southern States, it would to-day be guarded there. with the same jealous solicitude with which we surround it in those States.

 Sir, if the slaves upon this continent must be migratory. do not drive them into the cold and inhospitable regions of the northwest, where they must s, rely and rapidly languish and die, brs send them to the genial climes and fruitful valleys of the southwest, where they will live and grow and multiply and flourish, and be more pro- ductive than upon any other part of the globe, and where the institution itself. I verify believe, will survive all the constitu. tions and governments now known upon the earth

 No gentleman from my section of the Union may agree with me; but, from m honest and profound conviction of what